A day spent learning to lead – by Scholar Daniel Murray, Founder of Grabble

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September 10, 2015

As partners of The Marketing Academy, Brand Learning invited this year’s scholars to attend a faculty day – a day filled with content, customer experience and the opportunity to focus on our own aspirations to become better marketing leaders. The day was kicked-off in mass panic at Waterloo station as about 20 people started messaging a WhatsApp thread with the same predictable message; “all trains cancelled, meet me at one of 3 middle class eateries with overpriced coffee to discuss this mess and alternative arrangements”. With some coffee in us we became less panicked and slightly more wired – we found alternative transport and ordered an Uber. Despite the journey, (in great company of course) we had a productive morning, really getting to the heart of “Growth in Marketing teams”, with Play Dough and fun fabric wires… pipe cleaners maybe? (whatever they are called, I do not know these exciting technical terms) We were explained that they were used to support “Kinaesthetic Learning”, the theory that physical movement helps with learning for some. I observed others as copious amounts of wands, stars, Toothless the Dragon from How to Train Your Dragon, a Spider, a gun, and various other “Co Creations” were produced. Creativity was definitely running high. Productivity? Well, with that much energy in the room, let’s just say yes. As is the theme with most Marketing Academy training focus, it was very much about how to be a better leader – something that all of us genuinely aspire to and is therefore really important. No matter how many times you hear it, getting a reinforced fresh perspective is always welcome. There were too many lessons for me to share and do justice to in a blog – besides, if I shared everything, how would Brand Learning make their money, that just doesn’t seem fair to them. However the key takeaways were focused around how to manage yourself, emotions, and empower those around you. Hayley and Nina from Brand Learning took us through the day with great energy, and although coffee was required to keep up, they seemed to be feeding off some alternative energy. Lunch was a generous helping in keeping with the generosity already shown to us at breakfast. Better than what I’m usually offered – clearly Brand Learning aren’t a start-up. We benefited in learning about “The Brand Learning Customer – Centred Leadership Framework™” which bases its leadership structure on:

Insight
Purpose
Partnership and
Performance

There was a particularly interesting section about a “To Do” list, and a “To Be” list. We looked at how we break these sessions down in our lives to create key actions so we get to those places we want to be. I really wanted ‘to be’ outside, which was lucky because that was next on our ‘To Do’ list as we broke into teams and worked on a fictional case-study – “Applesoft” – a company who had gone through some troubled times. After basically solving all their problems, as any typical marketing leaders would, we began to wind down from the day with some personal feedback on how we thought the day had gone. One thing we all agreed on was the amazing enthusiasm shown throughout the day from both Hayley and Nina, so with the day drawing to a close, we all gave our welcomed compliments and went our separate ways, hopefully as better Marketing Leaders but as with all these things, only time will tell. This blog originally appeared on Brand Learning’s website

A day spent learning to lead – by Scholar Daniel Murray, Founder of Grabble

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