Interview with Jim Kennedy, the Trust's 1000th Alumnus |  Interview with Jim Kennedy, the Trust's 1000th Alumnus
It is an honour. I am able to do things like this interview and it is a privilege for me to share experiences with people who have taken part in the programme and hopefully those who will take part in the future. It has made me think more about my Windsor experience, and the fact that I am in distinguished company, as a lot of people who have been through this experience previously have gone on to do great things and be very successful. I am sure that people who follow me will also do the same.
Your leadership journey
When did you become aware that you had leadership potential? What were the indicators?
There wasn’t a defining moment where I woke up and thought, “I might be a leader today”. My leadership potential is something I have always been aware of and stems from a young age where I was always the person leading sport and academic teams. This continued through secondary school and University; getting people moving, organising and inspiring people. It is just something that has come very naturally to me and not something I have specifically focused on.
Do you believe leaders are born or made?
I believe that everyone is born with the potential to lead, but very early on you are put in situations that allow you to develop it. It is being put into those situations early which enable people to be singled out from others where they can further develop and identify those skills. Only certain people recognise and work on the leadership potential they have early enough to fully realise the potential that is in all of us.
Your professional career is relatively short. Have you always had aspirations to be a leader in your field?
I have always wanted to lead companies and people, and do this strategically. I have set that as my goal and have developed a journey to get there. I am moving through this journey, gradually doing similar things, but on a bigger scale. For example, I started out as a graduate web developer and had a small team, then I got a bigger team when I moved onto other areas of development and now I am running a large IT department.
I feel I am improving my skills around people management and goal settings as I now know I am not bound by any technical barriers. I know I can take my skills to any arena and lead people across a variety of industries and sectors.
I feel passionate about what I do and still wish to make a large contribution to my current organisation, having belief and passion in something are the most important aspects for me in achieving anything.
What have been the most significant moments so far in your leadership journey (both positive and negative?) What has been your greatest achievement and what has been your biggest challenge? What did you learn from this?
My biggest challenge and achievement would go hand in hand. Last year I was asked to completely replace all of our operational IT systems which hadn’t been touched for five years, so it was technically difficult from an IT point of view, but it also evoked a massive cultural change in the way people worked. It wasn’t just a case of changing the systems; we changed almost every process of this organisation.
I had a team of about 30 people working entirely on the transition and approximately 150 contractors. It was therefore significant in the fact that I was making decisions which dramatically affected 180 people and I had to get those people absolutely focused. We delivered the system on time and almost to budget, so that was a great achievement.
Aside from delivering on time and to budget, there was obviously a major challenge on changing the culture of the business. It was through these difficult times, rather than through successes that I probably learnt more than I ever had done previously.
As a team we thought we were very successful, but not everybody felt that way. The challenge has really been over the last nine months, keeping my team motivated when they have received bad press, and externally, keeping the business excited about the new things coming along and encouraging them to keep trusting in us.
We were always going to go through this stage, but I think we have now passed it and we are into the exciting stage where we can excel.
What has been the best leadership advice that you have been given as you progress through your career?
• You can’t listen enough!
• People are probably the most important thing that you can ever be responsible for. It is very important to listen to their needs and what they are telling you is as much for your benefit just as much as theirs.
• You can’t fix everything so don’t think you can. So often people suffer from stress because they try to manage everything themselves without allowing others to share the responsibility.
You, leadership and society
What does your current role entail with respects to leadership? How many people do you lead, what challenges do you face, what decisions do you have to make?
I am Head of IT which involves developing new capabilities for the organisation to use in order to improve revenue, enhance customer satisfaction and keep costs down, as well as providing people with the tools to be successful. I have an internal team of about 35 people but we engage some significantly large departments where we have pockets of resources at our disposal who actually do a lot of the work for us. My team is therefore predominantly technical managers who manage teams of other people, so the total people that we have working in all shapes and guises are 100 plus at this point in time.
We have just been sold from the Telefonica group, so our brand and company is changing along with our visions and values. The key challenge I face at the moment is having to separate from the existing systems and processes. We’re attempting to completely change how we manage our HR, payroll and finance functions and systems. I also have to keep the operational aspects moving as well, so I’m probably juggling more balls than I ever have in a variety of different ways.
This has been good for me as it has stopped me from getting too close to the detail. I have recognised the fact that as I move further up the ladder I can’t do everything that I used to do and it is now about trusting others to do an awful lot more for me. That has been one of the key things on my journey, developing trust in others and allowing them to excel, and for me to provide escalation and guidance as often as I can but allow them to find their own feet and make their own mistakes.
How do you ensure that you are engaging your team and communicating with them successfully?
Through individual meetings and weekly team phone calls to make sure key points are shared across the team as well as regular team meetings for my entire team.
The key thing about engaging my team is to make sure they know that they can engage with each other, to bring them together as a team. It is about opening up opportunities where they can recognise that they can help each other if someone else is struggling while keeping promoting that we are one unit. We have got lots of challenges and it is important that the team knows it is about all of us solving problems. I’m also a big encourager of ensuring that they know each other outside of work as well so that there is a personal interest not just a work interest.
What are your three golden rules of leadership?
A leader needs to:
• Know where they are going - Be able to see the situation they are in at that point in time, no worse than what it is and have clarity of where they are.
• Have vision – get clarity on where they want to go. A leader must be very good at setting goals and ensuring those goals are achievable.
• Have a plan to bridge the two – don’t be afraid if that plan has to change, but they must have enough focus and passion to inspire others that the goal is better than where they currently are.
Who are the people who have inspired you and why?
There are lots of people who have inspired me. My parents gave me the passion to succeed by ensuring I was very driven as a child, encouraging me to face my faults and believe in myself. Currently my boss is very inspiring in terms of his drive and his commitment to a cause.
Outside of those close to me, the likes of Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Tony Robbins have inspired me. Richard Branson for his innovation, drive and the fact that he continually reinvents the wheel; Steve Jobs for his ability to communicate from a technological point of view and make it interesting, and Tony Robbins, who encourages people to realize their potential.
What motivates you, both professionally and personally, to be a good leader?
My key strength is that I don’t get down because I set myself goals and these inspire me, whether it’s personally, emotionally, spiritually, professionally or financially. I can visualise myself achieving those goals and everything else is part of the journey to get there.
I like to be very clear about what I want and that helps me to achieve. If you’re not clear about what you want then that is when you become unmotivated.
Recognising other people’s goals and helping them to achieve them motivates me to be a good leader, to ensure they achieve them and don’t fail.
How do you handle stress and pressure? Do have you any practical tips which you can pass on to others?
Stop, think and listen. Give yourself time to think and reevaluate where you are going, whether your goals are still important and what you want to be aiming for. Taking this time enables you to regain control and thus reduce stress.
I now have a 15 minute slot in my diary before every meeting so I don’t have them back to back. I use that 15 minutes to think about what I want to achieve from the meeting. It is about understanding why I’m going to that meeting and if I can’t think of a reason, I don’t go to the meeting and keep the time to do other things. Creating this time means that you are engaged and effective despite any stress or pressure you may be under outside of the meeting.
How do you earn respect from those around you?
I am honest. I wear my heart on my sleeve and I don’t think I’m better or bigger than anyone else. I lead with integrity and I gain trust that way. Relationships are definitely two way and it is important to work together. I’m not afraid to dig in and get my hands dirty to help build that relationship.
Where do you see yourself in ten years time? Where are your ambitions?
I see myself having built my own successful personal development and IT consultancy. I want to be seen as a leader in management consultancy which focuses on technology delivery through creating great people capabilities, excellence in individuals and collaborative team workings. It would enable me to develop others and work with people in developing themselves, predominantly through leadership.
I would also like to sit on the board of a big IT organisation to work with and learn from those involved, and try to influence and improve technology in the future.
What characteristics make an effective leader?
They have to be passionate, and portray integrity and trust. They have got to be role models for others, believe in what they talk about and be capable of carrying it out. Effective communication skills are essential, whether this be through talking, animation or key messages, but always ensuring others understand goals and have belief and focus.
Another important characteristic is the ability to listen and understand social dynamics and be able to act upon certain situations to make best use of them. Finally, a leader needs to be able to think about the stages that they would go through to achieve a goal and breaking this journey down so it is relevant to those working with them.
Do leaders influence society?
Yes, and increasingly so.
Leaders have a massive part to play in the changing world that we are in at the moment. They have a lot more social responsibility than they have ever had and that should be high up on their agenda. It is not just about self gain anymore, it is more about self contribution in order to give back to society.
Leaders are starting to influence the government in terms of direction and through technological advances we are influencing how the daily lives of people are changing as well, through things like the Internet and social networks.
Technology is driving a whole new revolution of teenagers who will become adults and start working, so we’re ultimately shaping the children of our future today.
Your experience with the Windsor Leadership Trust
Prior to your attendance on the Initial Windsor Meeting, what were you hoping to gain from the programme?
I didn’t know a lot about it before I went, but I was really hoping it was going to confirm my type of thinking, allow me some time to think, put me in a position with like minded people who challenged my thinking and ultimately shape a better me.
Did it meet your needs?
It was definitely a positive experience which met my needs. Being with a group of like minded people representing all sectors was a unique experience for me. Meeting people who I would never have thought of as having the same challenges as me really opened my eyes. I realised that understanding what motivate others and what makes them tick is crucial in leadership. Being able to discuss and to glean information from them was incredibly useful. I also got a great insight into myself by taking some of that time and seeing how other people acted and interacted. My syndicate group weren’t shy about coming forward, which is good, and it was very quickly apparent that I can personally change aspects of my style in order to be more effective.
I also benefited from listening to and understanding people who are at different stages of their leadership journey, and some of the challenges that they were currently facing and how they were dealing them. I took away some ideas of what works for me and what doesn’t with respect to different leadership styles.
We talked about plans and strategies, which people do in different ways, and one thing I learnt was not to change myself and my ways of doing things, but to incorporate useful ideas and different ways of influencing… improving myself rather than changing. It is important to adapt your style for different people and use those different styles to complement each other. I also took away that if you put like minded people that are passionate in a room, it doesn’t matter where they are from they bounce off each other, which I thought was great.
What is the one thing you have taken away from your week at Windsor?
Someone put on my feedback that whatever I do I should keep my passion. They said I should avoid getting absorbed into everything and become more detached to keep the bigger picture
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