Leadership Lessons from A modern Major general

It’s not every day you get to hear the personal reflections of a Major General of the British Army.

Actually, I lie.

If it was two days back in October, then it IS every day…

Two days.

Two Major Generals! 

Two personal reflections!

Two years ago, I started an amazing professional development journey, courtesy of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 small business programme. What I thought was going to be a 10 week programme has turned into a gift that has kept on giving.

The latest ‘pinch me’ experience? Two days of leadership training at The Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. 

Having had a few weeks to let it all sink in, what are my key take aways?

1️⃣ Know your people. Know your people. Know your people. This enables you to know what they need from you. You are serving them, not the other way around.

2️⃣ Have an open-door policy. Not so people can come to see you. Rather so you can walk out of your office and go and talk to your people.

3️⃣ As a leader, you need to clearly define the WHAT and the WHY of your direction/task, but you should trust your team to come up with the best way of HOW to make it happen. Because they are closer to the action. 

4️⃣ There is no right or wrong way to lead, only whether you are effective.

5️⃣ Transitions are often where things slip up, so pay special attention to those points in the chain when the batton passes from one team to another.

6️⃣ Do the basics really well.

7️⃣ Sleep - it's really important if you want to function well.  

I started my first business (STC Expeditions) nearly 20 years ago now. Over that time, I’ve learnt a few other things about leadership along the way that I want to quickly mention:

➡️ People want to be led. (thanks to Judy Salmon for that one)

➡️Be kind. You never know what it’s taken for someone to get out of the bed that morning. 

➡️Be human.

➡️Be humble.

➡️Say ‘Thank You’. Often.

So thank you, once again, to team at the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Programme. You honestly have no idea how grateful I am for the opportunity you've given me and faith you've shown in me. If you're a small business owner or entrepreneur with grand ambitions, then I'd encourage you to look at the Goldman Sachs programme. There really is nothing quite like it.

Thank you to the amazing facilitators at Sandhurst of Lance-Gerrard Wright, Anna Kimber OBE, Nicki Bass, and Martin Stanning - your guidance, experience, laughs, curly-wurly stories and more made the experience so much richer. 

And lastly, thank you to the whole 10ksb 'platoon' - the support, enthusiasm, experience and friendship of a fabulous bunch of inspiring business owners is what makes the 10ksb experience so very special. 

Adrian