Self-awareness critical to success in turbulent times – ex-British Envoy

Julius Toba-Jegede
Jan, Fri, 2023

Foreign

Self-awareness critical to success in turbulent times – ex-British Envoy

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Ambassador Charles Crawford, TEXEM UK faculty

By Razak Owolabi

Oxford alumnus and TEXEM UK faculty Ambassador Charles Crawford says self-awareness is a critical necessity to the success of any chief executive in the present global turbulent times.

Crawford shared the insights in a question and answer session on TEXEM’s website (www.texem.co.uk) on Friday.

In the interview, Ambassador Charles Crawford, the winner of the equivalent of two Oscars, explains why executives from Africa, the UK and the rest of the world, should attend the virtual Feb. 11 to March 4, TEXEM’s “Self-awareness for Better Management of Change in Uncertain Times” programme.

Other TEXEM’s faculty delivering this programme include Prof. Paul Griffith, the World’s first Professor in Management to lead a team to launch a rocket into space and Prof. Randall Peterson of London Business School.

Crawford said the live session would feature fundamental practical communication skills that would help any leader or manager sound smart, confident and convincing in all settings.

“The key idea is this: It’s not what you say – it’s what they hear. So, if you’re trying to motivate a team to do something new and difficult, your words may be (more or less!) OK.

“But what if they’re hearing from your tone and the wider context such ‘deeper’ things as Boring, Lazy, Doesn’t Mean It, Sexist, Time-waster, Irresponsible, and Annoying?

“Your words will be wasted against this broader cynicism,” he said.

Crawford said the core benefit of the programme is that the leaders and executives will think differently about themselves and their work.

According to Crawford, coping amidst uncertain and challenging times requires just the right combination of determination and flexibility.

“You may think you’re getting that right? But what’s your test of success and your test of failure?

“This programme will make leaders optimise their decision-making credentials about areas for improvement, and it will make their organisations consistently learn, innovate and deliver excellent products and services to all stakeholders,” he said.

Crawford said leaders anywhere in the world needed to grasp the operational and policy distinction between what is important – and what matters.

He said it was not enough these days to be grand or powerful and astute.

“You need to be convincing and effective. This programme helps you think hard about the necessary ‘mindset’ to achieve that.

“Also, research has shown that organisations with strong financial performance have a distinct feature of possessing more self-aware leaders than poorly performing companies.

“Also, organisations with more self-aware employees are likely to have more collaborative and cohesive teams and deliver superior performance,” Crawford said.

He spoke on how successful a leader or manager could be without self-awareness.

“Quite successful until everything abruptly crashes to the floor in pieces.

“A leader or manager with no self-awareness is like one of those children’s cartoon characters who walk confidently off a high cliff into thin air and keeps on walking happily in the air for a few paces before gravity starts asking difficult questions and the speedy painful fall begins.

“To achieve enduring success, teams in organisations must be emotionally savvy,” Crawford said.

He said leaders must possess the ability to identify and manage their emotions and identify and influence others’ emotions for results.

Crawford said when individuals, teams, and managers have excellent emotional intelligence, this could lead to a culture of learning and innovation that is challenging for others to imitate and could be one of the contributors to sustainable competitive advantage.

He said the coming programme is critical as it equips organisations and their team to pay serious attention to their open and subliminal messages: their messages to their teams, customers, stakeholders, and themselves.

Talking of the format of the programme, Crawford said

it is a combination of self-paced study and live sessions.

“Participants will study for an average of one hour every day between February 11 to March 4, and there will be live sessions every Saturday for four weeks.

“The experience has been gamified such that participants will get points ranked on a league table for every article read, video watched, and comment made.

“The top 5 on the league table will be recognised each weekend when we have the live sessions via zoom, during which different faculty will deliver.

“For example, each live session on Saturday will have Prof. Randal Peterson of London Business School, Prof. Paul Griffith, the world’s first Professor of Management to lead a team to launch a rocket, and I deliver,” he explained. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Bashir Rabe Mani

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