The importance of trust

Taking the lead

A tale of two disciplines

Change? Think about it

> Leadership

> Thought turned to action

> Breaking the glass ceiling

> So you want to be a leader?

ISSUE 39 | JULY 2010

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Contents

> RegularsSpotlight ................................................................. 3Research round-up ............................................ 4Just a minute ..................................................... 22

> LeadershipTaking the lead .....................................................6Case study: Thought turned to action ......8A tale of two disciplines ................................ 10Case study: Breaking the glass ceiling ......12Change? Think about it .................................. 14Case study: So you want to be a leader? .... 16The importance of trust .................................. 18Coaching, emotional intelligence and leadership ..................................................... 20

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A tale of two disciplines

JAM 39 > 3

> EDITORIAL

Leadership and the arts

Spotlight on Avril Scott

I studied Communications Studies because I had wanted to be a radio journalist; however, during a work placement at a local radio station I soon realised that radio journalism was just not for me!

So, my first taste of marketing began with researching and setting up a new business venture, Hullabaloo, which was great fun and incredibly hard work. After four years and only a couple of holidays, I decided to sell my share of the business and enrolled for an MBA. The course was intensive, but it made me realise just how much I enjoyed the marketing element – so I registered for the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Diploma in Marketing.

After completing both courses I took up the role of Marketing Manager at a small sports publishing company in London. I was very fortunate to work with Sylvester Stein – a guru in direct mail and subscription marketing. I learnt so much and also took on the role of Publisher for a couple of titles.

My next challenge was running a publications and conference department for a public health charity before

joining the National Maritime Museum (NMM), Greenwich as Marketing Manager. NMM was the first Heritage Lottery funded project. It was my role to help launch the new museum. We had 28 opening events ... exhausting!

From NMM I moved on to the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre as Head of Marketing. One of the big coups was working with Kiss FM to secure Dizzee Rascal to perform in the new Pavilion. Truly amazing.

Now I am back in the North East and run my own business offering support, advice and practical solutions on all business and marketing issues to cultural, tourism and SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) sectors.

> SPOTLIGHT

Avril ScottConsultant and AMA board member e ascott.marketing@btinternet.com

Andrea PerseuEditor, JAMe andrea@a-m-a.co.uk

One of the reasons Malcolm Gladwell, the bestselling author of Blink and Tipping Point, gave for writing his

third book, Outliers, was the feeling of frustration he found himself having with the way we explain the careers of successful people.

He said: ‘You know how you hear someone say of Bill Gates or some rock star “they’re really smart,” or “they’re really ambitious?” Well, I know lots of people who are really smart and really ambitious, and they aren’t worth 60 billion dollars. It struck me that our understanding of success was really crude – and there was an opportunity to dig down and come up with a better set of explanations.’

This issue of JAM is our contribution to this debate. What is the secret of successful leaders? What can be learnt from their stories? And what does leadership mean in practice?

In her regular research round-up (page 4), Heather Maitland explores

the idea of leadership, whether it’s different from management and whether it can be learned. Mark Wright urges you to take the lead and not to leave the responsibility for leadership to the people with a bigger job title (page 6). On page 8, Tim Wheeler reflects on the day-to-day challenges of leadership, and on page 12 Peter Bellingham shares the lessons he learnt on the way to becoming Welsh National Opera’s first Executive Director. The white paper reproduced on page 10 makes the case for different recruitment and management practices, and on page 18 we show you the latest findings of the 2009 Index of Leadership Trust by the Institute of Leadership and Management. Helen MacKintosh describes the planning phase of successful change management (page 14), Deb Barnard writes about how we can make the most of our emotional intelligence (page 20), and Alison O’Hara tells us about the three

principles that set her on a course to successful leadership (page 16). And finally, this month’s spotlight is on Avril Scott, and on page 22 we meet Melanie Adams, Director of Marketing Communications and Membership at the Royal Academy of Dance.

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This advice to leaders is two and a half thousand years old – and, with 20,557 titles available on Amazon, leadership is still a

hot topic.1 In 2004, business spent $50 billion on leadership development.2 It’s easy to see why. Leaders are our only hope of salvation in a crisis; so, the magic formula for success is cheap at any price. But is it all a con?

For a start, there is little agreement about what leadership is. Definitions are often contradictory: for example, some argue that leadership is the same as authority, while others insist that is management and that leadership is about exerting influence regardless of the authority that comes with position, rank or role.3 Many researchers and commentators don’t even bother with definitions. Joseph Rost looked at 587 academic articles with leadership in their titles and almost two-thirds avoided defining their subject.4 It has even been argued that leadership is a myth created to ensure the preservation of the status quo as, when things go pear-shaped, we can blame poor leadership rather than bad social systems and structures.5

There is a tendency to mix up management and leadership: for example, Cary Cooper merges leadership with management style throughout an extensive introduction to the topic.6 But differentiating the two can be distinctly dodgy. According to Joseph Rost, we see people practising leadership as ‘the good guys in the white hats’ and managers as the ‘bad guys in the black hats’ who

are making a mess of leadership.7 This means that leadership becomes anything that results in excellence and management any process that doesn’t. The problem is that no one can agree how to measure excellence.8

There is also disagreement about whether leadership is about who you are or what you do. We are fascinated by the rich and powerful: a lot of research tries to work out why they are rich and powerful by listing personality traits and behaviours. The problem is that our personalities are fixed when we are very young and learning a set of competencies doesn’t make us competent.9

The result of all this confusion is that discussion of leadership can descend into empty rhetoric: ‘The problem with many organisations, and especially ones that are failing, is that they tend to be over-managed and under-led. […] Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing.’10

Until the late 1980s, schools were managed. Now they are led. There’s even a National College for School Leadership. Tony Bush believes that this is not just a semantic shift. He agrees with those who argue that, unlike management, leadership is about influence, not authority. Anyone in any position can be a leader as long as they can persuade people to accept their vision. This is often known as transformational leadership: a leader who has shown themselves as likeable, trustworthy and knowledgeable creates and communicates an inspiring vision of the future, which promises to fulfil a set of hopes and aspirations they have in common with their followers.11

Leadership: the magic formula for success

Heather Maitland explores leadership: what is it and can it be learned?

‘Do not command. Do not control. Do not force your needs and insights into the foreground.’

JAM 39 > 5

> RESEARCH ROUND-UP

In contrast, management is about coercion: people do what the manager wants because they want to gain reward, avoid punishment or seek to fulfil a clear set of contractual obligations, written or unwritten.12 But leadership can be about coercion too. Transactional leadership involves the leader setting objectives for the follower and monitoring outcomes with reward and punishment as the motivation.

But this form of leadership only works where there is a clear hierarchy, in which a job title gives someone power over subordinates. Many commentators agree that globalisation, technology and out-sourcing are changing the nature of business.13 Managers can no longer rely on authority to get things done. To be leaders, they need to learn the political strategies of bargaining, building coalitions and finding a common agenda among conflicting interests. They need to understand the importance of values, emotions and the symbols that give meaning to groups of people working collectively.14

Although this idea of leadership outside the hierarchy has gained currency in the education context, is it applicable to the arts sector?15 The debate about whether management and leadership competencies are generic is still running. Most of the education sector, however, now believes that their particular purpose and values – to promote effective teaching and learning – needs a sector-specific approach.

In the UK cultural sector, more often than not we focus on a single artistic leader rather than on the collective

creative processes common in other cultures. Researchers have focused on this idea of the artistic leader, often choosing to explore how orchestras work because they are a good example of a diverse group of people who need to accomplish interdependent tasks. A study of 300 members of 18 German orchestras with professional conductors showed that transactional leadership styles where the conductor looked for mistakes in a reward/punishment relationship with members and transformational leadership styles based on supporting members to achieve an inspiring vision both had a positive effect on achieving high artistic quality. Transactional styles were only slightly less likely to inspire positive emotions in orchestra members.

So, artistic leaders need to adopt different styles in different circumstances. Over the past decade, this idea has gained currency outside the arts, too. Instead of seeking a single magic formula for good leadership, discussion is now around full-range leadership, in which the only bad form of leadership is a refusal to lead.16

Heather MaitlandConsultant and Associate Fellow at the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies, University of Warwicke heather@heathermaitland.co.ukw www.heathermaitland.co.uk

1. Lao-tzu quoted in Dan R. Ebener and David J. O’Connell, ‘How Might Servant Leadership Work?’, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 20, vol. 3, 2010, pp. 315–335.

2. Stewart L. Tubbs and Eric Schultz, ‘Leadership Competencies: Can They Be Learned?’, International Journal of Education Management, 5, vol. 21, 2007, pp. 407–417.

3. For example, see J.R. Katzenback and D.K. Smith, ‘The Delicate Balance of Team Leadership’, The McKinsey Quarterly, 4, 1992, pp. 128–142.

4. Joseph C. Rost, Leadership for the Twenty-first Century, Praeger, 1991.

5. G. Gemmill and J. Oakley, ‘Leadership: An Alienating Social Myth?’, Human Relations, 45, 1992, pp. 113–129.

6. Cary Cooper (ed.), ‘Management Style and Leadership’, in Leadership and Management in the 21st Century: Business Challenges of the Future, Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 1–18.

7. Joseph C. Rost, ‘Leadership and Management’, in Gill Robinson Hickman (ed.), Leading Organisations: Perspectives for a New Era, Sage Publications, 1998.

8. Gary Yukl, Leadership in Organisations (7th edn.), Pearson Education, 2009.

9. Stewart L. Tubbs and Eric Schultz, op. cit.

10. W. Bennis and B. Nanus, Leadership: The Strategies for Change, Harper & Row, 1985.

11. Jay A. Conger and Rabindra N. Kanungo, ‘Towards a Behavioural Theory of Charismatic Leadership in Organisational Settings’, The Academy of Management Review, 4, vol. 12, 1987, pp. 637–647.

12. Joseph C. Rost, ‘Leadership and Management’, op. cit.

13. For example, chapters by Andrew Kakabadse and Nada Kakabadse, Prabhu Guptara, Fred Fiedler and Joseph Garcia and Keith Grint in Cary Cooper (ed.), Leadership and Management in the 21st Century: Business Challenges of the Future, op cit.

14. Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal, ‘Looking for Leadership: Another Search Party’s Report’, Education Administration Quarterly, 1, vol. 30, 1994.

15. For example, Norma Ghamrawi, ‘No Teacher Left Behind: Subject Leadership that Promotes Teacher Leadership’, Educational Management, Administration and Leadership, 3, vol. 38, 2010, pp. 304–320.

16. Johm Antonakis, Bruce J. Avolio and Nagaraj Sivasubramaniam, ‘Context and Leadership: An Examination of the Nine-Factor Full-Range Leadership Theory Using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire’, The Leadership Quarterly, 14, 2003, pp. 261–295.

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Taking the lead

Mark Wright wants to start a leadership revolution – and he wants you to be part of it

I offer you the opportunity to revolt. One conversation at a time, one meeting at a time, and one project at a time, I want you to take the lead. So many times we leave the responsibility for leadership to the people

with a bigger job title. Today, that can change.Your job title matters not one jot; it is your behaviours

and values that make a difference. For one moment, consider the implications of uncoupling the action of leadership behaviour from the positional power that comes with a job title. If you remove the assumption that leadership is about ‘being in charge of things’ and replace it with the idea of ‘leadership being a set of behaviours with a sphere of influence’, then suddenly it is all to play for. Whereas the first phrase creates a sense of pressure on the burgeoning leader and gives everybody else the option of abdicating responsibility, the second gives us all the choice and responsibility to make a difference.

Now, it is certainly true that some people will have a relatively small leadership sphere of influence compared to others, but that doesn’t really matter. It is a sphere; it extends all around us – and can be stretched through remarkable, creative behaviours, irrespective of job title. Cleaner or king – it makes no difference to me.

Hold on, I hear you cry, we can’t all be leaders – life will be too anarchic. Well, that’s true, so maybe leadership isn’t an all-or-nothing option. Maybe we need to add some other behaviours into the mix.

In my line of work I spend a fair amount of my time talking to people about what they do in their business, voluntary organisation or creative endeavour. Inevitably the conversation eventually comes around to issues of management and leadership. ‘What’s the difference? How do I know if I am a leader or a manager?’ they ask. We then get into a conversation about respective mindsets, behaviours and aspirations and almost always end up with a ‘leadership good, management bad’ kind of discussion. We talk about leaders having vision, passion, strategic intent (hooray!), while managers implement rules, processes and controls (boo!). It seems to me that the easy caricature – or maybe our experience – of Management (the capital M is intentional) gets in the way of really thinking about the value that purposeful management behaviours can bring. With effective management (replace with ‘delivery/process refinement/implementation’ if you prefer) then the ideas, vision and passions of leaders have a chance to gain traction.

Indeed it has been my privilege over the years to meet some amazing, creative leaders who engender huge loyalty and passion in their organisations, but who then go on to achieve frustratingly little because of a lack of effective management behaviour either in themselves or those around them. I have also worked with some incredibly well-resourced and hugely efficient corporate clients which are suffering a death by a thousand cuts at the hands of Management doctrine. Both desperately need to find the balance of vision and drive, process and plan, in themselves, as well as their organisational structures.

But is this enough? Unfortunately I don’t think so – for me, there is a third component and it is the curious idea of ‘followership’ that forms this little trinity. Followership is a positive activity, with a skill set all of its own: the ability to appreciate where most effective effort needs to be applied, to deliver and to contribute. Effective followership is not passive; it is a challenging, questioning and rigorous desire to understand the vision and work effectively with others. Without great followership, a leader is left exposed and a manager gets begrudging compliance. Encouraging and nurturing active followership should be a leader’s organisational priority; gathering people around you who are empowered, clear-sighted and confident enough to positively challenge.

JAM 39 > 7

> FEATURE

Effective followership is not passive; it is a challenging, questioning and rigorous desire to understand the vision and work effectively with others.

And the great thing about this? The most effective people in any organisation are those who are happy and able to do all three – they lead when they need to, manage the outcomes effectively and have the insight to know when following really well is what is needed.

So what form might your personal leadership revolution take? Well, that will be as unique as you are, but to help you on your way, the world of leadership development is littered with hundreds of ‘leadership styles’: Transactional, Servant, Charismatic, Dictator, Insider, Outsider, Good King, Mother, Proxy, Warrior, Change Agent … the list goes on.

In general, there are seven leadership styles that I think are particularly positive and useful in the context of the cultural sector. I don’t expect anybody to be equally comfortable using all of them. Indeed, sustaining just two or three effectively would be good going; but understanding when the time is right to act boldly and appropriately, sometimes in an unexpected direction or unfamiliar way, can be critical. Here are my favourite leadership styles:• Charismatic – effective and charming, this style

can please the crowds as long as there is substance to back it up.

• Collaborative – a great favourite in the cultural sector, this leadership style is all about inclusivity and consensus but, if over-used, it can appear timid and bland.

• Transactional – getting the deal done and being clear about what is expected in return for appropriate reward, this style is efficient and simple, if sometimes lacking emotional sophistication.

• Transformational – a dynamic force for change that can produce incredible results but often at a high price, this leadership style is high-energy and turbulent.

• Quiet – leading by example, this style is strong on integrity and role modelling with a close cohort but sometimes might be just too discreet.

• Servant – this style is all about serving without being servile; it is a style that excels in developing those that follow but needs confidence and assertiveness to pull it off.

• Situational – the pragmatism to understand the needs of the current circumstances and lead in the most appropriate and effective manner; great in a crisis but sometimes misinterpreted by others as inconsistency.

In the real world, effective leadership cannot be about getting it right all the time, but it might be about four simple ideas:1. Value and appreciate who you are with a vibrant

confidence that is tempered by just enough humility to stop it tipping into arrogance.

2. Practise leading every day, regardless of whether anybody needs to be impressed.

3. Develop a solid set of authentic leadership behaviours that you know you can carry off even on a bad day.

4. Accept the fact that leading requires you to put yourself out there every now and again with the resilience to keep bouncing back.

And with the clamour of these four ideas ringing in your head, let the revolution begin.

Mark WrightDirector, People Create Limitede mark@people-create.co.uk

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Thought turned to action

Tim Wheeler reflects on the everyday practice of leadership

Mind the Gap is a theatre company based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Our aim is to make it

possible for learning-disabled and non-disabled artists to work together as equals – not as therapist and client or facilitator and participant, but as artists working together.

So, for the past 21 years Mind the Gap has been exploring that simple idea. What if people with learning disabilities were included in theatre making, not as passive recipients but as active participants, actors, even leaders? What kind of theatre would be created? What if … things were different?

In 2008 we moved into our new home in an old silk mill in Bradford. It took eight years, £2.1m of arts, Lottery and European money, and the combined thought, passion

and sheer hard graft of nearly 200 people, disabled and non-disabled professionals and enthusiasts. As Artistic Director it was my role to lead – though for much of that time I followed. I followed the ideas of people who were far more experienced than me; people who knew how to make workspaces both accessible and beautiful. I followed learning-disabled colleagues who showed how unnecessarily complicated the places we work in can be, and how access is more than just ramps and lifts. I followed Julia Skelton, Mind the Gap’s Administrative Director who knew how to raise funds, draw up budgets and work patiently with architects, solicitors, builders, local authority and Arts Council officers to make things happen. Along the way, I asked a simple question: how can this space be different?

I have been blown away by how people rose to the challenge. Now we work in one of the most beautiful, fit-for-purpose spaces in the UK. Don’t take my word for it – come and see for yourself.

So what have I learnt about leadership?

I’ve always had a problem connecting theory and practice (in minding the gap!). Nobody taught me how to lead. Working with Mark Wright of People Create Limited over the past few years, I took part in the Cultural Leadership Programme’s Leadership Development Days and Leadership Unleashed. That helped me to give names to processes and approaches that I had bumped into or half-discovered along the way.

Mind the Gap’s approach to thinking about what works is both mindful and pragmatic. My role has shifted over

Revolution, said the nineteenth-century anarchist, writer and activist Emma Goldman, is simply ‘thought turned to action’.

JAM 39 > 9

time, and shifts daily responding to different circumstances. I think I have what Mark describes as a situational style: I act differently in a rehearsal room (mostly collaborative), when speaking at a conference (hopefully charismatic), or in a staff meeting (sometimes quiet, at other times transformational). The difficulty for me is to remember to change my role as I move from situation to situation.

It’s a popular myth that artistic directors are power-obsessed tyrants. Of course, sometimes we can see this kind of behaviour in others and, if honest, in our own actions. Try being a power-obsessed tyrant full-time … it’s very tiring! Better to be collaborative and cooperative, sharing power with others, and being clear about what’s negotiable and what’s not.

In 2006 Mind the Gap ran a year-long leadership-training programme

for Cultural Leadership Programme that helped develop the leadership skills of learning-disabled people. From that experience sprang Sync (www.syncleadership.co.uk), which focuses on the interplay between disability and leadership, and which aims to provide information and opportunities for leadership development in ways that are accessible, relevant and considerate of the unique perspective of disabled people.

Now at Mind the Gap we have a group of young people with a learning disability who meet regularly to generate ideas and new things they would like to do. They call themselves the Ideas Forum or IF. And they ask a very simple question: what IF … things were different? They are a great source of energy and passion that helps to shape our future direction.

I think that as creative practitioners we need to ensure that creativity is at the core of what we do and how we lead. It’s why we do it that matters. Goldman put it succinctly: ‘If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.’

Tim WheelerArtistic Director and co-founder, Mind the Gape tim@mind-the-gap.org.ukw www.mind-the-gap.org.uk

> CASE STUDY

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Marketing is largely perceived as a creative industry. Figures published by Research

International show that advertising and promotion are far and away seen as the primary functions of the marketing department by other employees and managers.1

But there is more to marketing than communications and advertising. It is partly a science, and partly an art. There are few disciplines that require both a creative imagination as well as familiarity with statistics and number-crunching. As a consequence, the challenges of managing marketing people are somewhat different to those in other professions.

The danger of having predominantly creative people in roles that require a synthesis of creativity and rigour is that it leads to many of the problems facing marketing departments today: a perception that little meaningful measurement takes place. There is little understanding on the part of shareholders, and even some directors, of how marketing creates value and can influence bottom line profit. All this adds up to marketing not getting the credit, nor the results, it could. The end result is that marketing is perceived in some quarters as the non-rigorous, ‘fluffy’ end of business.

In The Economist’s 2004 summit paper, marketing languishes at the

very bottom of the managerial pile in terms of reputation.2 We have known about the reputation crisis facing marketing for some time now. A study of ‘how others perceive marketing’ carried out by Dr Susan Baker of Cranfield School of Management produced, in the words of Robert Shaw and David Merrick who used the study, ‘an unflattering caricature of marketing, which unfortunately is widely acknowledged by both marketers and their colleagues in other functions.’ Shaw and Merrick continue, ‘What is particularly apparent is marketing’s perceived lack of accountability, characterised by the words “unaccountable, untouchable, expensive and slippery”.’3

A tale of two disciplines: managing marketing people

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To redress this reputation crisis, we need a more scientific mind-set that can blend with the more creative aspects of marketing. Marketing must move away from being perceived, taught and recruited as a predominantly creative discipline, towards one which embraces elements of both creative and scientific approaches. If marketers can become more aware of metrics, and develop an understanding of how marketing can be made more accountable, there is a chance that we can raise the dignity of the profession to a level where the lack of marketers in the boardroom can be addressed. Widely acknowledged as a problem for marketers, the reason is perhaps not that the marketing function is undervalued, but that marketers need to widen their general business knowledge in order to hold their own amongst board members who have emerged from other departments.

Why does marketing have so many creative rather than scientific types? The problem is that marketers are action oriented, thinks Laurie Wood. ‘Their preferred learning styles are similarly activity-based (learning by doing). Stopping to reflect, analyse and synthesise does not come easily to these types. If the learning model does not enforce the reflective element, then a short-cut loop is created based on continuous action and little or no learning.’4

In which case, the learning model needs to change. And from that point, we need to emphasise the scientific elements during the recruitment process. There are several ways to change the way marketing people are managed:• Recruitment – to select people who have analytical and creative skills.• Motivation – to stimulate more interaction between the creatively-minded members of the profession and the scientifically-minded ones, and to reduce the natural distance that makes each type wary of the other.

As Juanita Cockton points out, ‘Too often it is assumed that if you are a marketer you can do all marketing jobs and tasks. That has never been the case and as with most professions these days expertise requires deeper skills – not just broader ones.’ To manage marketing people means ‘recruiting and building teams with a combination of skills that will advance the organisation. Creativity needs to be supported with hard facts – and evidence of how the team will deliver the marketing promise.’5

Marketing has the opportunity to drive business. The first step is to communicate marketing as a mixture of scientific and creative disciplines. The second step is to train existing marketers in the

economic or accountancy skills where they are currently lacking, and to introduce an understanding of Shareholder Value Added and metrics. And the third step is to attract scientifically-minded people to counterbalance the creative marketing employees, and to recruit marketers who have the magic blend of scientific and creative abilities.

These elements combined can help put marketing in its rightful place, at the heart of business; and increase respect for the value of the profession as a whole.

Extract from A Tale of Two Disciplines: Managing Marketing People. © The Chartered Institute of Marketing, 2005. Reproduced with kind permission. For the full paper please visit www.cim.co.uk.

1. Davison, L. (2004). Marketing in the Spotlight: What People Really Think of Marketing. Research International, 17th March.

2. Davison, ibid.3. Shaw, R., and Merrick, D. (2005).

Marketing Payback: Is Your Marketing Profitable? Harlow: FT Prentice Hall, p. 13.

4. Correspondence with Insights. Chartered Institute of Marketing, April 2005.

5. Correspondence with Insights. Chartered Institute of Marketing, May 2005.

If marketers can become more aware of metrics, and develop an understanding of how marketing can be made more accountable, there is a chance that we can raise the dignity of the profession.

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Given the enormous progress made in the professionalisation of arts marketing over the

last ten to fifteen years (credit for which must be given to the AMA), it’s surprising that all too often a glass ceiling still stands in the way of senior marketing professionals’ aspirations to be the industry’s next executive directors/CEOs.

If you look simplistically at career progression within the arts industry, more often than not it follows a linear approach to career development. A junior marketer is most likely to hone their marketing skills and gather experience as they work their way through the hierarchy of their chosen specialism. Whether gathered in a single organisation or more than one, and whether an individual takes all the steps or skips one or two, the pathway from marketing assistant to officer, manager, head of and eventually director would not be untypical.

While I’m sure there are some non-arts businesses that also follow the ‘specialist’ route, there are many others who adopt a more generalist development path. These businesses develop managers, not specialists, identifying the more talented individuals within the organisation and fast-tracking them via a series of moves from department to department. This zigzag journey provides exposure to a range of disciplines and a greater overview of the company as a whole. This route mitigates against the single-function approach that is the biggest barrier to the arts marketing specialist.

Let me tell you about my own

situation. Prior to joining Welsh National Opera (WNO) as Director of Marketing in 1994, my career had been a bit erratic; although I considered myself to be a marketing specialist and marketing was a constant thread through my career, I was exposed to other disciplines from time to time. My very first job was as Management Trainee in a multi-purpose arts centre and although my interest in publicity (as it was called then!) came from this traineeship, I also undertook a whistle-stop tour of all aspects of venue management. Following this, a degree of job-hopping gave me insight into a range of organisations, art-forms and scales. Later, I also had a couple of brief but important excursions into programming. This breadth of experience proved to be very useful in later applications. I guess in an unplanned way my career path was a hybrid of the specialist and generalist approaches.

The second influential factor was that I got lucky. At a time when I was thinking it was time for a move, I was asked to project-manage and co-ordinate WNO’s stabilisation programme. Leading this in-depth look at the company and mapping its future direction gave me increased confidence, demonstrable experience and an appetite for more. Not long before this I had put myself forward for an Executive Director role at another company and, while my CV was varied enough to get to interview, I fell short on demonstrable experience – in a senior executive role I was still a risk to a prospective employer.

One of the outcomes of the stabilisation programme was the creation of a new role at WNO of Executive Director. My application, against strong external competition, was successful – the addition of project-management experience and in-depth, cross-company knowledge had added value to my CV to the extent that I had become more of a calculated risk, one that my existing employers, who were obviously in a much better position to see the potential, were prepared to take. (Since appointment eight years ago the role has expanded further as recognised by a title change to Managing Director in January 2009.)

So, if you have chief executive or similar aspirations, what can you do to strengthen your own chances if your career has followed the specialist route?• Create opportunities to

demonstrate broader experience and competencies: grab any project-management opportunities that come your way.

• Seek out opportunities to get in-depth knowledge of other organisations – this could be by short secondments or by joining the board of another arts company.

• If possible, take opportunities to attend seminars, conferences and networking events for disciplines outside your own specialist area.

• It’s worth checking your suitability for the Clore and other leadership programmes, although with the salary sacrifice involved they’re not for everyone.

Breaking the glass ceiling

Peter Bellingham shares some thoughts on his progression to a senior executive role

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Non-arts businesses develop managers, not specialists, identifying the more talented individuals within the organisation and fast-tracking them via a series of moves from department to department. This zigzag journey provides exposure to a range of disciplines and a greater overview of the company as a whole.

• Within your own organisation, make sure you really understand how each department functions. Learn as much as you can from your senior management colleagues (they may even be interested in what you do!).

• Love the numbers – and understand them. Start with your own company’s management accounts and annual report and accounts. If you’re not comfortable around budgets, forecasts and five-year plans then a CEO position is probably not for you.

Peter BellinghamManaging Director, Welsh National Operae peter.bellingham@wno.org.uk

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> CASE STUDY

Peter Bellingham has worked in arts management for 33 years. He has worked for a diverse range of organisations including the Fulcrum Centre, Slough; Torch Theatre, Milford Haven; Northern Ballet Theatre; and Bradford Theatres. He joined Welsh National Opera in 1994 as Director of Marketing and is currently Managing Director. WNO has a turnover of £17m a year and 250 permanent employees.

14 > JAM 39

Are you one of those rare people who truly enjoys managing change and who knows they are good at it? If not, the happy truth is that if you really put some time and planning in, you too could make

change work without too much pain. If you have great skills as a leader, that will undoubtedly help. But to be successful, change needs to be carefully managed. And that takes time.

Think about it. If we – you and I – are asked to make changes for the sake of our organisation – to alter our routines or our jobs, to report to someone new, to accept the need for relocating or even redundancy – we need to be given some good arguments for the change. The reasons need to add up and, if there is a clear imperative, we will probably go with it. But we want whoever is in charge of this change to have thought things through. We need to be treated with at least that much respect.

PlanningTime spent planning, finding necessary resources, being prepared, can make the difference between success and a miserable battle to persuade people of something they may not want or believe in. Unfortunately, it’s a crucial step frequently ignored, which might explain why so many projects stumble and ultimately fail.

One of the first things to do is consider the nature of the change. Is it a practical, project-based issue? For instance a building development, or the introduction of a new box office system? Or is it a broader cultural issue on which the entire organisation will undoubtedly have a strong opinion such as a restructure, a rebrand or a new marketing strategy? Your answer here will help shape your approach and will inform some of the key considerations to take on board.

You need to think about whether your organisation is flat and open or more hierarchical and directional. Does it listen and learn or decide and instruct? How ready is it for change? Who are the people involved and how ready are they for change? What skills and expertise will be needed and how far are they available internally? If they are not already in place, can you train anyone up? And if not, do you need to look outside the organisation for help? And what about the budget? Is there enough (including a 10% contingency), and what are the overall strengths and weaknesses of your finances? How might these be improved?

Of course, you also need to think about time. Not just how long the change will take, but how urgent the need to

introduce it is – a sense of urgency that people recognise makes any change more likely to be accepted.

SkillsYou also need to listen. Some listening may be frustrating and time-consuming. But people need to be heard. And you may just pick up some very good ideas as well as being forced to think through all of your arguments.

Thinking about the people involved, you need to consider individual preferences, styles and skills. It is amazing how most of us immediately start thinking about our teams or perhaps stakeholders – both of which absolutely must be considered – but a truly successful, emotionally intelligent leader or manager will begin with themselves. What are my preferences, style, skills and experience and how are they going to affect things? Do I need to curb some of my enthusiasms? What strengths can I play to? When am I at my most successful and what do I do that jeopardises things?

You won’t necessarily need to change yourself, but if you can answer these questions and know how to manage yourself, you will have a better chance of taking people with you: it has been shown that organisations led by people who see themselves as others see them tend to be more successful than others.

You also need to understand how you try to influence others. Different styles here – from the domineering to the compliant, from partnership to bargaining – all have their uses. What’s important is to be able to use an appropriate style for the moment.

And again, understanding your own and others’ learning styles – whether the preference is for learning by doing or reflecting, by theorising and evaluating or putting things into practice – will allow you to select teams appropriately, to recognise where you might not have all the skills and answers, to be open and unthreatened by others. It is an observable truth that really successful leaders are comfortable in their abilities and clever or intuitive enough to know when they aren’t the best person to answer the question, and to find the one who is.

TeamsIf the change is significant, you will need to put together a team who can manage things either with or for you. One great way to strengthen that team, to broaden its skills and knowledge base, its impact and hence effectiveness, is to create a ‘diagonal

Helen MacKintosh describes the planning phase of successful change management

Change? Think about it

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> FEATURE

slice’ group – people from different departments within the organisation and at different levels. A receptionist or box office assistant may have a far better idea of external attitudes to the organisation than the artistic director (though the latter may be well aware of the impact). A stagehand may have a very good take on how well the organisation manages practical issues. A marketing officer may be very aware of where internal resistance is likely to come from. Another way to strengthen that team is to delegate sufficient authority where appropriate and let the organisation know you have done so.

Ideas, vision, toolsOnce you have your team, ideas and vision can be worked up and strengthened – good leaders and managers don’t make the mistake of thinking they have all the answers. At the same time there are all sorts of practical tools you can use, most of which are available free on the web: tools such as Gantt charts and flow charts which lay out timelines and milestones, or spreadsheets which keep financial track. Change models can also be used to help everyone understand the process they are caught in – e.g. Tuckman’s ‘Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing’ model or the ‘Change Curve’ which shows the emotional stages most people go through when major change is introduced.

CommunicatingOnce a vision for the change has been created and a project plan is ready, it’s time to start communicating: up, sideways and down – in as many different ways you can think of. It is startling how many people think that they have told people by putting a paper out on an email or (worse, because more invisible) sending a link to a central server.

There are many ways of communicating, and you need to use them all: in person, whether one-to-one or one-to-many; on posters; on the intranet; in a short video; through planned briefings; in the lift (so long as that or Twitter or any other brief communication is neither the starting nor the finishing point of communication). You need to keep the communications coming, again and again – and then say it again. It’s the best way to stop distorting gossip, to ensure that those against the change don’t take the lead, to show that you respect your teams and want to take them with you. It is a sad fact that many people, particularly in large organisations, complain they learn what is happening from outside sources, which is a persuasion disaster.

Quick winsAs change guru John Kotter says, you also need to prepare some quick wins to demonstrate that the change is already making life better. The wins don’t have to be big, but they should be convincing and preferably imaginative. And if you have listened to what people say, you may be able to satisfy them – new briefer meetings are always popular; a commitment to look at more flexible ways of working; a reward system where people get even just half a day off; and so on.

The longer termIf by now you are feeling exhausted at how much energy has to go into your change plan and delivering it, gather strength – we have only just started! Because successful change takes a long time to achieve – years sometimes. And if we start congratulating ourselves too soon, the law of least resistance will see the change backsliding, losing its edge, becoming increasingly less effective. So once things have begun, it‘s time to build on success while reviewing and changing the less successful elements some more.

This is part of the ‘change culture’ and it may look relentless. But think about it as designing and tending a garden that will look wonderful in years to come, or coaching a football team to be ready to respond to the changing challenges of the league, or building a new exhibition gallery which will continue to attract new audiences over the years. And try to allow yourself some pleasure – as you go, take time to sit back and admire, look at the detail, look at the shape, look at the context. Prune, coach, listen and measure. Then move ahead again.

Helen MacKintoshConsultant and coache helen@helenmackintosh.co.uk

A receptionist orbox office assistant may have a far better idea of external attitudes to the organisation than the artistic director ...

16 > JAM 39

I had just begun to think about the kind of organisational leader I would like to become when I heard Anthony Sargent, General

Director of The Sage Gateshead, speak to MA Cultural Management students at Northumbria University. This was years ago, but Anthony’s three axioms for authority have stayed with me, and have remained a constant source of motivation and encouragement as I’ve faced the myriad challenges involved in developing my career in the arts.

Since I became Chief Executive of Audiences North East (ANE), I’ve come into regular contact with Anthony, as he has been a highly active and long-standing trustee of the organisation. I’ve seen first-hand how he applies his management style, which he’s developed throughout an illustrious arts management career with the BBC, Southbank Centre and Birmingham City Council before taking the helm at The Sage Gateshead, the North East’s iconic flagship music venue.

Anthony’s three keys to successful leadership are based on trust, courage and attention to detail.

It’s the simplicity and common sense of the principles that have stayed with me – it’s amazing how they underpin pretty much everything to do with organisational management, making them easy to remember and apply.

Being able to create trust – among staff, stakeholders and customers – is what marketers call ‘branding’, and is both the simplest and most difficult

thing to achieve as a leader. It hinges on honesty and transparency, consistency and integrity – it’s something that has to be earned and cannot be bought. Anthony says that ‘ultimately it all comes down to respect. Relationships (whoever they are with – staff, customers, clients, the wider public) which aren’t grounded in a sense of respect for the other person and their point of view can never be as fruitful and (professionally) successful as those which are; it really is as simple as that.’

I have found this to be true particularly in relation to activities that involve some kind of risk. The audience development projects that we have delivered in partnership with cultural venues, such as Maximise (developing and ‘mainstreaming’ audiences for BME arts) and Family Friendly, were potentially laden with risk, and required a great deal of trust on both sides to generate positive outcomes. I also see this principle at work on a micro level when organisations use the trust they have created with their audiences in order to move them into riskier purchasing behaviour. Internally, it’s simply difficult to imagine how I could manage the team at ANE without their trust – it would be like trying to bake a cake without eggs!

At some point, all leaders will encounter challenges that require a stiffening of the spine, and having the courage to take tough decisions is a crucial skill for any leader. As

So you want to be a leader?

Alison O’Hara discusses the three simple principles that set her on a course to successful leadership

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the head of a large and complex organisation, Anthony has faced his share of tough decisions – decisions that impact on hundreds of staff and many thousands of audience members. But I don’t believe they’re necessarily any easier to make for leaders of smaller organisations – our actions have equally profound effects and deserve equal measures of respect and acknowledgement. Since being appointed as CEO of Audiences North East, business- critical decisions over our sub- scription scheme, organisational structure and the direction of our digital marketing services, including whatsonnortheast.com, have all had to be made. It’s a scary place to be, and it’s often a very lonely place, but it’s what makes being a leader so exciting.

Anthony’s final piece of advice was to take the trouble to be aware of the little things. This is not about micro-management, but about retaining the attention to detail that creates superb customer experiences – those special experiences that go beyond expectations. It’s a constant endeavour to create (and measure) smiles. Anthony regularly attends shows at The Sage Gateshead, and responds personally to customer comments, making it his business to understand the total visitor experience. My commitment to this principle has paid dividends over the years. I try to be as knowledgeable about our clients as possible, and recently startled a museum manager by congratulating him on the recent

upsurge in visitor figures I had noticed from working on an audience development project with his team. The conversation, sparked by a small but significant detail, cemented a previously rather casual relationship into something more enduring and, potentially, rewarding.

Trust, courage and attention to detail – three guiding principles that never fail to inspire and invigorate me to be the best I can be as a leader.

So you want to be a leader?

> CASE STUDY

Alison O’HaraChief Executive, Audiences North Easte alison.ohara@audiencesnortheast.org.uk

Internally, it’s simply difficult to imagine how I could manage the team at ANE without their trust – it would be like trying to bake a cake without eggs!

18 > JAM 39

The main findings of the 2009 Index of Leadership Trust by the Institute of Leadership and Management and Management Today

Trust is a fragile thing – hard to create and easy to destroy. Creating high-trust

organisations is the challenge faced by all leaders, because trust doesn’t just happen. It requires an inter-related set of policies, such as promoting a culture that values relationships between people, creating opportunities to meet informally, and ensuring that people are able to perform effectively. Conversely, inconsistent messages and standards, misplaced benevolence, and a failure to trust others or face up to tricky issues all serve to reduce trust.

To find out more, the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM)

and Management Today surveyed over 5,000 UK employees and asked them to rate the importance of six dimensions of trust – ability, understanding, fairness, openness, integrity and consistency – and then assess their leaders and managers against these. The results were broken down by level of seniority, enabling the levels of trust between CEOs, managers and non-managers to be accurately measured. They were also analysed by age group, gender, organisation size, length of service and length of relationship between managers and managed. This is what their findings reveal.

1. Negative growthThe overall Index of Leadership Trust for CEOs is 59 on a scale of 0 (absolutely no trust) to 100 (complete trust). However, there is substantial variation in this index, reflecting organisational size. The larger the organisation, the less trust employees are likely to show in its leadership. The most trusted CEOs are those at the helm of organisations employing up to 10 people. This trust in CEOs falls off consistently as the organisation grows and reaches its lowest in organisations that employ more than 1,000 people.

Overall trust in line managers is 10 points higher, at 69. This too is highest in the smallest companies but falls to its lowest point in medium-sized enterprises. It then recovers marginally in the bigger organisations, which possibly indicates better line manager training provision in larger concerns.

2. Turnover troublesThe longer CEOs and line managers have been in post the more trust employees have in them. Conversely, the longer an employee has been with the organisation the less they

The importance of trust

CEOs’ scores against the six dimensionsDimension Score

Consistency 55 Integrity 66 Openness 53 Fairness 57 Understanding 47 Ability 65 Overall 59

Line Managers’ scores against the six dimensionsDimension Score

Consistency 65 Integrity 70 Openness 66 Fairness 62 Understanding 72 Ability 70 Overall 69

The relative importance of the six drivers of trust

NB: Respondents were asked to allocate 60 points across the six drivers, to indicate their importance

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trust their management team.This apparent contradiction can

be explained by the effect of the length of relationship between manager and managed. Trust is at its highest between a new employee and long-serving managers, and at its lowest when a long-serving employee is working under a new leader.

This effect is amplified by the distance between manager and employee. New CEOs of large organisations that feature long-serving workforces have the most to do to establish trust in their leadership. The research indicates that this is unlikely to be achieved in less than five years, and that the low trust index scores of large-organisation CEOs is partly a reflection of higher CEO turnover.

3. Trust in their own imageAge and gender have less effect on trust than might be expected. The research reveals a small dip in trust for middle-aged leaders and managers and a general trend for employees to show

greater trust in CEOs who are of the same sex and similar age as themselves.

Women are generally more trusted and trusting than men. But the research found that, although women tend to start employment with more trust in their managers than new male recruits, their trust decreases more sharply, ultimately falling below the levels of men.

If we take into account the evidence that trust tends to fall over time as a result of changes in management, it seems to be the case that female employees are affected more acutely by these types of change. This may indicate that women tend to place more emphasis on the nature and consistency of the management relationship than men do. It also raises important questions about the quality of women’s experience of the workplace.

4. Private and publicBased on the above findings, it’s easy to understand the high trust levels in the charity sector, where

most respondents (61%) work for organisations with fewer than 250 employees and a relatively high level (37%) of CEOs have been in post for more than five years. Charity CEOs have a trust index score of 63 when assessed by the general population of employees, which rises to an impressive 72 when assessed by managers. Line managers in this sector also enjoy high trust levels.

Public sector CEOs, on average, are trusted slightly less than private sector CEOs. The reverse is true for line managers, where there is a very slightly higher level of trust in those in the public sector, compared to those in the private sector. One challenge for CEOs in the public sector, which could prevent their achieving higher trust ratings, may be a perception among employees of ‘politicisation’ at this level, that the CEO is reporting upwards to a government department and fulfilling target-driven criteria rather than effectively leading the organisation.

> SURVEY

Index of Leadership Trust 2009 © Institute of Leadership and Management and Management Today, 2009. Reproduced with kind permission. For the full report please visit www.i-l-m.com.

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SURVEY RESULTS

How much do you trust your boss?

We asked AMA members to rate their trust in their managers across the six dimensions identified by the Institute of Leadership and Management.

183 people replied to our survey, making up about 10% of our current membership. Their responses show a very positive picture of the state of leadership in the arts sector, with very high ratings overall for ability, fairness, openness and integrity, and slight dips in just two dimensions (understanding and consistency).

On a scale of 1 (I have no confidence in my line manager) to 10 (I have complete confidence), only 14.1% of AMA members said they have little to no confidence in their managers. Another 14.2% declared they have some confidence in their manager’s ability (5 out of 10 on the scale), while a staggering 71.6% rated their managers in the top end of the scale, with 22.4% of people giving them 10/10.

The full findings of the survey, including all open-ended responses and breakdown of respondents by organisation type and job level, are available on the member-only section of the AMA website. Go to www.a-m-a.co.uk.

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Deb Barnard on how we can make the most of our emotional intelligence

For much of our education, we learn to equate how academically clever we are with our future potential. We are

legally obliged to journey up the ladder of scholarly learning – a world full of hard facts, rules, principles, theories and conceptual application – and we are mercilessly examined and tested every step of the way. The majority of our testing is based on our cognitive abilities and many – starting with Charles Darwin and other non-Western thinkers before him – have argued that this is just a small part of the bigger picture as to what influences ‘life success’.

Darwin noticed that emotional expression was an important component of survival and adaptation.1 By the 1980s Howard Gardner had introduced the notion of multiple intelligences: our interpersonal and intrapersonal skill, our ability to relate well, both to our self and others.2 It wasn’t until the mid 1990s that Daniel Goleman, in his book Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ, brought the concepts of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Emotional Quotient (EQ) to popular attention.

What followed was a raft of research looking at successful leadership in relation to social, emotional and relational competencies – many

came to the conclusion that EQ was a distinguishing factor in ‘superior leadership performance’. Leaders with higher EQ often outperformed those with a higher IQ. In fact, many of the more successful leaders often had a lower IQ than their team members.3

Over the years, during my work on leadership development and coaching, I have noticed for myself how we tend to lean towards those who demonstrate strengths in EQ. This has been shown time and time again as the result of a role modelling exercise where the group is asked, individually, to prepare a ‘skills and qualities’ profile of a leader who has been significant to them. It’s important to note that the term ‘leader’ includes those who exercise leadership and is not limited to the person at the top. Commonalities are then recorded on a flip chart and presented as the leadership blueprint.

It is striking to note the similarities and consistencies between the preferred models of leadership. Invariably, the blueprints illustrate a range of characteristics associated with EQ, usually with a distinct absence of the characteristics associated with IQ. In the main, the blueprints reflect the four Goleman areas of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.4

Strange then that our job descriptions rarely mention the qualities we admire and respond positively to – for example, passion, trustworthiness, other-centredness, humility, commitment, fairness.

We are not a sector built on formal qualifications – most of those exercising leadership in the arts are usually there through their experience and a strong emotional attachment and engagement to what they do. It doesn’t seem surprising that the arts should instinctively value EQ qualities; what is surprising is that the same blueprint also materialises in the business sector.

I suspect that the arts are EQ-rich – and yet, do we truly value, appreciate and understand such acumen? We have many natural leaders in the arts, including artists, workshop leaders, project coordinators and CEOs. How can we make the most of what we have already and extend those abilities? Coaching is one intervention, both as a mindset and skill set, which can provide a useful vehicle for EQ development.

Working with a coach on a formal one-to-one basis has the potential to extend our self-awareness, and to improve relationships with others as well as providing a safe place to explore solutions and direction – a forum to simply think, reflect and decide. A coach is not a mentor and doesn’t need to be working in the same area or field as the coachee. The aim is to facilitate self-directed learning rather than offering advice. Additionally, we could choose to develop a coaching style of leadership and extend this into developing coaching cultures within our organisations.

Coaching, emotional intelligence and leadership

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Developing a coaching culture within management is becoming increasingly popular. The aim is to move sideways from the more traditional models of leadership – one person responsible for the many – to a culture of shared and distributed responsibility, where the leader doesn’t have to hold all the answers.

A coaching style of leadership takes an approach which resists telling, giving advice or providing the answers – it is about learning not to lead in the traditional sense, but instead facilitate others to come up with their own solutions. It is about asking questions rather than giving answers – and provoking meaningful, investigative learning and problem-solving processes, thereby strengthening the many rather than relying on the few. Peter Hawkins (business coach and author) neatly describes a coaching culture as one which has moved from ‘problems come up and solutions come down’, to a flatter structure where ‘challenges come down and solutions come up’.5

A coaching approach is not exclusive – it is understood that there will be many leadership occasions when it is appropriate and necessary to be directive, give advice and offer suggestions. However, the development of coaching cultures gives us the opportunity to re-embrace creative ways of working; to develop shared leadership; and to enjoy meaningful relationships which operate within a climate of high trust and shared responsibility.

A simple coaching technique which often translates well to management skills is active listening. Active listening contradicts how we conduct most

day-to-day conversations, which usually operate on three levels:1. ME NOW: We wait until there is a

pause in the conversation, so we can make our point, or we interrupt. During a ‘me now’ conversation, we are concentrating on when to speak, so not really listening at all. Quite often, we may interrupt with ‘I hear what you’re saying, but …’ This usually has the effect of negating that which we have just heard. A more useful approach is to simply start with ‘Can I add to that?’

2. JUST LIKE ME: We listen to someone’s story and dilemma and respond with a similar story or experience of our own, often believing this to be an empathetic response. In reality, we have taken the focus of attention back to ourselves.

3. DO IT LIKE ME: We respond to a problem by offering a solution or advice. This is not always what is needed, and we rarely ask the other person if they actually want some advice or just wish to be heard out or need a sounding board. To offer a solution too quickly can also undermine and engender a sense of inadequacy. The first stage of active listening is

simply encouraging the other person to talk more. How often are we ever invited to keep talking to expand our thinking? This is followed by simply reflecting back what we have heard, which demonstrates our listening and understanding, and enables the other person to hear their words and re-appraise their content. Achieving active listening isn’t difficult; what is difficult is learning to shift our conversational habits of a lifetime.

Deb Barnard is a trainer and coach specialising in relational dynamics and leadership. She is Director of Relational Dynamics 1st Ltd which designs and delivers an eight-day, accredited coaching course and bespoke training initiatives in coaching and leadership. She is a coach for the NESTA and Clore leadership initiatives and Lancaster University’s LEAD programme, where she also runs a number of action learning and coaching sets for business leaders. w www.relationaldynamics1st.co.uke info@relationaldynamics1st.co.uk

1. Bar-On, R. and Parker, J.D.A. (2000). Handbook of Emotional Intelligence: Theory, Development, Assessment and Application at Home, School and in the Workplace. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

2. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind. New York: Basic Books.

3. Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books.

4. Goleman, D. (1996). Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ. London: Bloomsbury.

5. Sparrow, S. (2008). ‘Coaching Cultures’. Available online at: www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/ 03/18/44838/coaching-cultures-culture-vultures-dont-wing-it.html

A coaching style of leadership takes an approach which resists telling, giving advice or providing the answers – it is about learning not to lead in the traditional sense, but instead facilitate others to come up with their own solutions.

22 > JAM 39

What is your first memory of the arts?Taking arts in its widest

sense, I have lots of young memories: curled up on a window seat reading Jane Eyre in a holiday cottage; singing on the stage of the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall as part of a Paul McCartney-linked school project; watching ET at a local Saturday morning film club; wandering around the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool with my dad and browsing in Blue Coat Books & Arts at what is now just known as the Bluecoat and is a much more vibrant arts centre. All of these memories and experiences have stayed with me and shaped me in some way.

How did you get into arts marketing?I left university with a

joint honours degree in Law and English Literature – so I was basically qualified to do nothing! While studying I had worked at Blockbusters and when they offered me an Assistant Manager position, mindful of Quentin Tarantino’s start in life, I took it while I figured out what I wanted to do. My passion for books led me into publishing where I discovered a flair for writing copy, excelled at events promotion and, after the seed was planted by a manager, I decided to do some further study through the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

What attracted you to the arts sector?Once I was safely on the

marketing path it seemed inevitable that my journey would lead me to the arts, somehow. It’s what makes me happy: film, music, theatre, literature and the spoken word … dance was more of a forgotten love and now of course it is one of the more prominent art forms in my life. But, basically, I need more than a job, more than a pay cheque and a reason to leave the house every day. I need to be inspired. Dance is inspiring in so many ways – so, being part of an organisation that gives people the chance to enjoy and participate in dance, and watching the results of that, is very rewarding.

When and why did you join the AMA?In 2004, in my first full year

at the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD). I can’t remember how I came across the AMA now but I am a great believer in learning from other organisations’ experiences and in surrounding myself with like-minded people, so I joined up for myself and for my team at the time. The team has grown and changed over time, but we are all still members.

What is your proudest moment?Sitting in the dark at Chelsea

Theatre surrounded by friends, watching a one-act play that I had written and then worked closely with the cast and director. It’s a small thing but at the time it was such an immense feeling of achievement. I have had similar feelings, however, watching Step LIVE!, an annual showcase performance for Step into Dance, which is a partnership dance project between the RAD and the Jack Petchey Foundation. But I can’t take all of the credit for that!

And what is your greatest indulgence?Good food and great

restaurants. I would happily spend every weekend following a trail of breadcrumbs leading to a new and different restaurant. Whether it is restaurants and cafés in weird and wonderful places or with strange and different menus, London is the best city in the world for this little indulgence.

> JUST A MINUTE

Just a minute

Melanie AdamsDirector of Marketing Communications and Membership, Royal Academy of Dancee meladams@rad.org.uk

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24 > JAM 39

ADVERTORIAL

Proofread the new brochure, debug the website, figure out that whole social media minefield, etc.In other words, time is just as precious and

finite a commodity as paper stocks or power, so why shouldn’t it be included in any audit of available resources?

Sustainable thinking is all about forward planning, maximising on existing resources as well as conserving them, and taking the long-term view – all safe and commonsense business attitudes when you come down to it, right?

I would argue that adopting a sustainable approach doesn’t have to be a choice between whether it is better to gain social benefits or save precious financial resources. In fact, a sustainable thought process is often the key to unlocking new innovation and creativity within a company.

Let me give you an example from our own business to illustrate. As a business, London Calling offers plenty of different things, but a lot of what we do, day in, day out, is use fossil fuels in one form or another to drive dead tree stock around town.

That’s the majority of our carbon footprint in a nutshell, and considering we recently figured out we had driven the equivalent of perhaps seven times around the equator in a year, you can surmise both that:a) We are pretty good at what we do because we

have gone a long, long way for a lot of different people over the years.

b) That whole mileage thing would probably be a good place to start if we were serious about addressing our business from a ‘how do we lessen our environmental impact?’ point of view.

As you probably guessed, that’s exactly what we did, reducing our real-world mileage and fuel consumption by 15% in the last year with no drop in volumes of print delivery and in fact increasing the overall geographic area we cover.

The trick, such as it is, is all in investing staff time and resources in desk research and figuring out how, for instance, to best combine our delivery routes to minimise the distances one of our vans will need to travel in any given day.

This real-world mileage reduction also means an equally real-world reduction in our fuel expenditure, so if we’re delivering the same volume of work with a 15% reduction in associated costs, that’s obviously a great saving and one we can use to help keep our prices steady during this belt-tightening budget year.

That’s just one example from a long list of business-benefiting initiatives we have been inspired to take, thanks to that first step of thinking green.

The real point here, though, is that if we can do it, so can you. Or, to put it another way, maybe there is more mileage in embracing a sustainable business stance than you might think.

Lean, green, business machine: the bottom-line case for sustainability

Let us know what you think about this and other topics on Have your say at www.a-m-a.co.uk

Tom HunterSales and Marketing Director, London Callinge tom@londoncalling.com w www.londoncalling.com

All too often in meetings, conversations and at conferences I am finding that the idea of sustainability is something that sounds nice to businesses in theory, but is doomed to sit forever in that someday/maybe file of things to do once every other pressing box has been ticked off.