I've written before about Centred Leadership which is a model of leadership that has evolved out of research into what drives and sustains successful female leaders. I have been thinking about that more recently and am still working my way through the list of books that were recommended in that article. In particular I have been thinking about trying to articulate my values more clearly. I am working on that and will come back to it in due course. But in the meantime, I read this article on The Guardian's Women in Leadership about how to work hard and stay healthy. The article suggests the following techniques:
I thought about how this applied to me.
1. Find your own personal escape route. This is something I've not always been vary good at - often resulting in others bearing the brunt of my stress or becoming my scapegoats. So I have has to work hard at this in the last couple of years. Having chosen an intense and demanding job leading a primary school through a period of change and improvement, while also studying for an MSc in Educational Leadership on a distance learning programme and starting out on married life (although admittedly no children at home to add to this mix), I knew I had to carve out time to re-energise. As the author of this article says, leaders need to be resilient physically and emotionally and a good starting point for that is self-awareness. So the question I posed myself was what things, places, people did I need to engage with to keep me in a good place? I've learnt that, among other things, I need:
2. Support those around you. Professionally it was part of my job to mentor the teachers I worked with and this was, with a few exceptions, an activity that energised me (as well as providing them with what they needed I hope!). In addition to that, outside of work I decided to co-ordinate a discussion group aimed at providing a place for educational professionals to meet and discuss issues that they encountered in their work with regards to teaching and learning. This felt particularly important to me in the context of living in Cambodia, where not many formal networks exist and tapping into professional networks can be quite hard. On a personal level, I am lucky to have a husband and a small group of friends, among whom providing support for each other is a big part.
3. Learn from your challenges. Last year saw me undergo one of the greatest challenges in my leadership journey. Having worked in an environment in which professional standards did not previously exist and for which I was largely responsible for instigating, this in itself had been a challenge but one from which I learnt a great deal and developed personal resilience.
4. Choose a workplace that shares your values. Incidentally, this lies at the heart of the challenge I faced. While my values did align with the stated values of the organisation I was at, it became clear that they did not align with those at the head of the organisation. It was really hard to leave something I believed in and had worked hard for, but it was the right decision in many ways. Working with people who hold opposing values to your own is not a comfortable position to be in.
I like what she starts and ends with: know yourself, be yourself, look after yourself.
- Find your own personal escape route.
- Support those around you.
- Learn from your challenges
- Choose a workplace that shares your values.
I thought about how this applied to me.
1. Find your own personal escape route. This is something I've not always been vary good at - often resulting in others bearing the brunt of my stress or becoming my scapegoats. So I have has to work hard at this in the last couple of years. Having chosen an intense and demanding job leading a primary school through a period of change and improvement, while also studying for an MSc in Educational Leadership on a distance learning programme and starting out on married life (although admittedly no children at home to add to this mix), I knew I had to carve out time to re-energise. As the author of this article says, leaders need to be resilient physically and emotionally and a good starting point for that is self-awareness. So the question I posed myself was what things, places, people did I need to engage with to keep me in a good place? I've learnt that, among other things, I need:
- time alone, reading, listening to music
- I benefit from engaging with literature (films, articles, websites, books) that help me explore what matters to me
- I need to engage with nature (quite difficult in Phnom Penh)
- watching films
- spending time with people I love and admire
- mindfulness practice and meditation
2. Support those around you. Professionally it was part of my job to mentor the teachers I worked with and this was, with a few exceptions, an activity that energised me (as well as providing them with what they needed I hope!). In addition to that, outside of work I decided to co-ordinate a discussion group aimed at providing a place for educational professionals to meet and discuss issues that they encountered in their work with regards to teaching and learning. This felt particularly important to me in the context of living in Cambodia, where not many formal networks exist and tapping into professional networks can be quite hard. On a personal level, I am lucky to have a husband and a small group of friends, among whom providing support for each other is a big part.
3. Learn from your challenges. Last year saw me undergo one of the greatest challenges in my leadership journey. Having worked in an environment in which professional standards did not previously exist and for which I was largely responsible for instigating, this in itself had been a challenge but one from which I learnt a great deal and developed personal resilience.
4. Choose a workplace that shares your values. Incidentally, this lies at the heart of the challenge I faced. While my values did align with the stated values of the organisation I was at, it became clear that they did not align with those at the head of the organisation. It was really hard to leave something I believed in and had worked hard for, but it was the right decision in many ways. Working with people who hold opposing values to your own is not a comfortable position to be in.
I like what she starts and ends with: know yourself, be yourself, look after yourself.