At the time of my Fellowship in 1998, I was employed by Prudential as Director of their Management Development Centre. Leadership theories abounded at that time – situational leadership, functional leadership, charismatic leadership and many more flavours.

My Fellowship, entitled Communicate and Lead – the Challenges Facing Managers, was designed to study how other countries dealt with issues of leadership development and the importance of communication. I visited Malaysia, Australia and South Korea to study the approaches taken by banks, trading companies and petroleum producers, and the efforts of the Malaysian Institute of Management, car producers, grocery stores, hotels and newspaper producers.

The most significant learning outcomes were the realisation of the importance of leading by example, the value of coaching and mentoring, the worthiness of creating best practice and how to develop an innovative culture.

After my Fellowship, and my retirement in 2000, I spent 17 years working across the West Midlands and in the Middle East on efforts to improve the leadership and communication skills of managers and supervisors in a very wide range of organisations.