Under The Spotlight: Jazz Singh, The Future Leaders Club

ANNABEL WATTERS

MARKETING MANAGER

Each month we showcase some of the fantastic stories our community of business owners and professionals have to share. This month Jazz Singh, the CEO and Founder of the Future Leaders Club speaks to Virtalent about his social enterprise, what drives him day to day and how he carved out his niche. Hi Jazz, could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do? Hi, my name is Jazz Singh. I am the CEO and Founder of the Future Leaders Club. The Future Leaders Club is a Birmingham based social enterprise helping people and organisations develop their leadership capacity and talent. Since our formation in 2013, we have been providing a range of unique events and programmes to unleash the leader within. We provide:

Forward Thinking Leaders Programme for new and emerging leaders within organisations for their employee development.
AddVenture Launchpad to help communities and organisations tackle challenges through Design Thinking events.
Monthly Leaders Edge talks with thought leaders.
#LeadersHour, a weekly Twitter chat focused on all things leadership.
Local Leaders Awards, an award ceremony to honour Third Sector and community leaders.

Thank you. It looks like you have a lot going on at The Future Leaders Club. So, what does a typical day look like for you? My typical day is a combination of meeting people in a variety of settings. This includes attending community events; attending meetings; coaching and mentoring students, clients et al; speaking at events as a guest speaker, and delivering our leadership events and programmes. It seems you get to spend a lot of time meeting new people. Yes, my typical day is spent hanging out with people in many different environments. And, it is what I love doing: meeting and speaking with lots and lots of people. My evenings usually involve relaxing at home; a light workout; some easy cooking and watching a movie with the family. It sounds like you have extremely packed days, you must really love what you do. Why exactly did you choose to work in your industry? There are three core reasons why I chose to work in my industry. Firstly, I am seriously passionate about leadership. The whole notion of leadership both excites and intrigues me. What leadership is; how it is practised and why; what it can achieve; its impact on people and the world; and what the future of leadership might look like. Second, due to my personal negative experiences, I feel strongly about helping people who need support developing themselves and their careers, especially those who are disadvantaged in some way. I want to do my fair share to help people progress in their lives, enabling them to go on to inspire and support others; their family, their community; their world. And finally, the world is crying out for better leadership in all hemispheres across the globe. A single day does not pass without poor leadership being blamed for many challenges families, communities and the world are facing today. From disgruntled citizens, unhappy with their politicians, to customers annoyed by their bankers, to frustrated employees mad about the lack of engagement with their bosses, leadership takes the brunt of all this negativity. At Future Leaders Club, we aim to do our part to inspire and develop future leaders who care about people, our communities and our world, through an alternative to conventional leadership development programmes.

“Sheena, our Virtalent Assistant, has been working with us for a number of months now. Simply put, Sheena is absolutely amazing – a godsend.”

You sound so passionate about what you do. As with any new venture I sure it hasn’t been a smooth and straightforward path. What has been your biggest challenge since starting your company? My biggest challenge since starting my company has been identifying where my organisation sits in the learning, training and development sector and then honing in on our niche. Establishing this has been tough and has taken over two years to crack. We now feel more comfortable with ‘why’ we do what we do and have developed and adapted our product range to suit our niche sub-section of the market. Amazing, identifying that core niche is definitely a huge step. So what does the future look like? What is your vision or long-term aim for the business? My long-term (5-10 years) aim for the business is to have a Future Leaders Club in various cities across the globe, positively impacting the personal and professional growth of thousands of people across the world. And empowering them to become leaders the world needs. That sounds like an extremely exciting prospect. May I ask how did you hear about Virtalent? I heard about Virtalent whilst being part of a start-up incubator in Birmingham. Aha! A fellow Birmingham business! So, after finding Virtalent what tasks and projects have we been supporting you with? How has this support changed the way you work? Sheena, our Virtalent Assistant, has been working with us for a number of months now. Simply put, Sheena is absolutely amazing – a godsend. Sheena’s support is just what we needed at a time when we were in desperate need of someone with extensive marketing and business expertise. She has both. Sheena has helped us with developing and implementing a marketing strategy for two big events in November 2017. And crucially, refreshing and upgrading our branding and strategy. With Sheena’s varied and wide knowledge and experience in marketing, training and development, branding and business strategy, the Future Leaders Club is now in a far better position. The future looks much brighter for us now. I am grateful to Sheena and colleagues at Virtalent.