Julie Wales – Leadership Development

Leadership Development

Leadership Skills? Can you acquire them? Or, aren't we all just born with an innate ability to lead...or not?

In that we are all blessed with certain natural skills, which come easily to us, perhaps the answer is in acknowledging what those skills are in the first place.

If you have read anything elsewhere on this website, you will have spotted that at Impact Factory we prefer to focus upon each person's natural style and strengths - no less so, than when it comes to helping them find their most effective (and sustainable) approach to leadership.

So, part of our skill is about helping those we work with to acknowledge all they already have in their personal toolkits; in itself an important leadership quality. From there it is a hop and a skip to exploring what they could do to enhance their skillsets by focusing upon their core strengths.

My most formative experience as a prospective leader, happened when I was a young Head of Department in a lively and dynamic inner-city secondary school.

Ambitious to progress within the education hierachy and full of ideas and plans for developing the curriculum and new ways of working together as a staff, I did feel slightly demoralised that my style would not serve me to progress.

That view changed, when Sally joined the school.

As a new leader, she broke the mould of what leadership meant to me. I realised there was no 'one size fits all' that had to be adhered to in order to be perceived as a credible, professional and effective leader.

She was not authoritarian or one-dimensional in her focus, nor did she have every answer. Instead, she was a softly spoken, supportive and visionary. Somebody who fed and nourished her team to find answers together, encouraged everyone to give of their best, because they felt valued and adult. It was a revelation.

Inspired by her definition of effective leadership, I became a leader some years later. Not a leader like Sally, I hasten to add. A leader like me, a bit like the curate's egg (good in parts).

Like many of us, I have known lots of 'leaders' over my so-called portfolio career, probably learning as much about effective leadership from the worst as well as the best of those people.

Given that none of us are perfect...and maybe only a few of us might make leadership as effortless as the Sally of my story seemed to...we can still be consciously aware of the bits where we are good, know our strengths and work to them.

This is where I come in as someone involved in coaching and facilitating leadership workshops. My style, to encourage people to notice things about their own abilities, to be attentive to what works well about them easily - especially the good parts. And where their parts don't work so well, to find alternatives for them which resonate with their natural style and skillset - alternatives that are sustainable.

So, can you train someone to be a great leader? Yes, you can train them to help themselves to be the best they can be. And yes, there will always be leaders like Sally who might have been born that way.

Leadership at Impact Factory

 

Back to trainers page