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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
18 October 2019
Updated: 07 December 2020
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By developing our social leadership capabilities we can increase our impact for our teams, beneficiaries and sector. But the journey of leadership development is far from easy.
It’s hard to find time for learning and development when the immediate needs of the social sector are so great. So how can we commit to (and stick with) our own leadership development? This blog post explores how understanding our personal tendencies can help us stick with our leadership development goals.
Know yourself and your tendencies
Leadership development must start with self-awareness, which is why our programmes start with “Know yourself, be yourself, look after yourself”. But for a leader, self-awareness is about more than knowing your strengths and weaknesses. It’s also about understanding how to make time for your leadership development and what strategies can help you stick with your development goals.
"The question we should ask ourselves is: How do I respond to expectations?"
According to Gretchen Rubin the question we should ask ourselves is “How do I respond to expectations?”. In her book The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People's Lives Better, Too), Rubin explains that we all face two kinds of expectations—outer expectations (meet work deadlines, answer a request from a friend) and inner expectations (keep a New Year’s resolution, start exercising). Our response to expectations determines our “Tendency”—that is, whether we fit into the category of “Upholder”, “Questioner”, “Obliger”, or “Rebel”.
“Upholders” respond readily to outer and inner expectations. They keep the work deadline, and the New Year’s resolution, fairly easily.
“Questioners” question all expectations; they’ll meet an expectation if they think it makes sense and meets their inner standards — so they follow their own inner expectations.
“Obligers” meet outer expectations, but struggle to meet expectations they impose on themselves. An Obliger journalist has no trouble writing when she has an editor, colleagues, and deadlines, but struggles to write a novel in her free time.
“Rebels” resist all expectations, outer and inner alike. They want to do what they want, in their own way, and if you ask or tell them to do something, they’re likely to resist.
Developing strategies according to your tendencies
According to a nationally representative sample for the US, Rubin’s research found that, the US population roughly breaks down along the four tendencies:
- 41% Obligers,
- 24% Questioners
- 19% Upholders
- 17% Rebels
If we have some insights into what our tendencies are, it’s easier for us to make a leadership development plan that we actually stick with. Understanding other people's tendencies can help us understand how to best support them in their development. Here are some strategies to consider for different people with different tendencies, that can help them stick with their development goals.
Scheduling (most important for Upholders)
Scheduling is a powerful tool for Upholders. They love to keep a schedule and march through every item. They can make time for leadership development by putting it on the calendar. Upholders can meet inner expectations, but only when those inner expectations are articulated. This means that it’s important to schedule a time for self reflection or coaching to help articulate their development goals.
Clarity (most important for Questioners)
For Questioners, creating Clarity is key to starting a new habit. They want to know exactly what they’re doing, and why. They won’t meet an expectation if they don’t understand the reason. They need robust answers and must clearly see and trust the authority and expertise of the person asking them to meet that expectation.
Identity (most important for Rebels)
For Rebels, the most effective habit-change strategy is to connect the new habit to their identity. Because Rebels place great value on being true to themselves, they can embrace a habit if they view it as a way to express their identity. Creating Clarity is also helpful to Rebels, because it focuses on why a habit might have personal value for them. The more Rebels think about what they want, and why they want it, the more effectively they pursue it.
Accountability (most important for Obligers)
All Four Tendencies (even, under certain circumstances, Rebels) find accountability to be useful for developing habits, but Obligers absolutely require structures of external accountability. If you (like me and 41% of people) are an obliger, it can be difficult to meet your goals in the absence of external accountability. That means you need to build that external accountability into your leadership development.
One programme that taps into people's need for accountability to help organise their development is Clore Social’s new programme called Peer Journey. Recently, a cohort of social leaders have kicked off their journey. They’ve all picked a leadership challenge they are faced with that they will work to address over the next 10 weeks. They are grouped into smaller peer groups that they’ll regularly check in with to help support each other, learn from each other and (importantly) hold each other accountable.
The Peer Journey Programme can work for Upholders (if they schedule time for it), Questioners (if they understand why) and Rebels (if they identify with it) alike - but it’s especially helpful to Obligers. One of the previous participants put their finger on it by saying:
"I just know that if they hadn't been there waiting for me, I never would have finished the things I had planned."
“The accountability of the peer group was huge to me. I just know that if they hadn't been there waiting for me, I never would have finished the things I had planned.”
How do you respond to internal and external expectations?
How can you use these insights to create the conditions needed for you to make time for and stick with your leadership development.
To learn more about building habits and understanding people’s tendencies watch the talk: Gretchen Rubin: The 4 Ways to Successfully Adopt New Habits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBNEVXg2CNU
Take the four tendencies quiz to identify your tendency: https://quiz.gretchenrubin.com/four-tendencies-quiz/
Blog by Nora Dettor, Digital Transformation Manager, Clore Social Leadership
Tags:
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
06 June 2019
Updated: 23 October 2020
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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:
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
03 June 2019
Updated: 23 October 2020
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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:
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courage
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
23 May 2019
Updated: 23 October 2020
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The Wandsworth Innovation, Skills and Empowerment (WISE) Programme is a free leadership development initiative delivered in collaboration with the Battersea Arts Centre and generously supported by the Wimbledon Foundation and the Battersea Power Station Foundation. The programme will run over 3 years, with annual cohorts of 20 free places available for leaders who are keen on developing the resilience, confidence, and efficiency necessary to drive personal, organisational and Borough-wide change.
Commenting on this initiative, Liz Moreton, Director of Creativity and Social Change from Battersea Arts Centre, said:
"Battersea Arts Centre's mission is to inspire people to take risks to shape the future, and we are thrilled to be working with Clore Social to deliver this innovative programme for the next generation of local social leaders. This programme builds on our experience of capacity building with the Local Roots charity network, and supporting the next generation of social entrepreneurs through The Agency programme. I'm excited to see the great positive change in Wandsworth that the participants on the WISE programme will no doubt deliver.”
"I'm excited to see the great positive change in Wandsworth that the participants on the WISE programme will no doubt deliver."
Participants will be involved in a range of group and individual learning activities, action-learning sets, coaching and a mentor programme. In addition, they will have the opportunity to design and deliver a Local Challenge project, which will enable them to identify needs in the community and to achieve improvements over the course of the programme. Building on all aspects of our Social Leaders’ Capabilities Framework, the programme aims to help leaders become more empowered, focused, and generous, so that they can effectively transform the social sector to meet current and future challenges, and lead social change.
The 2019 WISE Programme participants are:
- Julie Jowett, Thrive Horticultural Charity
- Hadas Hagos, Waste Not Want Not Project
- Beth Rattigan, Citizens Advice Wandsworth
- Marcia Thompson, Women's Space
- Tracey Ford, JAGS Foundation
- Mike Dignam, Generate Opportunities Ltd
- Rebecca Wilson, Little Village
- Teresa Harris, Learn to Love to Read
- Emma Chisholm. Age UK Wandsworth
- Ellie Cusack, Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees
- Egle Banelyte, CARAS
- Eniola Akinlabi, Business Launchpad
- Marie Bidegaray, AGORA ARTS CIRCLE
- Leanne Wood, Share Community
In partnership with the Battersea Arts Centre, Supported by the Wimbledon Foundation
Tags:
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
30 January 2019
Updated: 23 October 2020
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Blog by Louise Drake, Director of Programmes and Innovation at Clore Social Leadership
How often do you find yourself saying these things? Or secretly thinking this to yourself and feeling guilty that you haven’t achieved what you set out to achieve? Or taking work home that you never got a chance to do during the ‘working’ day?
If you say these things more often than you’d like, read on.
At Clore Social Leadership, our Leadership Development Framework starts like all great leadership frameworks, requiring leaders to learn more about themselves (warts and all) before moving on to consider the other complexities involved in leading people and organisations. ‘Know Yourself, Be Yourself, Look After Yourself’ is where we start, requiring a holistic view of the ‘leader’ as a whole person. Invariably, productivity, time management and work life balance are a few topics which arise in the ‘look after yourself’ element.
‘Productivity’ is a hot topic in many spheres, not least in understanding why the UK lags behind many other nations. Whole government departments are trying to understand the UK productivity gap and how to close it. So it is no surprise that on an individual and organisational level, it is something worth spending time reviewing. In my opinion, leaders should spend time considering their own personal productivity and that of their organisation, because it is fundamental to healthy, thriving individuals and organisations doing their best work, something everyone working for social change should aim to achieve.
As part of the programmes at Clore Social, we advise Graham Allcott’s Productivity Ninja in our top list of books you should read. This month, I have embarked on a deep dive review of ‘productivity’, attending workshops with Graham and Bat-Hen G, both inspiring individuals hacking their way to productivity. I share my key learnings and top tips below and hope it gives anyone feeling overwhelmed a sense that there are solutions, and at least some inspiration for those of you reading who may already be on the productivity journey.
1. It’s about attention, not about time. We live in an age where some of the brightest minds in Silicon Valley are working on how best to grab every inch of attention from you, mostly via your phone. Manage your attention, not your time. For more on this concept, read this.
2. Once you have conquered your attention, the next thing to realise is your attention across a 24 hour period is not equal. We are humans after all and not computers, so we have rhythms and we are impacted by our biology more than we would like to believe. Jump out of bed and love the morning? Get your best ideas at 1am? Lucky larks, the working world is built for you. Night owls, figure out the system that works for you. Watch Daniel Pink talk about time here.
3. Agility. Be OK with being agile, and by that I mean, being OK with changing your own priorities and, as a leader, those of your organisation. Tech companies have been working in an agile way for a long time and we’re all starting to catch-on. It’s still hard, if you make a ‘to-do’ list of things or goals for the day, giving them up can on some level feel a bit like failure. It’s not. We live in a fast paced work. In Bat-Hen G said in her session ‘tech start-ups are used to changing their priorities on a day by day if not hour by hour basis. You may have to review your priorities a couple of times a day, in such a fast paced environment’. I’d argue that in some social change organisations that is also the case, especially for those on the frontline. You can’t know what the future will bring and it’s OK to change your task priorities on a daily basis. Note of caution - be sure to have a structure to your agility, and communication is key here for leaders if you don’t want to leave your teams in a spin. Examples of agile working practices can be found here. An interesting review of agile working can be found here.
4. Create a second-brain system. Your brain is not built for memory - allow it to do its best work, which includes creative thinking and problem solving (the stuff you are employed for and I expect you really enjoy). Creating a ‘second-brain’ has many benefits but one I’d like to pick out for leaders is the concept of being ‘Response-able’, not responsible. Of course, as leaders you have responsibility, however it is your job to be Response-able. Leadership happens in times of crisis and opportunity. You should have a system and a second brain that allows you to know what is happening and needs to be done, so if there’s an opportunity or crisis you need to deal with, you can. You have the capacity and a second brain that you can turn to and delegate the appropriate tasks and roles. Especially in moments of crisis, if you try and remember all the other things that need to be done, you won’t. The second brain system will be your best friend in so many ways and will allow you the achieve top tip 3, but allowing you to be comfortable with being more agile. Read more about second brain here.
5. Essentialism. ‘Do the right things, not everything’. This top tip may sound like it is contradicting the two above, but stay with me. If you know the broader mission and vision you want to achieve, a question to consider personally and organisationally is ‘what is my/our highest point of contribution?’. By keeping this in mind, you can learn to say no to things that do not help you achieve your mission and vision at your highest point of contribution. You can be more agile in the day to day as you can be sure you know where you are headed without knowing exactly how you will get there. When working to achieve change, saying no can be the hardest word, but for your personal and organisational impact it should be in your top words as a leader. Read the 4 minute book summary of Essentialism.
I could go on, but in my attempt to be more ‘healthily’ productive I’ll stop now.
A lot of what we look at in leadership development is changing behaviours and habits, and some of these are heavily ingrained. Try a few of these out and if you struggle at first, try, try and try again. You won’t necessarily become a productivity ninja or time hacker overnight, but having a go at a few of the top tips may well start you on your path to feeling less overwhelmed and more productive.
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