Stretched to our Limits

What will it take to lead Early Years Services during these times of rapid change?

According to John Kotter in his points of view: Leading in the 21^st Century (2000). Leaders will need to help people tap into their hopes and dreams in order to unlock their talent and energy.

I think this advice is for everyone not only those who are in professional leadership roles: stepping up to leadership and tapping into our own hopes and dreams at work and in our lives is a potential for us all, using the highest executive funtions of the mind to also exceed logic and to play with ideas, allowing our imaginations to invent new ways of working and living together. 

Here are some of the competencies we can develop that will support us to find creative ways forward, may be you can think of others too.

Creativity and Vitality;  being able to think outside of the box and to have the energy, motivation and a sense of wellbeing to sustain ourselves and to be mindful in our roles.

Flexibility and Adaptability; to see the doors that open when others close; finding positive outcomes, the learning’s, through problems and difficulties - taking advantage of serendipity;

Self control, discipline, determination and persistence; to know when we are putting out fires and when we are working for prevention, evolution and progress; seeing tasks through to completion; being able to manage our emotions and our relationships in whatever context we find ourselves. 

Stretched to our limits means finding news of working - to let go of what doesnt serve us anymore and step on to new ground; sometimes unfamiliar to us and this requires a level of patience and a williness to discover new potentials and to nurture new shoots, that may grow in ways we have never seen before, all colours and forms and as we nurture these andwe support them in their natural way trusting nature itself to weave in a way that will connect to others in joined up ways of working and of of being together in collaboration; pooling resources and sharing ideas, contributing to each other and to the wider communities around us, communicating, negotiating and trusting each other. 

 

I so appreciate all of you working directly in children and family services, I see such resilience and determination to offer the very best to children and their families with whatever you have to give.