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Press Release |
Edge, February 04 - UP CLOSE | Greame Leith
Interview by Sam Dukes
When a horrific skiing accident left him paralysed from the waist down, executive coach Graeme Leith refused to accept that he would never walk again. He tells Sam Dukes how he defied the medical experts and now uses his experiences to motivate others to meet the challenges they face in work and life. |
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Leading management trainer Graeme Leith has a wealth of experience helping top end managers achieve their goals. A former head of PA Consulting's renowned Sundridge Park Management Centre, he has developed a range of motivational tools and techniques to encourage his clients to overcome the barriers to success. Yet none are more effective than his own tale of triumph against the odds.
In January 1997 Graeme burst a disc in his back in a serious skiing accident. After two intensive operations he was told that he was paraplegic - paralysed from the waist down - and would never walk again.
I went from literally being on top of !he world, skiing off piste on my favourite mountains, to the very bottom,' says Graeme. But, as a man who had spent much of his career helping people to think positively, aim high and strive to achieve their full potential, he refused to accept the doctors' gloomy prognoses and has gone on to make a remarkable recovery. 'When I first heard I'd lost the use of my legs it was pretty emotional, I was absolutely gutted as you can imagine: recalls Graeme. 'But after a while, when I had been told the same thing by seven or eight different doctors, my reaction was "who the hell do they think they're talking to?" Looking back, Graeme realises that this surge in anger marked the start of his recovery. 'It was the indignity of having someone tell me that I simply wasn't going to do something again, it made me think "well, I'm going to bloody well try".
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
As founding partner of management training and development consultancy the Morgan Leith Partnership, Graeme specialises in coaching on strategy, performance t and change management. He has found that his accident and subsequent rehabilitation have given him a valuable personal perspective on each of these subjects, and now draws a number of parallels between the challenges he faced during his rehabilitation and those faced by managers at work.
'The medical experts I spoke to after my accident told me "you're never going to walk again; get used to it:" recalls Graeme. 'I think their approach was meant to be cruel to be kind; don't let this guy faff around, he's got to be realistic and get on with his life.'
"IVE LEARNT THAT IF
YOU REALLY BELl EVE YOU CAN DO
SOMETHING, IGNORE TH E EXPERTS, STAY
FOCUSED AND SUCCESS
WILL COME"
He argues that the tendency to draw premature negative conclusions is also often seen in business. 'One thing I've learnt is that most experts tend to be there to tell people they can't do things. If you really believe you can do something, ignore the experts, stay focused and success will come.'
Graeme encourages his clients to act less like the experts he encountered and more like the hands-on physiotherapists who helped him to set his own goals and work towards them. 'The physios were much more encouraging, I they just allowed me to try things, even to the point of making myself a wally, but it didn't matter because I was doing it with people who supported me: he explains. 'There have been two particular physios who were fantastic with me. They would say, "Where are you trying to get to now? What's your aim? How do you measure it?" The sorts of things I've now been able to turn around into managerial type questions: he explains.
INSPIRING SUCCESS
Graeme recognises that this sympathetic, motivational and supportive approach is alien to many managers. 'Far too many managers act like regulators. Unless they allow people to set their own challenging targets - which are usually more challenging than those a manager would set - how on earth do they know what their potential is?' He now helps managers from a range of industries develop the confidence to release, rather than limit the individuals within their teams. 'John Harvey Jones once said he's not come across a company that uses more than 40% of the potential in its workforce. I think he's exaggerating wildly; if they get 20% they're lucky: warns Graeme. 'Unfortunately, most managers are managers because they like to keep control of what's going on. They need to realise they can achieve a great deal more by letting go: he explains. But has he had any notable successes with this approach?
I can honestly say yes. There are a I number of people who are now reaching levels they would never have even anticipated before we started working together. One client has just completed a successful management buy-out, another company in the financial services industry has launched a frighteningly successful product, another has gone from making a loss three years ago to making a five per cent return in the last five years - so our approach has hit the bottom line directly.'
ROAD TO RECOVERY
After seven years of intensive physiotherapy, Graeme can now once again walk without assistance. 'The recovery so far has got down to my feet, I still walk with dropped feet on both legs, so I look like a drunk, but I can walk without sticks: he explains. His systematic progress has been driven by a succession of short-term personal achievements that saw him repeatedly confound the medical experts who first wrote him off. Within three months of his accident he was standing with assistance. Four months later he was able to sit and pedal briefly on a static bicycle. By the time of his nephew's wedding in December 1997, less than a year after his accident, Graeme was able to walk unaccompanied, with the aid of tripod sticks.
'When I was in hospital, my first goal was to be able to stand up, then to walk, firstly with splints, then without them, then with sticks and then without: explains Graeme. 'It was always easy to set a target for the next six to twelve months, it was much more difficult to maintain any focus in the longer term.'
He argues that the same is often true in business, and suggests that managers in particular can benefit from a clear business strategy with a series of short-term goals on the route to a demanding final target. 'Everyone should have a bigger picture: a clear idea of what would constitute success in three years, five years and further down the line: he explains.
AIMING HIGH
A keen sportsman with a particular passion for endurance cycling and triathlon, when Graeme decided he needed an ultimate target to aim towards in his recovery, he set himself a truly ambitious goal. 'My long-term aim is to return to what I was doing before: explains Graeme. 'I will consider myself able when I can compete in the triathlon again - that's my gauge.'
In his work as a coach, Graeme encourages his clients to set similarly stretching targets. 'In my workshops on managing change we talk about, three key success factors: the minimum by which you could gain or maintain success, the realistic expectation you might have, and the ideal you would dream to have,' he explains. 'I argue that we should be s focusing on the ideal, because people never cease to amaze and surprise us, and because even if you miss the ideal, you'll reach the realistic expectation, whereas if you aim for the realistic, you may not do as well as hit the minimum.'
ATHLETIC ENDURANCE
Having set himself the demanding target of a triathlon, Graeme launched into his physical rehabilitation with typical determination. Desperate to return to outdoor exercise, but initially unable to balance a bicycle, he had a tricycle custom built to enable him to build up his leg muscles in the fresh air. Once he could balance sufficiently, Graeme progressed onto a mountain bike. Because of the lack of feeling in his lower legs, at first he had to strap his feet into the pedals - even though this meant falling over each time he came to a stop. Undeterred by the bruises, within three years of the accident Graeme returned to competitive cycle racing in a 300 kilometre endurance race at Veterunden in Sweden. He completed the course in just over 21 hours. A year later he competed alongside his son in a similar 320 kilometre event in Copenhagen, posting a faster time of 20.5 hours.
Graeme now believes he is less than a year away from realising his ultimate goal. 'I can swim, I can bike - and, although I can't run at the moment, I can do a lurch which kind people might refer to as a jog: he explains. 'I'm aiming to complete a short l triathlon by the end of 2004, let's say 50 lengths of a pool, ten miles biking and maybe a mile running - if I can do my lurch for a mile then I will consider that I've finally done it.'
While Graeme's consistent progress has repeatedly astounded his medical team, in the first few years after the accident he often felt l, disheartened by the gradual pace of his recovery. Over the course of his rehabilitation, this has meant he has had to learn to apply another vital management quality - patience. 'I have realised that while I may be impatient, my body will recover at its own rate, whatever it is I do: he explains. 'It's a bit like that when it comes to managing change in an organisation - it will change at its own speed and sometimes working harder doesn't make any greater inroads into the change.'
SECOND CHANCES
Looking back, Graeme recognises that his accident and subsequent disability have helped him to develop both as a person and a coach. He is certainly more tolerant now, which has proven particularly beneficial at work. 'Now, if I see somebody unable to do something I don't immediately write them off,' he explains.' 'If I feel myself dismissing somebody, I hold my breath and ask them at least three questions to see if there's more to them. More often than not, after actually starting a conversation with them, I find they're much better than I first thought. Some of our best results have been with the people whom I have had most concerns about in the first place.'
Having repeatedly witnessed the destructive impact that fear could have upon his clients, Graeme was determined to overcome any demons associated with the accident that might inhibit his progress. As soon as he could stand unaided, he resolved to learn to ski again. 'Each winter since the accident, I've gone back and tried things and made a complete prat of myself. But the last three winters have been markedly improved,' he explains. 'I've always loved skiing, but now one of the added joys is that when I'm on and around the piste people don't know I'm disabled, because everybody walks like a wally in ski boots.
BACK TO THE SOURCE
In February 2003 Graeme skied his first black run - the steepest and most technical of ski slopes - since the accident. Typically for a man of Graeme's ambition, the slope he chose was the longest in Europe - the 22-kilometre La Sarenne in Les Deux Alpes in France. 'It was absolutely fantastic, I let myself go and just went for it for the first time since the accident,' Graeme recalls. 'I was up front at the head of a group of friends and family all the way down. I really felt that I was virtually back to where I'd been before the accident. At the bottom my wife said it was like watching the old Graeme ski again. That was glorious to hear, I literally had tears running down my cheeks.'
WHAT'S YOUR BLACK RUN
Graeme looks back on the black run as a seminal moment on his journey to recovery - an achievement few would ever have believed possible in the months after his accident. And it's something he regularly draws on when working to motivate his clients. 'I often ask people to name their black run - an achievement that would both delight and surprise them - and then work backward from there,' he explains. 'Everyone throws up all these barriers, such as lack of support from the directors, and I tell them "I was told by the experts that I would never walk again, but here I am". It's all about convincing people that their dreams are possible.' |
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