Calling all leaders: what are you reading?

Developing as a leader

Well, I’ll let you into a little secret. Just recently, I signed up to a course with the Writers Bureau (see http://www.writersbureaucourse.com/). This is a way of exploring my gifts as a writer – something you (as readers of my e-mails, newsletter and blog) have encouraged me to do.

Right (or should I say “write”?) from the beginning, the assignments are focused on the end goal. My second assignment is to choose a publication for which I would like to write an article and to do just that – with the appropriate research and forethought.

So I’m just wondering: as leaders, are you reading about leadership? And what publications are you reading? My list so far is short – the Harvard Business Review, and Sage Publications’ Management Learning and Leadership.

If there are any additional publications you’d suggest I add to the list, please let me know. You can add your comments directly on this blog or send me an e-mail.

Teaching Awards: an opportunity to celebrate ourselves as well as others

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Today I return from the Teaching Awards’ tenth national celebration of excellence in the teaching profession across the UK. 142 teachers, teaching assistants, governors, headteachers and whole schools came together to celebrate the awards they received across Wales, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland.

There were many times when there was not a dry eye in the house. At the national awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon, people dabbed their eyes as their loved ones – be they beloved spouses or cherished colleagues – learned they had won a national award. And total strangers were quick to recognise in the winners an example of the profound contribution an adult can make to the current and future life of a child.

At the gala dinner there were more tears as Lord David Puttnam made his farewell speech, more than ten years after the idea of celebrating the best in teaching was first conceived. For some these were tears of loss, for David’s contribution to the Teaching Awards has been immense and he is dearly cherished. At the same time, there were tears of celebration and gratitude for everything that it has taken to turn the idea of an “Oscars” for teachers into a thriving reality.

In recent years it has been my privilege to be a member of the nationwide judging team that supports the work of the Teaching Awards. The judges are volunteers who want to give something back. Often we take something away – from the full heart that is blessed to witness what it can mean to be an outstanding teacher, to the idea that can be converted into something useful for one’s own classroom. It seems that we all benefit from being in the presence of excellence. What’s more, we all recognise the gift to our children of excellence in the classroom.

This weekend, as I often have before, I wonder why some winners find it so hard to celebrate themselves in the way they willingly celebrate others and I reflect on a culture in which we are apt to see a recognition of self as vanity or arrogance. I am grateful to David Miller, winner of the Guardian Award for Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School, whose speech on receiving his award shows how much it is possible both to be grateful to others for all they have done and to recognise oneself: more than once he mentions how much the contribution of others has helped him to become “as good as I am”.

Returning to my office I celebrate David and I recognise that he brings something that I would want for every winner of a teaching award, past present and future: the ability fully and easily to recognise what he brings as well as to celebrate the contribution of others. For by loving ourselves and each other in this way, by connecting with the best of that we bring, we open up new possibilities, both to meet our own needs and to contribute to the needs of others. In this way, more than in any other, we make the world a place worth living in.

I wonder, what better example can a teacher offer to the children in his care?

Sex on the beach in Dubai – a potent cocktail of unanswered questions

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This week I have been in Dubai, flying out on Saturday and returning this morning. This was my second visit and I am beginning to recognise the physical challenges that are involved in taking a 12-hour journey and traversing time zones before joining clients to work in coaching partnership.

My energies have (mainly) been with my clients, getting what rest I need in order to give them the best of my (slightly jet-lagged) attention. I return tired and satisfied, present both to the challenges that coaching can bring and to the great sense of privilege that comes from supporting individual leaders and the organisations they lead in this way.

Returning home, Dubai is in the news as the trial of the infamous “sex on the beach in Dubai” pair, Britons Vince Acors and Michelle Palmer, reached its conclusion. The Los Angeles Times was quick to record the sentence on its blog, reporting that Acors and Palmer were sentenced to three months in prison, fined $272 for drinking alcohol and ordered to be deported immediately upon leaving prison.

As I reflect on the reportage of this case over the weeks since it first broke as news, I recall a great deal of commentary on the clash of values which is embodied in the lives of Western expatriates living and working in Dubai. It’s not just that Acors and Palmer were alleged to have had sex on the beach, something that would surely be as unwelcome in the UK as it was in Dubai. It’s also that they were drunk at the time of the incident and unmarried. Indeed, whilst they have been termed “partners” and a “couple” in headlines around the world, as best I understand it they first met on the day of the incident.

This raises many questions for me, amongst them, what needs were they seeking to meet on that day? And how well did they meet them? Marshall Rosenberg lists “sexual expression” as a fundamental need for physical nurturance in his book Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. Perhaps it was enough for Acors and Palmer to fulfil their sexual needs in this way. Perhaps.

And still I wonder. I recall that in 2007, as part of my International Intensive Training in nonviolent communication, I participated in a discussion about sex with a diverse group of men and women. Sharing our thoughts and feelings about this area of our lives it became clear just how many needs – for connection, for intimacy, for fun and play, for love, for self-worth, and many more – we bring to our close relationships, including our sexual encounters. Even putting aside the unintended consequences of their actions, I wonder what needs (if any) Acors and Palmer did not honour, let alone meet on that day in July on a beach in Dubai.

This causes me to reflect on an aspect of our own culture which may have played a part. As much as we describe ourselves as “permissive” in the West, I am not sure we permit ourselves the full truth: that we have needs and that it’s OK to honour them and to meet them when we can. Without this recognition we – as much as people in any other culture – are at risk of choosing poor strategies to meet our needs. And how can we do otherwise? For in order to choose a strategy at all, we are obliged to tell ourselves stories which make our actions OK within our culture, even whilst being unaware that our culture guides us in this way. How can such an approach be effective in honouring and meeting our needs?

As for Acors and Palmer, I wish them well. Whatever choices they make going forward, I would wish for them that they honour themselves, holding themselves as creative, resourceful and whole. I would wish for them that they honour their needs and meet them in ways which bring deep joy and satisfaction. This is no more nor less than I would want for anyone.

School Coach; leaving a positive legacy in education

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Today I return home to pack, ready to fly to Dubai tomorrow. My alarm is set in good time to get ready for my 4.45 a.m. taxi. It has been a busy day – a productive day – spent with my colleagues in the School Coach management team, discussing next steps en route to recruiting a school for a one-year project, beginning in September 2009.

But what is School Coach? I agree to answer this question as succinctly as I can as part of the materials which will in time be shaped into the School Coach website (at http://www.schoolcoach.org.uk/).

Drawing on everything that we have already written about School Coach, as well as on all the learning we have had through our initial project, I make my first attempt to introduce School Coach:

School Coach; leaving a positive legacy in education


Coaching is a powerful vehicle for positive change. School Coach, the most powerful coaching vehicle in education in the UK, exists to help professionals in UK schools to help themselves, making progress towards compelling goals whilst liberating the full potential of school teams.

At School Coach we believe every child deserves an outstanding education, one which enables each child to identify and develop his or her unique talents and which lays the foundations for a happy, healthy and successful life. We believe that professionals in education want to give children this education.

School Coach brings together teams of outstanding coaching professionals to support teaching professionals in UK schools. Working in coaching partnership with project teams in client schools, our one-year projects are shaped to help client teams make accelerated progress towards defined and compelling goals. In addition, working together in this way helps our clients to connect with and leverage their full potential whilst strengthening the coaching skills of everyone involved.

I know that we will review and refine this brief introduction. For now, though, it is enough to have made a start – to have outlined an introduction which is already available, via this posting, to coaching colleagues and to client schools. It’s time to press “publish”. It’s time to pack.

Coaching: where’s the evidence?

Developing as a leader

In the field in which I work – as a coach to leaders – the thirst for evidence (be it of the impact of leadership on business results or of the impact of coaching on leadership effectiveness) is ongoing.

As I think of this I smile. It has been my experience – both as a client of coaching and as a coach to a range of clients – that coaching is an approach whose worth is beyond measure. How many other approaches to leadership development can claim to change lives, even whilst helping people radically to improve their effectiveness in the workplace or indeed to make progress towards unfeasible goals? Not many, I think.

I do not wish to suggest that evidence – of the kind that can be written up in papers and widely shared – is not important. It is. It provides a sound basis for deciding (or not) to invest in coaching and other approaches to leadership development. The more we make decisions to invest on the basis of clear outcomes and having made a sound assessment of the likely effectiveness of the approach we choose, the greater the return on our investment. To do otherwise is to do a disservice to coaching as well as to the businesses for which we are responsible.

I was grateful when a colleague highlighted to me the International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, which is accessible to anyone with an interest in coaching and mentoring at http://www.business.brookes.ac.uk/research/areas/coaching&mentoring/.

Should you find something of value in the Journal or should you know of any alternative sources of information about the effectiveness of coaching, please add a comment here.

Yearning for change in a time of recession

Developing as a leader,

I have been taking some moments today to absorb the comments that have reached me – via e-mail as well as here on my blog – in response to the interview I posted last week with Daniel Pink. What themes are emerging?

Almost without exception, your comments suggest a yearning for change. One reader suggested that it’s time for an approach which is about having ‘enough’ rather than always wanting more. A number of readers point to the opportunity to find ways of moving forward which honour the needs of the many rather than affording excess to the few. Your comments that it’s time to cut back this excess as well as Daniel’s invitation to go back to first principles raise a question for me: how can we meet our needs in ways which restore and preserve the exquisite balance of the planet?

No wonder then, that you view this time of change as a time of opportunity, even whilst wondering whether the opportunity will be taken. Perhaps this is why one reader, responding to the question “Many commentators view the current situation with gloom and despondency. How do you view it?” responded “With optimism, tinged with gloom and despondency”.

One question emerged from your postings which I did not expect to ask: who do we look to for leadership at this time? One correspondent sees the role of our political, corporate and other leaders as “To continue to bluff whilst the situation sorts itself out”. It seems that some of us look to those in leadership positions to take responsibility (even whilst lacking faith in the outcomes of such an approach) whilst others amongst you prefer to do what you can to live your life in integrity with the values you want your leaders to promote.

Reading your comments has evoked memories of Buckminster Fuller, twentieth century inventor and commentator. It’s interesting to me that he asserted, as early as the 1970s, that we were living for the first time in an age in which we have everything we need for all our needs to be met. His prediction was that it would take at least 30 years for us to recognise and act on this fact. It was also Buckminster Fuller who commented widely on the role of integrity. I leave the last word on leadership with him: “We are at the point where the integrity of the individual counts and not what the political leadership or the religious leadership says to do”.

In closing, I extend my warm thanks to Daniel for sharing his thoughts and to all those who have shared their comments by e-mail and on this blog. Please continue to share your thoughts – it seems this thread is one worth keeping alive.

Belshazzar’s Feast: a moment of truth

About Dorothy,

It’s Sunday, October 28th, and the day of our concert has come. More than 100 members of the London Symphony Chorus join the London Symphony Orchestra and baritone soloist Peter Coleman-Wright. We are getting ready to perform Sir William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast under the baton of Sir Colin Davis at London’s Barbican Centre.

Belshazzar’s Feast is a staple of the chorus’ repertoire. We have also performed at this venue, with the LSO and with Sir Colin many times before. Even so, the atmosphere is one of anxiety as well as excited anticipation. Our first joint rehearsal, just two days earlier, was far from concert standard. And, because the piece includes entries for the chorus which – even with experience – remain challenging, we anxiously wonder if Sir Colin will clearly signal these moments. It doesn’t help that, during the first half of the concert, chorus members have been blown away by Mitsuko Uchida’s dazzling performance of Beethoven’s fourth Piano Concerto. How can we possibly live up to such a high standard?

As members of the orchestra tune their instruments, I take in my surroundings. The deep chestnut of violins, violas, cellos and double basses show warm and vibrant against the dark black of our concert dress. The latter transforms both chorus and orchestra – the men are suddenly more handsome and slim, the women more elegant. The colourful dress and jovial informality of rehearsal have given way to a disciplined and adrenaline-charged readiness to perform.

The audience applauds as the orchestra’s leader steps onto the concert platform. This is the sign that our performance is about to begin. She is quickly followed by Sir Colin, who takes in the orchestra and chorus with a sweep of the eyes before raising his baton. Audience members stop talking and a hush descends.

A brief statement by the trombones precedes the chorus’ first entry. This is a dramatic and unaccompanied declaration by the tenors and basses, who sing of the prediction by Isaiah: that the sons of Israel will be taken away from their homeland to become eunuchs in the palace of the kings of Babylon. It is a bold entry which sets up the story as well as introducing the chorus.

The men make their entry with both drama and precision. As I hear their confident beginning I notice a release of tension. My inner anxieties give way to a deep engagement with the music. I am ready to sing.

Interviewing Daniel Pink – leadership in a time of global recession

Developing as a leader,

Yesterday, I introduced Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. I’m grateful to Daniel for agreeing to share his thoughts on leadership at this time of global recession. And I’m curious – what are your thoughts in response to my questions below? And how do you respond to Daniel’s thoughts? if you feel inspired to respond please post your comments on this blog. Meantime, I send my heartfelt thanks to Daniel for sharing his thoughts across the pond.

Here are the questions I put to Daniel, together with his answers:

Dorothy: Many commentators view the current economic situation with gloom and despondency. How do you view it?

Daniel: Well, what’s happening now in the financial world is scary — especially here in the U.S. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. But just as we had “irrational exuberance” on the way up, we seem to be having “irrational panic” on the way down. Things are not quite as bad as they seem on the surface. Living standards around the world are increasing. We’ve got a mess to clean up, but we can’t let dire straits today mask the broad trend — which is toward greater prosperity, albeit not in a smooth line.

Dorothy: In the words of Ecclesiastes, “to everything there is a season”. What is it time for at this time of economic downturn?

Daniel: It’s probably a time to get back to first principles. It’s tough to get rich quick without cutting corners. Economies are about giving people goods, services, and experiences that make their lives better. Pretty simple, but easily forgotten.

Dorothy: And what do you see as the role of our political, corporate and other leaders at this time?

Daniel: Here in the States, it’s clear that political leaders will be more involved in the economy. We tend to relish the idea of small government, but the fact of the matter is that big government will make a comeback here. And our leaders — both political and corporate — will be navigating a new terrain.

In the Pink – Introducing Daniel Pink

Coaching, Developing as a leader, ,

I first heard of Daniel Pink after he spoke to coaches from across the world at a conference of the International Coach Federation about the research that underpins his book A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.

Reading his book, I experienced his writing as a welcome window on a changing world. I was curious about his thesis that the age of “left brain” dominance is over and I enjoyed his introduction to six “right brain” capabilities that underpin professional success and personal satisfaction in the twenty-first century. His descriptions resonated with me given my work in the field of leadership, including my involvement over the years in research into what makes for an outstanding leader. And even whilst making links between Daniel’s ideas and my own experience of working with leaders, I found Daniel’s ideas stimulating, insightful and fresh. I made contact with Daniel and we have become occasional e-correspondents.

Guess what! Daniel is due to speak in London in December at the International Leadership Summit, Leaders in London. I asked him, “could I include a brief interview with him on my blog?” and he said yes. I’m excited about this and looking forward to posting this brief interview in the coming days.

Oh! And by the way, if you want to hear Daniel speak, you’ll find more information at http://www.leadersinlondon.com/

Talking about leadership

Developing as a leader

Sometimes, putting an experience from one area of one’s life alongside an interest in another area of one’s life can be thought-provoking and fruitful. This is how I experienced a conversation I had over the weekend with a cherished friend of mine who is also a senior leader in his company.

He was asking me about the Training Journal Daily Digest to which I have been a subscriber since 2002. I love the way the Digest pops into my intray every day and I find it a rich resource. Readers who post requests for help and ideas invariably receive a varied response from a generous readership. Many more readers whose names are never seen benefit from the dialogues to which they are a witness.

How would it be, we wondered, if there were an equivalent resource for leaders? This morning I woke up with a sense of excitement as I think of the rich possibilities this might offer. I also notice a curiosity – I have many questions rattling around in my head. They include:

  • To what extent are people who hold leadership positions interested in the art, craft and science of leadership?
  • Where do people who hold leadership positions look for ideas and opinions about leadership? In particular, what do they read?
  • What appeal might a Daily Digest for leaders hold? And what “rules of engagement” would best serve such a readership?

If you have thoughts about any of these questions, please share them. I’d love to see them here on the blog or in my in-tray at dorothy@learningforlifeconsulting.co.uk.