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High-five on the farm |
January Taking myself to the
market
This
is a blog about how I made the transition from employed to self employed.
According to Dan Pink to sell is human.I took myself to market and I sold! I try to sell myself quietly, and I
also notice how other people sell themselves to me. One day, after a meeting
with another trainer, I asked myself: “What on earth made you think you would
be comfortable working with him?” Crossing him off my list of potential
collaborators was disappointing, but inevitable. We were poles apart in terms
of values and approach.
February Becoming a coach
February
was intense. In order to obtain a coaching qualification, I had to write
essays, prepare a presentation, and practice my coaching skills ahead of my
final assessment. I spent hours coaching, and being coached. What got me
through the exam was the support and encouragement that I received from the
tutors, and from my group. What I gained was a renewed curiosity and enthusiasm
for learning. Best of all, I saw how I could use Gestalt theory to enhance my
approach to experiential leadership training and development.
March
It’s
not what you know
I
saw how teaching models and frameworks out of context just doesn’t work. You need to start where your learners are, and work
alongside them. Later I read an article on executive education that included
this quote from Roger Martin, Dean Rotman School, Toronto: “Knowledge is of minimum use unless it enables the
recipient to take action”. He’s so right.
April Collaboration can be
hard
Having
convinced myself that the trend in leadership is collaboration, I tried to
collaborate with people I know. Wanting to work with someone, and making it
happen, however, are two very different things. What do I always say when I am
teaching project management to other people? “You need to agree what you are
trying to do, how and why, and you need clear roles and responsibilities”. The
were various reasons why some of my efforts at collaboration failed to get off
the ground. They included not being clear about the target audience, underestimating
the need for marketing, not having the right business partner, different
working styles and times zones. I should listen to myself more…and try again.
May Dialogue not one way
conversations
I
treated myself to a leadership programme. It was great not to feel responsible
for other people’s learning. What worked best for me were conversations with
leaders, when there was real dialogue. What I didn’t like was meetings that
were more akin to interviews, where we asked all the questions, without
thinking to disclose any information about ourselves. For me, unless everyone
in the conversation is willing to disclose and be challenged, there can be no
real learning. I was most touched listening to the probation officers, and the
ex-offenders, talking about themselves, not in the same room. One of the
speakers reminded me of the street-wise police that I met in the job that
occupies one line of my CV (See September).
June Stressful but
successful
Delivering
projects for new clients taught me what consultants really do. Consultants are
contracted to deliver agreed outcomes. To do that, they need to be able to
manage and support their clients in different ways. At the end of a stressful
but successful project, I learned (again) that I have a tendency to imagine problems
that do not exist. It all ended happily.
July
Black
Swans can be positive
A
friend of mine recommended me for a job that landed on my desk like a positive
‘Black Swan’: 1) It came out of the blue 2) It had a positive impact on my
business and 3) afterwards I created a narrative for myself to explain how it
was in fact predictable. If this is randomness, please can I have more of it.
And I look forward to returning the favour, because I do believe what goes
around, comes around.
August Feeling grounded, the
importance of.
I
learned that when people are struggling with a task, and are losing confidence
in their ability to find a way forward, the most useful thing I can do as a
coach / facilitator is to ground them firmly in what they already know. All I
have to say is: “What do you know?” I believe people have the answers to their
challenges and dilemmas within them, and can be helped to discover them.
September Bridging a gap in my
CV
I
had dinner with a group of people I last met more than 30 years ago when we all
worked at the Ministry of Defence (MoD). I was there for nearly ten years, and
yet the MoD occupies one line in my CV. I was nervous. My concern was that we’d
spend the whole evening talking about accumulated husbands, wives, children, property
and pensions. I was wrong. We talked about office misdemeanours, and that
person whose name none of us could remember. And, yes, the revelations were
delightful.
October Experiencing a
different world
My
niece Vicky invited me to spend a day with her in the Scottish Borders, on a
farm where she has spent time as a veterinary student. At the end of a
single-track road, in a valley, by a stream, we picnic-ed with the farmer and
his shepherds. They were tagging sheep, before sending them to market. The
fleece on the sheep was creamy and rug like. I felt privileged to be invited
into Vicky’s world of sheep, cattle, horses, dogs, and farmers, going about
their business.
November KellowLearning.com
goes live
After
months of planning and writing, my website went live, and I was glad. The
writing of it sometimes felt like a chore, but because of this, I now know what
I do, and why.
December Getting a community
complex
I
got involved in a bid to have a neighbourhood planning forum recognised by the
local council. Despite living in the area for almost five years, I didn’t
expect to find so much complexity on my doorstep. Of course, doing what I do, I
should have known better. My motives for getting involved were not entirely
selfless. I wanted to get to know my neighbours. On that score, I think 2014 is
going to be another year of transitions.
PS For more information about leadership and learning, please check out my new website www.kellowlearning.com