Keith Williams’ interview on leadership was compered by Matthew O’Neill from The Leaders Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Headed by the inspirational Lord Blunkett, the Leaders Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland brings together the most influential figures from across the country. It celebrates the hard work and achievements of the nation’s leaders, while laying the ground for the next generation.
In a short but wide ranging interview Keith spoke of the qualities that he feels important to the principles of leadership both in an organisation and specifically in terms of design leadership in the context of his career as an architect and head of Keith Williams Architects.
Asked to cite those that influenced him most, Keith spoke of inspirational leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi as setting examples which it was impossible to emulate, whilst he touched on their core humanity which drove them through their struggles.
He explored the subject of leadership, which he likened to the role of a conductor of an orchestra or a film director, surrounding himself with clever people but giving vision and form to the process of design and the energy and drive to take a project from early thoughts to ultimate completion.
He spoke of the greatest challenges facing the profession of architecture and the wider construction industry and the dilemma of climate change which he saw as a far wider global and societal issue of which architecture and construction was part. He felt that though much progress on low carbon and low energy design and construction standards had been made in recent years, compared to the challenges that we face, the industry was barely at the starting gate and needs to greatly up its game.
Keith Williams’ interview on leadership can be found as a podcast on Youtube and Spotify.
Youtube: Keith Williams’ interview
Spotify: Keith Williams’ interview