Courage is contagious. Be the leader who inspires with bravery

A piece about boldness in leadership as a catalyst for freeing your team's creativity.

I just received a lovely testimonial from a coaching client and it moved me to tears of pride.

"Maureen is an exceptional coach with incredible listening skills. She helped me uncover solutions, generate ideas, and find a clear path forward. As someone new to coaching, I found the experience with Maureen to be truly transformative. Her insightful guidance made a significant impact on my personal and professional growth. I highly recommend Maureen to anyone seeking a powerful and effective coaching experience".

It moved me to tears of pride not because makes me sound brilliant (it does) or because it's perfect for my website (it is) but because it's arrival in my inbox just now is a testament to me putting into practice the belief in my skills and bravery in decision making that my authentic work self has vowed to embrace moving forwards . I'll explain why.

This client was my first since becoming a full time coach, and from a time when I was doing my coaching qualification. In order to build up my required evidenced hours of coaching to pass the course, I had been offering 2 hours of pro-bono coaching in exchange for clients completing a feedback form I could submit as part of my assessment portfolio.  I prepped loads for this clent. I read and re-read my course notes, rehearsed my strategies and had the sessions in red letters in my diary. I spent the days beforehand really getting myself geared up; including my (waist up) outfit and jewellery choice!

The sessions went brilliantly. We had a really strong rapport from the discovery call alone, and the client was so open to exploring their values and options that the two sessions we had just flew by. The verbal feedback was so positive the end of the session, I even began to feel the client may decide to get back to me in the new academic year as a paying client. Their closing line was that they would be not only completing the feedback form but speaking with their new Chair of Governors about having coaching sessions added to their head teacher appraisal. I was on cloud 9. I was a Coach.

Then..... Nothing. No feedback form, no testimonial, no evidence.

I left it a day or two, I contacted them by my e mail a couple of times, and they said they were experiencing some IT difficulties. so I waited, but no feedback form arrived. The weeks went by and it became clear to me that no form would be forthcoming. I felt had.

I continued on, including hosting my first 'Leading through Menopause' workshop, making real and meaningful network connections and gaining other clients who did provide the feedback and testimonials I needed for my course. I had my evidence of success, but inside part of me was still quietly devastated.  I felt really deflated and taken advantage of in not getting that first feedback; not because of the practical inconvenience of having 2 hours less coaching evidence than I thought I had, but because it really threw cold water all over the confidence the sessions had gifted me. I doubted not only my skills as a coach, but my skills as a judge of character. I thought this person had rated me. I thought I could trust them to hold up their part of the bargain. 

When starting a new business confidence is key. Had I misjudged my skillset? Had I made a mistake thinking I was up to working for myself? Who did I think I was setting myself up as some fancy-dan guru, nobody would ever want help from a  charlatan like me! I even on the sly started lingering over adverts for full time head teachers again (don't tell anyone).

Then a post on my linkedin came up from the magnificent Jaz Ampaw-Farr. To me  Jaz is Baroness of bravery, the Empress of élan, the Sultana of sass . By encouraging us with statements such as "Serving society without sacrificing your own soul" and the benefits of "Being professionally vulnerable & personally authentic" Jaz champions the power of unflinching self belief and risk taking.

So this morning, after a particularly uplifting and positive client discovery call, I decided to be bold one more time, and contact my original pro-bono client and ask for their feedback. I did this not because I realised i still needed the validation from them, but because my authentic self values following through on promises and needed to remind them of their promise. 5 minutes later the completed form popped in my inbox with full apologies, as the aforementioned IT glitch had indeed sent the original into the ether, never to be seen again.

Often in leadership, the most dangerous time is when things are going right. We have found a system that works, staff know the policy/protocol and are (more or less) applying it as intended, and it is leading to results. With so many other pressures coming our way, it is easy to find ourselves stuck in a way of working that is led by a 'if it aint broke' mentality. We let that little inconvenience slide, because overall things are going ok. We say 'Just ignore her' when that gossipy member of staff who is very much in the drain category of radiator/drain divide starts moaning. We let that missed deadline from our deputy slide because if I rock the boat it wont get done at all and will land on my shoulders, and besides she's doing wonders with getting the head of science to understand that more kids would like science if she did an actual experiment once in a while....

And it works. It keeps the ship steady-ish. But does it? What about YOUR values as a leader? What about YOUR feeling of accomplishment? What about YOUR growth and development? Eventually you realise that those tiny steps away from your values have taken you miles away from who you are as a leader.

Staying in the same lane for too long leads to tunnel vision. We all start out in education as learners. We all remain learners throughout our lives. If we dont push ourselves out of our comfort zone, the message our staff and our pupils are getting is that it is ok to stay feeling comfortable regardless of the reality around you. If your staff see you playing it safe all the time, they will play it safe all the time, and any creativity of thought will wither on the vine.

So if there is an idea or project that you abandoned because it didnt work, or it got too hard, consider picking it up again and look at it with fresh eyes. remind yourself of your values and whether in stopping when you did sits with who you are and what you want others to see when they look at you. You may give it another go and succeed, you may give it another go and it not succeed. You may decide not to try again, but in revisiting, you may just see something to be gained that you never noticed before; and maybe THAT is where the win lies.

Now, off to update the testimonials on my website!