Challenging
leaders to
flourish
Quality of leadership lies at the heart of
any organisation’s success. Director of
Cranfield’s highly respected Centre for
General Management Development,
Dr David Butcher, demolishes the myth
of unified leadership and management by
consensus.
“Leadership is not a cosy, warm
experience like motherhood and apple
pie. There is always a lot of conflict
within management teams,” he says.
Cranfield’s General Management
Programmes take as their mission to
help participants find their own personal
leadership style so as to be able to
flourish within the context of their own
businesses. This includes discovering
32 Alumni Magazine | Spring 2012
how to resolve conflicts and get to grips
with the often difficult internal politics
that go hand in hand with delivering
productivity and profit. “No one learns
leadership unless they are challenged.”
According to David a certain degree
of conflict is essential for the health of
any organisation, but it is easy for this
to be misunderstood. It is the personal
motivation of leaders that is key.
Spring 2012 | Alumni Magazine 33
We spend a lot of time before and after
the programme helping and supporting
participants’ learning. This is why Cranfield’s
General Management Programmes score
very high in the FT global rankings of open
executive programmes.
“How much are you going to do for
yourself as a leader and how much do you
do for your business? Where do you draw
the line?” David asks. He adds that true
leaders often have to challenge the status
quo. A genuine leader will not always
follow what the management above them
wants. “Sometimes people in power don’t
want the people below them to lead or to
challenge their thinking,” he asserts.
Feedback from a cohort of some three
hundred senior managers a year gives
the Centre for General Management
Development a unique insight into best
practice on the ground. The challenges
faced by general managers range from
the politics of mediating between diverse
stakeholders, to making the business
case for investment. A good leader will
fight for the funds needed to develop
their product or service and maintain
34 Alumni Magazine | Spring 2012
profitability. “This is not leadership in
the abstract; it’s leadership in the context
of challenges within each person’s own
businesses,” says David.
Cranfield’s flagship executive
education programmes, the General
Management portfolio, offers an
intensive learning experience which
participants can apply directly in the
context of their own companies. The
starter programme for talented junior
managers, the Accelerated Talent
Development Programme, and the more
senior Cranfield General Management
Programme, are taught over 14 days.
The Cranfield Advanced Development
Programme, designed to prepare
managers for executive and board level
appointments, and the ‘jewel in the
crown’, the Cranfield Business Directors’
Programme, both take 17 days.
Taken together, the General
Management Programmes provide a
ladder for career progression. On each
of the four programmes participants
find themselves part of a small group
of people of similar seniority and
experience. Each GMP is designed for
groups of around twenty-four, offering
intensive peer review, coaching from
experienced practitioners and exposure
to business leaders who share their
approaches to problem solving. “What
makes Cranfield’s General Management
Programmes different is that they
are shorter than similar programmes
elsewhere and they offer a very personal
focus. We work very closely with each
participant. There is a very, very strong
personal leadership development
component, contextualised within
each participant’s professional role and
business situation,” explains David. In
this way, participants get to discover their
own authentic voice and unique brand of
leadership.
The classroom modules are only the
first stage in a year-long process, as
participants return to Cranfield three
months after the end of each GMP for
a review session, and again at the end of
a year, when they reflect on how they are
applying leadership in their businesses.
“We spend a lot of time before and
after the programme helping and
supporting participants’ learning. This is
why Cranfield’s General Management
Programmes score very high in the
FT global rankings of open executive
programmes,” says David.
Blending experience in consulting
with academic teaching, Centre for
General Management Development
faculty take a holistic view of executive
development and all have many years of
experience. A staff to participant ratio of
1:6 on each programme allows for more
personal tuition.
Underpinning the content and
learning process of each of these
programmes, is the work of the Centre
for General Management Development.
The Centre’s role is threefold - to deliver
the programmes, to support and coach
faculty who work on the programmes,
and to research. The Centre’s research
hinges on how to improve the quality
of general management development
and to reflect management in the
workplace. “Our research is practical and
is designed to improve the content of our
programmes,” says David.
The Centre’s full-time team of
programme directors are responsible
for supporting the development of the
faculty delivering the programmes.
“Faculty who work on the General
Management Programmes are carefully
selected. It’s a very unusual model for
delivering such programmes,” says David.
The Cranfield General Management
Programmes fit well within the business
school’s alumni framework. GMP
participants are automatically enrolled
in the School’s alumni association
where they will attend events with
MBA alumni. David explains that while
qualifications like the MBA are strongly
grounded in breadth of management
theory and are intended as preparatory
for significant managerial careers, a
General Management Programme has a
single practical focus for participants who
are at key points in their careers.
That said, there is a great deal of
cross fertilisation with the MBA. “MBA
alumni return and enrol on a GMP
when the time is right, such as preparing
for a major promotion or a board level
appointment. Or they may have reached
a senior position and want to send some
of their colleagues on a GMP as part of
their development,” says David.
Although enrolment on Cranfield’s
General Management Programmes is
by definition for the development of
individuals, many companies have a long
association with the programmes and
year after year will put aspiring leaders
through the programmes. David reels
off a list that currently includes easyJet,
Nissan, Ericcson, Total, Carlsberg and
DB Schenker, all of whom have senior
management who have passed through
one of the programmes.
David says all of his programme
directors remain in contact with
programme alumni. “Personally, I’m still
in touch with the people on the first
GMP that I worked on twenty years
ago. One guy is now a managing director
for DHL and the other has retired a
multimillionaire after selling the business
he started from scratch. It gives us all
a lot of pride to know that we’ve given
value to someone and their business.
GMP participants are special people,
and rightly, they expect a lot from these
programmes.”
Words: Stephen Hoare
Photos: Martin Gammon
Spring 2012 | Alumni Magazine 35