Alyceum

Igniting Leaders, Inspiring Revolutions

reflection

Our Annual Review for Alyceum in 2021

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2021 has been an incredible year for Alyceum! With so many wonderful programs, participants and projects, it was FULL ON – and I loved every minute of it! It’s also been a challenging year, which I’m sure many of you can relate to, being separated from loved ones, and living with the backdrop of challenging global issues including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and discrimination.

In one sense, this is what we train for – developing our personal resilience and leadership to deal with tough times. We can practice optimism, gratitude, connection and sometimes disconnection! We can focus on what we have control over – eating nourishing foods, moving our bodies in ways that energise us, connecting with friends, reading good books, and giving back in meaningful ways.

As I reflect back on the year, I am intensely grateful for the work I get to do, the people I get to work with and the impact I get to contribute to. I invite you to reflect back on your year too – what you’re grateful for, the times that challenged you and what you have learnt about yourself in the process.

 

Launch of the Greater Good Collective

One of my most proud achievements this year was launching the Greater Good Collective, a 3-month online personal leadership development program! This is a real passion project of mine! It feels like the project that my whole career has been culminating towards! This is a program and a community I will be committing to focusing on growing intently over the next decade!

And we had a wonderful first cohort who piloted the program! They dived in with open hearts and minds and learnt more about themselves and stretched beyond their comfort zones! This just makes my heart sing. Some were inspired to set up their own community projects, some reassessed their careers and others planned their retirement!

And it’s just going to get better every year!

If you’re keen to join the Greater Good Collective, I’m hosting the next cohort from the 6th February next year!  Sign up before 1 January 2021 and receive eight BONUS online summits throughout the year to keep you connected, engaged and inspired on your leadership journey throughout 2022.

 

New Leadership Program – Diverse Women’s Leadership Program

This year, we were very excited to receive funding to run the Diverse Women’s Leadership Program for the Muslim Women’s Support Centre in WA. This was an inspiring program with two cohorts – under 35 years and over 35 years. These programs focused on increasing the leadership skills, confidence and networks of participants to step up in their community, career and civic leadership! And what a group of superstars we were able to bring together. This program brought participants together for fortnightly evening workshops, Saturday Forums and a weekend retreat, the programs just recently culminated in a beautiful graduation ceremony for participants to reflect on just how far they had come in the 4 months.

Our 9th and 10th Emerging Leaders in Governance Program!

Speaking of exciting, we ran not only one Emerging Leaders in Governance program, but this year, we ran two! Thanks to funding from the Australian Government, we ran our 10th ELGP with an incredible group of women from Aboriginal and culturally diverse backgrounds! I also curated and facilitated an Unconvention on increasing Women of Colour on NFP boards. You can watch their experiences of the program and read their group photos here.  I can’t wait to see the impact of these two cohorts on the NFP sector. Thank you to Southcare and the 40 + not for profit organisations that support this collective!

Igniting leadership at Conferences and Workshops

It was great to reconnect with a number of clients in their leadership programs and conferences this year and participate in a few new ones too. Thanks to Thinktank Media for inviting me to be part of the Corporate PA Summit this year. I also really enjoyed working with the Department of Health with their Introduction to Leadership program. It was great to be back at the Water Corporation, Vinnies WA and Horizon Power.

 

Accepted the role of Patron of Girl Guides WA

I was kindly offered the role of Patron of the Girl Guides this year. Having never been involved in Girl Guides before, I set about finding out as much about the organisation as I could and I have to be honest – I was blown away by all they did and have achieved.

I love that GGWA wants its diverse young members to drive the future direction of the organisation. It started in Perth in 1915 and is open to change and innovation to make it vibrant and inspiring for girls and young women to develop their leadership in 2021. I love how it builds confidence, resilience and independence in girls. Thank you Girl Guides for the honour to support your organisation. I look forward to a fruitful partnership!

 

High Impact Leadership

This year, I went back into the classroom to refine my skills and knowledge and ensure I was up to date with all the latest in leadership and impact. I undertook the High Impact Leadership course with the University of Cambridge.

I really enjoyed being challenged in my thinking, connecting with other participants from around the world and putting my knowledge and writing to the test. I loved how the course focused on leadership being not only about commercial success but also about achieving and succeeding in broader societal impact.  And yes, passed with flying colours with 93%!

 

100 Women goes from strength to strength

Another exciting year for 100 Women, we had incredible speakers such as Shelley Cable, Fran Haintz and our new Ambassador, Sophie McNeill. Our Gala event attracted over 300 people to celebrate everyday philanthropy and share in the announcement of three $40,000 grants to Koya Aboriginal Corporation, Children by Choice and Forever Projects in Tanzania. 100 Women is very beautifully led by Virginia Miltrup who is Chair and very excitingly we are engaging a new manager to help drive the organisation forward!

 

Thank you

For me, business is about the people and impact we create. This year, I got to work with some incredible people. Thank you to the program coaches who supported my leadership programs, Cettina Raccuia, Natalia Saeed, Shameema Kolia with the Diverse Women’s Leadership Program and Dr Nicky Howe, Brooke O’Donnell and Grace Mugabe for the support with the Emerging Leaders in Governance Program.

 

I really loved working with Masters student, Natasha Walker. Thank you for your dedication to your internship with Alyceum. It’s always a wonderful experience working with university students during their internships.

So much gratitude and appreciation to my business assistant, Josefine Mai Kraemer, for her incredible support to me and Alyceum! You are an absolute superstar and I look forward to an exciting 2022 together!

Last but not least, thank you to my beautiful family that are with me through the highs and lows and have provided me with never ending support – my incredible husband, two children, my sisters and parents. Thank you!

 

Celebrating 20 years in business in 2022!

Next year we are celebrating 20 years in business! Yes, 20 years!

It’s going to be another big year of leadership programs with the Greater Good Collective and two ELGP and two DWLP all booked in!

Thank you to all my program participants, readers and the Alyceum community. Together we can achieve great things!

 

 

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10 questions to plan for 2022

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A fresh new year to dream, visualise and plan. But how do you get started? Journalling is a great tool to develop our insight, connect with our inner voice and start to develop clarity about the life you want to lead.

I think we can under-estimate what can be achieved in a year but we have to take the time to contemplate what we will actually want to achieve and break it down into your first bite sized piece of this. So what do you want to be different in a year’s time?

* If you’ve been waiting for the Greater Good Collective program to open up – you’re in luck – sign up before 1 January 2022 and receive eight BONUS online summits throughout the year to keep you connected, engaged and inspired on your leadership journey throughout 2022.*

In December I posted 10 Questions to Fuel Your Reflection in 2021, because we have to look back first!

It’s a great practice to….

  • reflect back over the whole year (it gives you a sense of what can be achieved in a year),
  • visualise what you did with your time (consider the projects you worked on and how you spent your time), and
  • really consider on the key learnings you have taken from the year – seriously, what did you learn?

Most often, we sleep walk through life without taking the time to reflect, grow and stretch into the future. Just as useful as it is to look back, now it’s time to look forward.

10 Questions to help your planning in 2022

So where to start!

Take these 10 journaling questions to planning for 2022. They are simple questions but they will take some time to consider. Put yourself first – before work, Netflix or social media, and make it a priority to immerse yourself in these questions.

1. How will you step into the highest version of yourself this year?

If you practiced all the habits you wanted, lived your core strengths and you were totally aligned with values – this would be your highest version of you. Visualise who and what this person would look like, what choices they would make, how they would talk and interact with others and what they would focus on in life. The game is – how do you edge closer and closer to this person every moment. Think small steps.

Your highest version of you can be your greatest mentor, guide and inspiration – ask her for advice as life’s challenges arise. Tap into the inner wisdom you possess. The clearer your highest version is to you, the better she can guide you through life’s ups and downs.

2. Describe your ideal day, week and year?

How you live your days is how you live your life!

It’s a big statement but it’s true. Our daily habits form the foundations for how you live your life. What is one habit you want to focus on this year and one habit you want to let go of?

Take some time to craft your ideal day, week and year. What does an ideal 24 hours look like to you? Take into consideration all the realities of life and craft what it could look like.

What about a week? What do the ultimate 7 days look like? Break the rules, and see what you come up with. What energises you? Who do you want to spend time with? What goals do you want to dedicate your life to?

3. How will you use your strengths?

Want to enjoy life to the fullest? Put your strengths to work!

Professor Martin Seligman, Director of the University of Penn Positive Psychology Centre found that a key part of flourishing in life and work is using your strengths.  So first you have to know them – do you know them? Inside out and back to front? How much of your day do you get to use your strengths currently?

How can you increase the dial on this and use them more and more in your life. Again, you can be creative with this, perhaps you haven’t come across ways that you could be using them more and more in your life.

4. How will you take care of yourself? What’s your health and wellbeing plan?

Without your health it’s very hard to achieve anything of significance over the long term. Think physical, mental and spiritual. This means you have to actively plan for sleep, rest, nutrition, movement, mental clarity and fun! How could you step up your health? How can you make it fun?

I read an article this year that so aptly described self care as not a day in the day spa but the everyday looking after yourself – cooking healthy meals, moving your body and doing something that enriches your spirit – this is real self care.

Don’t wait until your health is threatened to make health a priority. Do it now.

5. What is holding you back? 

Otto Scharmer, author of the books Theory U and Leading from the Emerging Future talks about the three voices that hold you back…

  • the voice of judgement (shutting down your open mind instead of being inquiring and curious),
  • the voice of cynicism (shutting down your open heart instead of connecting and relating) and
  • the voice of fear (shutting down your open will instead of letting go).

How powerful!

Do you ever listen to the stories you tell yourself or others about what’s happening in your life? I often try to listen in to what I say automatically to friends and colleagues about what’s happening in my life.

Journalling is another great opportunity to tap into your stories.

These stories are your beliefs – but you know what, you don’t have to believe them? What? Yes, your beliefs can hold you back and sometimes you need to actively change them.

What beliefs do you need to say goodbye to and what beliefs will you try out in 2020?

6. How will you give back to the community? And how can you be of service to others? 

If you know me at all, you know I see this as an integral piece in life. Life is energised by using our greatest strengths in service to the world. If you haven’t felt this through your giving before, you probably haven’t tapped into the right giving for you yet.

How can you focus on giving to others this year? Often this can provide great energy in our lives. If you were to focus on one area to give back in, what’s it going to be this year? Commit as deeply to this as the other areas in your life.

Maybe it could be to join a Not-For-Profit board?

7. What do you want to learn?

The most extraordinary leaders I know are people who never stop learning. They are humble and understand the world is changing at an extraordinary pace.

First define the what. Where do you want to grow, stretch and learn this year? If you could develop your own learning curriculum this year, what would it be?

Then think about the how. How will you learn what you want to learn? What books can you read? Are there any courses you can take? What conferences can you learn from? Which key skills do you want to learn and foster this year?

Get excited about what you can learn and how you can grow as a person and leader.

8. What relationships do you want to foster?

Relationships feed you – they can lift you up, inspire you, challenge you and support you. Yet, we are increasingly living in a lonely world. In today’s world, we’ve forgotten how to foster friendships with others.

Lately I’ve become really intentional about the relationships I’ve wanted to foster. Which ones energise me? Provide great insights? Challenge me? Nurture me?

Think about who makes up your community? Family, friends, networks, work colleagues and neighbours.

Be focused on the key relationships you would like to develop this year. Who can help you be the person you want to be? Will you reach out to a new mentor, create a mastermind group, attend a new conference to expand your networks. Foster your friendships?

This will take time. Devote time, energy, ideas and resources to develop these friendships. Make them fun. Make them meaningful. And they will create a life worth living.

9. How will you be inspired?

Inspire – the original latin definition means to breathe into. How do you breathe life into your existence?

What are the inspiration sources that help you stay energised and refreshed for the ups and downs for the year. How can you operationalise your inspiration sources so you can perform at an optimal level?

Inspiration is required on a consistent basis so think about the sources that energise you in life. What gives you energy and what drains your energy?

10. What amazing life adventures do you want to do this year?

Ok – now it’s time for a bit of fun.

Forget work, think about what is going to bring you joy and fun into your life. What life adventures could you have this year?

Think about what you’ve never done before! What’s something you could do for the very first time? It could be a new place to visit, a new hobby, a new friendship to cultivate?

Think about your fears – what are you avoiding? What gets the heart rate going? Life adventures can be a mental challenge as well as a physical one. What is one fear to conquer this year? What training and preparation could you do? Who could you enlist to help you? Give yourself a challenge.

Think about what brings you joy!

Let’s continue the conversation here. I’d love to know what 2020 will bring you!

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10 key questions to fuel your reflection in 2021

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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?

 

* If you’ve been eyeing down my Greater Good Collective program then sign up before 1 January 2022 and receive eight BONUS online summits throughout the year to keep you connected, engaged and inspired on your leadership journey throughout 2022.*


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 2021. 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 a while. 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.

Get this Free Guide: 6 POWERFUL SECRETS TO FIND YOUR HIGHEST PURPOSE IN LIFE

The world needs more purpose-driven people. But where do you start? This inspiring guide will give you powerful insights to find and refine your own purpose in life.
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How to be a change maker

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“All of us are needed for a moral revolution.  It doesn’t matter where you live, the size of your bank account, or what you do for a living.  The world needs you to flex, to stretch to uncomfortable levels, to build your moral imagination, to listen more deeply, to reckon with your sense of identity, and to open yourself up to understand the layered inconsistencies and differing perspectives of others.  It requires each of us to partner better, to tell stories that matter and embrace the beautiful struggle.”
– Jacqueline Novogratz

I definitely know that I am at my happiest when I’m working with a team of people to make the world just a little better in some way. I love new ideas and I love a project that challenges that status quo. I love inspiring others to think about the change we can make together.

Last year – 2020 – commemorates 25 years since the start of my journey in leadership and community change making. Back in 1995, I was 12 years old, I was given a beautiful gift. I was chosen to attend the first International Children’s Conference (ICC) on the Environment run by the United Nations. 800 kids from 90 different countries were chosen to attend and experience 3 days of speakers, workshop and kinship.

There is no doubt in my mind that this conference was an immense catalyst in my life and one that I feel very fortunate to have. At 12 years old, my attention was diverted away, absorbed by my own teenage life and focused on others, my local community and world.

At this conference, I connected with the three other Perth delegates and we came back to Perth and formed our own group. Supported by our parents and a supportive teacher, we decided to run our own kids conference! This was probably one of the first examples of the ‘youth-led’ movement. It took us 13 months and in 1996, we ran the first Kids Helping Kids conference with 150 kids from around Western Australia and our ICC friends from Malaysia. In 1999, the group became incorporated as Millennium Kids and still runs today.

Since 1995, I have been a keen volunteer, a change maker and voice for the issues that matter. I look back with huge gratitude for the experiences I had, the people I met and most importantly, the mindset that was formed. It was a mindset that change can happen, we can achieve great things in our community when we come together and we have more power and influence than we think!

So in this post, I want to share 7 lessons I’ve learnt about creating change!

1. Lead now

“Leader is not a title that the world gives to you—it’s an offering that you give to the world.”
– Abby Wambach, two-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women’s World Cup champion

You can lead right where you are – with your knowledge, experience, ideas and passion!

Don’t wait to be asked, don’t wait until you’re old enough or experienced enough. Get in there, join the team, shadow the leader, meet new people, share your ideas – start learning on the job! We all have the capacity to lead change – to make the world a little bit better than how we found it.

You have to be willing to be brave and give ideas a go, put yourself out there, make mistakes, learn and realise you have some value to give to the world.

2. Don’t doubt the crazy ideas!

“The day before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea.”
– Peter Diamandis, author and founder, Singularity University

It’s often the crazy ideas that can make the biggest difference!

Kids running their own conferences, young people being board directors on aged care organisations, everyday people joining together to become philanthropists…all of these crazy ideas became successful projects. Many people scoffed at these ideas and took a lot of convincing of their worth. Hang in there, it gets a little easier!

Give yourself time for thinking and talking about crazy ideas too. We can all too often get caught up in the busyness of life. Give yourself time to really think about what the world most needs now.

3. Diversify your network

“Inclusion is not a matter of political correctness. It is the key to growth.” 
– Jesse Jackson, Politician and Civil Rights Activist

Get out and make as wide networks as you can.  A broad network is an advantage when it comes to creating change. You can’t do it all by yourself! When I was 21 years old, I ran as an independent candidate for the Federal Senate of Australia. I loved the experience because it truly pushed me out of my comfort zone. I committed to going to a wide range of events with people I had never met before. Not only did it help during my campaign, but through the rest of my career and community work. The friendships I made, the organisations I came across, the people I connected with have held me in great stead.

When you’re building a team, it’s integral to know your strengths and find people who strengthen the group through different mindsets, skillsets and networks. They will challenge you and that’s a good thing! It can be an easy trap to bring together people who mirror your own strengths, instead, push yourself to bring together different people.

In these increasingly polarised times that we are living in, it can be all too easy to be revolted by people who hold different opinions and close down the conversations completely. Try to keep the avenue open.

4. Failure is part of the process

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”
– Ken Robinson

Plant many seeds as not all will grow. Failure is not a reflection of you, it’s just part of the process. For every project idea that’s been successful, there have been three ideas that have failed. Don’t be disheartened by this. Ask yourself, what can I learn from this? The learnings might come years afterwards too.

See the obstacles not as a sign to stop but a sign to keep going! Embrace them. Rise to the challenge of them. Obstacles will only make you stronger so keep in there!

5. Cultivate your skills in learning, listening and leadership

If you want to make a positive impact on the world, here are three key skills – learning, listening and leadership. Since the very beginning of my journey, I’ve been honing these skills. I still get it wrong and there is still much opportunity for improvement!

Learning – you are also learning! Learning about the complex problems we are facing in society, how we can make a positive impact, how we can work together more effectively. Being a learner.

Listening – the greatest leaders I have observed are all incredible listeners. They listen for what is said, they listen for what is not said. They don’t just listen, they connect and see the world through the eyes of the speaker. Often, when we have ideas and knowledge, we can be too quick to talk all the time. A great leader sees the opportunity to ask questions and listen. They listen with great humility.

Leadership – be ready to learn more about yourself, your team, your community and society and uncover the assumptions and biases that may hold you back. This self awareness helps you to start building mastery in leadership. You will need it when you need to bring together a diverse group with a common vision, when you need to have a courageous conversation with a team member and when you get knocked down by failures.

6. Surround yourself with the people, places and beauty that inspires you

When I feel inspired, I feel like I can do anything. So I think deeply about what inspires me the most. I wonder about the times that inspire fresh thinking, innovative ideas and connections.

For me, it’s about people, places and creativity. I surround myself with inspiring people. I meet with them. I read their books. I listen to their videos and podcasts. I attend events that push my knowledge and networks and am inspired by the incredible people I get to meet. I’m also inspired by our beautiful natural environment, the blue oceans, the tall trees and the animals who inhabit these spaces. Art, creativity, music and movement also inspire me. I love different art forms and the creativity and dedication it takes to create.

What gives you energy? Take your inspiration seriously.

7. Focus on what you’ve achieved, not what’s still to be done

“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

This is an important one! When change is the goal, you can be so future focused that you don’t acknowledge your achievements along the way. And let’s face it, we often have big hopes and dreams! Don’t get disheartened that there is still so much to do, celebrate what you have achieved along the way – highlight it, the small wins, make them visible to all the team. Change, at the best of times, is slow but that doesn’t mean that you don’t celebrate the wins along the way. Sometimes change happens in a giant leap, most of the time it will be incremental. Stick with your goals and purpose for the long term and don’t forget to take the time to acknowledge what you have achieved.

Together we can effect real change, by joining together, sharing our talents and envisioning a better future. Often I reflect on my 12 year old self, who had their eyes opened by the possibilities of this. No matter what we face as a world or society, I try to remember this. Now I have children of my own who see the issues they would like to positively impact and I know it’s my turn to encourage them to see their role as a changemaker in society.

Here’s to another 25 years of changemaking impact.

 

Get this Free Guide: 6 POWERFUL SECRETS TO FIND YOUR HIGHEST PURPOSE IN LIFE

The world needs more purpose-driven people. But where do you start? This inspiring guide will give you powerful insights to find and refine your own purpose in life.
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Creating Inclusive Leaders

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In an ever-changing, diverse world, organisations require leaders to look beyond traditional ideas and frameworks to shape leadership expectations. Leaders, without consideration and reflection, can often gravitate toward people that reflect their own personality, values and opinions. With diversity becoming a developing trend, organisations are now looking for teams with people from varied backgrounds, personal experiences, personalities, and ideas. With diverse teams comes the need for diverse and inclusive leaders.

But what does it mean to be inclusive? And how do you foster inclusivity in an organisation? Inclusion requires people to feel respected by and connected to the organisation and their colleagues, feel able to contribute to wider discussions, and feel able to progress within the organisation. Diversity refers to the mixture of different people and identities coming together in an organisation. 

A report published in 2016 by Deloitte outlines “The six signature traits of inclusive leadership: Thriving in a diverse new world”. From 2011, they recorded and interviewed over a thousand global leaders, consulted experts and researchers in the field of inclusive leadership, and interviewed over 1500 employees about inclusion in the workplace around the world.

So what are the key traits you need to be an inclusive leader? 

They are:

  1. Commitment
  2. Courage
  3. Cognisance of bias
  4. Curiosity
  5. Cultural Intelligence
  6. Collaboration

Let’s explore those further.

1. Commitment – Are you dedicated to diversity?

Being a more inclusive leader requires you to be committed to diversity. This is not only in the interest of the organisation you work for, but because it aligns with your personal values. Fostering diversity doesn’t happen overnight; it requires a lot of time, energy, and hard work.

The combination of your own personal experiences with diversity and inclusion in the workplace and the rational argument from a business perspective shows your commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion in your workplace.

So how can you show your commitment to diversity as a leader?

  • Put yourself in situations where you are working with people with different backgrounds to you.
  • Take the time to read and listen to diverse information sources
.
  • Highlight that fostering diversity and inclusion in the workplace is a top business and personal priority and encourage everyone to join the learning journey
.
  • Talk about what inclusivity and diversity look like within your organisation and invite different opinions.
  • Ensure your workplace practices and processes are improving diversity and inclusivity in your workplace.

2. Courage – Are you ready to speak up?

Being an inclusive leader requires you to challenge your organisation, its practices, others, and yourself. It takes bravery to challenge entrenched organisational practices and frameworks, but doing so will mean your organisation has the chance to become more diverse. Being able to challenge others and recognise your own limitations also takes courage. This humility will help you listen to different perspectives and overcome your own limitations.

Have you got the courage to be an inclusive leader?

How can you be a more courageous leader?

  • Reflect often on the biases and weaknesses that arise in your own behaviour and be willing to call them out.
  • Seek the advice and help of others to rise above your limitations, and acknowledge when you have made an error.
  • Encourage your team to respectfully identify when biases may be occurring in the team. Emphasize this is a learning journey for all. Make it safe for everyone to make mistakes and learn.
  • Question and dispute normative organisational values, processes and frameworks that encourage non-inclusive practices.

3. Cognisance of Bias – Are you aware of your blind spots?

Being an inclusive leader requires you to be aware of your organisation’s biases and of your own personal biases. These biases can range from unconscious bias, favouritism, confirmation bias, group-think, and attribution error. In order to improve the diversity within your organisation, you must develop your self-awareness and be prepared to act.

So how do you overcome personal and organisational biases?

  • Identify when you are most prone to your personal biases and organisational biases.
  • Take note of when organisational biases take over your better judgement during stressful situations or processes, e.g. recruitment processes.
  • Ask for feedback or more opinions when making or reflecting on key decisions.
  • Adapt processes to ensure that personal biases do not influence decisions about others.
  • Ensure transparency in decision-making processes, such as recruitment practices, and provide clear explanations to those affected by these decisions.

4. Curiosity – Do you have a thirst for knowledge?

To be an inclusive leader, you must constantly desire to learn and keep improving! To improve the organisation’s diversity, you must be open to different perspectives and to areas of knowledge that you are not personally familiar with. Asking questions and attentively listening to colleagues can help you understand multiple perspectives on issues that your organisation must deal with. This also means you have to be prepared for perspectives that can be vague and indefinite.

So how can you be more curious?

  • Do not be quick to judge those who hold different perspectives to you. Listen to what they have to say, and dig into understanding their perspectives.
  • Express your desire and openness to learning about new perspectives and ideas.
  • Ask for multiple perspectives from diverse people about choices or decisions to be made.
  • Anticipate change and actively encourage different ways of thinking. This can lead to opportunities to connect with diverse others.

5. Cultural Intelligence – how do you communicate with people from other cultures?

What exactly is cultural intelligence? This particular quality of an inclusive leader requires you to recognise how your personal experiences affect your perspective of the world. You must learn to look past stereotypes and be confident in your cross-cultural communications.

Cultural intelligence (CQ) is divided into four categories; motivational CQ, cognitive CQ, metacognitive CQ, and behavioural CQ.

  • Motivational CQ concerns how interested and enthusiastic a leader is in learning and developing cross-cultural communications.
  • Cognitive CQ concerns how much a leader knows about traditional norms, values, and stereotypes surrounding another culture.
  • Metacognitive CQ concerns how consciously aware of culture a leader is during communications with people from another culture.
  • Behavioural CQ concerns how appropriately a leader uses verbal and non-verbal cues when communicating with another culture.

So how can you become more culturally-intelligent?

  • Take the time to learn about other cultures, and create opportunities to do so.
  • Be prepared when leading a culturally-diverse team. This will include learning about individual members and their backgrounds, and changing how you approach certain situations or decisions.
  • Be open in your body language and succinct in your word use when communicating with
    people from different cultures and backgrounds.
  • Recognise your personal flaws and biases towards cultural stereotypes and differences.
  • Actively reflect and question your predisposed ideas about different cultures.

6. Collaborative – how well do you work with others?

Contemporary organisations require you to harness your team’s total intelligence to get to work, rather than individually strive to complete projects. In a team, you are more likely to meet and work with people who have completely different backgrounds, and maybe even opposing ideas to your own. The challenge here is to listen, be solutions-focused, and encourage independent, self-directed thought and debate.

How can you be a more collaborative leader?

  • Create an environment where team members will take responsibility and hold themselves accountable for mistakes they have made.
  • Ensure no one is left out of conversations or group discussions and activities. You should cultivate a safe and respectful environment so that your team members feel safe to speak up and discuss ideas.
  • Ask for feedback and questions about project progress from other team members.

In summary

Being inclusive is a non-negotiable. This gives us all a great opportunity to be learners and take our leadership skills to the next level.

Check out this link for the full Deloitte report. For further information about being a more
inclusive leader, check out this link to the SPACE2 Model developed by Include-Empower.
Where do you think you need to improve as a leader? Can you see yourself developing and
implementing the ideas we have discussed? I would love your feedback!

Ready to step into your full leadership potential?

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RESET – Creating Your New Normal

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What an opportunity 2020 was to truly reflect on what’s important in our personal lives and collective society. Have you taken the time to reflect on how the global pandemic impacted your life? To make sense of it and to ask what it is teaching you?

The interruptions to how we live and work gave us a chance to experiment with our habits. Habits you may have intentionally developed for your life as well as the habits that emerge without you knowing. You know, habits like checking your social media first thing in the morning, staying up too late, eating too much fast food or checking email or news at all times of the day. These habits are not who you are or who you want to be.

I spoke to one CEO who really enjoyed the slower pace rather than racing from meeting to meeting. They reflected the pandemic had given them more time and space to think, to move more and connect with family.

If we can take away anything from this experience, it’s the opportunity to reset.  This is the time to make purposeful changes to your daily life.  To raise questions at work about how you work best!  This is the time to start carving those new grooves and living in a way that aligns more with your purpose and values.

 

Look at your Life

It starts by asking some of the big questions in life. What is important to me? What values do I hold dear? How do I want to show up in the world? Maybe you’ve done some of this thinking before and maybe you haven’t. Either way – it’s a good time!

Author, Brian Johnson suggests starting with three key domains in your life – energy, work and love to align your purpose and values to the everyday actions in your life.

  • Energy:  Without your health, you can’t show up fully for your work or life so your energy is foundational to living your best life.
  • Work:  Happy people have meaningful work serving a purpose greater than themselves.
  • Love:  Cultivating connection with family, friends and community has been shown time and time again to create enduring wellbeing in life.

So let’s look at those in-depth…

 

Domain 1: Energy – lighting you up!

The pandemic has caused a fair amount of physical and mental stress. It’s important to acknowledge this as it takes a hit on our energy levels ongoingly. Research has found people with high energy are happier people.

So how do you increase your energy? There are two key ways we can create energy in your life – physiologically and psychologically.

Physiological – Creating energy physiologically means the basics of life – how you move, eat and sleep. How would you rate on the basics? It wasn’t a surprise when the lockdown first hit, many people were extolling the importance of eating well, moving your body and getting enough sleep. That’s because it protects us from physical and mental illness!

But it’s so easy to see these things as getting in the way of what we really want to do in your life. They become a chores that need to be done. Dr Michelle Segar, in her book No Sweat, suggests we reframe these chores to instead seeing them as a gifts.

How?

Dr Segar suggests connecting exercise (or eating healthily or sleeping enough) with the short term benefits it brings to your life. That’s right, forget about vague promises that it’s good for your health and think about how it makes you feel today.

She also suggests focusing on the smallest improvements. For example, instead of trying to fit in our hour of rigorous exercise, she says make it a game to find OTM – Opportunities To Move throughout your day. She says – everything counts!

 

You may think that your day is crammed so full that you can’t fit in one more thing, but believe me: It’s not true. If you’ve got one minute, you’ve got time.”
Dr Michelle Segar, Author, No Sweat

 

Like finding a parking spot furtherest away from the supermarket, train station or workplace rather than the closest (you’ll be spoilt for choice!). Taking the stairs rather than the lift (easy way to avoid the crowds!). Taking a walk during your lunch break or while the kids are taking their music class or when meeting with a colleague. How many opportunities to move do you have in your day?

Psychological – You can also create energy psychologically too. I’m sure you’ve had the up and down of negative thoughts and emotions over the last few months. Recognising the emotions you are feeling, acknowledging them in the moment and realising they will pass are vital skills to manage the stress.

There are a number of scientifically validated mental tools to get you in the right frame of mind too, training your mental resilience through focus training, gratitude, confidence building and hope.

It starts by spending small moments thinking, talking or reflecting about what you are grateful for, what goals you have for the future, reframing mistakes and acting in integrity with your values. Setting habits to review what you are grateful for, your purpose, goals and values can help cultivate your mental strength and resilience to weather the highs and lows in life.

The more you move away from our values, the more you feel stressed and anxious in your life. Instead, aim for coherence between your purpose, values and goals and your everyday actions.

 

Domain 2: Work – serving the planet with your greatest strengths

What conditions help you to do your greatest work? Think about where prefer to work? What time do you have the greatest energy? What cues help you to focus? What gets you in the zone? This is what top companies obsess about – helping their people do their greatest work. What did you learn about this during lockdown?

Did you learn you work best from five to seven in the morning?
Did you learn you were most productive with less distractions around you?
Did you learn what triggers you into your most productive work?

What percentage of your work allows you to use your greatest strengths? Psychologist, Martin Seligman found using your strengths makes you more productive, happier and engaged at work! Are you making the best use of your greatest strengths?

The challenge becomes creating space and time to focus on your strengths deeply within your diary. In Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work, he suggests your ability to focus deeply at work is becoming increasing uncommon. Think – notifications, open plan working, back to back meetings or 24/7 email. Yet, this deep work is becoming more and more valuable in our economy.

 

The Deep Work Hypothesis: The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.”
Cal Newport, Author, Deep Work

 

Your deep work is your life’s work. It’s building a body of work that makes you proud. We tend to overestimate what we can achieve in a day and underestimate what we can achieve in a year. So what is the focus for your next 12 months and how are you breaking that down and working towards it little by little every single day?

You can’t do eight hours of deep work every day though so Brian Johnson suggests you match your the energy levels to the type of work you want to do. You want to create rhythms to do your best (deep) work when you have your greatest energy and the oscillate your deep work time blocks with time with your team (team work) and then the monkey work (email, admin and so on) as well as some time to rest (don’t forget this too)!

 

Domain 3: Love – cultivating moments of connection

The pandemic has given many of us a huge wake up call about how much time we are spending with our loved ones. A recent newspaper article shared how many leaders had been able to reset during the lockdown, realising that events every night of the week was not only burning them out energy wise but slowly disconnecting them from their partner and children.

Clayton Christensen, Harvard professor and author of How will your Measure your Life? suggests we live in a culture that over invests in work and under invests in our close personal relationships.

 

The relationships you have with family and close friends are going to be the most important sources of happiness in your life. But you have to be careful. When it seems like everything at home is going well, you will be lulled into believing that you can put your investments in these relationships on the back burner. That would be an enormous mistake. By the time serious problems arise in those relationships, it often is too late to repair them.”
Clayton Christensen, Author, How Will you Measure your Life?

 

I’m not saying don’t focus on your work I’m saying actively take the time to cultivate the love in your life too! Career or business success can be super important, for sure, but it is not the only ‘capital’ you want to build in your life

Are you building a life which allows you to be the healthiest version of you?
Are you building a life which allows you to connect with your partner and children?
Are you building a life which allows you to be an active member in your community?

 

Time to RESET?

Undoubtedly, this pandemic has had immeasurable effects to our global world. This, on top of insane environmental, social, political and cultural challenges, has left many of feeling off kilter.

This was the gift of 2020. Not the year many of us might of imagined but a gift no less. Any opportunity to reset. An opportunity to re-imagine. An opportunity to reconnect. Are you making the most of this opportunity?

 

Want to join the Greater Good Collective? Launching 1 May

On 1 May, I’m launching the Greater Good Collective, a 3 month personal leadership journey to live and lead courageously to create a better world.

Check it out here to join us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get this Free Guide: 6 POWERFUL SECRETS TO FIND YOUR HIGHEST PURPOSE IN LIFE

The world needs more purpose-driven people. But where do you start? This inspiring guide will give you powerful insights to find and refine your own purpose in life.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.