Former BBC Director-General speaks to Kingston students

Former BBC Director-General Greg Dyke spoke to Kingston University students about how to become a great leader.

Elena Blagoeva

Mr Dyke taught students the skill of target achievement in a lecture at Kingston Hill campus last Thursday. The lecture was originally planned to be held in February but Mr Dyke could not attend as he was in hosptial.

Understand money

In his lecture, called Is Having The Right Strategy Enough?, Mr Dyke focused on eight points, explaining how to become a good leader. One of the advices he shared with students was that dealing with money was important. “Understand money. Money is too important to leave to the accountant,” he said.

Leaving school with one A-Level

According to Mr Dyke, educational systems do not breed entrepreneurs, which he is a living example of. Mr Dyke admitted he left school with only one A-Level and entered university at an older age but he achieved great goals in his life. One of them was the creation website Freeview, which enables users to watch TV for free, in only three weeks.

Another of Mr Dykes’s pieces of advice for aspiring loved-by-the-staff leaders was to treat people well. People work better when they are valued, he said.

Be yourself

To become a good leader be yourself, said Mr Dyke. “Never lapse into the language of management and always be honest.” He suggested that the boss should set an example. “Leadership is about the stories they tell about you.”

When Mr Dyke left the BBC, his employees took to the streets in protest. He told KU students that only happy staff equal productive staff; this is why a good leader should convince the people who work for him that they are capable of great achievements. Mr Dyke called this one of the main characteristics a good leader possesses. He said: “If you’re a leader of an organisation you have to care about the people who work for you.”