|
|
Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
13 January 2020
Updated: 07 December 2020
|
January - How might we spark motivation?
We all know that the late winter months can be a difficult time. The excitement of Christmas and New Year are behind us but the days are still short and grey. It can be a time when excitement about work drops and people seem to be just battling through to the spring. So we thought what better time than right now to harness the creativity of our community to think about the challenge of motivation.
So often leaders think of motivation as something to be done to teams. Something that leadership is totally responsible for. Something that comes from the top. But what if we flip this? What if rather than asking how leaders can motivate staff we instead ask how leaders can support staff to find their own motivations - how we spark motivation in others.
What if we think about the tools, processes and even permissions people need to find their motivation? How do we as leaders create these things and what do they look like in real-world settings? This is where you come in.
What we want you to do
Over the next two weeks, we want your best ideas for how we might spark motivation in people. We want to hear about your ideas for techniques, resources, activities or anything else you can think of. Don’t worry your ideas don’t need to be totally thought out, tested or prototyped. We are just looking for those initial thoughts and ideas that have the potential to be great.
Once you’ve got an idea simply go to the Clore Social Forum Facebook group and post it under the topic “Innovation prizes” to share it with the whole community.
As always the best idea will be awarded £200 and will be shared with all the Clore Social community.
Tags:
challenges
change
future
joy
skills
tips
values
wellbeing
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
09 December 2019
Updated: 07 December 2020
|
How do you keep going after 25 years in one sector? How do you know that you are doing a good job? How do you know what your purpose or ‘deepest work’ is? How do you know your next steps in your career? You join the Clore Social Women and Girls programme and you find out!
The programme inspired and challenged me at a fundamental level; being with women from the sector and learning from others’ experiences was deeply challenging and humbling. The Clore Social programme used a variety of interactive learning methods to draw out our experience. From YouTube clips, inspiring speakers, journal articles, homework, workshops, group exercises, coaching, Action Learning Sets and one-to-ones, aided by an abundance of post-its and sharpies, we trawled through a massive amount of content. It’s demanding and requires you to commit… and to juggle your workload.
However, having completed the course, I will claim several things:
- I am more able and willing to step forward knowing that I will fail. One session by Liz Peters enabled us to take big theatrical bow when we got a silly exercise wrong. I’ve taken this to the office and when I take a ‘failure bow’ I make it good. The message is, ‘It’s ok to make mistakes. It’s ok to get it wrong.’ I’ve learned to ask myself, ‘What will you do about it - wallow or learn?’
- I am still learning to say, ‘YES, AND...’ instead of, ‘YES, BUT…’ as this can be a powerful enabler to the team around me.
- I am more aware of my energy and attention and when I work best. After a one-to-one coaching session with the excellent Pat Joseph, I prioritise diary dates, planning and margins and therefore work to my strengths.
- I have accepted more speaking engagements. Using the power poses that Liz emphasised you’ll find me breathing and standing like Wonder Woman before I speak, imagining amazing women cheering me on.
- I am more aware of the strengths and the issues that women with disabilities face thanks to learning from women in our group.
- I am more aware of a ‘systems thinking’ approach after the session with Jennie McShannon. Asking key questions about the root causes of a problem and how we can work together to bring about change comes more naturally to me. I still need further work on this!
- I am more connected and able to offer and receive support from my cohort. Our Action Learning Set will carry on and the five us will keep learning from each other, thanks to Jane Garnham our fantastic facilitator. I have also taken the bold step of training to be an Action Learning Set Facilitator and I’m booked on the training course. I wouldn’t have done that before. I would have discounted myself.
Leaders face an enormous amount of issues, women in leadership even more so. The problems that I arrived with are still there, yet my perspective has shifted. I am more aware of my own and others’ strengths, our purpose and my ‘deepest work’. As a result, I think I can carry on longer in the resilient yet fragile women’s sector which deals with so much trauma and injustice. I know I’m doing a bloody good job and I want to enable others to know that too – including you! If you have read this far then I hope this is prompting you to apply... to get the dates in the diary… to talk with your Trustees...
Most of all, I’ve learned from all these women I have met. I’d like to think they have rubbed off on me, helped me to emerge and not listen to the ‘imposter voice’ that seeks to stop me before I start. What a dreamy and inspiring space to enter! I can’t recommend it more highly. But give it your all, make the most of it, stay curious, you might just find out your ‘deepest work’ and get some tools to help you be the best version of you, failures and all.
Josephine Knowles is the Co-Director (and Co-Founder) of Beyond the Streets, a charity that works with women facing sexual exploitation - and is the organisation’s only Argentine Tango dancer!
Tags:
challenges
change
collaboration
community
fellow
future
programme
skills
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
06 June 2019
Updated: 23 October 2020
|
We all know that crossing the road is easy…right? But what has this got to do with coaching? Well, stay with me and I will explain.
In coaching, we use the GROW model, a widely recognised framework designed to structure coaching sessions. It is an acronym widely used due to its simplicity and usefulness in the coaching process. It stands for Goal, Reality, Options/Opportunities, Way forward/Willingness. It's a great model for understanding your goals and how to reach them, which I have recently had the chance to put into practice.
I have recently had the privilege of going to Cambodia to do some volunteer coaching with SHE Investments, a Social Enterprise making a great impact locally by working with local business women. This was a great opportunity for me and the start of a great adventure which began with simply crossing the road.
As a coach, this was my time to literally walk my talk. Here’s how I crossed the road using the GROW model.
Goal: What do you want?
The goal was set. The Royal Palace, the destination. It was a SMART goal – it was Specific – the Royal Palace, Measurable – I could tick off that I had been there, Achievable, Relevant and Timely. I had the route mapped out and could do it and be back in time for dinner.
Coaching helps you to create SMART goals. Getting the right goal for you and understanding the importance of having this goal to you – is a critical first step to the coaching process.
Reality: Where are you now?
Ok, so I was confident that I knew how to cross the road - I had done it many, many times before. I had graduated to unconscious competence nearly five decades ago. I was good to go.
What I hadn’t bargained for was the traffic in Cambodia’s capital city, Phnom Penh. It is just crazy! These were not like any roads I had ever seen before - there were motorbikes, scooters, tuk-tuks, push bikes, cars, vans all moving …at the same time…at different speeds …in different directions. My brain went into panic mode. Where are the pedestrian crossings? Where is the green man when you want one? OMG I don't want to die! OMG how am I going to do this?
Crossing the road had just become a daunting and scary prospect.
In coaching the first step is to be aware of where you are right now. Checking your reality. What is going on for you in this moment? How are you feeling about that? What is working for you and what is not? What is important about taking this next step? What is the purpose?
Coaching is about moving forward to the next step - and my next step was going to be into a sea of oncoming traffic. I began to question just how much I wanted to see the Royal Palace.
When assessing whether to take the next step or not fear can often hijack the amygdala and stepping out of the comfort zone can seem like a real ‘high stakes’ prospect. In my case it felt pretty real. But real or imagined, the grip of fear can make that comfort zone (or the comfort of my hotel room) seem very appealing.
Options/Opportunities: What could you do?
Decision time. It was time to assess my choices.
Do I just step out with gaze fixed on the other side?
Do I wait until the traffic comes to a grinding halt (that seem unlikely to ever happen)?
Do I walk really slowly? Or
Do I walk really fast to increase my chances of a successful outcome?
Survival. The stakes were high.
Coaching helps to explore choices (and possible consequences). Once the goal has been set and the destination in sight. What then? Options considered – the only real choice is will I do it, or won’t I?
"The time for courage and trust had arrived."
Way forward/Willingness: What will you do?
At some point I needed to actually take the next step. The time for courage and trust had arrived. The edges of the comfort zone had been reached and it was time to step out.
I gripped the arms of my travel friends - safety in numbers right? (Who is around to help?), walked with confidence (‘fake it till you make it’), waited for the flow to ebb - albeit only slightly (assess the risk), reminded myself that although this was a challenge, it was one I was definitely ready for - I was well qualified to do this (substituted negative thoughts ‘OMG I’m going to die’ for more helpful thoughts ‘You can do this. Look at all the other people (including that child just out of nappies) who have managed it successfully.’
Coaching is generative. It is about moving forward. It requires action. It is ok to ponder, and explore and examine and talk out loud...but when all is said and done - what action will follow? The choice to pull back is ever present until you really commit. This stage often requires trust - a willingness to take that first step. Sometimes it might just be to test the waters and (due to some unforeseen motorbike) you might have to jump back on the pavement and wait for a bit before trying again. Sometimes it about striding bolding and committing - half way there, is also half way back - so time to keep walking. The destination is in sight.
So I lived to tell the tale. Coming out of your comfort zone, is really just like crossing the road.
"Coming out of your comfort zone, is really just like crossing the road."
If you are interested in finding out more about stepping out of your comfort zone, you might be interested in reading – Dare to Lead by Brene Brown in which she talks about the importance of choosing ‘courage over comfort’, or Emotional Agility by Susan David, which discusses ‘showing up and stepping out’
And if you want to try stepping out of your comfort zone, we have recently launched the Backpack, which includes a number of tools that offer as a step-by-step guide to tackle social leadership challenges in practice. These tools can hopefully help you cross the road on your own leadership journey.
Tags:
casestudy
challenges
change
coaching
courage
future
tips
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
03 June 2019
Updated: 23 October 2020
|
There’s a wonderful scene in the opening of Disney’s new remake of Aladdin where Aladdin, with a sparkle in his eye and a cheeky smile, takes his first leap across the rooftops in the song “One Jump Ahead”.
My daughters watched entranced, caught up in the magic and wonder of the film. I loved it too, and it got me thinking about the very human story of a plucky, courageous boy – fighting against conventions and assumptions and using his confidence and playfulness to help him reach his goals (with a little help from a Genie of course!). It struck me that this is what we ask of our social leaders who join Clore Social on our programmes – to take that first jump into exploring what it takes to develop inspirational, empowering and passionate leadership capabilities; to stretch themselves to take that bold step on their leadership development journey.
What we can’t provide on our programmes is Genie magic (although it’s something we are working on!), but when Will Smith’s endearing Genie says “you look like a Prince on the outside, but I didn’t change anything on the inside,” he strikes right at the heart of the Clore Social approach to leadership. Knowing himself, and being an authentic leader, is central to Aladdin’s success.
‘Know yourself, be yourself, look after yourself’ lies at the heart of the Clore Social leadership development model. Greater self awareness can help you build your resilience so that you can respond flexibly to the challenges you face. And “courageous changemaker” is one of the key components of our leadership capabilities framework. On our programmes, participants discover what it takes to lead with courage, and we have fun with it too, reigniting the playful aspect of work, with a sparkle in our eye – Aladdin style!
This summer we are setting a challenge to social leaders across the country through our #leadershipstartsnow campaign. We are asking you to take that same running jump that Aladdin did and take the next bold step on your leadership journey. We want to galvanise leaders across the social and non-profit sector to join our growing community of change-makers who are making an impact on their organisations, communities and the world around them.
To help you, we have thrown open the doors of Clore Social and through our online Backpack resource have made available our most impactful tools gathered from ten years of running innovative leadership programmes.
In the Backpack you will find some great ideas for developing your leadership capabilities; and a new series of videos featuring Clore Social staff and coaches will give you inspiration to take your leadership to the next level.
With the recent Unite survey reporting that 80 per cent of charity workers saying they have experienced workplace stress and more than 40 per cent of them saying their jobs are damaging their mental health, there is no better time to take that “one jump ahead” on your leadership journey.
Dip in and see what you can find – and share your favourite tools with your network. We hope you’ll find a bit of Genie magic sparkle in there too!
Blog by Victoria Flint, Director of Marketing and Communications, Clore Social Leadership
Tags:
change
courage
future
programme
skills
wellbeing
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
|
Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
14 November 2018
Updated: 23 October 2020
|
Blog by Louise Drake, Director of Programmes & Leadership Innovation at Clore Social Leadership.
Joy, by definition is ‘a feeling of great pleasure and happiness'. You might be thinking what place does a blog about leadership have to do with joy?
In my opinion, joy is one of the most overlooked areas of leadership development for leaders and the people they lead. I want to convince you to focus on a little bit of joy everyday.
In my role as Director of Programmes and Leadership Innovation, I have the pleasure of working with people enacting their leadership for the benefit of our society’s most disadvantaged and marginalised people. They work tirelessly, often behind the scenes and for most of these leaders life is one lived in a state of survival. And, as you can imagine the concept of joy can be one which is far from their mindset when I meet them.
At Clore Social we use a Leadership Development Model designed by leadership experts that we’ve used consistently for over a decade.. The centre of our model is ‘Know Yourself, Be Yourself, Look After Yourself’ which is the concept we start with on all of our programmes. Within ‘Know Yourself, Be Yourself’ we focus on theories, research and practice from emotional intelligence, emotional agility and authenticity, to name but a few. All of which are rational, have evidence bases and make sense when reflecting on and applying leadership learning.
When we begin to focus on ‘Look After Yourself’ and concepts such as scepticism, doubt and the physical manifestation of how uncomfortable the theme makes people as they squirm in their seats begins. For people who tirelessly work in the service of others, the thought of dedicating any time to ‘self’ joy and happiness often strikes them as counter-intuitive. I admit that it also goes against commonly held beliefs and images of ‘Leader’ and ‘Leadership’. When was the last time you saw a joyful leader?
Dedicating time to focus on leadership development, for most, feels like a luxury. To add the concept of ‘looking after yourself’ seems extravagant, if not almost decadent. It is not.
As a leader it is your role to be ‘RESPONSE-ABLE’ as well as responsible. RESPONSE-ABLE coined in the book ‘Productivity Ninja’ means ‘to be able to respond’. True leadership happens in times of crisis and times of opportunity. We have all witnessed the rise and subsequent fall of a promising leadership from a crisis that just was not handled in a RESPONSE-ABLE way.
How as a leader are you able to ensure you are RESPONSE-ABLE? One way is to ‘Look after yourself’ physically and mentally. There is a whole host of things that count as looking after yourself, such as getting enough sleep, eating nutritious food and taking regular exercise, however a fundamental thing such as joy and en-joy-ing life can easily be overlooked in the pursuit of achievement and success, especially if what you do at work brings you a sense of purpose and other people’s lives literally depend on you.
I promise by bringing more joy into your life, even if it is small moments of joy everyday, you will feel more motivated, less overwhelmed, more creative and likely to see yourself become more RESPONSE-ABLE. Don’t believe me? Most people don’t until they give it a go.
My challenge, if you choose to accept is to commit to building more joy into your life in the next two weeks and reflect back to see what difference it has made to you, your leadership and those around you.
Tags:
change
culture
future
joy
values
wellbeing
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
Blog Home
All Blogs
RSS