Issue 5 April 2016 1
Welcome to Aspire!
By Emma Barrett Welcome to the April issue of the Aspire! I don’t know if it’s on the back of a brilliant International Women’s Day (this year’s had so much positive energy!) or because it’s Spring where I am, but I’m feeling renewed energy towards my work and personal goals!
One of my goals, and the theme of this month’s newsletter, is empowerment. It’s been amazing to learn about how two Aspire Foundation community members have been empowered by the skills they’ve learned through mentorship or M.A.D. Leadership events and used that to P3 - Aspire Foundation Mentee make a real difference to others. If you’d like to share your Q&A story of empowerment, please email me at editor@theaspirefoundation.org
Contents:
Emma Watson is one of my personal heroes. She is currently using her considerable platform to speak out for women’s rights and bring men into the conversation with the UN’s #heforshe campaign. She’s started a Feminist Bookclub because she found what she was reading for her UN Women work was “funny, inspiring, sad, thoughtprovoking, empowering” and wanted to share this with others. “Our Shared Shelf” has become a space for people to discuss the books, as well as equality issues generally which can only be a good thing!
I hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter. Please feel free to email me with any comments or suggestions.
P7 - Read how the M.A.D. Global Leadership event in London has inspired one of our mentees
P10 - Learn about the 2016 M.A.D. Leadership virtual events
P11 - Missed our International Women’s Day event? Read on to learn about Trailblazing Leadership
P13 - Read about our next community event
Emma Aspire Newsletter Editor
P14 - Take a break! Read about Emma Watson’s Feminist Bookclub
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Aspire Foundation Community Q&A
Madeleine McGivern is the Head of Workplace Wellbeing Programmes at Mind and Co-founder of the FIND network, a network for women working in International Development.
Q: How long have you been part of The Aspire Foundation mentoring program?
I felt there would definitely be added value in terms of my career and potentially more broadly across my life. This definitely turned out to be true!
I signed up to be a mentee back in July 2013. I was matched and have been mentored by my fantastic mentor (Helen Gordon, Royal Pharmaceutical Society) since then - we continued the formal mentoring for about 15 months, so much longer than the 6 months we committed to, which was fantastic. We speak much less frequently now but every few months we check in, which is great.
Q: How did you find the sign-up process? Very straightforward.
Q: What do you think has been the impact of this program on you personally? Having taken part in the Aspire mentoring programme as a mentee, I am constantly spreading the word of what a fantastic programme it is and what benefits it can bring. I have gained a great deal personally the value of my mentor, her guidance and contributions to my career planning and progress has been really significant. She supported me to really develop in confidence and in self-awareness as a leader.
Q: Is this your first mentoring experience with the Aspire Foundation? Yes it was.
Q: Why did you initially sign up? I loved the idea of building a mentor-mentee relationship with a senior leader who was also a woman. I had never been mentored before but had mentored others.
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I remember my job interview for the role I now have as Head of Workplace Wellbeing Programmes at Mind (the mental health charity) and talking about the potential positives and challenges of managing a team of 22 people. I recalled my mentoring sessions and could hear the conversations we’d had about leadership, self awareness and reflection, and different working and personal styles. I've no doubt that the knowledge and expertise I've developed through my mentoring relationship contributed significantly to me getting that promotion.
Q: Do you think you’d like to mentor someone? Yes. I mentored students some years ago and then also young women leaving care here in London for a year. I would like to mentor someone from the Aspire Foundation if that were possible although I know the usual format is for women in the third sector to be mentored, not to mentor.
Q: If you could provide one piece of advice to someone considering signing up to the program, what would that be?
I hope I have also spread this gain to others in my previous role as a Middle East international development programme manager, I did a lot of work with women in the Middle East and empowering them to seek their social, political, economic and civil rights. I also hope that my participation has supported women in the UK - as a result of attending an event as an Aspire foundation mentee in June 2014 (which was all about the power of connections and collaboration as we strive to be M.A.D. Women and leaders) I set up a network for women interested or involved in international development with my colleague called The FIND network (read on to find out more!)
It really is proof that the more you put in, the more you get out - so go for it and you'll not regret it!
Q: Is there anything you’ve done differently since starting The Aspire Foundation mentoring program? I'm definitely more aware of and more knowledgeable about leadership and style, and think very deliberately about how I act as someone who manages a large team. I regularly review notes from my mentoring sessions when looking for ways to solve problems. I'm also much more confident in my own abilities.
Q: Would you recommend The Aspire Foundation mentoring program to colleagues or friends?
If you haven’t already signed up to be a mentor or mentee - what are you waiting for?!
Yes, and I have done frequently across different workplaces, countries and with friends as well. Many have gone on to sign up and have very positive relationships.
You can email Liesl: Liesl@theaspirefoundation.org or you can sign up here.
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Q: You started the FIND network after you started being mentored through the Aspire Foundation program, can you talk us what drove you to do that?
person. So we set up FIND - a network for females interested or involved in international development. The FIND network exists to:
I attended an Aspire event in June 2014 and learned about the power of connections and collaboration. I wanted to harness this power within the sector I worked in - international development and humanitarian work. True to the principle of collaboration, I approached a friend and colleague at Christian Aid and asked her what she thought of the idea of setting up a network for women working in the sector. She responded with the enthusiasm, vigour and strategic view that I had thought she would! We did some research into the gender balance of senior leaders in the sector - in the top 100 charities by income, women make up just 25% of the most senior executives. Men continue to hold the majority of seats, with 68% of the charities having male-dominated boards.
Provide women in the sector with space to explore opportunities to support their careers and personal development
Provide women with the opportunity to connect and learn from peers inside and outside of the sector
Support women working in International Development to maximize the difference they’re making in their work, both to their peers and to themselves.
Q: How did you get the network off the ground? To get the network off the ground we both approached other women in our lives who we thought might be able to help and sure enough this worked! We sent a survey out to women across the sector utilising existing relationships and contacts, and asked for their feedback on the idea and the response was overwhelmingly positive. My then manager put me in touch with people who might support us - people like Helen Horn MBE (former CEO of Womankind Worldwide), Dame Barbara Stocking (former CEO of Oxfam) and Zarin Hainsworth OBE (Director of Serene Communications). We spent a lot of time thinking about the sort of format that would work, seeking feedback and planning carefully. It has been a lot of work but really so enjoyable and rewarding.
We also searched for a network in the sector that wasn’t necessarily about the work we were doing - but about the people doing the important work. There are networks for technical specialists and for gender and development work overseas, but nothing that brought women together in the sector to reflect, connect and share and learn. We were really surprised to find that no such networks for women in development seemed to exist. We wanted to give women the opportunity to connect with other women in a similar field of work, discuss their aspirations, learn from each other’s experiences and support each other to develop – whether that’s online or in
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We had our first event, focusing on women and leadership in the sector, in September 2015. We've also had an event led by a fantastic coach Rachel Allan who I met at the same Aspire event where the idea first came to me! We are now onto our fifth event which will focus on effective networking as requested by our members. The network has over 250 members, a Linked In group, and we are over-subscribed for all of our events! We've been really fortunate that some amazing successful women leaders have given their time and expertise to the network, and that people really want to participate and learn from each other. Of course it's hard work and time-consuming but so rewarding; every event is so positive and there is so much energy, enthusiasm and supportiveness across the network which you really feel at the events. If I'd not attended that Aspire event and thought more about the power of connections, I cannot say if we'd have set up the FIND network! If you would like to join the network (you don't have to work in the sector – it's for women interested or involved in international development) we'd be delighted to welcome more members! You can email thefindnetwork@gmail.com or find us on Linked In and Twitter @thefindnetwork
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M.A.D. Women Fadzai Marange is a Pathology Hub Manager for Nuffield Health. She attended the M.A.D. Global Leadership Conference earlier this year.
I was one of the lucky 100 to be sponsored to attend the M.A.D global leadership event in London in January. I promised myself I will make it worth my while and for my sponsor and actually go ahead to work on my goals. Sarah's talk on the library took me back in time. I come from Zimbabwe and I went to a rural school which up to today has no library. I was challenged by Sarah and have started to gather books for the library. I started on the 7th February 2016 and so far I have gathered 700 books. I have given up a day of my working time to commit to this project and I intend to collect more. I spoke to the head teacher of the school and she cried. I have also pledged to sponsor 7 children, one from each grade, whose parents cannot afford fees yet the kids are bright. This will give the kids a chance to complete their education. I am to learning how to serve and I’m going to Nepal with Linda Cruse on a mission. I have a project I want to do and I am writing a book which I hope to sell and raise the money to fund this project myself. I have found a coach to take me through it. The M.A.D. Global Leadership Conference restored my sense of purpose. My mentor, Annette Sealy, has been great. She has done the extra hours in talking to me and guiding me. By the end of 2016 I hope to mentor someone too.
Thanks to Dr Sam and all M.A.D. women and men!
Make sure you check out next month’s newsletter to read all about Fadzai’s trip to Nepal!
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Have you heard about the new 2016 M.A.D. Making A Difference Leadership virtual events programme? You can join women leaders from across businesses, industries, backgrounds and ages and Dr Sam Collins and be inspired, empowered and receive the practical tools you need to achieve your biggest aspirations for your life, work and world. Over 2016, join us for a series of 90 minute development webinars: 1. Financial Wellbeing & Freedom Money is the top source of stress in our lives, beating work, family responsibilities, and health concerns. Whether it is raising capital, increasing the bottom line, equal pay, giving back or getting that promotion and salary you deserve, financial wellbeing helps us to create the life and career we love for ourselves, our organisation, family and the wider world.
Take stock of your financial health and relationship with your financial success.
Get out of any fear, stress or struggle around money and step into confidence, presence and freedom.
Be open new financial goals and aspirations personally and professionally in your life, career and work results.
Transform limiting beliefs and thoughts into those that are liberating and make a huge difference to your success.
Create and commit to powerful and positive habits with money that lead you on the path to financial wellbeing and freedom at home and in your business and organisation.
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2. Discover your Career Purpose A career or business without purpose is like a ship without a rudder. You can stay afloat and survive, but with purpose you engage your passion to steer you in the direction of your biggest aspirations, success and balance.
Identify the things that excite and fulfil you in work and in life.
Manage your time to become more purpose focused and achieve balance in your life and career.
Avoid the distractions that take you off purpose.
Connect with your intuition and internal driving force to make a difference.
Create a compelling vision and career plan based on your purpose.
3. Empowerment Skills for High Performance According to Forbes, empowerment is one of the '5 Must-Have Qualities Of The Modern Employee’. Empowerment is the ability to give people authentic power and authority to really make a difference. As they say "Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach them how to fish and you feed them for a lifetime!"
The powerful difference between delegation and authentic empowerment.
How to provide meaningful acknowledgment and appreciation at all levels.
Tools to inspire and motivate others with vision and passion.
Identify strengths in yourself and others and leverage them for greater success and time saving.
Create an action plan for the introduction and development of empowering self and team habits for success.
4. Become an Intrapreneur “Intrapreneurship” is the new creative, innovative and entrepreneurial thinking that will transform your career, business or organisation.
Grow your calculated risk-taking and innovation approaches in managing others, communicating with your boss, demonstrating a new idea or project and overcoming opposition.
Develop your intrapreneurial thinking to create new ideas and greater success for your team or department within a large organisation or in your own business.
Move from dreaming and thinking into tangible doing and action that makes a real difference.
Be more agile, flexible and adapt to changing times and dealing with challenges in your career, organisation and the wider world.
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5. Create a M.A.D. Business Culture Workplace culture is key to employee satisfaction and this is especially true for aspiring women (Catalyst 2015). A culture that is M.A.D. i.e. makes a difference and supports the triple bottom line of people, planet and profits is the cornerstone of the evolved organisation in the 21st century.
Define why your team/business or organisation exists and what it stands for - what is the key difference you make for customers, employees and community.
Establish a values-based and purpose-driven culture that is more successful.
Overcome the challenges and answer the critics.
Inspire creativity and M.A.D. as a way of operating.
Cultivate an organisation or team that embraces 'we' rather than 'me'.
The Aspire M.A.D. Leadership Virtual Events Programme includes the option to attend events live for 90 minutes, an event recording, PowerPoint presentation, workbook and resources list as well as access to a private online community group in between events to ask questions, gain support and network with women (and men who are advocates of women) from corporations, not for profits and small businesses across the world.
You can find more information and sign up here.
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Trailblazing Leadership On the 10th and 11th March, we celebrated International Women’s Day in style by coming together (virtually!) to discuss and celebrate Trailblazing Leadership!
What is a Trailblazing Leader? A Trailblazer is someone who has a goal they want to achieve and they have the resilience and determination to keep going, even if others think they’re mad!
Grassroots create change! Start with yourself and watch the ripple effect. Be the change you want to see!
Consider what you want to trailblaze:
For yourself
For your worklace
For the wider world
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Top 5 tips…
Top Tip 1 - Be Visionary Top Tip 2 - Be Authentic Top Tip 3 - Be Entrepreneurial Top Tip 4 - Speak Up Top Tip 5 - Be a ‘real’ role model
You can view the presentation on-line here
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Our next Aspire Foundation Community Event will be held on Wednesday 20th April 2016 via webinar. This event is open to mentees, mentors and anyone interested in joining The Aspire Foundation mentoring scheme. The webinar will provide an overview of the mentoring scheme. It’s interactive, so you have the opportunity to learn from other mentors and mentees and to provide us with feedback. You can sign up via The Aspire Foundation website here or drop Liesl a line at Liesl@theaspirefoundation.org
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Emma Watson’s Feminist Bookclub
Emma Watson rose to fame as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, but over the last few years has been using her platform to speak out on women’s rights issues. In 2014, she was appointed as a U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador and launched the #HeForShe campaign, a campaign calling for men to be advocates for gender equality. For anyone doubting the necessity of the campaign, within hours of the campaign being launched, Watson received threats to release naked pictures of her, a move which may have overshadowed the campaign “I was just raging. It made me so angry that I was just like, ‘This is why I have to be doing this. If they were trying to put me off, it did the opposite.” In her speech launching the campaign, she spoke of how she was labelled “bossy” for wanting to direct plays at school, but her male friends were not and how she was sexualized in the press as a teenager (“Emma Watson Naked” has been a more popular internet search term than “Emma Watson Movie” since she was 15 years old). In 2015, Mulala Yousafzai told Watson that it was her speech that convinced her to call herself a feminist.
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On the 6th January 2016, Watson launched a feminist book club ‘Our Shared Shelf’: “As part of my work with UN Women, I have started reading as many books and essays about equality as I can get my hands on. There is so much amazing stuff out there! Funny, inspiring, sad, thoughtprovoking, empowering! I’ve been discovering so much that, at times, I’ve felt like my head was about to explode… I decided to start a Feminist book club, as I want to share what I’m learning and hear your thoughts too”. Using the Good Reads website (www.goodreads.com), she picks a book each month to read and then the last week of the month is for everyone to discuss it. Our Shared Shelf is open to anyone to join. Once you’ve signed up, you can start discussions or join established discussion groups. The topics are quite varied, from people discussing threads or ideas from that month’s book, to feminism in certain countries, to discussing the Men’s Rights organisation Return of Kings (in the news recently as they attempted to organise meet-ups across the UK). The books are announced on the first week of the month. January’s book was Gloria Steinem’s ‘My Life on the Road’, February’s book was The Color Purple by Alice Walker, March’s was All About Love by bell hooks and it’s just been announced that April’s book is How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran. Although we’re only a few months in, the book club is bringing together women and men to read works by authors they may not have come across before and giving them a space to discuss ideas. The book club is also a celebration of female literature, which in itself is empowering women (literature is a male-dominated area - in 2014, the Guardian revealed how author Catherine Nicholas sent her novel in her own name to 50 agents and received 2 manuscript requests. When she used a male pseudonym, she received 17 requests). We all look at the world from a certain perspective, which may be influenced by our gender, our race, our sexuality or our socio-economic class. By using her considerable platform in this way, Watson is encouraging everyone, whether a feminist or not, to read works by women and people of colour, which may broaden your worldview.
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“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself. A mentor is someone who allows you to know that no matter how dark the night, in the morning joy will come. A mentor is someone who allows you to see the higher part of yourself when sometimes it becomes hidden to your own view� Oprah Winfrey
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