Edinburgh Supper Club with Phil Harris – Invisible Leadership in an Overmanaged World

“Many years ago, when I first founded my company to lead business transformation as an Interim CEO, I used the tagline “Leadership in an Overmanaged World” as a good number of the companies I led had “Over Managed” their way into a poor performance and my role was usually to provide “Leadership” out of a hole. I would made quick changes and stabilise the company before installing new strategic direction, motivation, and an execution culture, very much leading from the front.

However, when taking on 3-year Interim roles you cannot use that Leadership style throughout, and the shift had to be “Invisible Leadership” which doesn’t mean its unseen or unrecognised, it’s simply hidden so that the efforts of others become more visible and new leaders emerge. The role of a leader is surely to create new leaders for the future.”

At this Supper Club, we can explore some thoughts on what this means and how to transition in styles through a transformation.”

MORE ABOUT PHIL

Phil Harris is an interim CEO, NXD and Chartered Director with a wealth of leadership experience in driving growth and change, as Chairman, Board Mentor/Consultant, Managing Director and Non-Executive Director. He has experience in private and VC backed companies, has led an MBO and sold companies in Europe, Asia and America.

Phil started his career at the age of 13 when his favourite Aunt game him a Chemistry set for Christmas, which sparked a passion that led to a degree and PhD. His first role was as a Research Scientist for Ciba Geigy, but then the opportunity to work for one of their subsidiary companies Ilford Photo, allowed him to combine his love of B&W photography with research and development.

He quickly moved into management and worked his way through the entire organisation leading change in all departments and eventually led an MBO to purchase the UK organisation and sell off other manufacturing sites and selling companies around the world, to restore the UK to profitability and ultimately a very successful sale to a PE company.

He has since followed a deliberate path of working as an Interim CEO for smaller companies and has led a number of transformations as CEO and advised many others.

Phil’s most recent role was as Interim CEO for Vert Technologies, winners of our 2021 Best Scottish Product Award.

Watch the video below to hear what members had to say about previous Supper Clubs.

ABOUT SUPPER CLUBS

Our Member Supper Clubs are participative, relaxing evenings enjoying good conversations, enabling members to get to know one another whilst hearing from inspirational speaker.  In Edinburgh, they are held in the private dining room of the 6th floor 1820 Rooftop Bar at the Johnnie Walker Princes Street with breathtaking views of the city and access to the outdoor roof terrace.

Places are strictly limited to 14 people with 10 tickets available for members on a first come first served basis.  By keeping these events intimate, we ensure there are plenty of opportunity to ask questions as well as an open forum where all attendees will have the opportunity to discuss the emerging themes from the speaker as well as their own experiences.  Shared experiences are at the heart of WeDO, ‘individually we can be successful, together we can be extraordinary’ and Supper Clubs give us the opportunity to do just that!

If you’re interested in finding out more about WeDO, click HERE.

To apply for membership, click HERE.