A cow barn in Herefordshire, sound riveting? Possibly not.
Staying in yurts.. Yeah I didn't know what they were either. Metal chairs and
hay bales.. Not your average seating arrangement. Now you probably think I got
lost on my way to the BUCS Deloitte Leadership Academy 2014, but in actual fact
the country's 3rd best cow farm was the location of the event. A stripped back
venue bearing challenges of it's own, 100 university students holding sporting
leadership roles from across the country came together to experience an
incredible event built to test , develop and enhance leadership skills and
qualities. With very little information,
other than an extensive itinerary, the 2 day event was very secret and left us
all questioning what to expect. Already excited, networking was taking place
from the moment I left the train station, a 40 minute drive to the venue
allowed conversation to ebb and flow. It was different to be at an event where
everyone isn't completely sport orientated. Students studying math, chemistry,
psychology, English literature.. who also hold a sports leadership role in
their university. 100 other like minded people who had applications accepted
and wanted to be there. After being allocated our yurts, for those like me -
this just means posh tent, we had time to mingle and talk to other students
before the opening ceremony. Tom Lewthwaite from Deloitte opened the event by
saying, 'think of it as what you put into it, not what you can get out of it.'
How could we make the event the best of it's kind, and by switching your
mindset, it is possible. Karen Rothery, CEO of BUCS then stepped up and said,
'It's ok to be your own leader.' Leadership is as much about leading yourself
as it is leading a team.
Further speeches were given by 2 Deloitte employees, who
developed their leadership and employability skills through university sports
leadership positions. Tyler O'Callaghan shared with us the Pillars of
Leadership: Goals, Confidence and Delivery.
Goals - without them you wont achieve anything, you wont
know your end destination and where you want to arrive at. Start at the end
point, your destination, and work backwards. Get the buy in from others, tell
everyone about your goals, not just to make things more concrete for yourself
which might raise the expectation level, but they also might be able to help
you along the way.
Confidence - A positive attitude inspires others. Belief in
yourself is everything, how can you expect others to back you, if you don't
back yourself?
Delivery - Motivation, hard-work and enjoyment. You need all
3 to be successful.
Fred Gill then spoke of his experiences in rowing in his
university settings. 'Just because you lose, doesn't mean you're a bad leader.'
Make sure you are a radiator not a drain. Radiate motivation and support. Don't
be a drain and pull away other people's ideas and drain them of their energy.
Similarly you should be a fountain not a drain pipe.
Greg Sturge completed the opening ceremony, a graduate from
last years BDLA, Greg is the first BUCS intern. His advice was to be a keeno
and make the most of the 2 day, 'there is always room to learn.'
We then moved into the event itself, run by Fieri, a team of
military based workers who deliver programmes to develop leadership skills
through military based activities. Matt Johns led on the overall running, first
of all looking at task management.
Task management was split into a 6 station process; Plan,
Briefing, Control, Supporting, Informing and Evaluating.
Plan - When planning you need to think about, What are the
aims of the task? What factors are going to affect outcomes? What options are
open? Which way can you go? What's your plan going to be. You cant rush into
the first option which comes into your head, you need to think about a range of
things to create a plan which might have a chance of working. This process
involves all team members, not just the leader. By involving the whole there is
a sense of ownership on the plan and more of a buy in to then go and achieve
it.
Briefing - Brief you team on the plan, what have you decided
to do and how are you going to go about making that happen? Who will hold what
role? Does everyone know what is happening and what is expected of them?
Control - Where do
you as the leader need to be in order to control the task? Do you need to be
right in the middle? Or can you control from outside of the group?
Supporting - This isn't about turning into a happy clapper
and praising the team regularly, it's about offering encouragement, explaining
what is expected of the team and ensuring they live up to that. It's also about
ensuring the team have everything they need to complete the task, have they got
the right equipment and tools to be successful?
Informing - This isn't just a 1 way process. Informing work
all across the team, ensuring that everyone who needs to know knows what is
going on and at what stage they are at. This is about effective communication
and working together to achieve an outcome.
Evaluating - reacting to what is happening. Making
adjustments as necessary.
This isn't a stable process, you move in and out the the
processes when needed. You might evaluate what's happening and need to create a
new plan. Things will constantly change, but this process offer a structure to
work to when leading.
Followership, my new favourite word, something we all need
to be made aware of. Followership - leadership at all levels. Everyone in the
team having an understanding of leadership. A team aren't dependant on how well
the leader can lead, but how well the team can lead each other. In many senses
followership is as important as leadership.
Following this talk by Matt was moved into our syndicate
groups and completed a series of tasks, 1 person taking on the role as leaders
accompanied by a vice-captain. I was chosen to lead the first task, the task
was to get the team through a mine field without touching a mine, all sounds
easy, but once you step onto the mine field, you become blinded. As it was the
first task, I found it difficult. Not knowing my team , their strengths or them
in general. We did't complete the task, the plan was changed numerous times and
we nearly got there at the very end. If nothing else, this made me realise how
important it is to get to know the people in your time, the need to think
quickly and make decisions on the spot.
As we moved around, other team members led on tasks. It was
really interesting to see how different students lead, they approach to tasks
and then behaviour whilst doing so. It's great to learn off your peers, picking
up hints and tips for what works and what doesn't work. The tasks were build
with the necessity to use key leadership skills and competency skills. The need
to followership, members to take ownership of parts of tasks, putting in jigsaw
pieces to then create a bigger picture. Tasks of moving across spaces, moving
barrels from spot to spot with different constraints.
Following the afternoon of tasks we returned to the barn for
more talks. Martin Hewitt started off speaking around teamwork. Martin is an
incredibly inspiring individual who was shot twice whilst serving in the
British Army, now with a paralysed arm, Martin is still doing some
extraordinary thins and is currently working towards The Adaptive Grand Slam,
Martin plus his team of disabled individuals are currently attempting to climb
the highest peaks in every continent. What better person to speak about
teamwork?
'We can achieve a lot more than what we often think we can.'
were Martin's words. wise. The main points around effective teamwork were to
firstly to have a common aim with clear goals and objectives. Without an aim,
you have nothing to work towards and you wont know what you've achieved. As it
was said earlier, include the whole team on creating aim and objectives. Have
team ownership. Ride out the storm, nothing will be plain sailing. It's the
tough times which bring the team closer together. As I constantly say, 'The
greater the struggle, the greater the victory' and that's certainly true. There
needs to be trust and openness, create an environment where people can say
things and be honest. Don't be afraid to speak up and voice your opinion.
You need to have an understanding of your team to be
effective, having an understanding of each others' strengths and key skills,
this allows the leader to maximise team efficiency, to then mitigate risk to
maximise success.
Moving onto leadership, which was explained as a mixture of
example, persuasion and compassion. It's just about you and using the skills
you have to draw out the best from others. Leaders do what is right, they
understand the factors within the situation.
Then effective communication led by Ollie, whose real name
is Marcus, who is a negotiator within the police dealing with kidnappers and
intense situations. Speaking about the ladder to gaining the right to ask
certain questions and the skills set available to us when communicating. The
behavioural change staircase works from the Initial Contact - opening lines and
your first impressions, through to Empathy and Rapport -- relationship
building, creating a connection, emotional bonding, Trust - to have confidence
in you and to place reliance upon someone, then influence, persuasion and
problem solving. We've got with us an armoury of tools, see the MOREPIES acronym
below:
Minimal Encourager - small behaviours, nods of the head,
'and, so, go on.'
Open Questions, questions needing more than a 1 word answer.
Reflect & echo the last few words.
Emotional labelling - state the impressions, what are they
feeling.
Paraphrase - Use different words of the speaker to gain
clarity
Imessage - use the word 'I' and yourself.
Effective silences.
Summarising - what have you been told so far.
Dinner was then put on, my first hog roast experience was a
pleasant one. Then we were spoken to by Olympic Gold medallist, in rowing,
Heather Stanning. Having a military
background Heather was able to keep in with the theme. Explaining her
experiences as an elite athlete but also time served in the military. The
importance of knowing your team, more than just the people surrounding you, but
those further back. She has been in many difficult positions and has had to
make serious decisions about her military and sporting career, and as a true
leader - making the right decisions. Leading people older and more experienced
than herself, and career decisions which go against wanting to perform in
championships because that was the right thing to do.
This was then followed by Joff Sharpe, a former SAS Captain
and now business man. Joff has a book called 'Who Dares Wins in Business.' Joff
had his own setbacks, taking a second attempt to gain a position within the
SAS, his book leads a 10 step approach to successful leadership. A key message
for me from Joff was to think outside the box, try something different.
A night of networking commenced followed.
5.40am, generators, fireworks, smoke bombs, explosions. That
was some alarm. We were all instructed to get out of our yurts and head to the
barn for a new bulletin. Hereford had been taken over and it was our job to
protect the land.
The day was incredibly active, building on the first days
tasks. Leadership continued through paint-balling activities, negotiating tasks,
pulling a quad bike up a hill and talks with BUCS and Deloitte. Really putting
into practice what had been taught. Paintball tasks similar to those on the
front line in Afghanistan, working as a team to move forwards and attack
opposition. Saving a body and bringing them back without being shot.
Negotiations tasks - trying to work with and save your team
mate. Negotiating with a kidnapper in a caravan. Trying to use the
communication skills we had learnt to full effect. Understanding that effective
communication doesn't mean everyone speaking but, working to support 1 person
working effectively.
Pulling a quad bike up a hill, learning to take in all of
the information you are given to then create a plan. We had to retrieve a
number of object to create a pulley system / winch which could them be used to
retrieve the quad bike.
We then had a session speaking to Deloitte about future
plans and tips for interviews. BUCS the held a sessions around interviews and
answering competency based question using the acronym CAR-R. This method offers
a framework to construct questions on.
C- Context, a little bit of background, set the scene.
Action - what did you do, not the team, you.
R- Result what happened, numbers? Outcomes?
Relate - relate the example to the job/ role which you are
applying for.
The day concluded back with Matt Johns, Tom Lewthwaite and
Stuart Milne.
I had the absolute pleasure of spending 2 days with 100
amazing students who really care about sport in their university. Although
we're all competitive, we all worked together and really bonded within our
groups. People who I hope to meet again and stay in contact with.
Although I learnt a lot off Fieri, my peers also proved to
be teachers.
For me, the academy has influenced me to continue pushing to
make a different within my role at university. An influence which has already
made results following a meeting yesterday with students who are now looking to
create a sports coaching society to support sports coaches and their
development, the local community and individuals as people. Leadership skills
from the academy put into action immediately, and already paying off. From the
quotes I've pulled out across this blog, I've taken away messages which I'll
hold onto. Conversations with individuals who really made an impact on me and
my learning.
Huge thank you to the everyone who made the 2 days amazing.
Graduates from the academy. BUCS for putting the academy together. Deloitte for
the funding to make it all possible. Fieri for leading the 2 days, and for creating
a fantastic learning environment.
Final thank you, for the guys who looked after me and my
back :]
'Think of it as what you can put into it, not what you can
get out of it.'
