Cultivating best practice in leadership across the sector
I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford – one of our key partners in delivering a suite of leadership development programmes funded by the Department for Education.
There are some places and spaces that make us feel safe and the Saïd Business School is definitely one of them. Not only do participants come together to learn and develop themselves as part of a collegiate peer support and challenge group, they also feel safe to have the more difficult and complex conversations about their leadership.
It was no different for me when I sat in on the ETF Preparing for CEO programme on 3-4 July. I felt a sense of belonging that was familiar to me, 12 years after I took the Strategic Leadership Programme in 2011 as I was stepping into my first senior Executive role. I still recall how the combination of academic theory, philosophy, mindfulness, drama, poetry and music (yes, I did conduct that choir in the college chapel!) made me a more reflective and intelligent leader. The programme helped me understand my levels of energy, how I approach networking and engagement and how I bring my whole self to leadership.
And this time it was no different. I truly enjoyed meeting so many aspiring CEOs from across colleges, having meaningful conversations about purpose and alignment.
Purpose
Sarah Rozenthuler, author of Powered by Purpose, led a conversation around mission being your what, vision your where and purpose your why. We reflected on how organisations that lack purpose underperform and the importance of making purpose ‘alive’ in an organisation. But organisational purpose is not a fixed ‘thing’ and is not static. It evolves and becomes clearer through conversation and engagement. We explored how having a clear, compelling, authentic purpose can guide day-to-day decision-making, and contribute to long-term wellbeing and feeling alive at work.
I like how Sarah uses bridges as a metaphor in her leadership practice. Her bridges of purpose are three As: ambition as a force for good, alignment that enables the move from a scattered team to everyone pulling in the same direction and aliveness that connects daily work with purpose, feeling fired up to do the work.
Alignment
Dr Jonathan Trevor, author of Align and Re-Align, challenged us to think how our organisation is aligned to our purpose. We discussed the importance of aligning strategy with long-term purpose and an organisation’s capabilities. I have noted myself over the years how organisations cope better with strategy formulation than organisational effectiveness and operational implementation. It is only when that cycle of alignment between strategy and delivery is effective that we know we have succeeded.
As we agreed collectively in the room that the best leaders ask the best questions, we were prompted to share the best question we asked over the last six months and the question that came immediately to my mind was: Who do we serve?
Leadership in practice
Following from two great sessions on purpose and alignment, I very much enjoyed hearing from three CEOs who have already completed an ETF Further Education Strategic Leadership Programme and who shared their approaches to leadership: Pat Carvalho, CEO at Birmingham Metropolitan, Yiannis Koursis OBE, CEO at Barnsley College and newly appointed CEO to the Bedford College Group and Jenny Craig, CEO at Buckinghamshire College Group. Three very different styles and perspectives on leadership but with many common themes: the power of reflection and observation, the importance of engagement, connectivity and civic responsibility and the commitment to embedding values.
I left the campus enthused and clear that group leadership practice impacts directly on the learners we serve. I am encouraged to see that our partnership between the ETF and Saïd Business School equips leaders to progress in their connections, gain knowledge from sources and methods they may have not tapped into before and evolve their skills and behaviours.