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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
05 February 2020
Updated: 23 October 2020
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My name is Serena Cecchinato, currently Operations Director at Give Us Time, a small military charity supporting Armed Forces families in need of rest and rehabilitation after suffering stresses and strains as a family unit.
I applied for the Cobseo Emerging Leader Programme after my Managing Director heard about the opportunity. At the time, the charity was going through some changes and adjustments which resulted in me having to take up more responsibilities in my role as well as managing a full-time member of staff. Back then, I took the opportunity more to benefit my organisation and my team rather than myself. I didn’t know it would be an extraordinary and life changing personal journey, as well as a professional one.
I think what a lot of people get wrong about “leadership” is that they consider it to be a skill to acquire, some magic wand you can buy along the way. What I have found thanks to the Programme is that everyone is a leader and leadership belongs to everyone; you just need to discover your own leadership style and in which situations you can put it to good use.
"You just need to discover your own leadership style and in which situations you can put it to good use."
Even though all participants had different backgrounds, different years of experience and different paths ahead of us, the Programme created a safe environment where we could learn, grow and develop from each other. I found it enlightening to be able to share experiences, thoughts and ideas with peers from my sector. It was important to realise how people react differently to situations. With understanding comes the knowledge of behaving in a way that brings the best of everyone to the table.
"With understanding comes the knowledge of behaving in a way that brings the best of everyone to the table."
Some people need to be reassured, others need to shine, while others prefer structures and deadlines. It’s about understanding your team and how the different personalities can work together at their very best, improving the efficiency and productivity of your organisation, as well as making the work environment a much better place.
It is also important to understand yourself and how you react to situations and others’ behaviours. Thanks to the Programme, I have understood that you need to be aware of yourself (the good, the bad and the really bad!) in order to be a good leader and inspire others.
The enthusiasm and skills the Programme gifted me with proved to be extremely important for my team and my charity as well. I took what I learned back to the office, discussed it with the team and involved our Board of Trustees as well; overall creating a breath of fresh air we are all benefiting from!
Since I have spoken so highly about my experience with Clore Social, my colleague is now taking the Programme as well! I am looking forward to seeing his journey now.
I also think that the Programme benefits our sector as a whole. Not only because we have created long lasting relations with our peers on the Programme, but because we are influencing our teams, our organisations and by extent: our sector.
I am so grateful I had this opportunity as I have learned so much about myself and improved so many aspects of my professional life as a result. I honestly cannot recommend the Programme more highly!
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
27 November 2019
Updated: 23 October 2020
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Blog by Annie Edwards, Project Manager at Young Women's Worker
I’ve been asked to write a blog about my experience on the Clore Social Emerging Leader: Women and Girls Sector Programme – my limit is 700 words, but I’m not sure I can write the word “AMAZING!” 700 times over, so I’ll try and break down my experience a little more for you.
I originally applied for the programme because a colleague from a partner organisation to mine encouraged me to go for it, and I couldn’t think of a reason not to. I’ve always been passionate about women and girls’ rights and ensuring equal opportunities. This has been a common thread for me in my work and studies; at university I studied Theology and had a deep interest in feminist theology and the place women can and should have within faith communities and traditions. I’ve been working for my current organisation, Canaan Project, for three and a half years – we offer girls-only provision in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, collaborating with schools and community partners because we want to see young women flourish.
"I was sitting in a room with the upcoming female leaders of our sector – and I was considered to be one of them."
I looked at the application form and was pretty confident that I wouldn’t be accepted onto the programme. I was hopeful that I would be, as any opportunity to develop (and be pampered in the process!) is something I always enjoy. It remained a genuine surprise, however, when I was accepted onto the programme – mostly because of the calibre of the other women who had also been accepted. I’m a big believer in Imposter Syndrome, and on the first residential (we were spoilt with two residentials – the food and the venue were simply amazing. Nothing like a bit of TLC to make you feel like a leader!) we were introduced to each other and our work and I was just amazed. I was sitting in a room with the upcoming female leaders of our sector – and I was considered to be one of them.
The best thing about the programme was the consistent underlying determination of the Clore Social team to ensure that we left the residentials, the coaching sessions, the secondments and the online learning sessions believing that we were brilliant and we still are today.
Clore Social created a safe space for me to be honest and open about where I fell short in my leadership style, and celebrated with me when I felt I’d made a change or grown in those areas.
"My biggest challenge as a leader has always been my confidence, and Clore Social helped me to find bucket-loads – mostly within myself."
My biggest challenge as a leader has always been my confidence, and Clore Social helped me to find bucket-loads – mostly within myself. My ongoing relationship with Imposter Syndrome was challenged when other women in the group shared that they felt the same – I wasn’t the only one after all! – and that together we could support one another out of that head-space because it turns out it was never true really.
One of my favourite things about Clore was the coaching sessions. I’ve always been a much better talker than a listener, but I’ve not always been brilliant at listening to myself. Coaching helped me to do this so much better, and it’s enabled me to become a better leader because I can communicate my limits, my strengths and my still-celebrated areas of weakness much better. Honesty and integrity are so important to me as a leader, and Clore Social has taught me that a part of that process is to learn to be honest with yourself.
Life doesn’t stop when you become a leader – if anything, it can sometimes make life a bit trickier for a while. But thankfully, I’m still in touch with my wonderful co-Clorers and we continue to support and challenge each other to keep leading the way that only we can.
"Clore Social is more than just a course; it’s a community and safe space to get to know others, and yourself, and love both much better."
Clore Social is more than just a course; it’s a community and safe space to get to know others, and yourself, and love both much better. If you’re not sure whether to apply, or you don’t have a colleague pushing you to do so – then let me: GO FOR IT, GIRL!
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
08 March 2018
Updated: 23 October 2020
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Today is International Women’s Day. A day to celebrate women. A day to reflect on women’s lives, in our communities, our society, our country and across the world. A day to review how far we have come in achieving equality between women and men, and to consider how much further we have to go.
I spent 2016 as a Gender Specialist Fellow, supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, on Clore Social Leadership’s Fellowship Programme. Having worked for twenty years in and around the UK women’s sector, it was an enormous gift to be able to step back and examine the sector with fresh eyes. I have used the year to reflect on women’s position in the UK, how the social sector represents and champions women, where the funding is, where the leadership is, what it looks like and how it is addressing the challenges for gender equality today and in the future.
During the year, a series of unexpected, seismic, often catastrophic events unfolded in the UK and across the world which, taken together, made 2016 a very bad year for women. From an American Presidential Election mired in misogyny to the fetishizing of motherhood in a Conservative leadership contest to the brutal murder by a man of a female MP, to a referendum result which will see the UK leave the EU and potentially jeopardise women’s employment rights to the endless silencing of women on social media who dared to opine on culture, economics, politics or sport. All these events combined show that, in the UK, women are not considered equal to men; that gender equality is not embedded in the way that many had hoped; that a general agreement that gender equality is “a good thing”, is not widely or deeply held in our society, and currently the UK’s women’s sector is too constrained to effectively address this problem.
In my piece, I set out what lessons individuals, organisations, institutions and funders need to urgently learn of last year if there is to be any hope of rebuilding an agreement on gender equality in the UK. I argue that the funders have a vital role in enabling the women’s social sector to contribute to long term thinking about gender equality rather than constantly having to meet short term targets; that there needs to be a greater pooling of knowledge and expertise within the sector to influence and shape broad public policy issues which affect women’s lives alongside the specific areas often categorised as ‘women’s issues’; and that the women’s sector itself needs to refresh its language and reframe the arguments to engage more people in this process.
2016 presented a wake-up call for those of us who care about gender equality in the UK. 2017 isn’t looking much better. In keeping with this year’s International Women’s Day theme, we must ‘be bold for change’ and learn the lessons and take the radical steps required as a matter of urgency.
You can download Rebecca’s full provocation piece here. Please share your views and comments below, or you can contact Rebecca on Twitter.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
03 August 2017
Updated: 22 October 2020
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Clore Social Fellow Baljeet Sandhu has published a report examining if, and how, social purpose organisations in the United Kingdom value lived expertise.
The Value of Lived Experience in Social Change shines a light on the social sector’s attitude towards, and engagement with, so-called service users and beneficiaries. Written as part of Sandhu’s Clore Social Fellowship, it was informed through conversations with eighty social sector leaders in the UK and US and twelve senior staff working in grant-giving and philanthropy.
The report unpicks the structures and implicit biases that reinforce a culture which undervalues the knowledge and expertise of those with lived experience and calls for a fundamental shift in attitudes. It also highlights the huge benefits that developing leaders with lived experience can have, both to social purpose organisations and civil society as a whole.
Calling for a change in attitudes, Sandhu highlights the need for a new style of leadership that is more “proactive, fluid, reflective and equitable… and recognises the vital role all key stakeholders play in the social sector’s ecosystem – including the people we serve”.
“To its detriment, the social sector often fails to recognise, cultivate and harness the insights, knowledge and lived expertise of experts by experience relevant to its work. The sector now broadly understands that lived experience is important, but still thinks of experts by experience primarily as service-users and informants, rather than drivers or leaders of change. There was general agreement that commitment to lived experience in our work is far from universal; that this is an underdeveloped and unsupported area and in dire need of better leadership."
Read the introduction to “The Value of Lived Experience in Social Change” below and access the full report and accompanying website.
This research was inspired by the simple notion that all members of society have the power to create positive social change in the world – including people and communities with direct experience of social or environmental issues our wider social sector seeks to tackle.
Indeed, history illuminates the power of individuals and communities who have worked to solve the social problems they have directly experienced. Consider the women’s rights movement; the civil rights movement; Alcoholics Anonymous; the world’s first safe house for women and children (Refuge), set up by a child survivor of domestic violence; the family from South East London tackling ‘institutional racism’ following the murder of their son, leading to far-reaching police service reforms – and the list goes on.
Throughout my own career in the social sector, I have and continue to be, inspired by the ingenuity, courage, compassion and leadership of ‘experts by experience’ who have ignited, designed and implemented significant social change initiatives on a local, national and global level.
The aim of this report is to explore how, today, the wider social sector currently cultivates, develops and evolves its social impact efforts through the work of such experts by experience, and how it can go further and do better to harness their knowledge and change-making capacity to lead positive social change now and into the future.
The full report.
Get involved in the conversation around "experts by experience" by using #livedexperience and Tweeting us @CloreSocial, or feedback to Baljeet, here.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
06 February 2017
Updated: 04 December 2020
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"I am human, and nothing of that which is human is alien to me." Publius Terentius Afer
At the end of his 2016 Reith Lectures, Kwame Anthony Appiah left us with this striking quotation. Written by a man who was ‘ a slave from Roman Africa, a Latin interpreter of Greek comedies and a writer from Classical Europe’, the words attest to a profound appreciation of what it is to be human, and how our humanity, once acknowledged, transcends concepts of nationality, identity or status.
The term ‘alien’, still used within US federal law to describe those born outside the country, is rightly considered an embarrassing and derogatory term in the UK, with connotations of dehumanisation and scapegoating that we prefer not to own. But in my experience of working with marginalised migrant and refugee communities, it’s often a term which recent arrivals, or even those who have lived here for decades, use to describe their treatment by UKBA officials, UK institutions, and even their lack of welcome by the Great British majority.
This painful reality is the opening precept to my Provocation Piece which I developed as part of my fellowship with Clore Social Leadership. The piece explores our current preoccupation with social integration and asks whether we can reconcile this with often fearful or nostalgic concepts of ‘British values’. If, as the Casey Review maintains, we are really looking for a ‘common life’, I argue that we need to be more questioning, more courageous, and more open to a reflexive discussion about ‘who’ we are and what ‘our values’ might look like in collaboration with those who arrive from abroad. What can we learn from people who have experienced themselves as ‘outsiders’; what reality checks can they give us about ourselves and our assumed cultural values; how might their experiences of migration and integration contribute to a dynamic model of cultural heritage for the future?
These questions have framed my Clore Social fellowship in a tumultuous year for issues and debates on migration, culminating in what can only be described as a crisis of national consciousness. Amidst the confusion and strife, it has also encouraged me to look for good practice in advocating for a model of social integration which addresses how we welcome and learn from new arrivals at ground level. From this, I’ve come up with four suggestions:
- We need to acknowledge that citizenship is not a birthright, but is earned by those who want a stake in society. Instead of an Integration Oath, why not use a Citizenship Celebration which brings together and rewards anyone who actively contributes their values and culture to their local community?
- Developing relationships across cultures takes curiosity, empathy and patience. Whether at work, in your neighbourhood or in the school playground, simply making eye contact, exchanging a friendly word is a great start; thereafter, accept that the normal social codes don’t necessarily apply – ask, explain, invite, explore, adapt, exchange and don’t give up.
- You can’t support social integration simply by saying nice things on social media. Stepping out of our comfort zone is what enables us to appreciate what it’s like to feel like an outsider: offer to teach English to your neighbour; ask them to teach you how to cook their cuisine; provide a night stay for a homeless refugee; join in with local or school activities which seem to be ‘for minorities’- you will be amazed by what you learn.
- Let’s offer experiential diversity training for our statutory services which doesn’t balk at exploring cultural difference and can promote empathy, intercultural awareness and cross-sector collaboration.
Whilst it’s a good thing that we starting to have ‘difficult conversations’ about values and identity, we have a long way to go on understanding the dynamics of privilege and power. Step into the shoes of a new arrival, question yourself and your assumptions in relation to those different to you, and you will awaken your own precious humanity.
Please share your comments about Emma’s blog and provocation piece below, or you can join the conversation on Twitter.
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