As the Chief Encouragement Officer, I believe in leadership at every level.
Starting my experience of leadership skills at a ‘traditionally’ young age, I was told that I had not yet ‘earned my stripes’ and that preferably I would need to be a wise, old (preferably male) leader before anyone would take my contributions seriously.
Now, in an age where we have multiple generations working together in organisations (Baby Boomers to Generation Z), the wisdom in decision making and leadership comes from multiple facets of us as human beings. Age, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Religion, Physical Abilities, Socio-Economic Status along with influences like marital status. All these diverse aspects of us as human beings show up across organisations and some individuals with intersections of these.
Whilst we know that team performance, financial performance and productivity are significantly impacted by diversity, and well documented, the practical approach to leading with these in mind is varied across industry and culture.
Starting with Program and Project Performance, the opportunity was to bring practical psychology and methods of connection to programs, enhancing the existing processes and traditional methodologies.
The hierarchy of a program can often be the first connection an individual has to leadership, irrespective of the hierarchy of the business. As program contributor, they could have particular accountability that leads a program stream or a requirement to influence their work colleagues in the contributions to a program. The role of project lead or manager is a way that leadership skills can be tested and refined.
Bringing Psychosynthesis to the workplace in a practical way not only helps the individual to see their own traits of personality in leadership but how they bring those to the team environment. The opportunity to have the identity of self authentically represented in a project and/or wider organisation has long been asked for but rarely achieved successfully.
In my role as Chief Encouragement Officer, I support individual learning in aspects of psychology, bringing that into the workplace via project and program delivery. The aspects of our personalities can influence how we lead and support others in our team for the overall good of the program and team performance.
As we work together, we reference empirically based studies to review project team dynamics for what works and integrate those into our project start-up phases of team roles and processes.
Another contribution I can make to project teams and the wider organisation are workshops from Dr Brené Brown as a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator.
Dare to Lead™ is an empirically based courage-building program that is the culmination of a seven-year study on courage and leadership. The most significant finding from Brené’s latest research is that courage is a collection of four skill sets that are teachable, measurable, and observable.
The Dare to Lead™ program focuses on developing these courage-building skills through workshops and training, to help individuals, teams, and organisations move from armoured leadership to daring leadership. Individuals who complete the full Dare to Lead program will receive a certificate of completion and add a Dare to Lead Trained badge to their LinkedIn account.
Dr Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston, where she holds the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair at the Graduate College of Social Work.
Brené is also a visiting professor in management at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business.
She has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy; is the author of six #1 New York Times best sellers; and is the host of the weekly Spotify original podcasts Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead.
Brené’s books have been translated into more than 30 languages, and her titles include Atlas of the Heart, Dare to Lead, Braving the Wilderness, Rising Strong, Daring Greatly, and The Gifts of Imperfection.
With Tarana Burke she co-edited the bestselling anthology You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience.
Her research has provided another foundation to the courses and services I offer, with the ability to tap into the new research as it becomes available. The latest updates to the Dare to Lead™ are now available and tailored to your project team or organisation.
To find out more about any of the programs offered, please register your interest via email at julia@tceo.com.au
