The benefits of coaching for leadership development are undeniable. Numerous studies have supported this, reporting that coaching boosts productivity by 44%; 80% of people who experienced coaching reported increased self-confidence, whilst over 70% benefited from improved work performance and increased communication skills.

But what is coaching? Whether delivered in person or online, coaching provides an opportunity to address day-to-day challenges, overcome strategic roadblocks, and seize new opportunities in one 1:2:1 environment. The sessions are used to interrogate your chosen topic through lines of questioning, leading to an exploration of the potential solutions and next steps that can be trialled in real time.

"Coaching has helped me to pause and ask myself the bigger questions before running headlong into big decisions, and I’ve used the open questions in lots of strategically difficult moments since to great effect!"

At Clore Social Leadership, we work with coaches from across the UK who specialise in a variety of topics that are commonplace in the social sector, including but not limited to, navigating uncertainty, seizing new opportunities, team wellbeing, future planning, women in leadership, behaviour change, resilience, goal setting and burnout.

If you are still on the fence about coaching, below you can learn more about the impact of coaching and how it can benefit you and your team:

Increased confidence: Coaching has been hailed for its positive impact on confidence; research found that for senior leaders coaching increased their confidence to navigate opportunities and challenges in their specific leadership role and increased their trust in their direct reports. With social sector leaders required to navigate ever increasing workloads, investing in your ability to delegate and communicate can only be a plus!

Emotional intelligence: Sometimes known as EQ or EI, emotional intelligence is commonly defined as the ability to show self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills. Coaching provides you with the vital space to reflect on your own behaviour and how you read and react to the behaviour of those around you, equipping you to navigate a sector  where emotional intelligence is vital not just internally, but when working with your beneficiaries and stakeholders.

Career planning and development: If you’re feeling stretched it can be tricky to find the time to consider your next career move, relating to your initial passion for your organisation's cause. Making space to discuss what your progression looks like with a third party can be invaluable. Your coach can support you in exploring opportunities and help you find an appropriate route to your next career move, reestablishing your driving force behind working in the social sector.

Goal setting: For many, contentment lies in having something to look forward to. However, ‘keeping your head above water’ has become commonplace for so many in the social sector. Coaching can provide you with the opportunity to discuss what you really want from your career, considering what goals can support you in seeing the bigger picture, aligning your professional ‘why’ with your personal values.

Conflict resolution: Conflict in the workplace is almost unavoidable. You are bringing together a diverse set of strangers and asking them to work towards the same vision, and once you consider the sensitive and complex issues so many in the social sector are grappling with - there is bound to be a difference in opinion. When conflicts do arise, it is easy to make snap decisions in the heat of the moment. However, coaching can provide a unique time to step back and reflect, either in hindsight or before the conflict is resolved, allowing you time to holistically evaluate what is really happening. The intention is that you can then take these learnings with you to your workplace in realtime to encourage a more constructive dialogue.

Incredibly, these aren’t all the benefits of coaching, improved productivity, communication, accountability, motivation, collaboration and employee retention are just some of the other benefits of coaching that are commonly cited by coaches, participants and organisations who engage with this professional development tool.

So if you think coaching could be for you, why not begin by exploring the experienced coaches on Find a Coach, all passionate about supporting the development of individuals from across the social sector, wherever you are on your career journey.

Relationship Management skills are -- you guessed it -- all about managing your relationships with others. These skills can include teamwork and collaboration; conflict management; and influencing and inspiring others. Good relationship management skills are contingent on both self-awareness and social-awareness skills. In other words, one needs the ability to recognise one’s own emotions and the feelings of others in order to effectively manage the relationship in between.

Good working relationships create a great work environment, which impacts all parts of the organisation. Conversely, bad working relationships can contribute to a toxic work environment and negatively affect the organisation’s work. Take a look at the example below to get a better understanding of the importance of relationship management.

Case Study: Soraia

Soraia had recently secured a new management role at a mid-sized charity and had a direct report -- Henry -- for the first time in her career. She had worked hard to become more self aware and spent a lot of time thinking reflectively about her own strengths and weaknesses. However, she never had to ‘manage down’ or learn how to manage such a relationship.

Soraia didn’t worry about this much as she feels she has a strong reflective practice. But soon Henry began submitting subpar work that didn’t match her brief, and seemed disengaged from the organisation as a whole. After consulting with a mentor, Soraia realised that she hadn’t put any effort into managing her working relationship with Henry. She never took the time to get to know him nor explained to him the reasons behind certain decisions. She was also afraid to ask for or provide feedback, which led to a confusing and uncertain work environment for Henry. She has never engaged her direct report, and that’s why he appeared disengaged!

Once she realised this, Soraia put effort into sensing Henry’s moods and feelings about certain projects. She could sense hesitation about certain projects and encouraged questions; eventually, they developed a much friendlier working relationship and Henry felt comfortable enough to express his concerns about his role, their department, and their projects. This gave Soraia the opportunity to explain why things were done in certain ways, and to reflect on his insights.

Developing both self awareness and social awareness is the first step in improving your relationship management skills. Once you’ve done that, you can take your relationship management skills a step further by learning how to: inspire and guide others; initiate change; be an influential leader; learn how to manage conflicts; and practice good teamwork. 

Those behaviours are all rooted in self awareness, social awareness and reflection, but there are some specific skills to add to your personal development arsenal. For example, developing your communication skills can help you ease conflict, inspire others and become more influential. Similarly, learning how to assess context is the first step to initiating and managing change.

Relationship Management is a crucial element of management in the social sector. Our Management Essentials programme covers six of the most relevant skills needed including management at all levels.

Self-awareness is the ability to see yourself objectively, including your strengths, weaknesses, and preferred leadership style. Self-awareness is developed through a careful and deliberate examination of yourself and how you relate to others.

Self-awareness is the core of the Clore Social Leadership Development Model and the foundation of personal growth. Understanding yourself is key to understanding others, and therefore to generous leadership behaviours. Fundamentally, this means knowing where your strengths and weaknesses lie. In the workplace, this often translates into accepting feedback graciously; understanding and empathising with your team; and being confident in your abilities.

Take Hugo and Kate as examples. Hugo is Head of Programmes at his organisation and often attends Trustee Meetings to provide an update on programme activities. For a recent meeting, he asked his direct report Kate to write a monitoring and evaluation report. However, Kate became busy with other projects and failed to provide the report in time for the meeting. How might self-awareness, or a lack of, affect Hugo and Kate’s working relationship in this situation?

Interestingly, researchers have shown that a lack of self-awareness actually leads to an inflated sense of one’s abilities. Many un-self-aware people won’t accept critical feedback; cannot understand others’ perspective; and will take credit for successes whilst blaming others for failures. 

In the example above, Kate lacked the self-awareness to realise that she did not have the time to take on an additional assignment or would need to manage her time in order to make the deadline. If she had, she might have let Hugo know early on that she would need to deprioritise another task in order to complete it.

If Hugo also suffers from a deficit of self-awareness, he might not be able to relate to the pressure Kate was under, and blame her for neglecting to manage her time. He might even throw her under the bus to the Trustees and let them know why they do not have the report.

Research suggests that both internal and external self-awareness is one of the most critical elements of effective leadership. Acknowledging your skills and limitations as a leader enables you to be proactive about self-development and focus on improving your leadership skills.

In addition, having greater self-awareness can lead to stronger relationships with peers, as it increases your listening and communication skills. Self-awareness is also linked to the ability to project thoughts, feelings, desires and other mental states onto others--in other words, being aware of your own mental processes better enables you to empathise with and relate to others.

Let’s return to Hugo and Kate. Upon missing her deadline, Kate could show self-awareness by acknowledging that she made a mistake, why it happened, and how she could avoid making the same mistake in the future. She could also take concrete steps to improve her time management skills, as she has now identified this as a potential area of development.

Hugo, for his part, could try to understand why Kate did not come to him earlier, and what pressure she might be under to finish her tasks on time. He could self-evaluate to see where he could help as a manager, and work with her to improve her communication and time management skills. 

Increased self-awareness is one of the key outcomes of our Emerging Leader programme. Commencing October 2022, the six-month programme is designed to help emerging leaders build their leadership potential, strengthen their networks, and drive social change. If you, or a relevant colleague, are looking to develop your leadership potential then we invite you to find out more about the upcoming programme.

Here we’ve set out ten of the most common challenges that come up for people in the voluntary sector. Of course, many of these are similar to the management issues in any sector. However, m2's experience suggests, that the challenges can be more acute in the hard-pressed, resource-poor and politicised context in which we all work. We also know that new managers are often not given the training and support to deal with these challenges effectively. This is why when we worked with Clore Social Leadership to develop the Management Essentials programme, these experiences were front of mind.

1. Insufficient time and capacity dedicated to management: managers are frequently promoted because they are good at their jobs, without the necessary support in place to grow into their new role. In a sector with tight capacity, taking on management responsibility can be the only route to promotion but there is often little acknowledgement of the challenges in holding a delivery and management role.
2. Discomfort with power dynamics: understanding, naming and discussing the power dynamics inherent in a management structure is often particularly difficult in a sector where there can be a discomfort about wielding power. This can be even more apparent in non-hierarchical organisations, where a deliberate lack of formal structure does not always equate to an absence of the interplay between authority and autonomy. These dynamics can make it more challenging for managers to feel comfortable questioning performance or offering advice.
3. Decision-making: making decisions can also be impacted by this lack of clarity over power and who holds it, leading to over-consultation and under-engagement. For managers, not being clear as to which decisions they are empowered to make - and how - can be a significant source of stress. At the same time, team members can feel very frustrated by a vacuum created by indecision and procrastination.
4. Balancing empathy and effectiveness: how to manage individual needs and the opportunity for flexibility whilst at the same time delivering an effective service is an ongoing challenge for many managers. It is one that has been particularly highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic where personal circumstances became (literally) visible and have required additional support from managers. We have heard many managers and leaders talking about how they have taken on more work themselves during this period rather than place yet more pressure on staff. This may be a particularly acute issue in the voluntary sector where staff are deeply aware of the impact of reducing services upon the people they work with and for.
5. Lack of consistency: finding ways of ensuring that difference is respected whilst equality is ensured can feel challenging to managers. Holding the balance between individual, team and task is not always easy - and made harder where there are any historic inconsistencies between teams or departments. 
6. Differing communication styles: organisational cultures can inadvertently prize particular communication styles over others without this being made explicit. This can prevent people with a different style from effectively contributing their ideas and energy, particularly in team or organization-wide meetings
7. Organisational values in conflict with practice: challenge, disagreement and discussion are a necessary part of a sector grappling with systemic issues. This can, however, lead to situations where the values espoused are not put into practice, or as the recent controversies over racism, sexism and bullying in the sector have revealed, are in direct conflict with the reality staff are experiencing day-to-day. There can be a deep sense of betrayal for staff caught up in this - and stress for managers supporting them through this.
8. Giving constructive feedback: giving feedback that enables people to develop and grow, without knocking their confidence, is an issue that arises in every training session we run. There can be particular anxiety attached to giving feedback around issues perceived to be about behaviour rather than performance, as this can feel so personal. Using organisational values as a means to open these conversations up can be a valuable tool – many organisations however (particularly smaller ones) have not necessarily had the capacity to formally set out their values, or as set out above, values are not widely put into practice.
9. Lack of support for ‘middle managers’: particularly where values and practice are not aligned, middle managers can feel trapped and unprotected - caught between supporting their teams, and defending organisational approaches they may not agree with. Finding ways to manage upwards effectively is a key skill, but not one that is often nurtured.
10. Lack of space and time for reflection: the pressures to deliver, and awareness of need, can make finding time to pause feel impossible for managers. Again, the pandemic has exacerbated this with the resulting lack of in-between spaces - time spent walking between meetings, travelling between client visits or commuting. This has made the opportunity to think about practice, self-awareness and strategy - rather than delivery - even more scarce.

Miranda Lewis is a Director and Partner of m2 consultants (www.m2consultants.uk) who deliver the Management Essentials Programme on behalf of Clore Social Leadership.

To create a ‘leaderful’ organisation people need to co-create the ‘plan’ and in particular you need to enable yourself by adopting a ‘coaching’ style with your team. You will co-develop goals and objectives that are fully understood and have been built through a shared exploration of options. Once you have the plan you need to let go of some control and support and coach people to deliver results.

If you immediately think - “yes but...I just don’t have time, my team is under pressure, we’ll do this later” - think again!

People give all kinds of reasons: I feel underappreciated, I’m misunderstood, I don’t learn, grow and develop, I’m fed up with being micromanaged. Managers and their direct reports are usually frustrated by the same things - from different angles.

The conditions people have faced over the last year have also affected their expectations of you as their leader.  As the workplace changes so do people’s daily experiences and their expectations of you as their line manager, leader - and all indications suggest that the skills of an Empowering Enabler have never been more important.

The social sector is ideally placed to benefit from the shift towards ‘leaderful’ workplaces, somewhere where people are trusted to take the actions needed to deliver on the mission.

The more you empower your team the more time you will have to focus on the future.  

To anticipate the future needs of your clients, the focus of your organisation needs to serve the mission and to develop the right conditions for people to learn and be able to ‘lead’ from wherever they are. Your job as their ‘leader’ is to: 

• Ensure that people know what they’re doing
• Understand why they’re doing what they are doing
• Develop each individual’s capacity to develop the skills and capabilities to have the confidence to figure out how they enact their tasks

Coaching skills are the key to unlocking the potential of your team. 

Your team needs to understand what needs to be done and how to figure out how to do it.  Your job is to support them.  You need to listen, ask questions, be curious, support and, where necessary, move obstacles out of the way. Your people know what is in the way, you have the power to enable them.

If you're looking to develop your coaching skills, take a look at our 4-week Leader as Coach course. This short course will help you understand the key aspects of coaching to help your team lead social change.

“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

"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

"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

It has been eight months since I read the awe-inspiring biographies from the 2020 Women & Girls Emerging Leader cohort and the Experienced Leader cohort. I was lucky enough to have been appointed as their Programme Director to ensure that they achieved, or hopefully exceeded, their learning priorities from the six-month programme.

I was due to meet them all at their first residential in May. As a Clore Social Fellow myself, and long-time facilitator for multiple Clore Social programmes over the years, I knew how much the participants would be looking forward to meeting each other and to forming the bonds which would challenge, inspire and support them not only in the months of the programme but for years to come.

But, as we all know, the World was to turn upside down. Not only was this residential cancelled, the whole viability of the programme was put into question. Would people have the desire or capacity to participate whilst juggling home and work – both envisaged to put them under pressure that we had never seen before. How would people cope and how could the programme fit?

In considering the next steps I frequently reflected on the centre of the Clore Social model – something that has become a mantra for me ever since I did the programme myself, guiding me through difficult decisions as a CEO and then in establishing my own organisation; the importance for social leaders to KNOW YOURSELF, BE YOURSELF AND LOOK AFTER YOURSELF. Now, more than ever, these things felt so important if social sector leaders were to be able to rise to the challenges ahead. Clore Social, in my mind, felt even more important than it ever had done before. These people are the front-line of making sure that social change is a priority and that people stay at the heart of decisions – we had an obligation to support and challenge them.

"Clore Social, in my mind, felt even more important than it ever had done before." Emily Lomax

The other thing that was in my head was how this wasn’t our decision alone – the Clore Social model goes on to talk about ‘working with and through others’. We needed to engage them in deciding what to do next. We therefore conducted a survey in early April asking for ideas and for an honest response on whether or not they would want to continue to be part of the programme – with no judgement if the answer was no. 91% of participants on the Women & Girls programme and 64% on the Experienced Leader programme said they wanted to continue and 33% on the Experienced Leader programme decided to defer until 2021.

Delighted that the programmes would go ahead, we now had the daunting task of re-shaping the content to be less dependent on the face-to-face elements, and to try to find ways to bring the magic of Clore Social relationships to life through virtual means. Louise Obi-Drake, Clore Social’s Director of Innovations and Learning, is brilliantly creative and knowledgeable and together we shaped a new way of doing things. The key changes were:

• Establishing a new programme of e-learning to support participants’ journeys and to help them to feel connected to the programme
• Re-writing the programme handbook so there was clarity of expectations and timings amidst all the uncertainty
• Being clear about what could be flexible and co-created, for example, the placement element of the programme is unlikely to be a week of being hosted within an organisation face-to-face
• Kicking off the action learning and coaching elements of the programme as soon as possible so participants could build relationships and seek space and support
• Re-shaping the residential into a series of online sessions to be held in May, where possible at the same time as the original residential, to aid planning

"This is the conversation I have been waiting to have all my life." Programme participant

Five months on and I am astounded by how much energy the participants have put into building connections and supporting each other. On a daily basis the programme’s instant messaging channels are buzzing with questions, suggestions, shared inspiration, honest requests for help and sharing when times are tough. These are unique times and participants have responded by stepping up and supporting each other. They have instigated new instant messaging channels to start specific conversations, have attended additional, optional webinars that we have arranged to add additional support and instigated so much supplementary learning.

Last week I asked for some informal feedback and was astounded by the flood of positivity – “This is the conversation I have been waiting to have all my life,” and “I finally feel like a leader.” These people are stepping up and out amidst all the chaos around them in order to make a difference to people’s lives. I am humbled.

They are also incredibly busy and at times struggle to find the space to focus on themselves and on the programme. And that is ok. They, I hope, are learning to be kind to themselves and that one of the joys of the Clore Social programme is that it is self-led and that you create your own path – focusing on the elements that will make the biggest impact for you – it isn’t about pleasing me, it is about what makes the biggest difference for you.

"I finally feel like a leader." Programme participant

A few observations of thing that have helped these inspiring leaders during these unstable times:

• Taking the time to plan
• Being kind to yourself if things don’t always go according to that plan. Not chucking the plan out at this point, but adapting and evolving – dealing with ambiguity is a really important skill as a social sector leader and this, in itself, is an opportunity for learning
• Being vulnerable and ask for help
• Collaboration is key. Ask for shared resources and ideas, no need to spend time reinventing the wheel when you have such an awesome network to draw on
• Finding ways to fulfil your learning priorities through your day job, and through your home obligations to save time and to connect parts of your life together. We only have one life after all so why not learn whilst being a parent to a reluctant toddler as well as when chairing a board meeting.
• The Clore Social model is relevant today and every day. Return to it when times are hard.

I am so excited to see what the next few months of the programme will bring and am so grateful to spend virtual time with these inspiring people – I just hope we get to meet each other sometime soon!

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Connect with Emily Lomax on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Well, like many of you 23 March was a day to be remembered. It was the day the British Government announced it would be asking anyone who could work from home to do so and would be entering a lockdown. A month on and at the time of writing we are still in the lockdown situation and all mass gatherings have been banned.

This is a problem for Clore Social Leadership as a training provider of programmes that are valued for their transformative face-to-face elements. In the space of a few weeks we have gone from hosting face-to-face events with Covid-19 disclaimers to a complete lockdown and no sight of when venues would reopen.

To set some context, like many training and development organisations our work has cycles and February and March always seem to be months where we start a number of programmes. We had some blended (face-to-face and online) programmes that had started and some due to start. We were in a situation like many people of making decisions with very little information or evidence on which to base them.

We're going to explain how we have approached our challenges using example skills, attitudes and behaviours from our own social leadership capabilities framework.

Courageous Changemaker

At the heart of the courageous changemaker are the skills of identifying solutions to problems, taking calculated risks and taking actions to create foresight about what the future might hold. The attitudes and behaviours include being curious, decisive and responsible.

The courage to pause all operations and take stock of the situation was the most sensible thing we could do. With the information we had and the daily changing situation we had to take decisive action and pause all activity whilst we understood the immediate impact on our organisation and the people we work with who participate in our programmes.

We needed to understand what the future entailed and how we could use this information to innovate for the future. Our approach was human centred and focused on our current programme participants to ensure we could offer them the best experience possible.

Passionate Advocate

We work in social change so being a passionate advocate is all about putting the needs of those you serve at the centre of everyone you serve. For us that meant putting the people on our current programmes at the heart of our decisions and asking them to be honest about what was in their best interest, no matter the outcome.

That looked like we might have to stop running all programmes. We knew this was precisely the time social leaders needed what we offered, the learning, reflection and peer support to deal with the current situation, but we also knew that many of them were under severe pressure and dealing with multiple challenges. It is exactly at times of crisis that the attitudes and behaviours of social leaders are so important, the ability to have a strong moral compass and make decisions that might not be in your own best interest.

"It is exactly at times of crisis that the attitudes and behaviours of social leaders are so important."

Generous Collaborator

The best people for us to collaborate with and decide on the best course of action were, of course, the current people on our programmes. We needed to move quickly but respectfully to understand the best course of action being mindful to not burden them with additional work or decisions. In fact the Covid-19 crisis has enabled us to open up the opportunity to build even more collaboration into our programmes and to work with the participants to co-design elements of the programme and contribute their own knowledge and expertise.

We are at the early stages of this process as we paused the programmes for consultation, but we are excited to be able to build more peer-to-peer learning and even more knowledge sharing from programme participants into our reimagined programme offer. Generous collaborators are focused on building trust, fostering open and honest feedback and inviting inclusive contribution. One outcome we hope is that all our 2020 participants can say that they have been a collaborator and co-creator of their whole experience.

"One outcome we hope is that all our 2020 participants can say that they have been a collaborator and co-creator of their whole experience." 

Empowering Enabler

It's well researched in adult learning theory that the more you enable learners to take responsibility for their own learning and empower them to take on real-world challenges the more likely they are to be motivated to learn and to fully engage in the journey.

We hope the process of building in even more peer-to-peer learning, will in turn create opportunities for the programme participants to be role models to one another, to cultivate an environment where others can excel and foster a growth mindset amongst the whole cohort. We hope to find the cohorts empowering each and every participant to make the most of their experience.

Where will our cohorts be in 2021 if we have been able to further increase the peer-to-peer empowerment amongst our cohorts? It's an exciting question to return to in 2021!
Inspirational Communicator

There's no doubt you will have learned the importance of communication during a crisis. We believe social leaders not only communicate well but they are able to inspire others with their communication. They do this by being authentic, clear, and responsive to their audiences.

Our greatest lesson in the initial stages (based on feedback from our participants) was little, often and specific communication was most helpful. At a time when everyone was dealing with a variety of challenges and we wanted their input we needed to also be agile and responsive whilst sharing all the information we had.

Focused Strategist

This is the one area that many of our participants highlight as the collection of skills, attitudes and behaviours they would like to spend time developing. It's because at the core of a Focused Strategist is delivering on what you set out to achieve, being reflective and continually improving. A Focused Strategist's laser skills are being able to take a vision and turn it into tangible actions and thinking through the most effective way to achieve the goals.

What happens now?

We are entering our phase of being Focused Strategists, making real the courageous visions we have shared with our participants and our hopes of continuing to work with them collaboratively throughout their experiences to co-create their learning journey.

We will share our insights on our research and foresight activity with leaders and providers of training and development for social change so we can be generous in supporting others to make the courageous changes they may need to make. We know that our plans for online learning will need to executed faster than our original strategy to continue to offer development to social leaders at a time when it is needed the most.

We know that in such uncertain times our ability to be agile and respond to the needs of our participants will have to be at the centre of our innovations approach. We will share more details and insights into this.
"Our ability to be agile and respond to the needs of our participants will have to be at the centre of our innovations approach."

Here is some initial feedback from our 2020 Women and Girls Emerging Leaders:

“I just wanted to say a huge thank you for all your hard work and dedication in recrafting the whole Programme and also in providing these additional [online] events. I feel very fortunate to be part of this cohort and take much comfort during these turbulent times knowing that my learning process is being supported so well by all of you at Clore Social.”

“Firstly, thanks so much for all of your efforts to redesign the programme so quickly – no mean feat! ...I have to say that my leadership skills have really been tested in the last few weeks and I already feel that having done some of the Discover work, I have been more confident in decision making and that I have already massively benefitted from the course. For that, I am really grateful! Thanks again for all of your work in this redesign.”

We send our gratitude and appreciation to all of the participants and funders who have been a part of the collaborative problem solving over the past few weeks and who have shared their ideas and visions for the future. We can't wait to restart the journey with them in 2020 with the reimaged leadership development programmes.

• Our comfort zone – jobs we know well, things we’ve done before, relationships which are easy and well established;
• Our stretch zone – this is where the learning happens, we are learning new things, stretching and challenging ourselves a bit, making new connections, achieving new things;
• And then there’s the panic zone - this is where we are in fight or flight mode, it’s all quite overwhelming, and our performance starts to dip as we are stressed. Right now everyone is probably oscillating between stretch and panic. And that is not sustainable.

Do what you can to find space to sit in your comfort zone every day. Even if it’s checking in with a trusted colleague for a chat, or ticking off something straightforward on your list. Step out of the panic zone when you can. See point 3 for one way of doing this.

2. Everyone is dealing with this change at a different pace.

You’ll have heard of the change curve – the journey we all go on when there is change in our home or work. It’s often talked about when departments go through restructures or when we may experience bereavement. Right now, we are going through change on a very grand scale and the change is happening very quickly. Every day there are new guidelines, guidelines which often it is us who stayed up through the night to write!

Everyone goes through change at a different rate, and crucially not in a linear fashion. You may feel you’ve assimilated the new way of being quite well, and then another set of guidelines comes up and suddenly you feel angry or depressed again. This is normal. And everyone is going through it. Be kind to those who finding today difficult. Don’t expect everyone in your team to get with the programme straight away. For team members who are struggling – buddy them up with someone they can talk to. Signpost to other support available (employee assistance programme?).

3. Focus on what you can influence or control.

Stephen Covey, in ‘7 habits of highly effective people’ talks about the circles of influence. He talks of three concentric circles:

1. The smallest is our circle of control – the stuff in there we can do something about.
2. Slightly bigger and around the first circle is our circle of influence – things go in there which are not directly within our control but certainly something we could influence if we worked out how.
3. The final circle represents that which we can as individuals neither directly control nor influence, like a global pandemic for example. It’s called the circle of concern. The more time we spend in that circle of concern, thinking about things which we cannot control or influence the more stressful it is, and the less agency we feel we have.

However, the good news is that the more time we spend on what we can influence or control the more resourceful we feel. And, crucially, the more our circle of influence expands. (Fraud angle – focus on tightening up processes in YOUR area, don’t worry about what other teams are doing over there. Be in your sphere of influence by making sure everyone in your team are aware of what to look out for to mitigate fraud, etc.)

4. Find moments for wellbeing amid the high performance.

Some definitions of resilience talk about it being a balance between high performance and wellbeing. However, if we think about elite athletes, they have moments of very high performance and long stretches where they are focusing on wellbeing. That focus on wellbeing gives them the resources to be able to perform when they need to. You cannot consistently expect high performance from yourself without putting something back into your tank.

What can you do each day to focus on your wellbeing? Whether it’s a chat with a friend over Zoom, a nice food delivery, cuddles with your kids, a yoga workout, don’t expect you can run on empty.

5. Boundaries.

Just because now we are all connected via Zoom, Teams, Skype, WhatsApp, Slack etc., etc., doesn’t mean we should be 24/7. Create boundaries for you that work for you. Talk to your team about who is able to cover what and when, and when it’s not your turn, put your work phone away, shut your laptop and do something else. No one has their most creative ideas staring at a blank Word document. You’ll feel better and be more creative for getting away from your inbox. And creativity is what we all need right now!

What could you to do get out of your circle of concern and into your circle of influence, so you can have impact in the world? (Interestingly, spending time in our circle of concern is very likely to tip us into our panic zone.) What boundaries can you put in place to safeguard your wellbeing? What conversations do you need to have to check in on those you work with?

Stay safe and well and be the change you want to see.
Jen

You can follow Jen on Linkedin (Jennifer McCanna PCC), Twitter @jenthecoach and on Facebook at McCanna Coaching. Visit Jen's website for more information and useful articles: https://mccannacoaching.co.uk/

• 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!

• “How can a leader create a culture of listening?”
• “If your leader is not listening, what have you done to overcome that, in the face of a potential crisis?”
• “How do you deal with your leader’s mindset of ‘don’t tell me what I don’t want to hear’ to bring about greater change?”

As Leaders Now offers a safe space for the speaker, chair and audience, I am not at liberty to divulge the valuable insights and stories shared. You’ll have to come to the next event for that gold.

We would like to thank Ray and Anna for offering a rare glimpse into their leadership journeys. Their generous leadership encouraged an atmosphere of vulnerability and openness.

Forces in Mind Trust partner with Clore Social Leadership on the Experienced Leader programme. For more information, please visit this page.

Blog by Nadia Alomar, Clore Social Leadership's Director of Marketing and External Relations.

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.

• 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

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

• The need which they were set up to overcome no longer exists, or never really existed in the first place;
• The need still exists but the funding disappears e.g. training charities after the introduction of the UK Work Programme;
• The business model is all wrong;
• Malpractice or mismanagement.

One of the most destructive cases is when a founding CEO directs the organisation on the wrong track. An example was Novas Scarman, founded in 1998 as a care and homeless charity, which crashed from a 2008 turnover of £21 million to closure in 2012, with redundancy for 300 staff.

However this also happens to long-established organisations. The English YWCA, set up in 1855, has virtually disappeared, yet the YW pioneered really interesting youth work in the 1950/60s, including outreach work with young women and men. The YW also provided 4,000 beds for young woman, centrally managed in 1996. After this, the YW was hit with a huge demand to install essential fire precautions in its hostels; it had not saved sufficient funds for these, so they sold all their hostels and carried on with youth work, rebranding as Platform 51 in 2010. Two years later, as Civil Society reported, ‘Platform 51’s spending ... (had) outstripped its income by more than £1m each year since 2008.’ So in 2014, it transferred its remaining youth work to another charity and became a small research and lobbying organisation.

Yet if you take the right action at the right time, it is possible to rescue an organisation from severe deficits. The UK Outward Bound Trust had a deficit of £3 million on a turnover of £8/9 million in the 1990s and was ‘close to insolvency’ according to its current director. It was turned round by an interim CEO, who had run the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, through a process of restructuring and offering shorter courses.

Do’s and Don’ts

So what should a manager or leader do to prevent such issues?

• Show leadership, be resilient, don’t panic and seek help and advice;
• Always keep on top of the finances;
• Think long-term, stay well-informed to predict trends, and produce a realistic work plan which should be regularly updated to look ahead for at least three years;
• Do not put all your eggs in one funding basket - diversify so that if one fund winds up, you have other options;
• Do keep evolving, but change a winning formula gradually - not so radically that success is destroyed;
• Carry out a regular risk analysis and save for emergencies.
  
  

Please share your views and comments below, or join the conversation on Twitter.

• Numbers and profile of users (ethnic origin, gender, age, residence, background regarding service provided e.g. employment status for job-finding projects)
• Inputs, against targets, namely actual services provided to different clients (e.g. reaching the right client group, courses and support provided)
• Outputs against targets (e.g. starting work, qualifications)
• Outcomes against targets (e.g. staying in work, changes in behaviour)
• Feedback and self-assessment from clients and stakeholders and partner agencies

Another way to ensure that monitoring and evaluation are soundly based is to use a framework known as the Theory of Change (TOC). Developed by the Aspen Institute, it defines long-term goals such as the actual changes that are desired, and works backwards to identify critical success factors that are necessary to achieve the long-term goal. The table below shows a TOC mapping exercise, outlining the various outcomes, outputs and activities necessary to achieve long-term outputs.

Theory of Change showing the mapping of a reduction in offending project

Activities

Action planning, information & advice, one-to-one counselling, positive change course & skills training for 100 offenders & ex-offenders from one region

Inputs

Programme attended by 90% of participants for 75% of sessions

Outputs

75% of participants complete positive change course & also achieve a skills qualification

Outcomes at end of programme

75% of completers progress into work, further education or self-employment, with a reduction in reported offending

Long-term wider impact

Lower levels of offending, greater levels of employment, better health and well-being in the community

It is important that staff, volunteers and beneficiaries are consulted in development of evaluation systems to bring a wide range of ideas crucial for the success of the project. If you can organise a thorough evaluation, it is also useful for publicising your organisation’s work and effectiveness.

Please share your comments about this blog below, or join the conversation on Twitter.

1. Awareness: Being aware of what is going on around you is essential. But being aware of the people around you is more important. How can you lead if you are not in tune with your colleagues, partners and appreciating the diversity of thinking as well as life?
2. Curiosity: Michael Dell stated that curiosity is the most important trait of inclusive leaders, and a few years ago I read a book by Alan Greenspan the former Head of the US Treasury who set aside one hour every day to read. I’ve tried to follow his lead by setting aside time early in the morning or at night to read, monitor websites and trawl Twitter – yes, my email inbox is overloaded with links to fascinating articles on literally everything, you never know where that next big idea can and will come from.
3. Passion: All I have to say here is – if you’re not passionate about what you do, why do it. I’ve sat on numerous panels and listened to pitches when the presenter is just going through the motions and you just want to scream in a Jerry Maguire voice “PLEASE SHOW ME THE PASSION!” Recently I had the honor of being on the selection panel to interview the next wave of Ashoka Fellows for the UK and Ireland. One of the interviewees was an outstanding guy called Mark Swift with an unbelievable back-story who runs his own social enterprise called Wellbeing Enterprises CIC – truly inspirational and oozing passion!
4. Courage: Without courage, you won’t be able to move forward. It’s not all about being able to take a risk, it’s also about having the courage to defend your colleagues, defending your values admitting when you’re wrong.
5. Collaboration: Here I mean true collaboration and not “glorified cooperation” when organisations pay lip service to each other just to download information and use it for their own means. Trust me over many years of observing our esteemed third sector, and from painful personal experience, I’ve fallen for the “lets collaborate” routine only to find out a few days later that they’ve set up meetings with your partners; what I term death by a thousand cuts culture. Coming from a private sector background you know who your competitors are and you’re always on guard, in the third sector it’s more difficult to work out who your competitors are. A sad reflection on the third sector and if we want to create a truly collaborative environment we need a mix of transparency, trust and inclusive leadership.
6. Values: Don’t think I have to say much more here, to me these are most important traits to becoming an inclusive leader: honesty, trust and a militant transparency. Enough said.
7. Perseverance/Commitment (Never Quit): If values are the most important trait of a highly inclusive leader then perseverance comes a close second. Highly inclusive leaders are fully committed to diversity and inclusion because they align their values to their objectives and persevere no matter what. But like values, perseverance comes from the core - as a boy from the country and a family steeped in traditional farming values, the foundation blocks to everything I do are honesty and integrity, passed down by my parents and grandparents, and with that a determination to not quit come what may. In the world that many of us live in working in social enterprise and social innovation, quitting is not option. As Douglas McArthur once said, “Age wrinkles the body, quitting wrinkles the soul.”
8. Authenticity: Along the same lines as passion, if you can’t be yourself and come across as authentic, other people will see through you.
   

So, thank-you British Council for allowing me to reflect on inclusive leadership and tell my story. On a final action point, never stop learning and set aside that one hour a day to take a breath, find new interesting articles to read and as Clore Social taught me, know yourself, be yourself and look after yourself.

• The centrality of relationships to everything: The most obvious being the relationships between young people and those working with them, but also between colleagues within organisations and across the sector. Facilitating open and trusting connections struck me as one of the most important aspects of leadership, and I’m returning with a clear focus to strengthen the relationships that drive our work at the Centre for Youth Impact.
• The impact of impact measurement: Many organisations still feel under huge pressure to use data to prove their value to others. Efforts to gather this have the potential undermine, rather than enhance their work with young people.
• ‘Measurement’ remains critically important: But this is so only when it is used to learn, and it must be meaningful for organisations and practitioners. Complex but critical work is done with young people in a whole range of settings, and impact measurement, done well, helps understand, improve and communicate this work.

These themes are familiar from frequent conversations with practitioners in our networks, but an immersive experience allowed me to feel, experience and therefore (hopefully!) address them with greater vigour, and greater empathy. The job swap wasn’t about learning new things, but it inculcated clarity and a sense of purpose, humility in some areas, and reassurance and validation in others.

So – take a minute to think about an environment that might shift your perspective, challenge and inspire you. I found it helpful to zero in on my potential blind spots, as well as what might energise me. I was surprised – and pleased – by the willingness of others to accommodate the placement. My hosts seemed to see the value of an external perspective on their work, which was reassuring in what could have felt like a slightly indulgent personal development exercise!

All this has reminded me of the importance of stepping out of my own reality, as far and as often as possible. A few days away has allowed many pieces to fall into place.

Please share your comments about this blog below, or you can connect with Pippa on Twitter.

1. Seeking feedback can bruise the ego. Like all of us, social leaders have personal egos. While they are often described as heroic figures, they are human beings with personal feelings and identities. As social leaders often pour their hearts and souls into their work, seeking feedback requires putting personal feelings and identities aside to receive developmental, critical, and useful feedback, which is can be negative. Yet this can be difficult because these emotions and identities are what motivates them to do their work in the first place.
2. Seeking feedback requires resources. Seeking feedback takes time, effort, and energy. While it may seem like a simple act, asking for feedback competes for resources with other important activities at work, such as strategy or fundraising, and in their personal lives, such as childcare or quality family time.
3. Seeking feedback can disappoint others. Social leaders recognise that seeking feedback comes with the implicit assumption that the provided feedback will be used in some way. Yet they may not always be in a position to act on their feedback even when they agree with it. This might be due to a lack of resources or institutional and organisational constraints that make it difficult or even impossible to implement specific changes. Thus, instead of giving false hope by seeking feedback, they may choose to refrain from it.
4. Seeking feedback can damage social leaders’ reputation. One of our expectations of social leaders is that they are competent, knowledgeable, and strong individuals. Recognising this assumption, social leaders are sometimes concerned that seeking feedback might portray them in front of others as weak, indecisive, and incompetent. They fear this portrayal might damage their reputation as well as the reputation of their work.
5. Seeking feedback can limit organisational advantages. Seeking feedback often requires at least partial disclosure of information related to ideas, approaches, and methods unique to the work of the social leader. We might think or at least hope that the social sector is guided by ethical decision making. However, there are numerous examples of individuals and organisations appropriating the ideas of social leaders after giving them feedback. Therefore instead of creating opportunities for collaboration and improvement for social leaders, seeking feedback might enhance the competition.

How can social leaders address these five challenges? The first step is to recognise the trade-offs between seeking feedback and refraining from seeking feedback; to recognise both the bright and the dark side of seeking feedback. The second step is to make active choices between the trade-offs and to balance the benefits and costs with a long-term view.

Do you agree with these points, or do you have further suggestions on the topic? Please share your views about this blog post below, or contact Andreana on Twitter.

1. Listening, really listening. Giving people ‘exquisite attention’ with a genuine desire to understand what is being said, and be willing to take on board different views to your own, as good leaders have to be great listeners first.
2. Playing on the well-known saying she shared of the greater lessons she’s learnt is ‘don’t do something, just sit there’. In other words take time to consider and reflect, don’t confuse action with leadership.
3. Make lots of friends and allies, particularly with people who don’t hold the same views as you. Build bridges for people to cross.
4. Read broadly and take the pulse of opinions you don’t understand. Take the time to work out why people feel differently to you (then see point 1 above and listen).
5. Be yourself, your whole self. However there is a caveat to this. To paraphrase she said, ‘this is not talking about all of your domestic troubles or showing every emotion that you have, but ensuring you don’t waste energy hiding who you are.’

I’ve heard the phrase ‘civil society’ many times but never really thought about what it means. For me it conjures up images of Jane Austen characters and a time when you could take it for granted that everyone is tuning into The Archer omnibus.

Since Brexit here in the UK we’ve become a rather ‘uncivil’ society, people are polarised in their views and, speaking personally, I’m not really able to listen to and understand the case for Brexit. I will try harder. In the US President Trump seems oblivious to societal norms let alone capable of basic ‘civility’. I am not sure he will be encouraged to follow my lead.

At the talk, Julia was asked where she was ‘coming from’ in relation to the Inquiry, and she explained that everyone had been asked to ‘list their priors’, and state their biases. What stood out most was her view that society had become too big and is not local enough. That we had become too logical about operational efficiency about hospitals, schools and services, and that people don’t live like this. I was fascinated about the discussion in the room about housing and the elderly care crisis. Where we are now in relation to both is not in any way ‘civil’, but then neither issues are easy to solve unless we start to talk truthfully about them.

• Are you effectively communicating with your different stakeholders to harness their energy, enthusiasm and engagement?
• Do you need to improve engagement with your stakeholders to help increase referrals, funds and resources?
• Do you have a strategy in place to communicate regularly with your different audiences e.g. your beneficiaries, funders, donors, volunteers, trustees, partners, influencers?

1. Customer support management - Introducing a formal way to track, catagorise and analyse customer enquiries helps to identify if there are common issues, concerns or questions arising amongst your stakeholders. Introducing an online customer support form or call handling service with a clear case management process and/or a self-help Q&A forum can help improve and speed up standard communications. This also provides a way for customers queries to be heard, logged and monitored in a quality assured way, flagging areas to improve or develop for the organisation.
2. Targeted e-communications – When I work with clients on a new CRM this is often is a catalyst for them to organise, update, cleanse and re-categorise their contacts into target audiences. This enables them to send out targeted and focused emails and newsletters to certain audiences via integrated e-marketing tools.
3. Social media engagement – Engaging with stakeholders via social media is becoming increasingly important and as a result, my customers are now asking to track social media handles for both contacts and organisations within their CRM, and recording if they have completed the action to find and follow them.
4. A community discussion forum – Introducing a community platform can enable different groups of stakeholders to share common interests, discuss ideas, thoughts and issues together. I have deployed community platforms for staff, volunteers, members, beneficiaries and learners to interact together.
5. Ideas exchange – You could establish an online ideas voting platform, which lets stakeholders post ideas, vote on ideas and comment on them. This can support co-design and development of new solutions that are customer led.

If you are interested in streamlining your communication practices with stakeholders and implementing a good CRM using Salesforce with integrated tools for your organisation, contact Heather at heather@economicchange.co.uk for a free consultation.

"She has issues with authority."

That’s what my second grade teacher told my parents after I led my classmates in a minor mutiny around lack of snack choices. My parents weren’t sure whether to be delighted at my leadership potential or terrified that I was going to get kicked out of primary school for challenging authority!

Many social activists experience similar issues around authority because creating social change fundamentally involves pushing up against the boundaries of established structures and ways of doing things. But that doesn’t mean authority is negative or evil. On the contrary, authority is a crucial force which leaders can mobilize for good.

There are even times when authority is exactly what is needed to solve a complex technical challenge. When an army needs to capture a position or when a surgeon needs to excise a cancer, it is wise to entrust the regiment or the operating room to a competent authority figure who has the know-how to fix the immediate problem. In situations which are not technical, however, authority will rarely be sufficient to produce the necessary change. So when a society needs to ask what issues are worth going to war over, or a person needs to stop smoking in order to preserve their health, something beyond an expert authority figure is needed. That something is leadership.

In his seminal work, Leading without Easy Answers, Ronald Heifetz defines leadership as "mobilizing people to do adaptive work." Unlike technical challenges, which require expertise and can be addressed with authority alone, adaptive work happens with new situations which challenge a group's established beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. Leading a group through an adaptive challenge requires engaging them in finding a way forward as opposed to telling them what to do. So while authority figures can often be successful at solving technical problems and maintaining stability, leaders doing adaptive work will need to use other tools - such as raising challenges constructively and creating healthy disequilibrium within a system. That disequilibrium is what provides the necessary momentum for people to examine and alter their values, attitudes and behaviours. It is dangerous work - and often the person exercising this kind of leadership will not be a person who holds formal authority. That’s because the pressure on authority figures to maintain the status quo is huge - so huge that they often cannot lead change effectively.

But that doesn't mean that authority should be demonized. On the contrary, the most effective results can arise from an alliance, often implicit, between those in authority positions (e.g. an elected official) and those leading without authority (e.g. a social activist). A clever authority figure will therefore use the disruption caused by an activist as a catalyst to help stakeholders examine their values and behaviours and create systemic change.

So don’t knock authority. It’s a necessary and useful tool in our leadership toolkit. Whether applied to a second grade snack time revolution or the Middle East crisis, we would benefit from creating alliances between those in positions of authority and activists who can serve as catalysts for social change.

For more on adaptive leadership, watch this video interview with Ronald Heifetz.

1) 'Yesterday I was clever and tried to change the world; today I am wise and am changing myself.' - Rumi, 13th century Persian poet.
We often focus a great deal of our energies on the processes, systems or tasks that need to be changed, and not enough on the attitudes, values and mind-sets that underlie these behaviours that need to adapt to the new context. Before we can even begin to influence others’ attitudes and behaviours, we need to start with an understanding and awareness of our own conduct to understand how it might affect the change we would like to see happen. This is where honest introspection and some candid feedback from those who know us well can be invaluable.

2) Solve problems by focusing on what’s going well.
It’s human nature to zero-in on problems and all the things we feel aren’t right or good enough. An approach called Appreciative Inquiry developed by David Cooperrider of Case Western Reserve University, encourages us to look for success stories within our own teams and organisations. It is based on a powerful assumption that building on strengths brings better results and is much more motivating than focusing too much on weaknesses and failures.

3) 'People do not resist change; people resist being changed.' – Richard Beckhard, organisational change pioneer.
We often think that if a necessary change makes a lot of sense to us, that all other rational beings will also clearly understand the need and benefits of the change we’d like to make. Leaders can underestimate the degree to which we react to change through our emotions, rather than our rational, logical selves. No matter how beneficial a change may be to the future of an organisation, if we perceive it as having a negative impact on our status, sense of control, certainty or fairness, we aren’t going to warm to it very quickly. This doesn’t mean of course that we shouldn’t go ahead with the change; it’s just that if we want to bring the rest of the organisation with us in this change, we will need to be very mindful of the impact it will have on people affected and how best to engage them positively.

In light of these considerations, those working in the social sector who deal with organisational change may want to further develop their skills by attending the short course I am delivering for Clore Social Leadership.

Find out more by visiting here and call 020 7812 3770 to book.