Top Performance Consulting Ltd has just celebrated the first anniversary of its foundation. It’s been a fascinating year in which I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of setting up a business from scratch again.
The lessons I learned when co-founding Lane4 have come flooding back to me and have stood me in very good stead. Naturally, leaving something that I watched grow from nothing to become a market leader was a daunting prospect but it has been a hugely worthwhile change.
Talking of ‘change’, I presented a session on ‘Being Brave and Taking the Initiative in Leadership’ to the top 140 leaders at the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC) leadership conference yesterday. Also on stage was Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, former head of MI5 from 2002-2005. She talked about leading the MI5 through substantial change in the wake of 9/11 and the threat from Al-Qaeda.
As you can imagine, it was fascinating to listen to someone who was at the heart of events that you and I could only watch from a long and hopeful distance. The major leadership lessons the Baroness spoke about included:
- Give yourself time to think
- Get enough sleep
- You don’t have to have all the answers
- Don’t ever think you’ve got there
- Don’t take yourself too seriously
- Remember that praising people takes 10 seconds and makes an enormous difference
I must remember those things as I continue to grow TPC.
By the way, if you’re anywhere near Stockholm on 9th November, you might want to pop into listen to me talk to the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) about ‘The Joy and Heartache of Working with Top Leaders and their Teams’. Seriously, if you are reading this in Sweden and would like to attend, please contact Po Lindvall at po@kulturarkitekterna.se.
Now, about that sleep …
