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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
30 November 2020
Updated: 07 December 2020
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As our Leading Beyond Lockdown programme draws to a close, we want to celebrate the participants who have inspired us with their dedication to their development and the causes they work for.
As part of the programme, we have had the pleasure to collaborate with Dr. Jeremy Hinks, Director and Leadership & Development Coach with Alpamayo Coaching Ltd. Inspired by the commitment and diversity of the programme participants, Jeremy writes about his experience with coaching on the programme.
“It was inspirational to speak with these activists and influencers, so committed to their respective causes. Hearing them name their challenges and then being witness as they chose to face them down has been a learning experience for me too.” Dr. Jeremy Hinks
Over the last few months, I have had the privilege to work in partnership with a group of leaders from the social sector, whose diversity, dedication, and commitment to their respective causes was a big inspiration. From the range of social issues they worked for, to their own life experiences and job titles, each participant brought a unique perspective to the table.
Whether they were new to coaching or had experienced it before, they were all excited about what the opportunity might offer to them, particularly aligned with the leadership training, group work, and networking opportunities that collectively made up the Leading Beyond Lockdown programme.
While the participants’ coaching objectives were uniquely individual, they shared a common interest - exploring how they could best fulfil their leadership role at a time when the sustainability of their organisations is threatened by the COVID19 pandemic.
Seeing the bigger picture
Some of our coaching conversations revolved around self-awareness and confidence-building for those who found themselves in new positions, or in old positions made to feel new by the change in relationship dynamics caused by the home working enforced on the majority by COVID19. Others related to more effective communication, decision making, and relationship building that harnessed difference effectively.
The ability to see the bigger picture was central to a lot of conversations. There was a sense that the ability to do so was often drowned out by the volume of work involved in the day-to-day running of the organisation. The importance of self-care was also often lost beneath wave upon wave of ‘doing this, supporting that, and delivering the other’. Bringing the importance of self-care back to the surface and drawing oxygen back into its lungs was a particularly satisfying part of these coaching partnerships.
"Bringing the importance of self-care back to the surface and drawing oxygen back into its lungs was a particularly satisfying part." Dr. Jeremy Hinks
All the coaching partnerships had a ‘whole of life’ aspect which was experienced in two different ways. Firstly, many conversations explored past experiences and reflected on how they were influencing current behaviour. Coachees saw a lot of value in becoming more conscious of their behaviours and feelings and to think about those that were no longer serving them well. Secondly, our conversations often explored how to achieve the balance between their work and out-of-work roles. Of course, this has become more challenging as COVID19 has required us to co-locate all these roles, challenging our ability to maintain the boundaries between them that are so important to our wellbeing.
Building trust and connections online
Forming a relationship built on trust via an online connection proved to be as possible as it is in face to face coaching. After all, we have all grown in our capability to manage the strengths and weaknesses of virtual communication.
It was also interesting how the relationship was influenced by coaching someone in their workspace at home. For example, the occasional presence of children, dogs, cats, deliveries, and unscheduled interruptions from a forgetful partner might have been a distraction. Instead, each interruption afforded an opportunity to learn more about each other and somehow this fostered a helpful level of intimacy not easy to achieve when coaching in an office environment.
Adapting to new uncertainties
As I write this, we have just entered a second period of lockdown in the UK, perhaps ironic given the title of the programme. However, the need to adapt to new uncertainties is a certain part of our future, whether it’s COVID19 lockdowns or an as yet unforeseen challenge.
As I reflect on the value of the coaching in the Leadership Beyond Lockdown I am in no doubt of the general benefits. Simply being on hand to help coachees face their challenges in a supported space where they are not judged, yet feel open to challenge, is of great value to them. It is the coaching equivalent of the ‘Hands. Face. Space.’ narrative which is used to remind us of our individual responsibility in containing the spread of the COVID19 virus.
I already know that each of them leave the coaching partnership with a greater sense of agency and clarity. Past experience suggests that there will be benefits from the coaching that will arise as time passes, benefits that will influence both their personal and professional life.
For me, one of the great aspects of Leading Beyond Lockdown has been the greater reach of the benefits of coaching into social sector organisations. These benefits can only be realised if its availability increases to meet the needs of an ever more diverse community of potential beneficiaries. To sum up, I’ll end with a great comment from one of my coachees on the accessibility of coaching and with thanks to all my coachees for having me work alongside them.
"I have to admit that I've viewed coaching as something similar to regular yoga practice or getting a personal trainer - probably really good for you, but reserved for those with certain privilege that working class me would find inaccessible, and I'm glad to have been proven wrong!" Programme Participant
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
28 May 2020
Updated: 07 December 2020
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Nick Wright is a leadership coach, organisation development consultant and a Clore Social Action Learning Set Facilitator. In this blog, he writes about the transformational power of the personal leadership touch.
Talk about work with the poor and most vulnerable people in a community, the UK or the world, and the conversation turns quickly to words like strategy, evidence base, programmes, accountability and effectiveness. The underlying assumption is often that big is best, and that the best way to achieve big is to be well-planned and well-organised. After all, big means making a positive difference in more people’s lives, and that has to be good, right? Most beyond-profit organisations with a social purpose focus on some variation of income, influence and impact as their generic goals and indicators of success, with underlying theories of change and strategy maps to support them.
And I’m glad that they do. Imagine, for instance, a UK voluntary sector that worked in a purely ad hoc, spontaneous manner; resulting in e.g. unreliable, patchy availability of health and social care and provision or inequitable access to it. Imagine work that’s purely instinctive and full of energy but unfocused, not thought-through and wasteful of resources. Imagine organisations that are corrupt or abusive, diverting or siphoning off assets away from those in need and penalising those who dare to challenge them. Against this risk-laden backdrop, I’m thankful for those leaders, organisations and institutions that work hard to do the right thing in the right way and to ensure integrity on route.
Yet something is missing, deeply and profoundly missing in all of this. And it really matters. I work alongside a woman in South East Asia from among the poorest of the poor. It’s lockdown and, nevertheless, she ventures out in a makeshift mask to buy food with the little money she has and to distribute it to strangers who are facing near-starvation. In doing so, she risks arrest, contracting the Covid virus, being robbed by the very people she’s trying to help or being viewed by locals as having access to spare cash and, therefore, a target for extortion. She looks at them directly with a warm smile, gives them what she has, tells them earnestly it’s a gift from Jesus and returns quietly home.
"This isn’t a programme and it isn’t a transactional giving out of food. It’s a sacred, personal encounter with each and every person I meet."
Hearing of this and feeling inspired by her example, two organisations contact me to ask if they can assist her with food distribution to the poor. I relay this offer and, yet, she turns it down graciously. I’m curious and I ask her why. She explains, ‘This isn’t a programme and it isn’t a transactional giving out of food. It’s a sacred, personal encounter with each and every person I meet: the poorest of the poor, who otherwise feel helpless, hopeless, invisible and unloved.’ I question her gently on this and ask if she wouldn’t be better saving and using the little money she has for her own family? She looks at me earnestly: ‘How can I eat rice at home, while they outside (the poor) have nothing to eat?’
That, in a nutshell, is the crux of the matter. This woman’s vision, faith and values, deep compassion, burning determination to do what’s right whatever the personal cost, humbles me. I’ve spent my life in leadership roles in UK charities and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), yet I’ve rarely met anyone who demonstrates such profound personal leadership. I’ve focused on the big picture, strategy, leadership, organisation, culture, effectiveness etc. and in the midst of all this, at times I’ve allowed my heart to grow cold. I’ve permitted myself to stand too far at a distance, to lose sight of the very people, the real encounters, that make this work and life authentic and worthwhile.
I’m rediscovering the transformational power of the personal leadership touch. How about you..?
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Nick Wright is an independent leadership coach and organisation development consultant with over 25 years’ experience with UK charities and international non-governmental organisations. www.nick-wright.com - Nick Wright on LinkedIn.
If you would be interested to read more about the remarkable woman who features in this article, see: ‘A Radical Heart’.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
10 February 2020
Updated: 07 December 2020
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Most of us have been there. You are at a meeting and someone shows you an exciting new digital tool. You immediately download it and on your return to your office try and get your colleagues to adopt and use it - promising that it will revolutionise everything you do. Maybe you get a few weeks or even a month out of it, but more often than not people start to gradually revert to the old ways of doing things. Slack messages turn back into emails; Trello boards become post-its and your data dashboard finds its way back into excel.
But does it have to be this way? What’s stopping the take up of these brilliant tools and how do we make it better?
What we want you to do
Over the next three weeks, we want to hear your best ideas on how to make the take up of digital tools more effective and fun. How have you done it in the past? What worked? What didn’t? 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. Or click here to respond via an online form.
As always the best idea will be awarded £200 and will be shared with all the Clore Social community.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
13 January 2020
Updated: 07 December 2020
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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.
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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
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