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December 31, 2020

Challenging Times & Courage: Colonel Garry Hearn: Inspiring Leadership interview with Jonathan Bowman-Perks MBE

Podcast Details

Top Tip

Learn from experience. Experience often comes from the mistakes you make if you have the humility to review what you did and didn’t do and what you could do better. Everybody has something to teach you if only you would listen to them

Colonel Garry Hearn – Strategy and Plans Director at Defence Academy of the United Kingdom

Garry, by his own admission, drifted into leadership and yet forty years later was awarded an OBE in 2012 for innovation and leadership. He has led teams of three to twelve-hundred, recently mentored leadership to a generation of Army officers and is currently designing a future strategy for Army education. He seeks new activities shortly having had fun with a purpose. Garry has studied leaders for many years learning to retain the ‘nature’ of leadership but adapt the approach to the context; a lesson for today and COVID. Garry also offers we over-concentrate on the leader and not enough on the eco-system of leadership. This is manifesting itself in tensions around control in the current crisis, which he has experienced personally. Moreover, he feels there are linkages between what needs to occur during C-19 and the emerging impact of Artificial Intelligence on leaders and leadership. He has long held a view we should turn the organisational diagram upside down and always think of the impact of our decision on the individual lest we end up with dislocation of expectation.

Executive with significant experience of leading small to large organisations within, HR, talent management, information services and further education. Particularly interested in behavioural and cultural change programmes with a passion for the education sector.

Introduced blended learning solutions resulting in substantial student and instructor satisfaction ratings improvements and a 15% reduction in annual running costs. Previously programme managed the largest Defence training transformation programme.

Currently responsible for the design of a Masters level education programme for all mid-level executives in the Army and for designing future professional learning and development programme for all mid-level leaders in British Army.

Volunteer Member of Regional Leadership Group for SW England SchoolsTrust.

Specialties: Reward structures, behavioural change, strategy, leadership theory and practice.  I very much enjoyed interacting with Gary over the years and he did some fascinating video clips of his analysis having listened to the first 50 leaders on my inspiring leadership series. From that he drew some fascinating themes, conclusions and tips himself.

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