The National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s (NBAD) Adrian Goh has been named Learner of the Year by the Institute of Leadership & Management.
Mr. Goh, Group Leader of Banking Solutions in Information Technology Division (ITD) at NBAD, the number one bank in the UAE, is one of five international recipients of the prestigious award. He was selected the winner from nominations received from the Institute’s 2,500 learning centres worldwide. The Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) is the UK's premier management organisation with an extensive partner network delivering accredited corporate development programs throughout the world. Its key training partner in the UAE, biz-ability, was appointed by the Bank in 2010 to provide leadership training for the NBAD Academy, the Bank’s dedicated staff learning centre.
Mr. Goh nomination and selection was based on the level of applied learning and personal growth he exhibited while undertaking the ILM Certificate in Leadership course. “We are extremely pleased and proud of Adrian’s success and accomplishments. His selection as a Learner of the Year reflects the NBAD culture of investing in learning and development of our best talent and most important assets,” said Ehab Anis Hassan, the Group Chief Human Resources Officer at NBAD.
Mr Goh was nominated for the award by ILM training partner biz-ability for his aptitude in coaching and mentoring his team through a complex situation. “Adrian was not only a very enthusiastic learner, but also applied his training to guide his team through a challenging business issue, delivering a complex technical solution while dealing with a very large volume of financial transactions against tight deadlines. He displayed exceptional leadership and positively contributed to the company’s business,” said Hazel Cowling, Program Director and Partner of biz-ability.
Mr Goh, who received his ILM Certificate in Leadership last week, commented: “While I’m very proud to receive this recognition, I owe much of my success to the structure and relevance of the ILM course." ”I learned many things: about myself – my strengths, weaknesses and how to manage them; about leadership styles, the aspects of good leadership – and what is expected of a leader; about teams and performance management – and the tools I need to draw out the best in people. But the most important thing that I have gained from this course is the awareness of my responsibilities towards the men and women I work with, especially to those who regard me as their leader.”
Many of those who are new to management are in their early to mid-twenties, though other sources said young bosses in the UAE are aged between 30 and 40 years. Even with the emergence of fresh managers, however, there is still a stronghold of older and experienced bosses who are reluctant to give way to their younger counterparts.
This is true in some organisations, where longer-serving managers in middle management positions, and in "c-suite" and executive roles, often limit opportunities for promotion for the next generation, according to Hazel Jackson, CEO of biz-group.
"However, businesses are also trying to address the issue of an ageing workforce through training and mentorship programmes, to mitigate the potential risk of a knowledge gap once senior management retire. We have a very young workforce here in the UAE, so we tend to see that older managers are very protective of their jobs," Hazel Jackson told Gulf News. While young managers can be beneficial for the company in the sense that they have great energy, are adaptable to fast-paced change and are technologically savvy, many of them lack the necessary experience to effectively manage a team or organisation.
"Often, they don't fully understand what it takes to manage people. This might be because they are copying styles of management that they have seen or experienced — which has often been a command and control approach. They need to learn to become multipliers and realise the power of using the intelligence of their teams," said Jackson. "Young managers are often out to prove themselves, and risk accidentally diminishing or alienating the rest of their team," she said
Hazel Jackson, CEO of biz-group, the leading corporate leadership training and performance management firm based in Dubai, points out that communication and building confidence have been part of the training list for most of the big companies.
"The challenge is sometimes people go and study presentation skills or public speaking but aren't given the opportunity to practice. It's one of those skills that everybody would like to learn but unless they go out and have a chance to use it pretty quickly you lose the confidence and you lose some of the capability," Jackson says
Both John Quinn, Owner of Satellite Visual Communication and Hazel Jackson believe one's peers are among the hardest people to present to. They are going to judge you more. Actually it is easier to present to your clients. Your internal meeting presentation tends to have more information in them. Presentation to a client should not have everything that you are going to talk about," Quinn says.
Either way, Jackson says, people are interested in hearing the message.
biz-ability, the Middle East's leading corporate leadership training and development company has partnered with top U.S. executive coaching firm, The Wiseman Group, to bring the "Multiplier Effect" to the region. biz-ability is the first company outside of the U.S. to be accredited to deliver Multipliers Workshops to c-level executives.
Multipliers is the latest business leadership theory to be published out of the U.S. and has been adapted into an executive development programme that teaches business leaders to look beyond their own capability to amplify the intelligence of the people that they manage. Created by Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown, their book "Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter" is also rated among the top 10 business books on Amazon.com. In analysing data from more than 150 leaders pre and post the financial crisis, Wiseman and McKeown have identified five disciplines that distinguish Multipliers from Diminishers. According to their model, Multipliers are genius makers that bring out the intelligence in others by building collective, viral intelligence in organisations. Diminishers, on the other hand, are absorbed in their own intelligence, stifle others, and deplete the organisation of crucial intelligence and capability.
Hazel Jackson, CEO of biz-group, the holding company of biz-ability, immediately approached The Wiseman Group upon release of the book in September 2010 with a view of bringing the Multipliers Workshops to the Middle East. In a post financial crisis business climate, where many businesses face the challenge of not being able to increase the size of their teams, Jackson says the need to maximise the potential of our human capital has never been more pertinent. "The timing is perfect to bring Multipliers to the region. The market, although improving, continues to be challenging. Budgets and expectations continue to drive leaders to deliver more with less. We believe the five principles of Multipliers are what leaders need in 2011 to drive organisations through economic turmoil and emerge with stronger teams and a stronger bottom line," said Jackson.
Multipliers identifies five practical ways in which leaders can grow the intelligence and talent of employees. These include: attracting the best talent and using them at their highest point of contribution; encouraging liberated thinking; challenging people; debating concepts; and delivering extraordinary results without direct management. It also provides a shocking insight into how leaders are often guilty of accidentally diminishing the capability of others. Multipliers teaches a set of behaviours that are easy to understand and apply and which significantly increase a leader's ability to identify, nurture and grow the potential of others. According to biz-ability, this also makes Multipliers a powerful tool for growing effective Emiratisation programmes.
"Emiratisation is a key issue for all businesses in the UAE - public, private, large and small. One of the barriers to hiring Emiratis in the private sector is the potential lack of experience. But what are companies doing to identify the skills and talents of Emiratis and really grow their intelligence? We have an excellent opportunity to adapt the Multipliers style of management to help companies grow more effective Emiratisation programmes," said Hazel Cowling, Partner & Consultant Director of biz-group.
The Multipliers program is delivered in a series of group workshops with executive coaching and various assessment tools to ensure measurable results. biz-ability has five senior consultants accredited to deliver the Multipliers Workshops and Coaching programmes in the UAE, which it plans to expand to the rest of the Middle East later this year. As part of its strategic partnership, biz-ability is also accredited to deliver keynote addresses on behalf of Multipliers. "It's time for leaders to look in the mirror and really challenge how they are developing talent below them and perhaps how they are being managed from above," added Jackson.
