Six Months on and #ChooseToChallenge – IWD2021
8th March 2021
Six months into my new challenge of launching Bright Lead Ltd, I felt it was time to let everyone know what I’ve done and achieved. The fact this coincides with the upcoming International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8th March is fitting, with this year’s theme being #ChooseToChallenge. Those who know me very well, know, I much prefer having, developing and writing about new ideas to writing about my achievements, so this is a #challenge for me!
IWD 2021 is all about choosing to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements, choosing to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality, to help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change – AMEN to that! Is it ironic or prophetic that schools go back in England on this day – a day to celebrate the achievements of women, many of whom have held down their jobs while home-schooling and shouldering much of the burden of running their homes – perhaps IWD 2021 is truly a day of emancipation?! Or a cruel twist of fate…!
Those I’ve worked with will recognise my passion for engendering a life-long love of learning, and my desire to create schools as ‘learning communities’. Throughout my career I’ve always tried to model this thirst for learning, and so I’ve continued to keep abreast of ideas, reading and attending webinars surrounding leadership and the pedagogy of remote learning, and I enjoyed hosting a webinar on ‘Girls and Hybrid Learning’ back in September.
Towards the end of 2020 I became an accredited EmergeneticsTM Associate allowing me to use psychometric profiling alongside my work with individuals and teams. 2021 began with me becoming a Mental Health First Aider, and I’ve now embarked upon the Resilient Leaders ElementsTM training, allowing me even more tools to help support my group and 1:1 work. Given my watchword at Bruton was ‘resilience’, this toolkit should make the girls and staff smile!
Resilience is key in this challenging, chaotic time we’re all living through, and so I’m extremely proud that the Senior Leaders’ Group Coaching Programme, supported by the Girls’ Schools Association, is having such a positive impact upon participants.
Originally designed for Heads, it was clear very early on that Senior Leaders, from Assistant Heads to Deputies, were even more eager for the opportunity to work together to develop their leadership skills. We follow a ‘curriculum’ designed to develop high performance leadership, looking at a range of skills from self-awareness to presence and persuasion. The focus is ensuring sustained and consistent high performance across all aspects of work and life rather than high achievement in one or two areas at the expense of the others leading to dissatisfaction and disillusionment – so important at this time.
One of the participants said ‘It is by no means easy however, Nicky runs this course with energy and enthusiasm allowing you to feel 100% supported throughout. This has been an opportunity for me to really connect with a fantastic group of like-minded people but also to reconnect with myself. When the world around you is chaos, the opportunity to sit and think for an hour a week has been brilliant.’ Cohort 2 starts March 23rd, so do get in touch if you’re interested or know someone who might be!
I’ve also loved developing and delivering a wide variety of leadership development programmes, working with educators and those in the video games sector. For one large studio a Leadership Training Programme (LTP) is run over six months, a mixture of monthly sessions and self-study. The initial focus is upon self-leadership, and then building great teams, culminating with building a high performance culture within the organisation. Based around classic and modern ‘primers’, the self-awareness ‘piece’ uses an EmergeneticsTM profile. It’s a great programme which has translated extremely well to Zoom, and can be adapted to the needs of any leadership team.
I’ve worked with other games studios on shorter programmes to help them build trust and establish themselves and their parameters for working together, including development work on constructive and successful challenging conversations. Running parallel to this is 1:1 coaching which has also transformed into group career development and interview coaching. Again, bespoke solutions have been developed, tailored to the specific needs of the team. I’ve found this work to be highly creative, and hugely satisfying given the positive impact on a wider variety of leaders than was possible to me previously, and have really enjoyed working with fantastic associates.
Developing the courage and culture for courageous conversations and managing conflict underpins this leadership development work. I’ve run two webinars for the GSA on successful challenging conversations with parents and staff and a similar session for the Southwark Schools’ Learning Partnership. I’m booked with JAGS, Jersey College for Girls and Queen’s College, London for later this year. I‘m finding appraisal feedback training and conducting appraisals for Heads and Senior Leaders hugely worthwhile and this an area I want to continue expanding.
Hosting Bea Wray’s talk “What Harvard taught me but my kids made me learn” was also impactful, and a great way to start 2021. I’m looking forward to challenging myself to do more to bring interesting women to speak about their leadership experiences in future.
At the same time I started vaccination volunteering which has been great fun and good for my mental health in equal measure. A legitimate way of ‘breaking-out’ of lockdown which has suited my rebellious streak, it’s rather like managing a really positive (if huge!) lunch queue and I’ve relished the human contact.
Having spoken at the GSA Heads Conference in November 2019, I’ve also continued my ‘passion project’ work to raise menopause awareness, both generally and in schools with colleagues and pupils. Menopause is not an issue that affects women in isolation, and everyone knows someone at that stage of life. The ONS statistics show that menopausal women are the fastest growing demographic in the workplace so awareness is important for all leaders – an increasing number of whom are in this demographic themselves. I’ve had my blog published by #DiverseEd Menopausal Musings: What to expect as a Senior Leader with the menopause | Diverse Educators and am a contributor to the upcoming #DiverseEd book with my chapter in the AGE category of protected characteristics. I’ve spoken on the We Lead Well podcast with Vicki Maguire and been mentioned in @JPJourno’s 29th January 21 ‘Menstruation taboo’ article in the TES. I’ve also submitted an article for inclusion within #WomenEd’s Innovate journal about ways in which women leaders can be supported in education and ways we can retain women leaders at all stages of their career, involving male colleagues in this change as well. I was invited to speak with the Bristol Education Partnership schools by Badminton School in November and St Mary’s, Cambridge have asked me along to speak to staff and pupils in the future too. As the many girls I have taught will know, helping to create an inclusive world is so important to me, and allyship runs alongside this quest, which was why I was honoured to be a panellist for the inaugural Boarding Schools Association Diversity and Inclusion Conference.
Having found this a #challenge to write, I must thank Hannah Wilson, @Ethical_Leader, for the encouragement. Her #IAMREMARKABLE workshop I attended, a Google initiative empowering women and underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond, is to be recommended. I’m also extremely grateful to my former GSA, Bruton, Calne and Putney colleagues, my mentors (you know who you are!), my friends and family, and the ever patient Rob for your total support with this journey. It’s exciting because I’m learning so much and it’s having such a positive impact! About VAT returns, accounting and Mailchimp (!) of course, but also about developing myself and others. This has been a period of huge growth, and more is to come!
I’m pleased I’ve taken the plunge to write this #choosetochallenge update and would encourage you to #choosetochallenge yourself this IWD 2021! Do tag me in on Twitter or LinkedIn using #choosetochallenge or contact me on nicky@brightlead.co.uk or via the Bright Lead website. I’m looking forward to developing the business further, focusing upon my mission of serving and inspiring others, and myself, to be our ‘best selves’ with courage, compassion and optimism. This is an optimistic time of year, with the snowdrops giving way to crocus and daffodils, and there’s a Bright future ahead (sorry, that’s corny I know!).
I’m now publicly challenging myself to not leave it for another six months before sharing progress with this great venture, and hope you’ll continue this journey with me and hold me accountable to this commitment!