Episode 37: Why reflection and learning through ’failures’ helps you to see the bigger picture with Lauren Jones

Leadership Amplified by Dr Karen Morley

In this episode I speak with Lauren Jones about how she helps technical experts transform into great people leaders. Lauren started her working life as an electrical engineer in petrochemical manufacturing and quickly moved into operations management. During that period, she developed important leadership skills heading an operations team, and the importance of quality assurance, health and safety, and environmental compliance became ingrained. One thing that she felt unable to do as a young leader was to step back and see the big picture – it’s critical to understand the big picture, the various stakeholders and what they care about, and what your role in all that is. You need to know what people want from you to be successful. Developing a reflective practice allowed her to do this. Lauren now has her own consulting practice where she loves working with executives, business owners and leaders at all levels to help them improve their businesses. As Lauren experienced herself, moving from a technical role to a leadership role is often quite challenging, creating dilemmas and usually needing a shift in identity. Having the right kind of support to make this move, including the right training, is fundamental to enjoying the new and different set of expectations people leadership brings. Lauren says to help technical experts moving into leadership roles to succeed, the right systems and processes need to be in place. Her advice to get it right: 📌 By ensuring the best systems and processes are in place, senior leaders give people a great opportunity to improve their capability. 📌 Regular feedback, checkins and mentoring help encourage reflection and learning. 📌 New leaders - be open to learning and confident in yourself. Sure, you don’t have all the answers, but no-one else does! As Lauren says, feedback should be a comfortable, regular thing that people seek to help them improve. Listen in as she shares her story and insights, link in comments. #careers #technicalleadership #engineering #personaldevelopment