This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.
I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other’s stories – of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.
In the interview, Ian shares multiple stories about the lessons he has learnt as a leader. We talk about getting fired from multiple roles and how that shaped him as a leader. We speak about the difference between hiring the best people and getting the best out of people, and how he found out that everybody expects respect first of all from their leaders and organisations.
You can find Ian at the below links
In the interview, Ian shares
- I believe that you don’t train people by sticking them in a classroom
- And I think people make the mistake of saying, let’s hire the best people. I get that everybody wants the best people, but what I say is, get the best out of people.
- We all have bad days. Let’s not pretend that I’m fantastic and I’m fantastic every day. It’s a bit like being a footballer. It doesn’t look like that. You need constant motivation and help, so the same people can be good, better an average.
- I feel good about what I do, I’ll probably do a great job
- keep it really simple. Treat other people the way you want to be treated yourself, and you’re not gonna go very far wrong.
- those who get into management positions who then start to love the authority of it. You’ve lost it, you’ve lost it completely.
- the higher you get in an organization, the more likely there are to be restructures