Perched on the benches of various academic institutions across the globe, with an eagerness to learn and grateful for the opportunities that came with the lessons, I have often wondered how independent ‘leading’ and ‘learning’ were from one another.
Whenever time and experience allowed me the discretion to, I also caught myself pondering about how different learning could be under the right kind of leadership and how I could contribute to that equation.
Determined to unravel the equation of adequate coaching techniques for budding professionals and entrepreneurs, I began to observe various professional leaders and realised that there was a common theme – successful leaders never stopped working on themselves to become qualified for their jobs and were always upskilling themselves, thus, reinforcing my decision to create a holistic platform – SpeakIn – for professionals to easily access global thought leaders.
Equipped with the gumption to close the prevalent gap between leadership and learning, and to democratise opportunities for the keen professionals, SpeakIn was born. Created with the vision to revolutionise professional development, SpeakIn is the brainchild of a keen learner who aspires for professionals to be able to tap on the experience of thought leaders worldwide.
Now, more than ever before, is it important for professionals regardless of their experience or industry, to embrace professional development. On a micro level, SpeakIn strives to appeal to individuals’ growing importance of wanting to do more and better.
On a macro level, SpeakIn has the potential to be the catalyst for a tectonic shift in different workplaces, completely independent from varying business models.
I have always believed that nothing comes out of nothing, and being a leader is not merely restricted to what I, as an individual, can do but also transcends into how I can facilitate others through synergising ideas and thoughts. The biggest lesson that I have learnt on this journey of empowering other like-minded professionals, is that leadership isn’t at all mutually exclusive from learning.
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Amongst others, and perhaps equally as important, are the pursuit of a bigger purpose and embracing agility in all forms.
Through this article, I’d like to share the key lessons I have learnt in my lifetime of leadership and how these help me with achieving my goals through continued learning.
Pursuing a greater cause
An element of vital importance is one’s ability to understand what their purpose is, and to be able to comprehensively justify that purpose. On your professional journey, generic statements about hypotheticals are just not going to cut it. You have to envision the impact that you will create on the world, and embrace it wholeheartedly.
While pragmatism often loses out to idealism, making it virtually impossible for any of us to completely live into our purpose all day, careful planning and hard work make it easier to achieve our goals consciously and effectively.
In the earlier stages of my career, traditional development plans often led me to think I could not have outside interests and commitments in the name of staying focused on a ‘traditional’ career path.
However, over the years, I have understood that taking a holistic view of professional opportunities, coupled with meaningful and purposeful-led learning, has helped me become a stronger leader.
Once the greater cause is understood, it is much easier to work backwards from there to set smaller, specific goals. With the help of learning tools that can be incorporated into your professional career regime, continued learning and skill set accomplishments are no longer a thing of the past.
Using my own purpose as an example, with SpeakIn, we hope to take one step forward to equip different individuals with personalised opportunities to learn from top thought leaders in various industries and revolutionise learning and leadership, with the use of technology.
It is of paramount importance to us that we assimilate learning and innovation through our platform and make continuous learning happen without the effects of geographical barriers.
The purpose is not a list of the education, the background you come from or even the skills that one has accumulated over the years. The purpose is also not a professional title, limited to your current job or organisation. Confusing your career with your purpose-led ideations makes effective leadership difficult to accomplish.
The purpose is also not some feel-good mantra like ‘empowering our clients to achieve stellar results, while fulfilling our commitment to the professionals of society’.
The purpose is not virtuous and not what you think society expects of you. The purpose is natural. It is the willingness to provide without the need for remuneration or incentive.
Purpose is what makes you intrinsically and exclusively you, an understanding of which makes achieving your goals that much more impactful.
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Articulating a clear vision
While your leadership purpose is who you are and what makes you distinctive, it is also important to have a vision. Regardless of the professional stage, you are in, it is equally crucial to identify how you do your job and why— the direction you want to achieve as a leader should also be aligned to a greater vision that is shared by the organisation you represent.
Over the course of my career, I have come to realise that many leaders from various industries and professions have a poor sense of individual direction. This makes it extremely difficult to distil their purpose into a concrete statement that can be shared with colleagues and team members.
They may be able to clearly articulate their organisation’s motto to appease stakeholders, but falling back on nebulous statements makes it problematic when it comes to translating your vision and purpose into action.
Consequently, professionals and to a large extent, even organisations, limit their aspirations and often fall short of achieving their most ambitious professional goals. As a business leader myself, I have always found it extremely useful to speak with other C -suite individuals, who would give me a fresh perspective on certain business scenarios.
When you are able to provide insights into your vision, you increase the probability of finding someone who is in pursuit of the same goals. After all, no man is an island and we can all learn from one another through effective communication.
SpeakIn was also set up with the vision of giving global thought leaders from various industries a platform to share their experience and mentor other like-minded professionals, who can articulate their vision to help other professionals develop themselves.
By going online and eliminating geographical barriers that otherwise made cross-border mentorship and education impossible, we hope that this vision is emulated in different territories, and we can increase the pool of global thought leaders from whom many professionals can benefit.
Had I not been able to articulate my vision of reconstructing experiential learning, I would have done myself and may others a disservice, as I would not have been able to effectively aligned with my team, who have together made it possible to create an easily accessible and versatile platform that SpeakIn is today.
Today, organisations and professionals can learn seamlessly via our platform with supporting content such as videos, blogs, podcasts and even 1-1 personal learning sessions.
Knowing that people are the key to success
Lastly, it is incredibly important to know the value of the people you work with. I have always believed that an efficient way to effectively create waves within an organisation, is to focus on leadership development and continuous upskilling.
There is almost no limit to the potential of an organisation that recruits people whose core beliefs are aligned with yours, and who are willing to engage in constant upskilling practices, for the betterment of the organisation.
Whether we like it or not, we all come from different upbringings, have different values and have been educated through different institutions. If organisations could acknowledge the differences and optimise the effects of our differences, then the outcome can be significantly positive.
Working with several other organisations and over 18,000 thought leaders since starting SpeakIn, we’ve helped more than 350 clients through the upskilling process. It is also humbling to see when we track and review their progress over the past years.
With the use of SpeakIn, professionals have seen two-step promotions and sustained improvement in business results. Professionals are now more than ever, innately equipped with the ability to develop more capabilities to thrive in even the most challenging times.
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With the leadership idea of continued learning and upskilling, organisations can look forward to a multi-skilled, driven and high achieving workforce that will remain a key asset to the success of the company.
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