William Hague’s speech this week at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong resonated with our experience of putting together our new initiative called Dishaa.

In his speech, Hague stresses the importance of British and Asian businesses seeking one another out as business partners of the future. If the phenomenal response from organisations in the UK keen to have their young talent engage with their peers in India through Dishaa is any indication, we couldn’t agree more. The need to understand how business works, to build personal relationships and networks is well understood, and whilst commentators might say that the East has stopped looking to the West, the number of applicants from all three sectors in India suggests otherwise.

Prospective participants in Dishaa were asked why they wanted to get involved and the answers from both countries were the same:

• To learn from each other
• To share what they know
• That the history between the two countries has led to both a familiarity and a curiosity, and a need to scratch below the surface to uncover the similarities and differences
• To see what can be transferred, built on and developed for the betterment of both countries – in the case of the Dishaa challenge for 2011, with respect to low cost healthcare)

To quote from William Hague’s speech:

“those who look ahead to foresee changing and emerging prospects and to act upon them, are the ones that prosper”

With the inaugural Dishaa initiative taking place in India at the end of January, we are very excited to see how the opportunity to learn, create and innovate together will impact on the capacity of the participants to work across the East and West in the future, both in the long and short term.

Common Purpose

Common Purpose gives leaders the inspiration, the knowledge and the connections they need to produce real change. Through our unique leadership development courses, a growing number of people around the world are making a difference in the industries and places where they work, in the communities where they live and in wider society.

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Why is it key to connect with other leaders?

• It’s not key to connect with other leaders, it’s key to connect with people who are not like you.
• You don’t necessarily need to connect with other leaders, but you need to learn from them.
• If you want to find leaders, find the ones who are doing well right now in the recession. They’re the leaders to watch.

What’s the best leadership advice you’ve received?

• Trust people. It’s not what happens when you’re present, but when you’re not that make a difference.
• There’s no one model that fits all – not one solution.
• Listen and observe before you act.
• I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to do my job
• None. I write down quotes, but then forget about them. I tend to watch what people do instead.

What are you most inspired by right now?

• The Recession. It’s the biggest opportunity we’ve had in 20 years to change and re-develop everything (industries, communication, education). People have hidden behind growth because it was easy.
• Different leadership backgrounds and diversity
• We can use business for social change. We’re moving away from grants and handouts and finding ways to solve things creatively.
• Holidays. Taking time away.

One of the questions we brought up that most people had a tough time answering was: Why should anyone be led by you?

If you’re interested in exploring this idea, a discussion centered around this question is already taking place on the Common Purpose LinkedIn group.

Finally, we had a flipchart up for people to share their key leadership reading. Below is a compilation of some of the books listed:

• The Tao of Leadership (John Heider)
• Tribes (Seth Godin)
• The Starfish and the Spider (Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom)
• The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)
• Who moved my cheese? (Spencer Johnson)
• Beyond Authority (Julia Middleton)
• The courage to lead (R. Brian Stanfield)
• The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
• Here comes everybody (Clay Shirky)

Common Purpose

Common Purpose gives leaders the inspiration, the knowledge and the connections they need to produce real change. Through our unique leadership development courses, a growing number of people around the world are making a difference in the industries and places where they work, in the communities where they live and in wider society.

Website - Twitter - More Posts

This provides us more of an end game for our programme delivery. I feel it will enable us to state more clearly up-front what leadership development we are heading for. The recent book by Julia has allowed us to describe the attitudes a leader has to show, some of the attributes and beliefs of a strong leader but not to signpost clearly the piece about what abilities and behaviours they have. e.g. we know it is important to be aware that change can take time, sometimes be slower than we think, however the attibutes of a leader in this situation are patience and the behaviours are…… willing to listen, ability to see all sides of a situation etc.

These competencies will allow us to signpost upfront what participants are heading for. They may not get this on our programmes, but they could do multiple programmes.

Practically we need a written list with explanation, pointers to which elements of our programmes help a person to identify and then develop these.

Oliver Mack