By Hanan Nagi
As leaders, we often see professional development as an employee priority; to build capacity and to grow our business by investing in training and coaching for our teams. However, in order for those teams to perform to their full potential, we need to lead by example. It is imperative for businesses to constantly evolve with the ever-changing world, and this evolution should start from the top.
Responding to the era of information
We are living in the era of information where achieving short-term success is easier than sustaining it for the long haul. No individual can possess all-encompassing knowledge, and as we acquire more knowledge, we realise that there is still so much more to learn.
Every new learning experience provides a fresh perspective on how to think and act as a leader. Therefore, it is not only desirable, but crucial to update our skills and understanding, particularly in technology-related fields, where knowledge can quickly become obsolete.
Investing in the future of your business
Professional development is a significant investment of precious time and resources for executives operating at leadership level. Taking time away from daily operations can seem unfeasible, but from my own experience, it is an investment that pays off in several ways.
1- Developing yourself and your business simultaneously
The right professional development program will bring tangible benefits for your business, as well as for yourself. After completing a CIPD level 7 Master’s in Human Resource Management, my professional development continued through short training courses and business books, but I felt that I could do more, both for my team and myself.
After exploring business-oriented programs and considering an Executive MBA, I discovered the Owner/President Management program at Harvard Business School. The opportunity to spend several weeks every year, for three years, with 170 successful business owners from various parts of the world covering over 150 case studies was exceptionally relevant to my needs, to develop both as a professional, and a business owner.
2- Validating your ideas
It is often said that it’s lonely at the top, and professional development at leadership level can provide an antidote to that. My own experience has instilled a great deal of confidence in several initiatives that I had been contemplating. Having learned that they are considered ‘best practice’ in a professional services business like ours, we are now moving forward with those ideas at a steady pace.
Interacting with global business professionals, sharing experiences, and working closely with them has provided me with more practical knowledge than any theory could offer. The real-life examples and challenges, as well as plans and solutions, were exactly what I needed to take my company to the next level.
3- Empowering your team
As a leader, it is not an easy decision to be absent from your business for an extended period, however, with careful planning and collaboration with your top management team, the experience can turn into a win-win situation. My team was empowered to manage the day-to-day operations without my constant presence. This arrangement was beneficial on both sides, allowing them to develop new skills and freeing me up to focus on other priorities that would develop the business further.
A long duration away will inevitably be a challenge, but as leaders, we need to make a conscious decision to invest in taking our business to the next level. Ultimately, I see how my investment is worthwhile, and has also set a precedence and created a formula to ensure programs can be more manageable in future years.
4- Putting your learning into practice
For any development program to be beneficial, it must be relevant to your career or business needs, allowing you to apply your newly acquired knowledge upon your return. If the new knowledge gained cannot be readily implemented, there is a higher likelihood that you will either forget or lose interest in applying it.
The best use and benefit of the time and financial investment you’ve made is to apply the learning in practice. Developing ideas during the program that you can implement directly into your organisation is the utmost illustration of return on investment.
5- Sharing your acquired knowledge
As leaders we share our tacit knowledge habitually, and we can extend this practice to the new knowledge we gain, for the benefit of our teams and the broader business goals. Returning from the first phase of the Harvard Business School program, I organised a three-day knowledge-sharing camp with my management team to prioritise which initiatives we should focus on now and which ones we should consider later on in relation to our strategy. With the right measurement tools in place, we will be able to track our progress and witness the impact of these initiatives in the real world.
As leaders, committing to our own professional development can be counterintuitive, but with careful planning it can be transformational for an organisation. What’s more it has provided me with a gateway to hundreds of accomplished business owners whom I can readily reach out to for bouncing ideas or sharing experiences, which I would not otherwise have discovered.
Hanan Nagi is Founder and CEO of HNI, a learning consultancy organisation headquartered in Dubai with clients across the Middle East and North Africa, USA and Europe.
