My guest this episode is Adrian Waite, Adrian is a Strategic HR & Talent Leader, Executive Coach, Consultant, Writer, and Speaker. Currently Head of Talent for Boehringer Ingelheim in META, specializing in “Purpose Driven Performance” through bespoke Talent, OE, OD, Leadership & Management support systems, which produce learning as a by-product of optimal performance experience.    

We discuss the role of L&D in delivering ‘Purpose Driven Performance.’ How we should be careful of ‘Best Practice’ and be aware of cultural, people and landscape differences. The need for organisations to embrace experiments and learning from outcomes. Let us focus on the purpose of what we are trying to do, and we touch on principled negotiation.

Adrian shares some thoughts on leadership development. Asking questions to get clarity on what the leaders need to be able to do to fit in their space in the organisation. Do we need to extract leaders from the real world for five days to talk about the theory of what is being done in the real world?

To be honest, who in your organisation cares about learning outcomes?

In the leadership space, we tend to be happy with generic approaches that would not be tolerated in a technical environment. Should we look at leadership development in the same way as technical development, what specific things do your leaders need to be able to do?

Adrian explains his principle of developing leaders to perform first and learn through performance. This approach goes against the grain of a lot of leadership development that exists. We need to be working with leaders on the challenges they are facing tomorrow. We can use employees' roles and life cycles to narrow the focus of development.

Can we develop an approach that lets leaders drop in and out as they decide? Letting leaders engage when they have the need to do so, rather than one size fits all and waiting for a space to be available.

Covid has given us the opportunity to work in a test environment and question what is essential and what adds value. And we can now move to work on the future and what that might look like. That enables L&D to look at how to develop and support people to be effective and efficient within that.

Kids ask ‘What is the point of you?’ it is a profound question and we should explore it on a regular basis. If we want the performance, we need the purpose underneath.

‘We are in the performance business – that is my point’

Do you know the purpose of your role, department, function, or project? Knowing this can help cut out some of the noise and help you prioritise the important stuff. We are often talking about inputs and not the purpose, however, the purpose is what underpins everything.

There is a need to provide the support that is linked to operational needs and landscape changes. We need a different mindset, moving away from generic and topic-led solutions. We can learn from other specialists, such as marketing to help make the shift and rethink how we do things.

Working in partnership with senior leaders, working towards high purpose outcomes that are critical to the survivability of the organisation you can get a pass on the metrics. Don’t wait to be asked for a seat at the table, go around and get to understand what are the pain points. Work with them to see how you can support them to deliver on their objectives.

What metrics are important, it may not be what you expect. Elevating L&D professionals to trusted advisors. It is not about proposing programmes, but supporting and helping, that approach can quickly elevate your role within the organisation.

‘You may not get to play with everybody with the current plan, but you’re a lot more likely to get to play in the future plans because there is no threat in that.’

Be selfless, L&D serves to enable others to achieve their goals, we are there to help performance to be achieved. The role you played will become evident and your reputation will grow, there is no need to bang your own drum.

If you can – choose your boss.

Adrian’s LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-adrian-waite-chartered-fcipd-flpi-69227aa/

Scott’s website: https://www.theinnovatecrowd.com

If you have ideas, thoughts, and insights around purpose, business and development then please email me to discuss being a guest on a future episode of ‘How Might We…? scott@theinnovatecrowd.com