Alan Lambert FIoL.
International Strategic HR change leader, LinkedIn Talent Advocate and Talent Award Winner
What do you do now?
I currently work in the Corporate People Strategy division at the global headquarters of a multi-energy company with 105,000 employees, based in 130 countries.
My day to day work focusses on supporting the people aspects behind the transformation of the business ambition, from a traditional oil and gas company to a carbon neutral business, and designing and rolling out HR development projects with a particular focus on promoting the manager-coach, a central pillar of our people ambition.
Where did your career start?
I wasn’t always in HR. I worked as waiter and barman in my late teens and went on to study law and qualify as a barrister. I worked as in-house lawyer, but quickly gained a taste for management as I found myself leading my first team.
As well as the day to day legal activities, I also managed regulatory compliance and HR. I only switched “full time” to HR after the company went into liquidation during the banking crisis after having lead a downsizing project, and I reflected on my career and decided to pursue my management and HR skills rather than my legal skills.
Has there been a stage in your life where you first appreciated what great leadership looked like?
After generalist HR management roles in the UK, I was lucky to be appointed as Leadership Development Program Director in our global headquarters in Paris.
At that time, I was no leadership development expert. My manager was excellent and supported my transition into the role, and I had regular exposure to world class executive education faculty from leading global business schools. The program was sponsored by members of our executive committee, so there was rare and highly beneficial access to our global senior executives as they shared their thoughts and expectations on leadership with thousands of program participants. The role was a huge learning curve, sucking up leadership best practice by osmosis both academically and from business leaders.
Do you have any examples of what you have done to develop yourself as a leader?
I think my career to date is a fine example of a growth mindset taking a tangent away from the linear development based on your initial studies and gaining new skills along the way through experience, exposure and learning. In this vein I signed up for one of the very first fully online executive education programs, LEAD from Stanford Graduate School of Business. This intense year-long learning journey enabled me further develop my personal leadership and changemaker skills. When I finished studying, and no longer had assignments to deliver over evenings and weekends, I blitzed a lot of MOOCs as my learning appetite needed feeding.
How do you think Leadership has benefitted you?
I’ve learnt who I really am. More importantly I’ve learnt to work more effectively with my team, my peers, my stakeholders, and I am more successful as a result. I’d like to think that I give back much of what I’ve learnt and help others to grow, either through my day job, mentoring, or sharing my leadership thoughts on social media.