A night of unexpected colours unfolded a to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Chartered Management Institute at the President’s Dinner, held in the Natural History Museum, London. Drinks with a dinosaur made a great start to what turned into a wonderful evening of celebration. The dinosaur skeleton stood proud keeping a watchful eye on what was happening below, in the softly lit space, as we met people known and soon to know.
 
Dinner, the speeches and the awards were held in an adjoining hall with the skeleton of a 25-metre blue whale hanging overhead. It was quite odd as the skeleton looked more like a cooked lobster, all lit in red.
 
The Chartered Management Institute was created shortly after World War II, to help redevelop and grow the economy after the impact of war. It is still the leading global organisation focussed on both management and leadership – all too often these two areas are merged as one rather than two strands that make a strong cord; all too often the essential nature of management is forgotten, with leadership viewed as the prime goal. Yet Henry Mintzberg, the author, academic and global authority on the subject of management stated during the global financial crash in 2008:
 
‘It is a management problem from beginning to end…’
 
Still I meet senior people in organisations that have undertaken little or no management development training, or indeed leadership development. Often never having read a single book on the subject. Worrying when we are well into the 21st Century with vast amounts of history and current learning from which to draw.
 
One of the key areas that many senior people, when asked what they wish they had known earlier in their career, state that it was ‘more about themselves’.
 
The two striking colours in the picture of the Hintze Hall and Blue Whale are blue and red – the colours that represent thinking in the Insights Discovery model. The model that draws from the work of the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst C G Jung.
 
The speakers and award winners added in the other aspect of Jung’s work too, that of feeling. None more so than by Dame Sharon White, who received the Gold Medal Award and Sir Trevor Phillips, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award. A perfect reminder that good management comes from both thinking and feeling; from ongoing learning, development and the practice of good management capability.
 
Yes, an evening of celebration and recognition. Also, an evening that stirred up memories of my own career involving management…and leadership. An evening encouraging thoughts about ‘what next?’
 
If you are involved in management and leadership, do you know yourself well? Are you adding to your capability as both you, and the world, change? I do hope so; would now be a good time to think ‘what next?’ for yourself too?
 
My best wishes,
 
Peter