Principles of Leadership

Venue: Yeovil Academy

Date: September 3rd 2013

Day 1- Leadership

I’m back to my blog! Not as I previously thought I might (to finish CPD23), but because I am on a course...a non-virtual one this time. So with the Chartership ‘Thing’ looming on the horizon, I thought it would be useful to record my thoughts and impressions as the course progresses.

I enrolled on this in-house Leadership course at the suggestion of my line manager because we had highlighted a need in my appraisal. I also saw it as a potential area for development when I embark on Chartership next year. The course is to be run on 5 days over 5 months and delivered within the Academy where I work. The facilitator is a colleague so I found it interesting (as she is an experienced educator) to observe her teaching style and techniques…training being another area for which I am interested in developing my skills.

The day started, as is often the case on courses and study days, with us introducing ourselves to the group of attendees and most particularly explaining why we felt the need for this training. That was a relatively pain free start as I don’t fear speaking ‘publicly’ having had a reasonable amount of practice over the last couple of years, and it also helped that I knew my reasons. I haven’t necessarily had a specific reason for embarking on study in the past and suspect that like most of us have seen CPD as a bit of a tick box, where we are in danger of attending training for the sake of it. But on this occasion I have a clear idea of why I have embarked on the course, namely to improve my skill set and knowledge so that I am better prepared to move into Library Management if an opportunity arises in the future. 

The day progressed with a number of activities including group work, feeding back our observations, and some (although thankfully limited) PowerPoint presentation. I really liked how the message of Directive Behaviours was re-enforced in a sort of 'Shuffle’ as I like to remember it. A cross was marked out on the floor in tape representing the four stages of follower development. When asked we had to put ourselves in the quadrant that best described how experienced and competent we felt we were at a particular task. It was a great way of getting us moving and a good activity for cementing the point that was being made...and occasionally amusing when all 20+ of us decided that we needed to be in the same square! I thought it was definitely a technique that I could use if an opportunity arose in the future. 

Throughout the day I was interested in how the group dynamics worked, how assertive some attendees were and how reserved others were, but by the end of the day all of us had made a valid and valuable contribution to the discussions I think. As an aside I’m aware that I probably fall into the former character category, as I found myself contributing frequently. Being self-analytical I know that in a taught session, when a question is asked, I would rather share my thoughts, however uncertain I am of how they will be received, than suffer the embarrassed silence that ensues otherwise! I think however as the course progresses and people feel more comfortable in the group then perhaps this disparity will lessen a bit.

So, what did I learn? Well firstly I’ve realised that I have more of an understanding of the role of Leaders as distinct from Managers than I at first thought, but what the day has done is allowed me to gather my ideas, amalgamate them with those that others have shared and this has given my understanding more substance. Our deliberations throughout the day highlighted that in some organisations there are as many similarities as differences between the two roles, but I personally would sum up the distinctions as Leaders innovating and Managers implementing. 

From a personal point of view I think I have recognised that my maturity and experience in group work can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. An advantage in that I am able to consider others opinions and articulate them via feedback,  and a disadvantage in that I am capable of taking over if not careful…back to that thing of hating awkward silences! I’ve also been reminded that I often suffer from the terrible ‘blank thoughts’ affliction when asked to write down what I think about a topic, so I’m hoping that by revisiting my blog I can start to improve articulating my thoughts!

As a footnote, because I really liked the quotes by Warren Bennis we were given at the end of the day, I’m going to read a bit more about him and his ideas starting with ‘Managing people is like herding cats’ (Kogan Page 1998) in the hope that I can build on what I have learnt today.