High Performance Leadership – Lessons from Elite Sport

High-performance cultures not only bring out the best in our people, but attract the best people to the fold, giving organisations a significant competitive advantage. (HBR 2021).

As we emerge from a global pandemic; the challenge of leadership has never been greater; how do leaders effectively influence, motivate and engage their teams to create the environment and behaviours for high performance? The balance has changed, as people seek a greater sense of shared values and purpose; for leaders this requires appropriate levers and a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators to build trust and cohesion within teams and create a culture of high performance and talented achievers. 

We will explore what this means for you as a leader and the ways in which you can influence, motivate and engage others to create an environment and culture for high performance.

Taught by Marina Livingstone – Programme Director, Strathclyde Executive Education & Development

Marina is a highly motivated and experienced Strategic Business Transformation Professional and Coach with a proven track record in successful delivery of strategy development, business transformation and improvement projects and a passion for facilitating and supporting people development to align talent and leadership with strategic initiatives. Her experience spans the entire spectrum of organisational design, change management and leadership development aligned with business strategy and financial management.

She has significant experience across public and private sector organisations and academia in a powerful combination of hands-on management and operations roles within industry and as a Senior Consultant with two major international Consulting Firms. Her interests span many aspects of professional development and cultures, she loves to explore new perspectives and make connections between them. She also combines Leadership Development and Coaching with a role in Executive Education as a Programme Director and Educator on International MBA Programmes.

In the modern era, and certainly post-covid, organisations are increasingly put under pressure to ensure that they have the best talent available. The big challenge is to attract the best talent, but an even bigger challenge is to retain them. There is the old adage of, “if you don’t look after your employees then rest assured that another organisation will look after them for you.

In essence this unit is about how to attract the best talent and once you have them in your organization, how to keep them. We will explore areas of recruitment, selection, development and relevant aspects of leadership. We will then go on to explore the requirements for having an inclusive workforce with an examination of the key areas of diversity management and how they can be beneficial in today’s fiercely competitive global marketplace. It is no longer possible to admit to a lack of cultural intelligence and organizations that seek high levels of performance must embrace diversity – in how they think, act and operate.

Taught by Anthony Birch – Dean of Business School, Longford International College

Tony is an experienced university lecturer and business practitioner. Having served in senior management roles for organisations in many diverse industries, Tony has a particular interest in HRM and Operations Management. Before becoming an academic, he was involved in the restructuring of several companies prior to their sale and flotation.

Tony is an expert in TQM and has led teams in diverse manufacturing companies from heavy industry to pharmaceuticals. Tony is an expert in online learning and is the current director of Longford College’s MBA programme. Tony is currently completing his DBA.

How do businesses gain a competitive advantage while focusing on their internal resources and lessor on the external aspects?

Despite years of discussion about strategic choices that bring competitive advantage, the disagreements have raged against whether competitive advantage is best understood by looking inwards in the firm, or to its environment.

The tensions between internal strategy are seen principally through the lens of Porter’s 5 Forces or through the lens of the Resource-based View. But, has all this started to change? Is the traditional view of strategy losing its relevance? This module will look at the new force on the scene – digital disruption. Despite years of discussion, understanding what digital transformation means for established companies remains a daunting challenge.

Without a clear understanding, the wrong people are often put in charge, with the wrong resources, and the wrong KPIs, setting the digital transformation project up for failure. It has never been more important to understand that the traditional means of market domination are rapidly being eroded. Integrate or create - the traditional route to market leadership is rapidly disappearing.

Taught by Professor Vincent English – President, Longford International College

Vincent is President of Longford International College and is a Professor of International Business and Strategic Management at the Uninettuno University of Rome. He is also a visiting professor at two other business schools in Naples and Geneva. Vincent holds a PhD in business strategy and numerous other degrees in Law, Education, Physics and Data Analytics from University of Cambridge, Kings College London, Maynooth, Aberdeen and Dublin. Vincent is also attached to the University of Cambridge as a researcher into adult online learning and is a member of their prestigious CEDiR group.

Vincent is also currently CEO of Vernier Europe, a subsidiary of Vernier Software and Technology, the world’s largest manufacturer of digital data collection technologies for schools. He has extensive experience of international business in many different sectors, including educational materials and equipment, retail, and engineering.

Vincent has founded several successful companies and has served as Managing Director of companies in Ireland and the UK for the past 25 years. He has worked at all levels in firms in the SME sector and has extensive experience in marketing, project management, mentoring, international distributor, and sourcing of products. Vincent was voted the Entrepreneur of the Year in 2020 in Longford, Ireland.

Too often ambitious strategies land badly in the business, business cases aren’t fully realised, technology improvements take longer and cost more than anyone anticipated.

The often-quoted McKinsey research tells us that 70% of programmes fail to achieve their goals.  Leaders – often with the battle-scars to show for it – know they need to do better on leading change.  

Now in 2022, there’s no going back.  Every leader knows no company will revert – entirely – to 2019 business models.  So, what does it take to transform the organisation?  

This module will look at the leadership role in change and transformation, covering: 

1. what does it mean to be transformational – how does it differ from leadership more generally? 
2. what the data tells us about why so many changes fail
3. the role of leaders – the leadership skills and behaviours that help to secure success
4. creating a compelling case for change, including genuine urgency
5. the role of resilience among people making the change

Taught by Mary Galbraith – Programme Director, Strathclyde Executive Education & Development

Mary is a Programme Director in our Executive Education & Development team. Prior to this role she has held leadership positions in major transformation programmes for a wide range of organisations, both public and private sector. She spent 14 years with major international consulting firms, latterly at Director level, and also works independently, advising on strategic change. Her sectoral experience ranges from energy to automotive, broadcasting to pharmaceuticals, and healthcare to policing.

This work has extended across all parts of the UK and the rest of Europe, Africa, north America and south east Asia. In these programmes she has coached and developed executives to be better sponsors and leaders of change. She has focused on ensuring that engagement with stakeholders is embedded and genuine, and is done to build meaningful commitment and active advocacy. A particular interest is ensuring that the compelling case for change is evidenced and articulated for all affected audiences.

Mary has operated at non-executive level for education, arts and healthcare entities, is currently a member of the Scottish FA Equality & Diversity board, and is a Fellow of the RSA.

Mary has recently been appointed as Independent Non-Executive Chair of the Scottish Women’s Premier League (SWPL).