The Third Dimension of Leadership James Devlin However senior and knowledgeable an executive becomes in his own field, real leadership opportunities generally arrive accompanied by the challenge to cover a wider area. And this inevitably means being able to lead people who may know more about their particular function than you do. That of course, and being able to learn very fast. When James Devlin was responsible for finance at the Peter Jones store in London's Sloane Square he had top level but tightly defined responsibilities. These called on all his specialist financial skills and demanded a sure command of the sophisticated operations of the store's finance department. His skill then as a finance manager was exercised among other financial people. His language was their language, his culture their culture, and his skill level rated automatic respect. But Peter Jones was not standing still. The flagship store of the John Lewis Partnership had just completed a 5-year, £107 million renovation project. In parallel it looked for key managers to take on new leadership roles in the new era. The challenge for Devlin was to turn from being a technical specialist to contributing on a wider front as part of the retailer's reconstruction strategy. "The Partnership was committed," Devlin says, "to achieving greater efficiencies and higher levels of customer service through enhanced management processes - in simple language, to turning senior technicians into business people and business people into leaders." It was clear to James Devlin that this involved him in much more than understanding financial data, IT systems, or even business plans. It involved nothing less than representing the company's vision to the people he worked with. "Sure," he says, "I could audit the numbers, monitor the performance targets, but I knew there was no way I could drive forward the business plan without engaging my people with the total strategy. I had to connect to a close-knit team sharing the same vision. This new leadership challenge needed new skills." To achieve this Devlin turned to Jo Ouston & Co. After discussing his needs he opted for Developing Personal Presence followed by Leadership Through Inspiration. "The Jo & Co training programmes are different to anything that I have attended before. They bring out each individual's qualities and show you how to enhance these with communications skills including breathing, voice and relaxation. Understanding posture was important too - the benefits of positive and appropriate body language." So what did it all add up to? "I felt really confident at the end that I could create the desired personal presence and maximise impact in the most effective way. A lot of presentation and leadership training can achieve a certain gloss for the individual, but to earn trust and respect a leader needs to communicate in ways that are both impressive and genuine. This is the sort of depth that I believe I can bring to my leadership role now." >back to top Copyright Jo Ouston & Company Limited 2000-2008