Discover Diaries: Gemma Wright | Week Four
In partnership with Clore Social, we’re delivering our pilot ‘Discover’ programme in Spring 2019: a four week online introduction to leadership. As part of this, we invited participants to keep ‘Discover Diaries’ – thoughts, insights and ‘notes to self’ about this new learning experience.
Gemma Wright: Week Four
My goal for this week was to consolidate my learning and create a Leadership Development plan to support my ambitions following Discover.
Over the course I have reflected on myself, my context and the way I work with people around me. This week I reviewed my tasks and wrote a letter to my future self, which Clore Social Leadership will email to me in six months time. This letter is for my eyes only, and in writing it I was surprised by what came out. Within it I detailed my current thoughts, my learning from the Discover course, and my hopes for where I will be in six months time.
I was inspired by the short-read Make Strategic Thinking Part of Your Job, by Ron Carucci, and his advice that strategic leaders ‘must extract themselves from day-to-day problems and do the work that aligns their job with the company’s strategy.’ This really spoke to me and I have included it as an action in my Leadership Development Plan.
My key take-away from this week came from writing the letter to my future self and offering myself some advice. The advice was clear, succinct and honest and I am going to take all 8 points on board!
The main challenge this week was to consider goals for my Leadership Development Plan. I wanted these to be ambitious and relevant, focusing on the development of my strengths, as well as the areas I’d consider weaknesses.
My four goals are:
- Continue to foster and prioritise my personal why.
- Channel my inner Empowering Enabler to ensure social capital within my team.
- Develop my capabilities as a Courageous Changemaker – BE BRAVE!
- Continue to develop my capabilities as a Focused Strategist.
My next steps are to move forward with my leadership plan. This course has given me a greater awareness of my strengths and weaknesses, my priorities, context and how I work with others within a team and as partnerships. I feel like I have learnt so much about myself and my professional approach in the last month, and it has felt good to be challenged and inspired.
It has also empowered me to be bold and celebrate the strengths I have as a leader. With that in mind, here it goes… I am an Empowering Enabler, an Inspirational Communicator, a Passionate Advocate and a Generous Collaborator.
