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Professor Edward Peck CBE - The performance and discipline of leadership
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Nottingham Business School Business Leaders Podcast
Professor Edward Peck CBE - The performance and discipline of leadership | Episode 30
Professor Edward Peck deliberately wears a wristwatch that stopped working years ago.
If he wants to know the time, the Vice Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University looks at his phone.
He uses the broken watch to remind him that he’s at work – and he can’t allow himself to fall back on habits he picked up from his wise-cracking Scouse dad.
“My dad was a classic Scouser – the doyen of the smart put-down,” he says, in episode 30 of the Nottingham Business School’s Business Leaders’ Podcast.
“It took me years to learn to stop it. One of the things I do is wear a watch… to remind me that I’m at work. It tells me: Apply your work discipline!
“Everyone knows what it is in their make-up, that is their Achilles Heel – and part of our task, as leaders, is to make sure we keep it in check.
“The rational bit of leadership is the easy bit. It’s the emotional bit that’s the hard bit. For me, it takes real discipline.”
Professor Peck – who was appointed VC at NTU in August 2014, after several senior leadership roles in the NHS and Higher Education – was brought up on a farm in rural Skelmersdale, in Lancashire.
“Much of my childhood was spent relatively isolated – that was quite challenging as an upbringing,” he tells Honorary Visiting Professor Mike Sassi.
“Then when I was about ten, our farm was compulsorily purchased to build the New Town, so we moved into the centre of Skelmersdale, and I had more social interaction with my peers outside of school hours. That was the making of me. That’s when I developed some social skills.”
But, decades later, the VC says he still catches himself being introverted.
“No-one needs an introvert organisational leader, so I have to work really hard at being engaged and engaging,” he adds.
He believes there’s no such thing as a ‘born leader’.
“If you are slightly introverted, you can work on it and develop a way of interacting as a leader, which looks like an extrovert.
“People often assume that certain personality types are better or worse as a leader – I don’t buy that for a second.
“It’s about recognising what resources you’ve got and what you can develop… what you think works when you watch other people being an effective leader, that you can bring into your own leadership performance.”
Professor Peck has previously researched leadership. In 2009, he and a colleague jointly published an academic book entitled Performing Leadership.
He is quick to highlight what he believes is one of the big differences between true leadership and day-to-day management.
He says: “Leadership is about mobilising commitment. It’s about getting to the point where other people are as mobilised and committed as you are. People need to feel that they’re doing something that connects with their core values.
“Once you’ve mobilised commitment in a certain direction, lots of stuff can happen that you couldn’t make happen as a manager.”
In a candid interview, the Vice Chancellor talks about the successes of his nine years at NTU, including a big increase in student numbers – from 23,000 to 40,000, five national University of the Year awards and a new 500-student campus in Mansfield.
He believes that he and NTU are “a good fit”.
Leaders often take on big roles too early in their careers, he says.
“It’s all about judgement. People would be well advised not to rush their careers. I was in my mid 50s before I became a chief exec.
“People asked why I hadn’t done this before. I told them; because I didn’t feel ready to take on the responsibility – I need to know exactly what I’m going to do, and I need to find the right place.
“I’m [also] puzzled by leaders who want to move on quickly. If you find the right place and it’s a good fit, don’t assume that going somewhere else is going to work for you again. [Leadership] is about building relationships and these things take time.”
During a graduation ceremony a few years ago, Professor Peck enjoyed another proud moment in his leadership career when he presented his own daughter with an NTU degree in Museum and Heritage Development.
He says: “The vocational nature of the university is what sold it to my daughter.
“But this is a great university. And it’s a great university for everyone’s kids – not someone else’s kids! It’s really important that you believe. Not only in the social mission, but also in the educational quality and the research activity.
“You’ve got to believe as a leader that, if it’s the right fit, what you can do can help anyone.”
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