You are only as good as your people

Recently I had a check-in call with a long-time contact who is a shooting star rising up in one of the world’s top financial institutions. This individual is someone I know will be a model of #OpenLeadership for decades to come, they absolutely model the attributes of being Hungry, Humble, Brave and Open that are essential to leading now and into our future. This young leader absolutely gets the power of putting people first in business, and their business is currently investing in them by having them work out of any formal target-driven role for several years as they shift around areas of the global business learning as they go.

I also am working with a client a quarter-century into their career who is about to take a brave leap out of the world of driving to corporate targets as short terms as monthly and often weekly, week in and week out. They have recognised the untapped opportunity for businesses to focus so much more on their people, not just in funding L&D and other programmes, but truly and deeply investing in people as more leaders see that this is where their unerring focus needs to be.

In my own three decades in business, I absolutely see that organisations that truly believe in, trust in and invest in their people are those that do and will thrive into the future.

Those are some thoughts, and I also love the quote from Chelsea Warr:

“You are only as good as your people and you are the greatest asset we have. You are our high-performance system.”

Who is Chelsea Warr?

She is the Director of Performance at UK Sport. From her bio on that site:

Chelsea has spent the last fifteen years in the United Kingdom in key leadership roles supporting the transformation of the Great Britain High Performance system from delivering 1 gold medal in Atlanta to an unprecedented 67 Olympic and 147 Paralympic medals in Rio 2016.

and, for a book to add to my list:

Chelsea co-authored a book about her privileged experiences of working in the Great Britain High Performance system in 2016 titled ‘The Talent Lab: How to Turn Potential into World-Beating Success’.

Regular readers know how much I love studying and synthesising ideas from elite sports to elite leadership, I look forward to reading Chelsea’s book and learning from her.

Oh, and that quote was sent to me by my dear friend Ian Armiger, who does and always has modelled “you are only as good as your people” like few I have ever met. Ian is always passionately interested in following, supporting, developing and believing in those in his tribe, Many decades from now, I imagine a massive, massive crowd at his funeral memorial wanting to share the impact he made on them, just as there were hundreds at a service around this time in 2015 for the late Ed Percival, where some who took the mic had not spoken to him for decades, yet still wanted to share the lifetime impact he made on them.

As Ed would have said, he was all about helping all people #BeMoreYou.

So, want to know what makes the leader of today and tomorrow. Passionately commit to live the learnings above.