Alyceum

Igniting Leaders, Inspiring Revolutions

Alicia Curtis

Our Annual Review for Alyceum in 2019

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Want to join my Reflection Revolution in 2020? You, me, the Alyceum Community, once a month for 90 minutes for reflection, inspiration and connection. Join us here for a free taster on the 18 December using the coupon bemyguest. Or better yet, commit to growing your reflection muscle by registering for all the 2020 Alyceum Live gatherings here.

 

2019 is my 17th year in business. My inspiration was (and still is) reading Anita Roddick’s revolutionary book, Business as Unusual. I remember reading it in the gardens of the University of Western Australia when I should have been studying.

I was so taken by her words.

We can no longer afford false divisions between work and community, between ethics and economics.  But how can we change from a system which values endless increasing profit and materialism to one in which the core values are community, caring for the environment, creating, growing things and personal development?  We empower people.  There aren’t many motivating forces more potent than giving your staff an opportunity to exercise and express their idealism.

After being so involved in the community as a volunteer in my teen years, I saw the potential of using business as a vehicle of social change. As a 19 year old in 2002, this was in a time before all the business accelerators, incubators and entrepreneurial hubs of today. I remember heading to the small business centre to talk about my business idea inspiring people to develop their leadership skills through giving back to society. They told me it wasn’t a strong business idea!

Well, that was like a red flag to a bull!

That was when I started talking regularly to school and community groups about leadership and giving back.

 

First Among Equals Finalist (Top 4) in the 2019 Business News 40under40 Awards

 

From these very humble beginnings to reaching the top 4 in the 2019 Business News 40under40’s this year in Western Australia, I was able to reflect on the 25 year+ journey that has got me to this point.

 

Running your own small business for social change and impact is hardly the easy road. You are solely responsible for generating the income that comes through the doors – both in winning the work, supplying the work and ensuring it’s a the high standard. You have to believe in your ideas so strongly, because everyone will pick them apart. There will be wins and losses along the way, you can’t lose enthusiasm.

It was great to talk about this beginnings at the Business News Food for Thought event this year too. I’ve always juggled my business with my community endeavours. It was one of the main reasons I started my business. I’ve wanted to work on business projects that have a community benefit, that strengthens the social fabrics of our society – and gee, do we need this at the moment!? So let’s explore some of the business projects for this year.

 

Our Online Offering Grows

 

The Board Ignition course continues to grow in its cohort and impact.

The feedback from participants makes the hard work all worth it…

“I just wanted to say a big thank you for the advice and support provided via Board Ignition. Amongst other things, it really helped me to identify what I was looking for from a board and to how seek out such opportunities and…… I am now a proud board member of an international NFP board! I know it’s a great fit as I am so excited about their vision and mission and can’t wait to see what will we achieve together over coming months. Thanks again.”  – Penny Dowd

“Thank you Alicia for taking the time to create such a thorough, well thought-out, engaging, and relevant course for young people to access. It is practical, and welcoming. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this process, and am grateful to be connected with the broader board ignition cohort.” – Ria Ferris

“Being able to watch Board Director interviews, hear about their journeys and taking the time to consider the reflection questions to enhance my understanding of what I have learnt from each interview. Really enjoyed contributing to the Facebook group.” – Gemma Malatesta

This year, I also:
• softly launched my second online course, Purpose Masterclass,
• created the Aspiring Community Board Directors Toolkit and
• updated my 15 ways to find a community board position resource into a beautiful flipbook.

Read below too about the new monthly mentoring sessions – Alyceum Live – I’m offering in 2020.

 

New Formats and Familiar Themes

 

This year was a lot of experimentation too. I trialed a few new formats. I always love to hear your feedback.

Alyceum Leaders Facebook group – this group grows from strength to strength. We have nearly 1000 purpose driven leaders and change makers on this year. This is a free group – so if you haven’t joined, what are you waiting for? Weekly journal prompts, leadership learnings, read and reflects and more! Join us here!

Ask Me Anything sessions – These were a lot of fun, often people want to pick my brains and unfortunately there are too many to have coffee with individually. But I do love helping people out where I can, so I put together this coffee series where people could register in a small group and fire away questions and conversations!

Alyceum Salons – This year I held a few Alyceum Salons over lunch to gather small groups to chat about what was on their mind – their goals and their challenges. Brilliant groups of people and energising conversations.

10 Key Questions to Fuel your reflection in 2019

Alyceum Live – Just last month, we also started a monthly online gathering focused on reflection, inspiration and connection. The first one in November was a huge success, with a fabulous group of people and great engagement. December’s theme is legacy and it’s really challenging me to step up again as a guide, curator and facilitator of spaces to support people’s personal leadership transformations. I really can’t wait to host these each month.

 

Fabulous events, workshops and clients

 

Emotional intelligence, self awareness and reflection have all rated highly as topics required by clients this year. It’s been wonderful to work with a range of clients such as Southcare, St Vincent de Paul Society WA Inc, Public Sector Commission, Water Corporation, Linkwest and LIWA.

The 7th Engaging Young Leaders on Aged Care and Community Boards program brought together the most beautiful group of aspiring board directors and change makers. It’s a privilege to work with the extraordinary, Dr Nicky Howe and lead this program in the Not For Profit sector. Each year, we learn the nuances of social change, leadership and the power of community.

 

 

 

 

It was great to talk to James Lush and Mike Drysdale on the super new Dear Storyteller Podcast this year. What an incredible podcast series.

Exploring the world

 

I traveled to Singapore twice this year. Once with my family to celebrate my sister in law’s 50th birthday and the second time for the Singapore Institute of Director’s Annual Conference.

It was a brilliant time in Singapore, firstly to explore the culture, food and infrastructure and secondly talking about boards, leadership, diversity and social impact! It was great to chat with new and old friends, who all made me feel so welcome.

I can’t wait until I can come back again! I love the different perspective that travel gives you on life, business and leadership. What travel or conferences have made a difference in your perspective?

 

Growth, Gratitude and Great People

I was again invited to the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in Perth where I was kindly awarded the EY Social Entrepreneur of the Year (EOY) award for the western region in 2018, profiling the success we’ve achieved with 100 Women.

This year, I got to sit back and reflect on just how far we have come in the last year with 100 Women. I got to meet the most incredible people through these awards, including these two amazing leaders Sarah Bagshaw and Wayne Peel (EY EOY WA winner), who now proudly join me on the 100 Women Trustee Board (how lucky are we?!). The 100 Women Gala (our 6th Gala) was incredible too. When everyone gives a little, we can achieve a lot. Congratulations to our 2019 grant recipients doing phenomenal work helping women in Perth, regional WA, Uganda & Nepal!

Projects supported in 2019 included…

• Ishar Multicultural Women’s Health Services – educating young girls from diverse cultural backgrounds in Perth with respectful relationships, physical/mental/sexual health & wellbeing information.

• Yiyili Community Indigenous Corporation – supporting 50 women and girls across three generations by creating opportunities locally to earn an income whilst maintaining and strengthening Gooniyandi culture for future generations.

• Love Mercy Foundation – empowering communities in Northern Uganda to overcome poverty caused by years of civil war by empowering them with financial support.

• Pollinate Energy – scaling a women’s empowerment model linking some of the poorest women in Nepal to clean energy markets & empower them with business skills. HUGE thanks to our members, volunteers, sponsors, supporter, board and everyone who came last night!

Kickstart your giving power with 100 Women today and join us here.

 

The Juggle is Real

 

We always hear about the juggle and it’s never been more ever present in my life than this year. Personally – my family is well, daughter learnt to roller skate, read and revelled in her friendships. My son had a huge year of learning too. He struggled with leaving me and my husband whether it was at daycare or at the end of the day at bedtime but towards the end of 2019, he is really coming into his own (even if he does wake us at 5am every morning!). His passion for dinosaur adventures is evident in all of our lives and his zest for life is incredible. My sister had a baby on the other side of the world which was so hard not to be there to support and snuggle, but watching her grow from afar is a joy (especially when your talented sister makes gorgeous family videos).

My Grandma has not been so well this year (this is a photo of her with my daughter a few years ago now) and so being there to support her and my mum has been important to me. It’s in these tough moments, which all of us go through, you tend to ask those existential questions – what’s the purpose of my life?, how will I measure the success of my life when I’m laying on my deathbed?, what happens after life? and what’s important to me?.

It’s in these times that you heavily rely on the strength of your relationships with friends and family. To keep talking, connecting, relating and reflecting. It’s a privilege to support my Grandma in her final stages of her life, to remember how special she has been to me and to remind me of what’s important in life.  Thank you Grandma.

 

So on the whole…

I have to be so grateful for the people and opportunities around me. The life I get to live and experiences still ahead to devour! 2020 is looking pretty exciting!

What’s your take on 2019?

 

 

10 key questions to fuel your reflection in 2019

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It’s so easy to get caught up in the consumerism of Christmas with the social pressures of presents, parties and more but I have a challenge for you to change and reframe what the last month of the year is about! Instead of December passing you by in a blur, let’s make it a time of review and reflection, meaning-making and connection! Isn’t that what the festive season is really supposed to be about?

 

* Want to join my Reflection Revolution in 2020? You, me, the Alyceum Community, once a month for 90 minutes for reflection, inspiration and connection. Join us here for a free taster on the 18 December using the coupon bemyguest. Or better yet, commit to growing your reflection muscle by registering for all the 2020 Alyceum Live gatherings here.*


Connection and Reflection


Rather than making December a month of overindulgence of food and drink, why not gather an intimate group of your family, friends and colleagues together to make time for personal reflection and then share your reflections with each other. You could couple this with an early morning walk along the beach, an evening yoga session or a fun game of tennis! I’ve made it simple for you and created a list of questions you can send to your friends below. Or better yet, make up your own list of questions to explore!

Reflection can be a powerful learning tool to ignite your self awareness, relationships and leadership. Better yet, it’s absolutely free to do and your reflections get better with practice.


A Magic Carpet Ride


Think of it as a magic carpet ride through the events, activities and experiences that occurred in 2019. Fly through your year from January to now, think about the moments of pure joy as well as the challenges that have made you stronger. I find it can be worthwhile to flick through your diary and note the events, milestones, projects or family moments that made an impact this year.

Step back and reflect – what did these moments mean for you? What have you learnt? By standing back and looking at it from a distance, you can elicit the learning and the meaning. There has been multiple research studies that have shown the benefits of regular reflection. It helps our performance and also makes us happier. Think of it as the debrief after the game, consider each move made, think about how strategies panned out, reflect on winning moves and ones to improve on next time.

As Margaret Wheatley said “We are, always, poets, exploring possibilities of meaning in a world which is also all the time exploring possibilities.”

 

Let me prompt you…

 

I get it… reflection can be hard if it’s a muscle you haven’t used in awhile. So let me take some of the pain away but giving you some prompts to help with your thinking. Here are 10 questions to get you thinking about the year that’s been!

1. What has made you proud this year?


Tap into the experiences and achievements that made you feel happy, satisfied and alive!

Sometimes our reflections can be dogged by what went wrong and how do you improve. Instead, I want you to focus on the activities that made you the proudest this year!

What activities can you credit to your hard work, initiative or creativity? Sink into these feelings – perhaps it was something you achieved or something someone close to you achieved. Perhaps it was something you overcame this year or a lesson you learned. It could be anything – relationships, goals, hard work or your attitude

2. What inspired you this year?


inspiration: the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

Re-energising is so important. Pinpoint what it was for you.

What were your sources of inspiration this year? People, environments, conferences or videos (like TED videos), movies, events, books – anything! See if you can pin point it – what or who inspired you to be your best?

What were the catalysts to enhance your knowledge, confidence, skills or work? Was it a new podcast, a key event or an important mentor? Share this list with others to combine your inspiration avenues!

3. What are your three key learnings from this year?


What’s been your major learning curves this year?

Instead of sailing into the new year without fully gaining the benefit of all your experiences this year, consider the three main things that you’ve learnt. What did you set out to learn and improve on during the year? Where can you see you improved from last year?

Where have you grown the most as a person, leader, family member or friend? Were these intended learning curves or a by product of circumstance? Either way, we can take each experience to the next level by reflecting on what we learnt.

4. What habits have served you well?


Aristotle said we are what we repeatedly do. It’s quite enlightening to realise that what you do day in, day out makes you the person you are! Maybe it’s a little scary too!

It’s so simple, but it can also mean the discipline of constructing your day to be the person you want to be. What habits did you intentionally practice this year and which ones have slipped in – good or bad? Which habits have you added this year? Which ones did you drop? How did it make a difference to your year?

5. What were your key relationships this year and how have they affected you?


Family and friends, business colleagues and community – relationships can play a key part of your happiness and also your success.

Which relationships made you feel strong and empowered? How did you intentionally foster the relationships in your life? Are you hanging around the right people? Are they lifting you up to be your best? How has your presence positively impacted on the people around you too?

6. How did you utilise your strengths this year?


Your strengths are your superpowers. How do you use them in service to the world? Do you know what your key strengths are? If not, perhaps it’s time to get clear about the strengths that you are or can contribute to the world.

How did you put your strengths to work this year? Are you using your strengths on a daily, weekly and monthly basis? How does it make you feel when you can work in your zone of genius, as Gay Hendricks would call it.

7. How did you focus on what’s fundamentally important to you this year?


It is so easy to get caught up in what everyone else wants you to do. Your email can end of being a huge list of other people’s to do actions! Your family, friends, work or even society in general can dictate what gets done.

Think about when you get into work everyday, do you reflect on your key priorities and set in for some deep, deliberative work or do you check your email and focus on what others want of you? Did you get to focus on what was important to you this year or did you get pulled in different directions?

What is fundamentally important to you and how do you ensure it stays the priority for you?

8. What are you grateful for this year?


Time to evoke a little gratitude. Make a list and check it twice!

Gratitude has immeasurable benefits to your physical health, mental health, improves your relationships, increases your resilience, helps you sleep better, improves your self esteem, not to mention, it makes you happier!

From the huge big things to the tiniest little things. What are you grateful for? If it involved people around you, this might be a nice way to reconnect with people during December and tell them what made you grateful too!

9. What have been the obstacles, hard times or challenges you’ve experienced and how have you grown from the experiences?


Yes there are going to be ups and downs in the year. Times where it didn’t always go to plan. Experiences you didn’t expect. What were your biggest challenges this year?

Revisit these tough times and bring some reframing to it – how has it made you a better person, how did you grow and what did you learn? If it’s still tough to revisit, perhaps it’s time for gather a new meaning about the experience.

10. How would I summarise the year that I’ve had?


Use your creative juices to summarise the year in a creative way.

It’s quite in vogue these days to come up with a word at the start of the year, but I want you to do this retrospectively. How would you summarise it?

What would be the theme, mantra or symbol that characterises the year that you had? How would you draw a picture to reflect on the past year? Time to get out of your head and instead into your heart and body. What colours would you use? What shapes or images represent this year?

Take some time this December…


Grab your favourite drink, put on some encouraging music and sit in your favourite chair or go outside into nature and answer these questions for yourself!? Then come together with friends and share your reflections from the year.

Look out the blog in the coming weeks for 10 Questions to Plan for the New Year.

 

Have you registered for the Alyceum Live online gathering below?

As our Christmas gift to you, you can register for FREE using the coupon code bemyguest by clicking on the image below.

10 Key Questions to Fuel your reflection in 2019

Think you’re too young to join a board, think again!

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Is your mindset holding you back from a board role? I’ve heard a lot of barriers that stop people from their aspirations of serving on a board. The two main ones I hear are:

• I’m too young

• I don’t have enough experience

And actually, all those beliefs might be true – you might be young and inexperienced, but you do have skills, you have networks, you have lived experiences, you have a perspective and a curiosity that may be useful to some community organisations.

Plus if you’re willing to learn fast, commit to the responsibilities of a board directorship, work hard, be a strong team player, be humble and be an advocate – you might just be stopping some community organisation from gaining a fantastic board director – you!

So the question is… are you holding yourself back?

too-young-join-board-think-again-alyceumMeet Cecilia

Cecilia is a 23 year old solicitor who is involved in commercial litigation and human rights law. She had an aspiration to become a board director and give back to society but thought she was too young and inexperienced to pursue this aspiration straight away. Cecilia attended an UN panel discussion and heard Alicia Curtis speak about the importance of diversity in governance and the role of young directors in the boardroom and this challenged Cecilia’s perception. She signed up for the Board Ignition course straight away!

 

 

Check out my full interview with Cecilia here..

Or read our conversation here.

Hi Cecilia. Thank you so much for joining me. Now, you did the Board Ignition course and I’d love to hear a little bit about your experiences with the course. But before we get started can you just tell me a little bit about yourself?

Yes, I can. I’m 23 years old, and I’m a solicitor. I’m experienced in commercial litigation and human rights law and I was interested in being a more valuable part of the community.

So tell me what made you want to join the Board Ignition course? You wanted to step up your volunteering. Tell us about that.

Well I’ve done a little bit of volunteering in the past and I just felt really good when I was sort of being more than just a passenger like a member of society. But when I started working full time I stopped really making time for any volunteering. So, I was really just developing my skills related to my job and leaving my other skills behind and I was looking for something more. I thought about joining a board but I just saw that as more of a long-term goal for when I was more experienced. I didn’t think that someone at the beginning of their legal career was going to get a position on a board. And I actually went to a panel discussion run by the UN in Australia that you were on the panel for and you were talking about how young people do have a place on boards and I was like, oh wow maybe I should do this now, maybe it’s not a long-term goal. So, I got in touch about the talk and I found out about the course and just thought what a great way to use the skills I have to make that valuable contribution but then to also be able to get involved with an area that I like that it’s not related to my job.

Yeah, absolutely. It gives your life a really lovely balance, doesn’t it? You’ve got your work and you’re volunteering and your family.

I think it’s really valuable to have a sense of achievement that doesn’t relate to what your paid job, like an everyday job is.

You’ve realised that you can actually give your technical skills to the community as well as to your work as well. So, I’m so glad that you were inspired at that event to just reframe, you know, who can be board directors and realise the value that you could bring onto the board. So, what made you consider the board ignition course? What did you like about it? Were you hesitant about anything before you joined?

I wasn’t hesitant about anything. I liked the sound of the board ignition course because you can do it at your own pace. Because a big thing for me was like am I gonna have time to do this with work and everything? But I was just really relieved to know that it’s kind of just the materials are there and you can do 3 modules in a day if you really feel like it and then you can sort of put on the back burner for a few weeks. That’s what really appealed to me. And I also really liked that your role was quite hands on. So, it wasn’t just reading a course and at the end you just sort of aren’t able to ask questions or clarify things, that guidance for me was what really pushed me to do it.

And tell me what was some of the most valuable parts of the course for you? Did you like the video interviews or was it the reading or the practical challenges, what was it for you?

I found the board director interviews were really valuable. Being able to hear from people who are actually on boards and to understand in a practical sense how their roles work was very interesting and something that I don’t think I’d be able to go and find on my own if I hadn’t done the course. I mean you can find books and reading but to be able to hear directly from people who are doing it was very valuable. But in my case the practical challenge in module 2 which was to attend an AGM I thought that was probably the most valuable thing that I did during the course because again I was like “oh why would I go to an AGM? What am I going to say?” And it was through searching for AGMs to go to that I found that WA Youth Theatre company were having an AGM and that’s what led me to sort of end up in the position.

So, tell me about the WA Youth Theatre Company and just, you know, what’s happened since you doing the Board Ignition course.

Well I found out that they were having an AGM and that they actually had some spots on their board. So, I went revised my coursework, got in touch with the manager and the chair of the board and sort of was like Hi I’m interested, I really like the arts, so, I thought that would be a good place for me to make a contribution. Remembering the Ted Talk by Chris Gardner, I don’t remember which week it was; he said passion is not enough. And when he said that that really resonated with me because there are a lot of things that I’m interested in and I’m passionate about like you know human rights or helping people with disabilities. But I realised I need to pick an area that I’m kind of up to date with and able to actually make a contribution to. That’s more valuable than just being like, hey I really like this. So, I was in touch with them, they were really keen, I got to know some of the members before the AGMs so that when it came to the AGM I wasn’t doing my pitch to a room of strangers and I got elected and that was fantastic. And I’m actually, it only happened two days ago, I’m now the secretary.

Oh, great job. So amazing. And it’s just so great to hear you’re reflecting on some of the key learnings that you have gained from the course and how beneficial it has been through your journey to getting onto board as well. These things, they’re not difficult to learn, any really intelligent, passionate, determined person can pick up on these things but I find with boards it’s still a secret society and we just don’t give a range of people an opportunity to learn about this and how they can give back in this way. And once they pick up and they know the difference between boards and management, yes passion is good but it’s not enough for board directors. You know you can get onto the right pathway to finding the right board position for you. It’s something that’s very well aligned with your skills experience, knowledge, passion, networks and history. So, it’s so great to hear your story.

So, were there any other parts of the program that really helped you with achieving this goal of being a board director?

I think it was really important not only to talk about how boards work in a practical sense but also being able to understand that board directors have legal obligations that are quite serious. I think is really important because then when you’re coming onto a board for the first time you’re not in the dark you really understand the magnitude of your role and the scope of your role. That was a really important part of the course that really legitimises what you’re doing.

Absolutely. I think it’s so important just to be really clear about the expectations of board directors. What are they coming in there to do? What’s their legal obligations? What’s the time commitment involved? And to make sure that you can sign off on all of those areas so you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into as well.

So, you know I’m just really pleased to hear your story. Is there anything else you want to share about you know maybe things that you really enjoyed or surprised you about the course or any pieces of advice that you would give that people who are maybe considering the board ignition course and wondering whether it’s right for them?

My advice would be to just do it. It’s so great. And to not be worried if they’re a few weeks that past where you haven’t looked at it, it’s always there and you can always go back to it which is great. And what’s really good about it is it caters to different learning styles. If you’re not someone who likes a lot of reading just watch the videos and you get the gist of it and the videos are even summarised if you don’t have time to watch the videos. It’s really got all different types of resources so it caters to everyone and I think that’s really important and it makes it less daunting.

Yeah, absolutely. We want to try and make it as easy as possible for people to commit and being involved and gather this information and really help them on their journey. And you’re so true like there’s no feeling of being behind because even if you sign up and it takes you 3 months to get into the coursework it’s there for you at any stage. And we do do live launches of the course so you know if you miss one or you sort of get a little bit behind you can always catch up in the next live round, ask questions of the Facebook group and just really take it in the way that is gonna best suit you.

But what you’ve done is take it one step further and put it into action and now you know you get into the fun stuff of actually being an advocate and an ambassador and somebody who’s sitting at the table, getting to make those decisions and direct the vision and the values of a not for profit organisation. So, well done to you.

Thank you.

And thank you so much for sharing your journey with us today, I really appreciate that.

About Board Ignition

Board Ignition is a dynamic online course that helps you fast track your board journey to get your first board position and serve a community organisation. There are 8 modules to the course which you can complete at your own pace (while you also receive an 8 week email series to help you discover the modules). Check out the course here. Join before 18th June and attend our next Board Ignition live Online Summit with current participants and alumni!

Ready to step into your full leadership potential?

GET THE FREE GUIDE:
15 WAYS TO FIND AN NFP BOARD POSITION
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25 questions to improve your emotional intelligence

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There is a lot of talk about the governance experience required by board directors to fulfil their duties on a board(which is a good thing!). What is talked about less so though but is becoming more and more important is the ability for board directors to bring emotional intelligence into the boardroom.

Exceptional board directors lead with humility, respect, have the awareness of the impact they have on those around them and know when to speak and when to listen.

Need a reminder about what EQ is all about?  Emotional intelligence is described by Perter Salovey and John D. Mayer as:

The ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate amongst them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions.

Daniel Goleman in his book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ, he classifies emotional intelligence into five domains:

Self Awareness: Knowledge of your states, preferences, resources and intuitions.
Self Regulation: Management of your states, impulses and resources.
Motivation: Emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate reaching goals.
Empathy: Awareness of others’ feelings, needs and concerns.
Social Skills: Adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others.

Here are some reflective questions to ask yourself to develop your emotional intelligence as a board director or team member.

Self Awareness

1.  Honestly do you know the strengths and weaknesses you bring to the boardroom?
2.  How do you define yourself? Are these self perceptions accurate? How do you test these?
3.  Do you listen and seek opportunity to understand how others perceive your strengths and weaknesses?
4.  What are your personal values and are they aligned with the organisation you serve?
5. Do you rate yourself as a continual learner? Would others have the same view?
6. Do you act with humility rather than arrogance?

Self Regulation

7.  Are you respectful in your language and actions to your fellow board directors, staff and stakeholders?
8.  Are you able to keep calm during conversations?
9.  Do you listen openly to other’s points of view?
10.  Do you notice when you’re frustrated during conversations?

Motivation

11.  Do you truly understand what motivates you to serve on a NFP board or in your work team?
12. Do you serve the long term interests of the organisation rather than your own concerns or short term objectives?
13. Do you act from a place of authenticity?
14. Are you self motivated to serve on a board or at work?
15. Do you set and aim to reach goals personally and as a collective on the board?

Empathy

16. Do you put yourself in the shoes of the people you serve?
17.  Do you understand the values, strengths and goals of your fellow board directors or team mates?
18.  Do you share the workload equally on the board?
19.  Are you willing to see how others perceive situations and decisions to be made?
20. Do you work hard to be trustworthy?

Social Skills

21. Do you commit to working respectfully with your fellow board directors?
22. Do you reach other to develop a strong relationship with your fellow board directors?
23.  Do you make time to have conversations outside of the boardroom to deepen your relationship with your fellow board members?
24. Are we committed to working as equals in the boardroom?
25. Do you act with a positive attitude?

Emotional intelligence is a critical component of an effective board. Are you actively cultivating the skills of emotional intelligence?

Ready to step into your full leadership potential?

GET THE FREE GUIDE:
15 WAYS TO FIND AN NFP BOARD POSITION
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

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Self reflection and journaling for leadership

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I’m often asked what young leaders can do to improve their leadership, confidence and teamwork. And for me, I would always recommend a habit that many leaders love to hate! Not many of us, in the fast paced, increasingly noisy, anxiety driven world that we live in can handle sitting quietly for 5, 10 or 15 minutes a day with the aim of thinking about our own thoughts and behaviours. Self reflection is something we all have access to. You can get started with the simplest notepad and pen.

The results of ongoing self reflection are impressive. It’s definitely worth taking note! But do you have the discipline?

Why self reflection is important for leaders

Self reflection gives you time and space to consider your actions and beliefs for the benefit of learning. It’s a way of documenting what’s happening around you and using this understanding to create meaning for the purpose of learning.

It’s a stop. A pause. A breath. Amongst all the busyness, action and noise. To observe yourself and others, to create understanding, plans and meaning for the future.

It’s an opportunity to stand back for a moment and observe yourself. It’s a brilliant quality in successful leaders – their ability to observe their own behaviour – almost as if it was another person. Most people will do it after a meeting, event or interaction. Super-practiced leaders learn to self-observe in each moment.

But it’s simple enough to begin after a meeting, event or an interaction. You can consider questions such as:

“How would other people perceive my actions?”

“How did I participate in that team meeting?”

“How did I show up?”

“How did I react and answer questions from others?”

“Was I open to the ideas and discussion or did I shut the conversation down?”

Self reflection is a skill like anything else, so it does take practice.

Ask good questions

Many people are almost scared to sit in front of a blank piece of paper and wonder what to write about. It is a common barrier to journalling.

A simple way to start is to brainstorm questions to ask yourself. They could to be the same questions that you use every day, week or month to consider. You can also include exploratory questions to get you thinking and being creative.

A great daily question, which was highlighted in the book, Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being by Dr Martin Seligman, can be as simple as:

“What went well today and why?”

Other daily questions could be:

“Did I accomplish what I set out to do today?”

“What did I learn from today?”

“What are my priorities?”

Ask questions to inspire possibilities, creativity and insights

In Think Like Da Vinci by Michael Gelb, he shares that Leonardo Da Vinci used notebooks to record everything! From ideas, impressions, observations and thoughts from scholars he admired, jokes and fables, philosophical musings and prophecies, pens for inventions, painting and doodling to personal finance records and letters. Seven thousand pages of Da Vinci’s notebooks existed. Michael Gelb shares that we can develop our sense of curiosity through journalling.

He suggests the 100 questions exercise. Create a list of 100 questions that you could muse on. It could be about anything. How to have more fun? How to love more? What is the meaning of life?

Create this list in one sitting and quickly. When you’ve finished your list, he suggests you review your list for themes and then find the top ten questions that intrigue you and pique the most interest. Use this as the basis of your journalling practice.

Here are the top ten questions Michael Gelb suggests as a catalyst for personal growth and fulfilment:

“When am I most naturally myself? What people, places, and activities allow me to feel most fully myself?”

“What’s one thing I could stop doing, start doing, or do differently, starting today that would most improve the quality of my life?”

“What is my greatest talent?”

“How can I get paid for doing what I love?”

“Who are my most inspiring role models?”

“How can I best be of service to others?”

“What is my heart’s deepest desire?”

“How am I perceived by: my closed friend, my worst enemy, my boss, my children, my co-workers, etc?”

“What are the blessings of my life?”

“What legacy would l like to leave?”

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Many strategies for journalling

Asking questions of yourself is an easy way to start but there are other options too. Many highly productive people have also used a technique from Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way called Morning Pages.

Morning Pages is simply three pages of long hand, stream-of-consciousness writing first thing in the morning. The idea is to pick up the pen and not to put it down until you have done your three pages. You write whatever is in your head, even if you start off with writing…I don’t know what to write!

The purpose of morning pages, Julia says, is “once we get those muddy, maddening, confusing thoughts [nebulous worries, jitters, and preoccupations] on the page, we face our day with clearer eyes.”

Writing online vs writing by hand

A common question when it comes to journalling is:

“Should I hand write it or can I just type away on the computer?”

Some people might find it easier to journal on the computer – Google docs, WordPress, Medium or even Microsoft Word give you easy ways to type away your thoughts and reflections. Not to mention an easy way to store your thoughts and reflections!

But there are potential downsides of digital journalling. It may just too easy to click over to Facebook or your latest email that pops into your inbox. We spend so much time in front of screens these days that any opportunity to take habits offline might be worth considering.

There are also many benefits to writing by hand. Loads of studies have shown the diverse benefits of handwriting in relation to memory, creativity, learning and expressing ideas.

There is something satisfying about opening up and using a nicely bound journal. It’s personal, it’s therapeutic, and it may make you feel like a writer in the 1920’s in Paris!

I’m going to let you decide which one works for you. I want you to think about which one you will actually do. The journalling practice (whether it’s on a computer or not) is the one you do!! Will typing make it easier for you? Or are you keen to explore the benefits of handwriting?

Making it a Habit

So how do you make it a habit that you stick to? It’s all about the routines you use! Here are a couple of ideas for you to mix and match to find what might work best for you.

Last 10 minutes of your work day
Before you go to bed
Every Sunday night
A day once a quarter

When can you schedule it in? Is there another habit you can pair up with journalling? Self awareness is such a foundational skill for any leader. Self reflection and journalling will help your self awareness soar!

Now over to you: Let me know how you go with it in my Facebook group, Alyceum Leaders – I’d love to hear from you!

Be More Productive with this One Key Skill

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Imagine if I could give you a magic pill that had the ability to make you happier, healthier, foster stronger relationships, enhance your career, deal with stress and conflict and even help you live longer – would you take it? Of course, right? What if I told you, you could have access to all these things without a pill?

How?

It is all about strengthening your willpower.

What is willpower?

Simply, it is the ability to decide and initiate action. It’s about being able to control your impulses and decide on the most empowered action you can take. How good are you at controlling your attention, emotions and actions?

Ok, I agree it’s not easy in the world we live in. The reality is that we live in a noisy, distracted, emotionally charged world, that drives terrible behaviours where:

  • multitasking is the norm
  • we are addicted to our phones and to social media
  • There are constantly multiple tabs open on our computer screens.
  • we can’t sit, be still, clear our minds or be without our phones without making people anxious!

The bad news is this noise weakens our willpower. It’s our kryptonite. Not good for us.

The good news is that scientists have found that willpower is like a muscle, you can strengthen it with practice. You can start with really small ways to build your willpower. Even the smallest practices of self discipline start to build our willpower muscle.

It’s the habit of noticing what you are about to do and choosing to do the more difficult thing instead of the easiest. It’s about slowing down and asking yourself “What would my most empowered self choose to do here?”.

I’m talking about the most simplest of things to begin with. For example, putting your clothes and shoes away at night, making the bed in the morning, going for a run or eating the healthier option at the cafe. Every time you do this, you are strengthening your willpower muscle, just like working out at the gym.

Think of it as having two different people in your head:

1. Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – who lives for the moment, wants instant gratification and has no self control.
2. Hermione Granger from Harry Potter – who is a level headed person, who can delay gratification to achieve bigger goals and stay calm in chaos.

Each day, these two voices in your head debate the smallest to the largest willpower challenges you are faced with. Can you resist instant gratification for longer term rewards?

3 Strategies to Develop your Willpower

1. Pause and Plan

When you’re faced with a choice, rather than racing into action, consider the options carefully. Think about it for a moment. Take three deep breaths and think about the long term gain of taking the harder option. Listen to Aretha Franklin’s classic song, Think:

You better think (think)
Think about what you’re trying to do to me
Think (think, think)
Let your mind go, let yourself be free

What’s truly the best decision to be made? What would your best self do?

2. Make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing

If you want to go exercise in the morning, what can do do to set yourself up for success? You can set your alarm, you can get your clothes and shoes ready and put them next to your bed, you can arrange to go with a friend so it makes it hard for you to back out. Set yourself up for success.

Consider other good habits that you want to set up in your life – eating healthily at work, banishing time spent on social media. How can you pre-commit to making the right decision and give yourself no other option than to succeed?!

3. Track your progress, make it visual and fun

Get focused on the habits needed for you to achieve your goals. Think about one habit you can do for the next 30 days. Chart your progress or get a friend to help. And hey, even if you miss a day, get back on the horse straight away (recommitting is as important as starting) and make sure you complete your habit the very next day. Monitoring your progress improves your willpower and is also motivating.

It can make an incredible difference in your life

As Kelly McGonigal, author of The Willpower Instinct says “Self-control is a better predictor of academic success than intelligence (take that, SATs), a stronger determinant of effective leadership than charisma (sorry, Tony Robbins), and more important for marital bliss than empathy (yes, the secret to lasting marriage may be learning how to keep your mouth shut). If we want to improve our lives, willpower is not a bad place to start.”

My advice – start with the smallest thing you can do to improve your willpower and work up from there.

Ready to step into your full leadership potential?

GET THE FREE GUIDE:
15 WAYS TO FIND AN NFP BOARD POSITION
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