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December 30, 2020

Inspiring Leadership in Challenging Times: Lieutenant General Sir Nick Pope – Inspiring leadership interview with Jonathan Bowman-Perks

Podcast Details

Top Tip

Work out what good looks like. And never forget task, team and individual.

Lieutenant General Sir Nick Pope KCB CBE – Leadership and change in peace and war. He focusses on his new role as: Senior Advisor, Mentor, Consultant, Third Sector Chair.

During his forty year military career, Nick has seen how the Army, and Defence, accommodate change both in peace and war. In the latter capacity, he commanded a brigade during operations in Afghanistan, and was the Chief of the Defence Staff’s Strategic Communication Officer during the Libya campaign. As a strategic leader he implemented a transformational re-design of Defence, focussing on delegation of responsibility and accountability from the MOD to the front line commands.

He became Deputy Chief of the General Staff in the rank of Lieutenant General in 2015. In this post he was the Chief Executive of an Army of 80,000 regular and 30,000 reserve soldiers and 10,000 civil servants. He was responsible for manpower planning, personnel strategies, strategic planning and programming, performance management and international relations. His focus was on creating and delivering a complex portfolio of change initiatives to make the Army more effective, but also to drive down costs. Top tip. Work out what good looks like. And never forget task, team and individual.

Nick describes himself on social media as follows: Experienced Chief Operating Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the Defense & Space industry. Strong operations professional skilled in Operational Planning, Command, Electronic Warfare, Contingency Planning, and Systems Engineering.

After a reasonably long stint of public service with the British Army (some 38 years!), Nick has decided to put the skills that he has learned to good use in a plural career.

Nick has a passion for inclusive leadership which focuses on attracting and developing individual talent. He recognises that a healthy work-force is central to this philosophy and is delighted to be able to deliver support in this area as an executive mentor with the Eleos Partnership.

As Deputy Chief of the General Staff he quickly discovered that he would spend the majority of his time dealing with people and people issues, be it manpower planning or personnel strategies, or physical and mental health and well-being. He was also the Army Champion for safety, diversity and inclusion and for the LGBT+ community.

Nick has found it almost impossible to leave the Army behind him. He remains Senior Mentor to the Army Generals Course and retains tribal responsibilities as Master of the Royal Corps of Signals and Colonel Commandant of the Brigade of Gurkhas.

He has also found that the Values and Standards which are core to the military mind-set have drawn him towards employment in the Third Sector. He is Chair of the Gurkha Welfare Trust and a Governor of Godolphin School.

More broadly, he holds several Non-Executive Director positions and is an Associate with a leading Talent Management Consultancy Organisation.

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