Lt. Col. Keith Spiers OBE, CMgr FCMI, FIoL.
What do you do now?
My journey is a little different to most. In 1986, I joined 3WFR - a Territorial Unit in Nottinghamshire, as an infantry soldier. I started my life in civilian workforce as a qualified Horticulturalist. This was my first exposure to army leadership. Having grown up on a council estate, I had no exposure of leading until I became the team leader of a small group of Nottingham City Council staff in 1987, I leaned heavily on the skills learnt in the army to craft my style and they continued to feature heavily in my evolution as a leader through my civilian career.
For the last 12 years I have been full-time with the Army, commanding a Reserve Infantry unit, working as a liaison officer for Britain into the European Military service in Brussels and more recently - leading all Army Engagement from the Welsh border to Lowestoft and Humber to M25 orbital. This includes designing and delivering a new training package for soldiers on how to inspire people they engage with, to name but a few of the roles.
The greatest test and learning experience I have had was when I led an infantry company on operations in Iraq, working across the country on multiple tasks in a hostile environment is definitely a challenge, crafting me as a leader as well as a person.
In the civilian space, I have led transformational change to reprocess local government teams and departments to perform at their highest standard and delivered multifunctional ICT systems in line with the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) working with multiple stakeholders and deliverers to perform at the highest levels.
I currently lead a team to co-ordinate and deliver Army engagement across the centre of the country. Always looking for the next challenge, I also coach a local rugby junior team and am on the board of governors at a local college.
Where did your career start?
I started in 3WFR a Territorial Unit in Nottinghamshire, I was an infantry soldier. I started my life in civilian workforce as a qualified Horticulturalist.
What bit of advice would you give anyone starting to think about transition to civilian life?
Although I went the other way, I would say recognise that the core values, work ethic and ability to get things done, all of which you gained in the forces and are what make you a very valuable commodity.
Has there been a stage in your life where you first appreciated what great leadership looked like?
I would say, more importantly, I recognised when I saw/experienced poor leadership.
Allow me to explain. In my view, leadership is a personal connection. I identified in my 20’s (late 80’s early 90’s) what I experienced as uninspiring, dictatorial, Alpha styles of leadership. This crafted very quickly how I wished to lead, putting my staff at the centre of my leadership, building mutual respect, shared trust, developing a team that recognised and embraced each other’s diversity of thought and knowledge for the benefit of the team. All things I had not experienced, that I and my fellow work colleges needed to be high performing teams.
Do you have any examples of what you have done to develop yourself as a leader?
My leadership has and continues to grow, I now work full time in the military, as well as work voluntarily in the civilian space.
The first observation I would make is that the Army has changed; the myth of barking orders and all doing just what they are told is, in day to day work, not the norm. We still have a hierarchal system and respond to orders, although there is more encouragement to challenge, correctly and at the right time and in the right way. This is something I exploit and I learnt from the civilian space when delivering change management programmes, you need to take your team with you, they must be invested in the vision/end state(or orders!).
What obstacles or challenges have you experienced on your leadership journey?
The biggest challenge is belief, sometimes it is in your own ability. For me, this was driven by my background and how I was treated. I came from a council estate with no university degree education, which meant the belief of others in senior positions lead to me being put down or written off as not capable. This was all because I did not have a piece of paper identifying my academic ability and therefore could not possibly lead at a high level! I have been challenged in the past, although I have many professional qualifications at a high level, by not having a degree or attending a university I am somehow percieved as inferior. Interestingly less so in the army and fortunately I now know that is not the case, but for a young Keith this routinely knocked me back.
How do you think Leadership has benefitted you?
Leadership has made me the stronger, more resilient person that I am today. I not only listen to my teams, but to all people, recognising them as individual’s, not a class or category. But as a person with their own unique qualities, to be learnt, understood and embraced. If I had not had my leadership journey of discovery, with the set backs, I may well have been that middle-aged man stuck in the 80’s of Alpha males and dictatorial presence.