Business Leaders interview: Di Gwinnell

Tell us a little about yourself and your business.

Lifetime Training Group solves talent & skills gaps by providing learning & development interventions & accreditations for UK employers across a range of industries and sectors, including hospitality and retail. I'm the People Director here. I've been here just over a year and am loving working for a business whose core purpose is about talent development. In many ways I'm the target customer as well as the leader of our internal People function which provides many unique opportunities to drive business change. 

What motivates you in your work and what do you find most fulfilling about being a business leader?

I'm motivated by seeing people fulfil their potential and it's even better when it's potential they didn't know they have. We spend a lot of time in work, and it can be a key part of our lives, which means that creating a healthy culture and community spirit is critical. There are always opportunities to improve, learn and grow and that's what I love about business leadership. 

How did you develop your leadership skills and how would you define your leadership style?

I was lucky enough to complete the HR Graduate Scheme at ASDA and this gave me a solid injection of leadership training & HR knowledge. Then over the years I've applied what I've learnt, learnt from the mistakes I've made, learnt from feedback I've received and learnt from what I've observed in others (the good and the ugly). My style would be ever evolving!

Innovating is crucial in our very diverse industry. How do you stay ahead of trends and incorporate them into your global strategy?

Gathering as much external intel as physically possible. This means networking with peers to understand what is new in their world, attending events, reading articles & newsletter content and seeking out recommends on new articles/ newsletters/ people to follow who are good at assimilating market insights. I find it helps if you periodically review your understanding of emerging market direction & sense check whether this requires a change in strategy/ activity within my own organisation - either from a People strategy perspective or a wider business strategy perspective - that's the critical 'so what' once you know what is going on in the world.

What do you consider to be the key component(s) of effective business operational development?

Start with the business strategy and long-term objectives. Then review the structures, systems, processes that exist currently, mapped against the business strategy. Identify opportunities for operational development and ensure that all stakeholders across all functions are involved in this activity and agree with the outputs before enacting anything.

How do you approach identifying areas for improvement within a company's operations?

Triangulate your feedback - what are our people saying? what are our customers saying? what are the numbers saying? Use that to identify opportunities for improvement. Often there are loads identified but the next step is super important - it's then prioritising which ones deliver the strongest ROI versus effort & cost of change.

What is or are your biggest career achievement(s)?

Honestly? Getting to the level I'm at with a young family and puppy in toe. The juggle is super hard and grey hair making but I found it was worth it.

Do you have examples where your leadership made a difference? If so, what were they?

Being able to take a fresh perspective on a business when I joined the Lifetime Training Group last year and asking some probing questions seemed to work quite well last year. It certainly helps coming in somewhere new as it's hard to see the wood for the trees when you've been somewhere a while.

What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?

Keep checking that you have everyone on the journey with you (pace is a particular weakness of mine, I'd do everything yesterday if I could!)

How did you identify and seize opportunities for advancement in your career?

A business that is in growth stage helps. Then showing a lot of willing, picking up pieces of work - even if they don't directly look like items that would naturally sit with me, networking, a lot of humility, seeking lots of support and feedback along the way.

Have you achieved everything you wanted in your career so far?

So far, yes but I like to think I'm still young 😉 and still have lots more to achieve personally and for those I work with.

How important is personal development to your success, and how do you approach it?

The world keeps evolving and therefore so do we. So, I think there is always more ways to learn, grow and improve. People often seek out big ticket development items and those are often few and far between. I think that incremental learning is probably more normal, which means keeping your eyes out for what is a learning moment and taking the time to reflect on what you've learnt and how you will apply it ongoing. That's what I try to do.

How do you prioritise tasks when everything feels like a priority?

Being brave and saying no (with an explanation as to why). Although I have to admit, saying no is hard. I was taught early on to always say yes, but over time I've learnt that the 'yes we can do that and this is how it fits in with our other priorities and timelines' works quite well - it helps other people know where this sits from a priority perspective (and they can flag if they think it doesn't sound right) but also means they don't hear that hard 'no' which sometimes doesn't land that well.

What was the hardest decision you have taken as a leader?

It's always the ones that mean that you are changing someone's present outlook significantly; redundancies, not being promoted etc. I find it's impossible not to think about the individual on the receiving end but actually I don't believe I should ever try ignoring that either.

What steps do you take to measure your own performance?

Business metrics for proof of delivery and feedback (it's also how others measure me too 🙂).

What does success mean for you as a business leader?

Knowing that me and my team have done our darn hardest to support the people in the business to thrive.

What challenges do you feel are coming in the next 12 months and what are you doing to address them

Continued push on people experience v. Business performance in a challenging market. For us, we are doing a lot of work on leadership skillset and culture right now to help with both.

If you had one piece of advice for aspiring leaders – what would that be?

Spend some time digging into your personal purpose - why do you want to be a leader? Then take it a step at a time and remember that feedback is the breakfast of champions (oops that's not 1 thing!)