I went to a Leadership Jersey event the other week in a “Celestial Hall” that was neither celestial, nor incidentally, a hall, but that’s by the by.

I’m always skeptical of any event that doesn’t include hot canapes, especially for £30 per ticket, but I couldn’t fault the turnout, the spirit of the organiser,  or the networking beforehand where the tall men always crowd into groups and forget to introduce me until I tug at their sleeves like a small child. My sparkling water and tea were very nice indeed.

The panellists (3 out of 4 of them correctly being recognised as “ladies!” by the excellent keynote speaker), were all there to give their views about what makes a leader in the behemoth that is Jersey’s financial services industry, and we had some predictable answers – a “mandate” being one. Oh, the irony.

Happily, though, they had ensured that the “ladies” on the panel consisted of a blonde, a brunette and a redhead to maximise on diversity. You had to smile. One of them was even wearing a statement necklace to take her effortlessly from day to night time.

The panellists were speaking as leaders and were chosen because they had each reached a certain level within the industry.  In other words,  to many, they’re home and dry.

But what about those who look up to you and whom you lead every day? Let me make the following suggestions about terms that should apply to all leaders, whether in the public, private or charitable sectors, and what these terms mean to me:

• Innovative;
• Visible – especially in Jersey;
• Approachable;
• Transparent (not literally, that would be odd);
• Courageous;
• Lead from the front, not just from any coffee shop in the Island after you have popped into the office for half an hour;
• Philanthropic; (when you can, see below).

I was surprised that the terms above weren’t identified and used more, because for me they are synonymous with good, even great, leadership and they really matter, which is why you have to revisit them and ask yourself, can you identify with them?  And if not, what are your terms of leadership?  Or ask yourself, in the dreaded 360 appraisal, how would your staff describe you as a leader?

This lead me to thinking about how I define a leader and the disconnect that can arise between leaders and their staff,  or indeed leaders and their Island if we put it in the context of Jersey.  I don’t think that I have ever witnessed a greater gulf between our States Members, their civil servants and voters than that today; or indeed between them and their country, as we’re currently witnessing in the US every time Donald Trump heads towards his Twitter account.

Back to the Celestial Hall.  I have a golden rule at these events; I never, ever ask questions.  I always think that other people have more sense to make and better points to put across.  But on this occasion I was simply enraged by comments from the audience such as: “I think that everyone ought to go to Harvard business school when on sabbatical” (!) plus the obligatory back slapping. And so, I asked for the microphone.

I simply could not understand how a room with so many leaders in it could not seem to identify and grasp some simple ideas that, in my opinion, would make Jersey a much more pleasant place to live in – and why they can’t Just Do It, as the Nike slogan goes?

So, in a voice that didn’t sound much like my own, I asked why there wasn’t more philanthropy (and by this I don’t mean teams giving a day to a charity in matching t-shirts every year); I mean heavy duty, hands in corporate pockets, millions of pounds investment sort of stuff.  I gave the example of the Mittal wing at the Great Ormond Street Hospital – a great example of big giving with a clear benefit to patients, the government and to Mittal Industries itself.  And wasn’t one of the hallmarks of leadership being brave and just doing something innovative – sometimes for the benefit of others?

Where is the HSBC/NatWest/Lloyds/Barclays wing for the new hospital in Jersey, that is being inexplicably re-developed on the same site it’s on already? Has anyone from Jersey’s government actually been to talk to an Island-based bank or big-hitting business and said, “Hands up, we’re desperate on this capital project, but this is your chance to donate and to do some great PR around it.” I don’t know the answer to that question, but I really hope it has been asked.

Anyway, I wasn’t going to let the mic go any time soon – I was on a roll and I was angry.  I mentioned student loans.

For those of you who don’t know, there is currently only one bank in Jersey who will lend on a deferred repayment, low-interest basis to students who are going off-Island to complete an approved course of further education.  I couldn’t get a loan from them the other year as a mature student reading for a post graduate course, and it was only due to the generosity of my employer that I was able to meet my fees.  I had also been a customer of this bank for 30 years plus – and it didn’t make a jot of difference.

My simple idea was this:  Why can’t all the major clearing banks with a Jersey presence, work with the States of Jersey in a public / private partnership to back a collective student loan scheme and spread what the States sees as “risk” (which made me smile post-Innovation Fund) to loan money to students who would then be more likely to return to the Island and work with / for them?  God forbid that we have employees of the future who might wish to come back and work here!

I then said, and shouldn’t you be doing this not because you as a business can, but because you should? It all went a bit quiet, although to be fair a few people came up afterwards and said: “Good question”.

The keynote speaker kindly described my ideas as “creative” and one of the panel said that it was something that they could “talk about”. And this is the problem.  Anyone who knows me that I absolutely love talking. But sometimes, you have to stop talking and start doing. In other words, be brave. Be innovative. Be courageous. Stand up and be counted – and be a leader.