|
|
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)
|
|
|
Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
09 May 2017
Updated: 22 October 2020
|
I was full of energy: I was careless, content, excited, and enthusiastic. Then I was born. From that moment on I began to be shaped and moulded in to what other people wanted me to be.
This might sound dramatic, but take a minute to think about it. As a child, were you ever so angry or upset that all you wanted to do was scream and shout? Did you then learn that this wasn’t appropriate? Why wasn’t it appropriate? Were you told to sit still in restaurants when every atom of your being wanted to run around and play? As we grow older, we start to behave as other people want us to, we listen more to the external cues than what our bodies are telling us on the inside.
When I first entered the workplace, little had changed in this regard. I was still listening to what the outside world was expecting of me. I put on the suit and tie, wore smart shoes, gradually (though unintentionally) diluted my regional accent, and generally behaved as I thought an office-based 9-5 working man should behave.
It didn’t matter that the shoes were uncomfortable and that I couldn’t afford the suits on a junior officer’s wage, I did what I thought the outside world was telling me to do and it paid off. I was rewarded for my efforts, and before I knew it I had landed a management role and now the outside world had something different to say.
'You’re a manager now; time for a nicer suit to match the bigger shoes. Maybe don’t go to the pub for Friday drinks – none of the other managers do.'
I continued listening to this voice and behaving in ways that I felt I was expected to. I wasn’t curious as to why I needed a different suit or why I needed a team to be in the office and at their desks, and I didn’t have the courage to challenge the norm.
I began to feel like Clark Kent. At work I donned the suit and played the role of friendly and productive colleague, but I had a secret – outside of work I laughed and I played. OK I didn’t wear a cape and fight the forces of evil, but I was somebody different to the person I was in the office.
In my early career the effects of this were magnified as I was hiding my identity as a gay man from my colleagues. On a Monday morning when colleagues were discussing their weekend I’d carefully refer to my partner and make a point of knowing the straight bars and clubs that I might have frequented. I wasn’t ready to share my tales of podium dancing at the Le Grand Fromage night in the local gay club.
But should I have? I’m not suggesting that people who identify as LGBTI should come out at work if they’re not ready to. What I am suggesting is that we’d all benefit, as would our organisations, if we brought even a bit more of our true selves in to our places of work. My experience is that it’s tiring hiding. Hiding wastes energy that could be far better spent advancing our cause, and it impacts on our relationships with colleagues.
Trust is instinctual and people have a sense if we’re holding something back. If people are unable to trust us to be honest about who we are, how can they to trust us to lead them? When you head into the office tomorrow, try taking a little bit of yourself in with you – the same you that enjoys life outside of work, and notice if your day is any different.
This blog is part three of a series of blogs Mark wrote as part of his 2016 Clore Social Fellowship Programme. It was originally published on Third Force News.
Mark Kelvin is Programme Director at the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland.
Tags:
change
culture
future
management
politics
socialsector
team
wellbeing
Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
|
Blog Home
All Blogs
RSS