On Management and self-knowledge

When I was promoted in my early 20s to run the news team at Oxfam a wise and empathetic senior manager came over to congratulate me. “This is excellent,” he said. “Now you can enable others to thrive”. 

I remember feeling slightly miffed, and thinking “but I don’t want to allow others to thrive; I want to be the one in the spotlight, excelling, getting the headlines, being congratulated.”

I guess that was the beginning of my management and leadership journey. Because over twenty years on, I now totally understand what my wise colleague meant. 

There is so much satisfaction to be had from unlocking brilliance in others. Such a lasting impact in supporting teams to work together to be more than the sum of their parts. And a different sort of satisfaction in gaining the self knowledge that enables you to be the best leader and manager you can be. 

I went on from Oxfam to lead the communications function at Global Witness and then set up my own agency, di:ga strategy & communications. 

In the decade and a half that I spent running di:ga, my leadership style had to shift - from visionary, setting the trail and the tone, building a team, and trusting my instincts. 

To more professional and methodical, establishing processes and policies, putting in place the infrastructure a larger organisation needed to sustain it. 

And then again, to more hands off, coaching from the sidelines as I prepared the team to run the business without me. 

Now, having sold the agency and stepped away from running it, I am using my cumulative experience to support others, wherever they are on their leadership journey. 

Increasingly, I’m convinced that while hard skills and good ideas of course matter, the really transformational development in any job is the learning you do about yourself, and how you work best with others.