Issue 11 - Winter 2016 1
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Welcome
to Aspire Foundation News What ’s inside ...
Welcome to the Winter issue of your Aspire Foundation News.
P4 - Rungway
Well, we’ve just about recovered from the London Aspire event! We built up our networks of amazing, strong women and male allies. We laughed, we cried, we set ourselves M.A.D. goals and found like-minded people who would help us be accountable for those goals! We’ll be covering the event in detail in next month’s newsletter, which gives you all lots of time to send me your thoughts! I’d love to hear what you got out of the event and how you’re doing with your own M.A.D. goals!
Who’s tried the Rungway app? I’ve been using it for a couple of months now and report back over on Page 4 (spoiler alert - it’s great!)
I really hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter. I’d love to know what you think! You can email me here.
Emma Aspire Newsletter Editor
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P6 - The Kids Network
P10 - Aspire Women in Leadership Program
P14 - Over to You
P16 - Be Kind. Always.
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Rungway Have you tried the Rungway app yet? Our Editor, Emma, has been checking it out… We featured the Rungway app back in our July issue and my interest was definitely piqued! The app is designed to use technology to open up a new support network for professionals balancing modern life and managing a career by letting us ask for, and receive, quick personal support.
The process for getting set up was easy and it wasn’t long before I was being matched up with people who were looking for help. The types of questions I’ve tried to help with have been really varied. Some people are looking for general help - such as how to prepare for a job interview - whereas some people have had questions regarding a specific problem, such as dealing with a difficult colleague. Not all the questions have been work-related, some have been around techniques for relaxing (I’m probably better at answering questions about relaxing than I am at work-related questions to be Want to get involved? 1. 2.
honest!)
Download the app at rungway.com
Posting a question is easy. You post a one-liner as a
Email groups@rungway.com with your name, organization and contact email so you can be added to the Aspire group.
you’re comfortable with posting, the easier it will
subject and provide details (the more details be for people to help you). You can tag the question, which will help you get matched with people who have those skills. Then you sit back and wait for advice from your new support network to come in! I’ve found it really useful to hear from people with different experiences and viewpoints to myself. I’d like to think that perhaps I’ve helped other people with my views and advice. Have you used it yet? What do you think?
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The Kids Network Sarah Woodcock is an Aspire Foundation mentee. Here she tells us about how and why she set up The Kids Network and how her Aspire Foundation Mentor helped...
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“
Coming from a working class background, I know that not everyone gets a fair start in life. From an early age I wanted to make the world a more equal place, ensuring that background, family, race, sex, religion or economic circumstances hold no bearing on personal potential. I have since pushed hard to break into the charity sector to achieve this.
I worked for the charity giant Save the Children and serve as a Trustee on the board of the 100-year-old Elfrida Rathbone Camden. I also Mentor a 10 year old girl in my local area which is undeniably the best use of my time and where I draw my inspiration from. It’s here that I am making a real difference.
When the charity Kids Company, through whom I mentored with, collapsed, I was told to terminate this relationship, but didn’t. I was a volunteer who decided to continue along with 60% of the other Kids Company Mentors. This raised a red flag - hundreds of Mentors in local community were interacting with vulnerable children with no safeguarding procedures.
As a result, The Kids Network was born. Learning from the pitfalls and old habits of existing charities, I wanted to create a movement based on evidence and transparency, on fun and connectedness. But there was a problem: my confidence. Would people think I was too young to start a charity? Was I credible? Did I really have the stamina?
Sarah Woodcock interview on London Live 7
The Kids Network I signed up for a Mentor through the Aspire Foundation but, in all honesty, didn’t expect much from the relationship. I was matched with Debs and was very impressed with her profile but was disappointed she lived in Newcastle. It felt like internet dating gone wrong – long distance relationships never work, do they? Little did I know just how integral she would be to my journey.
Since then our rapport and output has developed to new levels. Through coaching, encouragement and perfectly placed questions, Debs has allowed me to explore my ideas and set goals which I can measure my success by and realise my progress. The power of a consistent role model cannot be overlooked and it is exactly this philosophy which underpins my drive for The Kids Network.
I am pleased to say that The Kids Network is now a registered charity. We have a dedicated board of Trustees, some first-rate pro bono digital support and managed to fill a room of over a hundred supporters at our launch event, to name just a few of our successes in our short existence.
The Kids Network has three strands of work; the first being a transitional Mentoring programme, preparing low-income primary school aged children in resilience before their progression on to secondary school. The second is building a community peer-topeer support network for volunteer Mentors – this group often works in siloes without the support and valuable shared knowledge of their peers. Finally, our digital strand of work will help us to bring volunteering into the modern day, allow us to connect people and services but also provide sophisticated impact data to prove what we do works.
Challenges thus far have centred around fundraising. Being the new kid on the block means building reputation and trust with funders. This takes time. In an increasingly hostile funding environment we have our work cut out. If you or your organisation think they might be interested in taking the plunge with us, please contact s.woodcock@thekidsnetwork.org.uk.
For more information please visit The Kids Network’s website or follow them on Twitter @the_kidsnetwork
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Come on our journey, let’s connect for change.
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Leaders don’t force people to follow
They invite them on a journey
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2017 Aspire Women in Leadership Program
In 2017, we’ve decided to think differently about Aspire events and programmes. With innovative and inspirational content derived from our 17 years of experience across the globe, we are delighted to announce our new 2017 Aspire Women in Leadership Programme. Dr Sam Collins, CEO of Aspire, will be returning to the UK to lead all programmes. In addition, while our focus remains firmly on the empowerment of women and a diverse workforce, our programmes are now open to men who are advocates for diversity and the advancement of women who want to develop their leadership skills. Those of you who have previously attended our programmes from organisations such as KPMG, Vodafone, BMW, Centrica, Lloyds TSB, PA Consulting, AstraZeneca and Save the Children over the past 16 years have consistently fed back that our programmes are "different, best in class, inspiring, powerful, space to think, challenging, innovative, personal yet business focused, fun, empowering"
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This is for you if…
You have aspirations and ambitions you want to achieve in 2017 and you know that expert help, support and guidance is key to your success.
You've 'been there, done that' with standard development programmes and want new ways of expanding your skills as a leader in your life, work and wider world.
You love the idea of dramatically expanding your leadership ability quickly in challenging, experiential environments that guarantee to shake you out of your comfort zone!
You’re a little bit (or a lot) 'M.A.D.' (Making A Difference)!
What you get…
Discover your 'inner M.A.D. leader': the unique strengths, skills and qualities that will propel you to becoming an outstanding leader in your life, work and world.
A real-life laboratory where you will be challenged to identify - and immediately put into practice - fresh and more effective ways of leading, inspiring and influencing.
Frank and supportive feedback from others on your leadership and communication style.
A highly professional focus where you improve your strategic thinking, influencing and change skills dramatically and quickly.
An inspiring and supportive network of dynamic, remarkable leaders from all levels and across industries and backgrounds.
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2017 Aspire Women in Leadership Program The Aspire Women in Leadership Program includes…
Strategic You One Day Workshop - Develop your strategic decision-making abilities, vision and goals for 2017.
Raising Your Profile & Visibility One Day Workshop - Stand out from the crowd, improve your reputation and sphere of influence in and out of your organization.
Time Leadership 90 Minute Webinar - Know your key work and life priorities, delegate effectively and gain the work/life balance you deserve.
Powerful Communicator One Day Workshop - How to persuade, inspire and influence others, build supporters and be more confident and assertively communicate with 'difficult' people.
Boosting Your Resilience 90 Minute Webinar - Increase your 'Resilience Quota': the ability to bounce back quickly from challenges and conflicts.
Leadership Presence and Impact One Day Workshop - Often described as gravitas, authority and the intangible 'leader thing', presence and impact is one of the biggest keys to being successful, confident and making the maximum difference with others.
Become an Innovator and Intrapreneur 90 Minute Webinar - Seen by Fast Company magazine as a huge business opportunity, 'Intrapreneurship' is the new creative, innovative and entrepreneurial thinking that will transform your career, business or organisation
The Aspire M.A.D. Leadership London 2 Day Conference – Our flagship event. Be inspired and empowered by speakers and attendees from around the world!
And much, much more! Take a look at our full 2017 programme calendar for more information and dates and to register HERE.
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Your Story Here!
Do you want to tell us about your experiences being part of The Aspire Foundation?
Are you working on a project you’d like us to feature?
Would you like to share something that your mentor or mentee has been working on that they’re too modest to tell us about themselves?
Why not drop our editor a line - editor@theaspirefoundation.org - and you might be featured in a future issue!
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Over to You... We recently received this lovely email from one of our Mentors. We thought it was so lovely, we just had to share it... I just wanted to write and say a massive thank you to you all at Aspire. I have been a mentee for about three years and still am in touch with my mentor. I've just applied to be a mentor this evening, so hopefully I can give something back now!
I attended the MAD Leadership event last June in London and can honestly say it changed my life. When I came, I was terrified as I had never done anything like that before. Meeting you all, and the speakers, and some wonderful women has changed me in a way I really didn't expect! I gave up work in 2002 to have my first daughter and ended up being a full time mum until 2012. I don't regret a single second of it, I loved being at home with my three daughters but it meant that I stepped right off the career ladder. I'd been an Account Director at an Advertising Agency before then and LOVED my job! Anyway, in 2012 I went back to work in marketing and when I came to the event, I was really struggling with confidence and guilt at being a working mum. I couldn't see how I could ever move my career on and was resigned to staying at the level I was, and putting up with being treated badly. Coming to the event changed all that - I found my inner 'brave' and found the courage to make some big decisions. I changed my job but it turns out to be one which I don't really like. So I've taken a huge step and accepted a job in London, taking on a commute but in a role that is pretty much perfect. I start in three months once I've worked out my notice!
Thanks to Aspire, I've got some great buddies whom I talk to regularly and we all help each other. One of my daughters has been seriously ill for the last 9/10 months and although she's better now, its been really tough getting here. I've never given up and that's been partly down to the strength I found when I came to Aspire. I know you must get lots of emails like this as you do help so many women, but I wanted to add my thanks. I want to prove to my daughters that they can be whatever they want to be and thanks to you, I'm doing that. I'd love to come back to an event if I can, but until then, wanted to say thank you. I recommend Aspire to loads of women I come into contact with and won't stop.
Thank you for helping me and so many like me!
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Aspire Foundation Community Event
Join us on Tuesday 21st February for our next Aspire Foundation Community Event, which will be focusing on Strengths-Based Mentoring. It will be an interactive session with participants submitting questions and comments via text chat. Before the session, please think about:
Your top tips on mentoring. How to get the best out of your mentoring relationship Any questions about how the Aspire Foundation mentoring programme works Anything else you'd like to ask about the Aspire Foundation. Any question goes!
Here are some important top tips for getting the most out of the webinar: 1. Do your best to be in a quiet place where you won't be disturbed for 60 minutes. 2. Turn off all other computer programmes - it helps you focus 3. If you have one, use a USB headset. (However, this is not essential and it is absolutely fine to listen through your computer speakers). Please note: you will have to listen through your computer - there is no dial in option. You can find out more and sign up here. 15
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Be Kind. Always. “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be Kind. Always”
I love this quote. I think it’s such a simple way to live your life: Be Kind. Always. It’s something I try to remember in my interactions with other people, even if it’s a stretch an over-demanding boss likely has their own over-demanding boss putting pressure on them and the friend who is always late for drinks after work has probably had a much more stressful day than me.
As I sit typing this, there are a million other things fluttering around in my head - the work I meant to complete yesterday that is still sitting in the ‘to do’ tray, the laundry pile which never gets smaller, the diet that never starts, the exercising I should be doing, the parents I should have called, the birthday card I should have posted… you get the picture! I’m not alone in beating myself up with these things. A highly unscientific survey of my friends indicate that a lot of women feel like this, at least from time-to-time. When trying to be decent people leads you to be kind to others, why can’t we be kind to ourselves?
I am terrible for this. I can have the most productive day of my life in work, where I’m juggling the ’to do’ list with the urgent issues that drop on my desk with no notice and a resolution required yesterday, yet I will feel horrendously guilty if I’m five minutes late for a meeting or forget to call someone back. I know that if a friend told me she felt this way, I’d reassure her that it’s not that big a deal and that her colleagues were probably too wowed by her excellent problem-solving skills to be worried about anything else, but I just can’t do that for myself.
Elizabeth Gilbert wrote in Eat, Pray, Love of seeing a reflection of herself and momentarily not recognising herself, thinking she was looking at a friend. She recalled this incident one day when she felt lonely and wrote in her diary: “Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognised yourself as a friend”.
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Be Kind. Always. I think that, in order to start being kinder to ourselves, we need to start being a friend to ourselves. When negative self-talk starts to creep in, imagine if someone was saying that to our friend - we’d never let someone tell her she was rubbish at her job, or that she was too fat, or that she needed to keep her house tidier!
Although I’m probably the last person who should be dishing out advice on this, here are some of the things I’m going to start doing in order to be a better friend, and kinder, to myself:
Make time for me
This doesn't have to be hours every day - let’s face it, that’s never going to happen! Instead, I’ll be putting time aside every weekend to do something I love. Whether it’s writing or reading (and by reading I mean a book, not just wasting time scrolling through Twitter...though, obviously, I will probably still do that!)
Give myself recognition and forgiveness
This is a difficult one for me as I am a terrible self-deprecator (see, I can’t even say I’m the best self-deprecator!), but I am going to try and make sure that I give myself some recognition when I do something I’m proud of. When things perhaps don’t go as well as I would like, I will resolve to do better and move on.
Accept myself
I am enough. I have weaknesses, but I also have strengths. Sometimes I will fail, but sometimes I will succeed. Sometimes I will be wrong (don’t tell my boyfriend) and sometimes I will be right.
And all of that is me and I am enough.
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“You are the one that possesses the keys to your being. You carry the passport to your own happiness.� Diane von Furstenberg
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