What is leadership?
Anni Feng.
Anni Feng (Associate Director, Intelligent Buildings Group) recently completed the Circles programme: a leadership development course for women working in health and social care. As someone who specialises in designing smart and digital hospitals, it was the perfect opportunity.
Anni tells us more about this non-traditional leadership course, including the women she met on the way and what she learned about herself.
The Circles programme is run by The King’s Fund – a charity that aims to reimagine a health and care system that is compassionate, equitable and fit for the future. The programme is designed for women who work in health and care to reflect on and enhance our roles as leaders.
As an engineer, I was in a fairly unique role in my cohort, with many others being clinicians or working in administrative functions within a healthcare environment. As we got to know each other, they were amazed at how much people in engineering roles impact healthcare environments.
The programme was very interactive as we were not taught how to be a leader, but for us to ask: ‘what does leadership mean to me?’ and to shape our own style. We learned different techniques and applied four lenses to reflect on leadership:
- Self – who we are and our experience of being a person;
- The system – “organisation” that we are in;
- The context – the external environments; and
- The source – what motivates us.
The thing that stood out most from this course was how many diverse forms the definition of ‘leadership’ could take. Although we had a common strand of being women and mostly in the mid-stages of our careers in healthcare, there was such a broad range of responsibilities, experiences and ambitions.
Leadership is (probably) not what you think it is.
Although we are starting to see some societal change, many of us might have a fairly traditional view of what ‘leadership’ means.
As we reflected on who we were as individuals, as well as what our experiences and ambitions were, I was inspired by how diverse and rich the concept of leadership could be. It was a privilege to hear everyone’s personal stories, to help curate a safe space for challenge and to support one another to find the answers we needed.
For me, leadership is about intentional innovation – purposely trying new ways of doing things, seeking out different perspectives and inspiring others to redefine what is possible with digital technologies – with the aim to achieve meaningful outcomes through technical excellence. That, is what I strive for in all my healthcare work.
What’s next?
The Circles programme has given me the clarity about my role in leadership. It taught me that there are not only different ways of approaching leadership development, but also how we build our networks and grow as professionals.
As engineers and designers, we are inextricably linked to the environments, sectors and people that we are designing for. I would like to see more of us, regardless of our role and seniority, build closer relationships with the people using the spaces we create.
I would also like to see more pride and celebration of different kinds of leadership within Hoare Lea – something we would all benefit from greatly.
What do you think? What does leadership mean to you? At the programme’s closing event, we were asked this question, which I hope will help you to reflect too:
When the world feels unleadable, what force or purpose do you draw on to lead?