|
|
Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
30 July 2024
|
Here at Clore Social Leadership we partner with coaches that are passionate about delivering impactful leadership development across the social sector with our Find a Coach offer.
The benefits of coaching for leadership development are undeniable. Numerous studies have supported this, reporting that coaching boosts productivity by 44%; 80% of people who experienced coaching reported increased self-confidence, whilst over 70% benefited from improved work performance and increased communication skills.
But what is coaching? Whether delivered in person or online, coaching provides an opportunity to address day-to-day challenges, overcome strategic roadblocks, and seize new opportunities in one 1:2:1 environment. The sessions are used to interrogate your chosen topic through lines of questioning, leading to an exploration of the potential solutions and next steps that can be trialled in real time.
"Coaching has helped me to pause and ask myself the bigger questions before running headlong into big decisions, and I’ve used the open questions in lots of strategically difficult moments since to great effect!" - Clore Social Leadership coaching participant
At Clore Social Leadership, we work with coaches from across the UK who specialise in a variety of topics that are commonplace in the social sector, including but not limited to, navigating uncertainty, seizing new opportunities, team wellbeing, future planning, women in leadership, behaviour change, resilience, goal setting and burnout.
If you are still on the fence about coaching, below you can learn more about the impact of coaching and how it can benefit you and your team:
Increased confidence: Coaching has been hailed for its positive impact on confidence; research found that for senior leaders coaching increased their confidence to navigate opportunities and challenges in their specific leadership role and increased their trust in their direct reports. With social sector leaders required to navigate ever increasing workloads, investing in your ability to delegate and communicate can only be a plus!
Emotional intelligence: Sometimes known as EQ or EI, emotional intelligence is commonly defined as the ability to show self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills. Coaching provides you with the vital space to reflect on your own behaviour and how you read and react to the behaviour of those around you, equipping you to navigate a sector where emotional intelligence is vital not just internally, but when working with your beneficiaries and stakeholders.
Career planning and development: If you’re feeling stretched it can be tricky to find the time to consider your next career move, relating to your initial passion for your organisation's cause. Making space to discuss what your progression looks like with a third party can be invaluable. Your coach can support you in exploring opportunities and help you find an appropriate route to your next career move, reestablishing your driving force behind working in the social sector.
Goal setting: For many, contentment lies in having something to look forward to. However, ‘keeping your head above water’ has become commonplace for so many in the social sector. Coaching can provide you with the opportunity to discuss what you really want from your career, considering what goals can support you in seeing the bigger picture, aligning your professional ‘why’ with your personal values.
Conflict resolution: Conflict in the workplace is almost unavoidable. You are bringing together a diverse set of strangers and asking them to work towards the same vision, and once you consider the sensitive and complex issues so many in the social sector are grappling with - there is bound to be a difference in opinion. When conflicts do arise, it is easy to make snap decisions in the heat of the moment. However, coaching can provide a unique time to step back and reflect, either in hindsight or before the conflict is resolved, allowing you time to holistically evaluate what is really happening. The intention is that you can then take these learnings with you to your workplace in realtime to encourage a more constructive dialogue.
Incredibly, these aren’t all the benefits of coaching, improved productivity, communication, accountability, motivation, collaboration and employee retention are just some of the other benefits of coaching that are commonly cited by coaches, participants and organisations who engage with this professional development tool.
So if you think coaching could be for you, why not begin by exploring the experienced coaches on Find a Coach, all passionate about supporting the development of individuals from across the social sector, wherever you are on your career journey.
Tags:
challenges
coaching
Leadership
skills
socialsector
tips
Permalink
|
|
|
Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
22 August 2022
Updated: 19 August 2022
|
Relationship Management skills are -- you guessed it -- all about managing your relationships with others. These skills can include teamwork and collaboration; conflict management; and influencing and inspiring others. Good relationship management skills are contingent on both self-awareness and social-awareness skills. In other words, one needs the ability to recognise one’s own emotions and the feelings of others in order to effectively manage the relationship in between.
Good working relationships create a great work environment, which impacts all parts of the organisation. Conversely, bad working relationships can contribute to a toxic work environment and negatively affect the organisation’s work. Take a look at the example below to get a better understanding of the importance of relationship management.
Case Study: Soraia
Soraia had recently secured a new management role at a mid-sized charity and had a direct report -- Henry -- for the first time in her career. She had worked hard to become more self aware and spent a lot of time thinking reflectively about her own strengths and weaknesses. However, she never had to ‘manage down’ or learn how to manage such a relationship.
Soraia didn’t worry about this much as she feels she has a strong reflective practice. But soon Henry began submitting subpar work that didn’t match her brief, and seemed disengaged from the organisation as a whole. After consulting with a mentor, Soraia realised that she hadn’t put any effort into managing her working relationship with Henry. She never took the time to get to know him nor explained to him the reasons behind certain decisions. She was also afraid to ask for or provide feedback, which led to a confusing and uncertain work environment for Henry. She has never engaged her direct report, and that’s why he appeared disengaged!
Once she realised this, Soraia put effort into sensing Henry’s moods and feelings about certain projects. She could sense hesitation about certain projects and encouraged questions; eventually, they developed a much friendlier working relationship and Henry felt comfortable enough to express his concerns about his role, their department, and their projects. This gave Soraia the opportunity to explain why things were done in certain ways, and to reflect on his insights.
Developing both self awareness and social awareness is the first step in improving your relationship management skills. Once you’ve done that, you can take your relationship management skills a step further by learning how to: inspire and guide others; initiate change; be an influential leader; learn how to manage conflicts; and practice good teamwork.
Those behaviours are all rooted in self awareness, social awareness and reflection, but there are some specific skills to add to your personal development arsenal. For example, developing your communication skills can help you ease conflict, inspire others and become more influential. Similarly, learning how to assess context is the first step to initiating and managing change.
Relationship Management is a crucial element of management in the social sector. Our Management Essentials programme covers six of the most relevant skills needed including management at all levels.
Tags:
charitysector
collaboration
influence
management
Permalink
|
|
|
Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
05 August 2022
|
Self-awareness is the ability to see yourself objectively, including your strengths, weaknesses, and preferred leadership style. Self-awareness is developed through a careful and deliberate examination of yourself and how you relate to others.
Self-awareness is the core of the Clore Social Leadership Development Model and the foundation of personal growth. Understanding yourself is key to understanding others, and therefore to generous leadership behaviours. Fundamentally, this means knowing where your strengths and weaknesses lie. In the workplace, this often translates into accepting feedback graciously; understanding and empathising with your team; and being confident in your abilities.
Take Hugo and Kate as examples. Hugo is Head of Programmes at his organisation and often attends Trustee Meetings to provide an update on programme activities. For a recent meeting, he asked his direct report Kate to write a monitoring and evaluation report. However, Kate became busy with other projects and failed to provide the report in time for the meeting. How might self-awareness, or a lack of, affect Hugo and Kate’s working relationship in this situation?
Interestingly, researchers have shown that a lack of self-awareness actually leads to an inflated sense of one’s abilities. Many un-self-aware people won’t accept critical feedback; cannot understand others’ perspective; and will take credit for successes whilst blaming others for failures.
In the example above, Kate lacked the self-awareness to realise that she did not have the time to take on an additional assignment or would need to manage her time in order to make the deadline. If she had, she might have let Hugo know early on that she would need to deprioritise another task in order to complete it.
If Hugo also suffers from a deficit of self-awareness, he might not be able to relate to the pressure Kate was under, and blame her for neglecting to manage her time. He might even throw her under the bus to the Trustees and let them know why they do not have the report.
Research suggests that both internal and external self-awareness is one of the most critical elements of effective leadership. Acknowledging your skills and limitations as a leader enables you to be proactive about self-development and focus on improving your leadership skills.
In addition, having greater self-awareness can lead to stronger relationships with peers, as it increases your listening and communication skills. Self-awareness is also linked to the ability to project thoughts, feelings, desires and other mental states onto others--in other words, being aware of your own mental processes better enables you to empathise with and relate to others.
Let’s return to Hugo and Kate. Upon missing her deadline, Kate could show self-awareness by acknowledging that she made a mistake, why it happened, and how she could avoid making the same mistake in the future. She could also take concrete steps to improve her time management skills, as she has now identified this as a potential area of development.
Hugo, for his part, could try to understand why Kate did not come to him earlier, and what pressure she might be under to finish her tasks on time. He could self-evaluate to see where he could help as a manager, and work with her to improve her communication and time management skills.
Increased self-awareness is one of the key outcomes of our Emerging Leader programme. Commencing October 2022, the six-month programme is designed to help emerging leaders build their leadership potential, strengthen their networks, and drive social change. If you, or a relevant colleague, are looking to develop your leadership potential then we invite you to find out more about the upcoming programme.
Tags:
casestudy
challenges
change
perspective
Permalink
|
|
|
Posted By Miranda Lewis,
19 July 2022
|
In delivering management and leadership training for our clients, we come across people grappling with similar issues, irrespective of the organisations they work for.
Here we’ve set out ten of the most common challenges that come up for people in the voluntary sector. Of course, many of these are similar to the management issues in any sector. However, m2's experience suggests, that the challenges can be more acute in the hard-pressed, resource-poor and politicised context in which we all work. We also know that new managers are often not given the training and support to deal with these challenges effectively. This is why when we worked with Clore Social Leadership to develop the Management Essentials programme, these experiences were front of mind.
- Insufficient time and capacity dedicated to management: managers are frequently promoted because they are good at their jobs, without the necessary support in place to grow into their new role. In a sector with tight capacity, taking on management responsibility can be the only route to promotion but there is often little acknowledgement of the challenges in holding a delivery and management role.
- Discomfort with power dynamics: understanding, naming and discussing the power dynamics inherent in a management structure is often particularly difficult in a sector where there can be a discomfort about wielding power. This can be even more apparent in non-hierarchical organisations, where a deliberate lack of formal structure does not always equate to an absence of the interplay between authority and autonomy. These dynamics can make it more challenging for managers to feel comfortable questioning performance or offering advice.
- Decision-making: making decisions can also be impacted by this lack of clarity over power and who holds it, leading to over-consultation and under-engagement. For managers, not being clear as to which decisions they are empowered to make - and how - can be a significant source of stress. At the same time, team members can feel very frustrated by a vacuum created by indecision and procrastination.
- Balancing empathy and effectiveness: how to manage individual needs and the opportunity for flexibility whilst at the same time delivering an effective service is an ongoing challenge for many managers. It is one that has been particularly highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic where personal circumstances became (literally) visible and have required additional support from managers. We have heard many managers and leaders talking about how they have taken on more work themselves during this period rather than place yet more pressure on staff. This may be a particularly acute issue in the voluntary sector where staff are deeply aware of the impact of reducing services upon the people they work with and for.
- Lack of consistency: finding ways of ensuring that difference is respected whilst equality is ensured can feel challenging to managers. Holding the balance between individual, team and task is not always easy - and made harder where there are any historic inconsistencies between teams or departments.
- Differing communication styles: organisational cultures can inadvertently prize particular communication styles over others without this being made explicit. This can prevent people with a different style from effectively contributing their ideas and energy, particularly in team or organization-wide meetings
- Organisational values in conflict with practice: challenge, disagreement and discussion are a necessary part of a sector grappling with systemic issues. This can, however, lead to situations where the values espoused are not put into practice, or as the recent controversies over racism, sexism and bullying in the sector have revealed, are in direct conflict with the reality staff are experiencing day-to-day. There can be a deep sense of betrayal for staff caught up in this - and stress for managers supporting them through this.
- Giving constructive feedback: giving feedback that enables people to develop and grow, without knocking their confidence, is an issue that arises in every training session we run. There can be particular anxiety attached to giving feedback around issues perceived to be about behaviour rather than performance, as this can feel so personal. Using organisational values as a means to open these conversations up can be a valuable tool – many organisations however (particularly smaller ones) have not necessarily had the capacity to formally set out their values, or as set out above, values are not widely put into practice.
- Lack of support for ‘middle managers’: particularly where values and practice are not aligned, middle managers can feel trapped and unprotected - caught between supporting their teams, and defending organisational approaches they may not agree with. Finding ways to manage upwards effectively is a key skill, but not one that is often nurtured.
- Lack of space and time for reflection: the pressures to deliver, and awareness of need, can make finding time to pause feel impossible for managers. Again, the pandemic has exacerbated this with the resulting lack of in-between spaces - time spent walking between meetings, travelling between client visits or commuting. This has made the opportunity to think about practice, self-awareness and strategy - rather than delivery - even more scarce.
Miranda Lewis is a Director and Partner of m2 consultants (www.m2consultants.uk) who deliver the Management Essentials Programme on behalf of Clore Social Leadership.
Tags:
management
skills
tips
Permalink
|
|
|
Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
27 September 2021
Updated: 23 September 2021
|
We believe that coaching is an important skill for leaders and managers.
To create a ‘leaderful’ organisation people need to co-create the ‘plan’ and in particular you need to enable yourself by adopting a ‘coaching’ style with your team. You will co-develop goals and objectives that are fully understood and have been built through a shared exploration of options. Once you have the plan you need to let go of some control and support and coach people to deliver results.
If you immediately think - “yes but...I just don’t have time, my team is under pressure, we’ll do this later” - think again!
People give all kinds of reasons: I feel underappreciated, I’m misunderstood, I don’t learn, grow and develop, I’m fed up with being micromanaged. Managers and their direct reports are usually frustrated by the same things - from different angles.
The conditions people have faced over the last year have also affected their expectations of you as their leader. As the workplace changes so do people’s daily experiences and their expectations of you as their line manager, leader - and all indications suggest that the skills of an Empowering Enabler have never been more important.
The social sector is ideally placed to benefit from the shift towards ‘leaderful’ workplaces, somewhere where people are trusted to take the actions needed to deliver on the mission.
The more you empower your team the more time you will have to focus on the future.
To anticipate the future needs of your clients, the focus of your organisation needs to serve the mission and to develop the right conditions for people to learn and be able to ‘lead’ from wherever they are. Your job as their ‘leader’ is to:
- Ensure that people know what they’re doing
- Understand why they’re doing what they are doing
- Develop each individual’s capacity to develop the skills and capabilities to have the confidence to figure out how they enact their tasks
Coaching skills are the key to unlocking the potential of your team.
Your team needs to understand what needs to be done and how to figure out how to do it. Your job is to support them. You need to listen, ask questions, be curious, support and, where necessary, move obstacles out of the way. Your people know what is in the way, you have the power to enable them.
If you're looking to develop your coaching skills, take a look at our 4-week Leader as Coach course. This short course will help you understand the key aspects of coaching to help your team lead social change.
Tags:
Coaching
Leadership
skills
Permalink
|
|
Blog Home
All Blogs
RSS