Mr. Andrew Stotter Brooks, Vice President- Learning and Development, at Etihad Aviation Group, joined us all at a webinar Saturday, December 12, 2020; an HR Professional with more than 30 years of Senior Human Resources Management Practice in Retail, Hospitality, Leisure and Aviation.
We Connect is Westford’s effort to give its learners the best learning environment. These sessions facilitate the programs available at Westford. With the current disruption in the industry, traditional ways of working have become things of the past. The entire employee journey will have to be planned as the HR gets ready for the new challenges that come along with a distributed virtual atmosphere. In our most recent We Connect Session, Andrew spoke to us about how the function of HR will emerge again after COVID-19 situation.
Leading up Abu Dhabi and Etihad Aviation Companies, he worked for 7 years with, the Alshaya Company, as the Head of Learning, supporting the professional outgrowth of more than 90,000 team members across 19 countries. In summation of his professional growth work with Alshaya, Hilton, YUM, and P&O, he has been an Executive Business Coach at the American University Dubai, Greenwich, and Nottingham Universities, Rolls Royce and Bass. People development is his passion, encouraging others to overcome real and perceived challenges, as well as foster an environment of trust and the ability to avoid ambiguity.
Having had such extensive knowledge, Andrew emphasized a wide variety of topics – from leadership to coaching to business resilience, all the way to a few tips to sustain and emerge stronger from the global pandemic. Coaching is a lot different than teaching. The coach does it and we listen, we learn and we do what we want.” Andrew spoke of the need to know when and why to coach. He employed an analogy, “When you’re attempting to fix the locomotive on a plane, we don’t have only one instrument. Coaching is just like that; one requires to have a variegated range of instruments. In fact, the greatest challenge is to think, which method to use when.” As businesses get by financially and emotionally with the global pandemic, Andrew confirms that the leadership position is at the crest – the most important. The desire to be a better leader comes from listening carefully and compassion. He provides insight into his 30 years of experience and points out,” that a leader, must be, a master of the process, and not a master, of the problem.” He also points out the importance of business and employee agility. Believing that change is inevitable, he thinks, “that change is a great product of realization-where the position of leader and coach arises.”
Such sessions facilitate what Westford does. In conformity with this session, learners can find the best of the following modules, both at the undergraduate and at the master’s level.
- Business and Business Environment
- Global Business Environment
- Strategic Human Resource Management
- Operations Management
These 4 modules are well linked, to the webinar series as they help our learners to contextually relate ideas, concepts, and fundamentals to the cases alluded to it during the learning sessions. Industry expert discussions provide a forum where our learners can delve deeper into the questions and answers and assert a range of solutions and results.
Here’s a look at the very indulgent Q&A with Mr. Andrew –
One of our MBA students asked, “What should new graduates focus on when searching for a job after COVID-19?” Andrew gave two brief pieces of advice-
- “Ask many questions – ask your interviewer what they want to accomplish.”
- As a learner, you need to know what he or she wants to learn and take personal responsibility.”
Another learner was enthusiastic about which books are proposed for personal development, to which Andrew replied:
- I could think of so many. Start with 7 Highly Effective Habits of Successful People and Who Moved My Cheese”
Get to know more about how you can make the best of your qualifications and career. Speak to our advisors and map your journey at Westford University College.
