HiP Club in New York City

A couple weeks back, JWT New York hosted our 2012 High Potential group, recently rebranded as the HiP Club, bringing together 30 talented JWTers from our offices in Europe, Latin America, Middle East/Africa and North America for leadership training, networking and a taste of the city.

As part of the launch of worldmade, there has been a renewed focus on developing our worldwide talent. Now in its ninth year, the High Potential Program aims to recognize, reward, train and develop top talent within the JWT family for future leadership positions.

So what does a leadership training event like the one we held really entail? Firstly, it gave our HiPs a chance to spend time with Bob Jeffrey, our Worldwide CEO, along with other key JWT leaders, allowing them to gain valuable insight into what it really means to be a leader.

Personal goal-setting is at the heart of leadership, so we brought in a personal coach to work with the group to help them really hone in on where they are now, where they want to be, and what steps they can put in place to get there. Honest profiling and discussion helped our participants gain a fundamental understanding of who they really are, and how best to develop their own leadership skills.

When we talk about JWT being worldmade, we talk about the influence and spark of creativity that happens when you blend together people from different cultures, backgrounds and skill sets.

It was truly inspiring to see this happen in real time as our HiPs came together and laid the foundation of what I know will be a strong and productive high potential community in 2012 and beyond. The energy in the room during the program was both palpable and exhilarating.

Earlier this year, our Asia Pacific region also held a two-day regional HiP Club leadership event in Kuala Lumpur. The HiPs focused their attention on how to be more effective leaders in a program based on Stephen Covey’s book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

To ensure these learnings stick with our HiPs well after the leadership events, we provide the necessary resources and training throughout the year on both regional and local levels. Come 2013, our current HiPs will be well equipped to serve as mentors for the incoming class.

I am so proud of the support and commitment from our network. It is imperative in helping deliver programs and initiatives like the HiP Club, to nurture our worldmade talent.