2020-11-13 0 comments

Ironically the longest year of our lives is rushing to a close at high speed. May & June seemed to last for about a decade… and yet here we find ourselves in the countdown to year-end. In this community news, we share some updates & feedback from our growing Inspired Leadership Channel Partner and facilitator team.

Facilitator feedback

By Ocea Garriock

This week I had my first Kick-off sessions for two groups at a client – one for Manager to Leader and the other for Emerging Leaders.

I first prepared using the Facilitator Certification which is on the same platform that the courses are hosted on. I used the facilitation guide & material that is stored in the Facilitator Knowledge Base. This was very helpful in preparing me for my role as the facilitator.

I really enjoyed the experience and what struck me were three things:

The fact the delegates motivate personally to be on the program to their managers means that they are very committed to being involved.
The approach to involve the managers works well – all of the managers of the delegates attended the kick-off and stated their commitment to supporting their people through this journey. I never had that kind of support from my managers during my leadership journey in the corporate world. I think this makes a big difference.
As this was the second group in this organization to start on the journey, many of them had spoken to previous participants, who told them how life-changing the experience was for them, in terms of self-awareness and their approach to leadership.

I am looking forward to this journey with these delegates for the next year and watching their growth and development.

I am motivated to get the program out to more clients as I can see how valuable this approach to learning is.

Business development

As a community, we are building skills to leveraging social media for business development. This article on Leveraging your LinkedIn network I found particularly short and useful! In addition here are some TIPS for posting & engaging.

Encourage conversations

Post things that encourage a response. For example, if you’re posting a link, express an opinion with it.

Think about using the best type of post for the topic. Despite the rumors, the algorithm doesn’t favor any particular format. We have video, images, multi-images, text and long-form articles. More are on the way.

Use @mentions to pull other people you know into a conversation when you think they’ll have something valuable to add. Be thoughtful: only mention people that you think are likely to respond, max five is a good rule of thumb.

Engage in the conversation, respond to commenters and encourage back and forth.

Niche over broad

We know from our data that members are more interested in going deep on topics they’re interested in. Consistently we see better conversation around niche ideas (eg #performancemanagement) than the broad (#management).

Use hashtags (we recommend no more than three) to help other members find the conversations that match their own interests.

Be you!

Authenticity is key: all the tips above work out better when members talk about things they truly care about, in a way that’s natural for them. The genuine conversation around real experiences sparks better and deeper connection. Better conversation, in turn, leads to a stronger community and connection.

Critical reflection

A big part of the Inspired Leadership learning approach is developing critical reflection skills in our learners. For many this is the first time they are reflecting on what they did or didn’t do and considering the impact. In our first TIP with a group of Emerging Leaders, the comment was made that although this person has done some self-reflection, they can now see that they were just randomly thinking and the structure we provide to scaffold the reflection has catapulted their growth and insight.

In a recent Virtual Connect we were encouraged to reflect daily and the terms used were:

What are the PLUSES?
What are the DELTA’s?
What are the KEY TAKEAWAYS?

I like that because the term DELTA’s gives a succinct way to capture the “development gaps/ opportunities for growth / even better if’s” and also implies that you have a vision for what you want. The vision could be about how you show up, how you manage your time, how you ate/exercised/slept… anything. But the idea that there is a goal and a reality and a DELTA to focus on sat well with me. How do you reflect?

What does it mean to be part of the Inspired Leadership Community?

Many community members are Certified Channel Partners & Facilitators; some are Associates (on the cusp of certification but not there yet) & some are just wonderful human beings who want to collaborate and hang out with us.

Community members:

Facilitate or host guests at Virtual Connects. This contributes to both the marketing and brand-building & educating participants in a high-touch facilitated conversation. We have gathered a following in Nepal (yes, look on the map!) from these high-value connection opportunities!
Write articles and blogs. This positions us as experts in our field and leverages one article on various platforms.
Commenting, sharing, liking social media. We know the algorithm behind LinkedIn and the other platforms likes action. So we work together to make that happen.
Participate in community calls and education. It can be a lonely world out there, so we get together and hang out, learn, share best practices, encourage each other etc. The Inspired Leadership Community all have their own businesses and offer other services (over and above Inspired Leadership Journeys) to clients. Where we can we support, advocate for and encourage their services, efforts and events.

If you would like to join in on the Community Activities, and take a more active role in Inspired Leadership, reach out and let’s explore. angela.del@inspiredleadership.world