On Friday 7 September Dudley CVS hosted the Children’s, young peoples and families network which was attended by Amblecote Christian Centre, Kids Orchard Centre, YMCA, The What Centre, Brook, Dudley Counselling Centre, Healthwatch Dudley, Phase Trust, Early Health Enablers and Dudley CSE officer. It is really great to have such a wide range of voluntary sector partners coming together to share and grow.

It had been decided that this session would predominantly focus on the Leadership Training that Jayne Sargent from Phase Trust had been through.

The session was thought provoking, deep, inspiring and really encouraged you to consider what type of leader you are and what could help you become a better leader.

Jayne has been developing her leadership skills through training with the Kings Fund Think Tank based in London over the last 18 months / two years, during this time she has become more and more passionate about being a good leader and focusing more on her emotional health & wellbeing.

The Taster session that Jayne brought to the group was based on self-leadership. She explained that the session was all about you, the best thing you can bring to your job is you! Give yourself permission to think about you!

“Most people live with the subtle dread that one day they will be discovered for who they really are and the world will be appalled” – John Eldridge

Jayne asked the group top consider two questions…

Jayne explained that it’s often easy to measure growth as a child, but do we still measure it as adults? As a leader it’s not about crossing the finishing line first it’s about taking others with you across the line. It’s about trying new things and pushing beyond your comfort zone.

Jayne shared a self-learning tool the
Johari window, which looks at how
Well you know yourself and how
Open you are to others knowing you.

We need to learn more about ourselves
to grow. You are the only one in control
of you! Self-leadership is caring, managing and nurturing our personal lives.

We talked about what the triggers are that identify you are not doing so well, and looked at how we replenish ourselves. The best gift you can give is a happy energised, healthy you!

Jayne also got us to think about who our peers are, our teachers, the first person you would call for advice. Lone leaders are at risk of burnout. We need to surround ourselves with people who will tell you the answers to tough questions. It is really important to have accountable friends, who you can trust and have honest conversations with.

Jayne also shared the Top 7 tips for self-leadership
1 Define Success
2 Don’t worry about the execution, but worry about the direction – don’t measure direction on a bad day! You can’t go on a day’s feeling
3 Take of the old man before putting on the new – you can’t transform what you don’t engage in
4 Play the long game – don’t give up what you want most for what you want now
5 Ask for help
6 Spend time outside your comfort zone
7 Don’t hold on to tight – the tighter you squeeze the less we hold.

The smallest crowd you will ever lead is you – but it’s the most important.