Just over a year ago I completed my Clore Leadership Short Course; a 2 week residential leadership development course. I wrote a blog post summarizing some of my main learning points but said that I thought I’d probably be reflecting on my experience for along time to come. So have I? ABSOLUTELY!
I commented at the time that I came out of Clore a different person to who I was when I started. In a way this was true, but I think I’ll always be evolving – those two weeks just had a dramatic impact so I felt totally different. However since then I have continued to develop, and as I wrote in a recent tweet:
@CloreLeadership enjoy! This time last year I was coming to the end of my #CloreSC but my learning journey was just beginning 🙂
— Jo Alcock (@joeyanne) 18 February 2016
I feel like Clore was a catalyst to beginning a different kind of learning journey. It’s one that crosses all areas of my life; professional and personal. It’s one that challenges me to reflect on a very regular basis to try to understand more about myself – my needs, my motivators, my strengths, my preferences, and my desires. I’m learning all the time, and I love it.
The week after my Clore course, my partner and I put our house on the market. Due to some unfortunate circumstances (poor estate agent choice and the fact the house was a leasehold property) it took longer than we’d hoped to sell. I found the whole process incredibly stressful, and learnt a lot about myself and the way I cope with things. Mixed in with that we had mental health issues, financial worries, counselling, and psychotherapy. I didn’t find any of it easy, but I learnt so much about myself and my partner. During this period I was holding onto the hope that moving would help with some of these problems. We moved in December, and fortunately it has helped enormously so far. It’s thrown up new things though, most challenging of which is managing a more active social life and understanding how that impacts other areas of life (and how an increase in socialising affects me and my energy levels – I’ve had some form of socialising every day for the last 11 days and I’m exhausted!).
Throughout all the challenges over the last year, I’ve been using many of the skills and techniques I learnt and practiced at Clore including coaching, effective listening, solving problems creatively, giving feedback, and receiving feedback. I’ve always been reflective by my nature (hence blogging as part of my process) but this last year I’ve allowed myself time and space to reflect more regularly, and it’s been incredibly useful.
One of the big themes from Clore for me was authenticity. I absolutely loved the session we had on authentic leadership – I had a number of lightbulb moments that day, and what I reflected on and shared with my group has stuck with me and still guides me in terms of the way I do things now. It’s something I find incredibly useful to remind myself of on a regular basis, as it helps me stay true to myself and harnesses my strengths. I was delighted to be able to put this into practice in a recent training course on public speaking, and plan to blog about this soon.
I’m a big advocate of authentic leadership, and have encouraged the Library Leadership Reading Group I co-ordinate to include readings on this. I’ve also facilitated a leadership workshop which incorporated elements of reflection on authentic leadership, and am building on this to deliver a full workshop on this topic for SLA Conference in Philadelphia later this year. Please do consider signing up if you’re coming to the SLA Conference – more information is available in the programme.
Clore also introduced me to a group of amazing people. We bonded whilst we were on the course, and got to know each other very well over the two weeks. We helped each other through the more difficult parts of the course, and celebrated with each other in the good times. Since then, we’ve continued to support each other. I feel very fortunate to have met each and every one of my group as they have all taught me something and been a great sense of support. Some in particular have had a huge impact on my life and I’m sure will continue to do so for many years to come. Last October I went to Blackpool to our first reunion, and we have other reunions planned. I love spending time with them – they’re all excellent listeners and ask such effective questions that always get me thinking.
Fortunately, I also get the opportunity to have a ‘Clore top up’ every few months as my group organised Action Learning Set training after our course, and have now established a number of regional Action Learning Sets (which are open to anyone who has completed a Clore Short Course, Clore Emerging Leaders Course, or Clore Fellowship). Mine met for the first time a few weeks ago and have our next one scheduled. These work really well, particularly because we’ve all had similar training and practice in coaching.
So, yes, what I learnt at Clore has had a huge impact on my life and will be with me for many years to come. As I use the techniques and approaches I learnt there more, they become a more integral part of my life, but they’re things I can always improve on and intend to continue to practice where I can.
In case you can’t tell by the gushing, I can’t recommend the Clore Leadership Short Course highly enough. If you work in the cultural sector and are interested in learning more about yourself and your leadership (in all areas of your life) I would encourage you to apply. More information is available on the Clore Leadership Programme website so keep an eye out on there for future opportunities.
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