Today, this is a bit of a reflection upon EPISODE 15, which was with SONYA GILL and if you've listened to the episode, or if you haven't, really do go and listen to it, because this will make a lot more sense.
Go here to listen to the full Episode:
Sonya is the leader of a business that helps primary schools in the UK move in the government ratings up to OUTSTANDING. And actually, I thought it was really good in terms of Sonya's got some great lessons that work for school leaders and I think it's really easy as a business owner to go:
“Oh, I can learn nothing from that. That doesn't help me.”
But I think actually school leaders are doing a very similar job in terms of what business owners are doing.
But in some respects, maybe that bit harder because they've got to deliver to one set of individuals like the children, the parents...
They've got to keep them (the children) happy and they've got to keep them engaged and keep them progressing.
But they've also got the parents chipping in with their elements and they've got to be kept happy and moving forward. Then they've also got the government chipping in with their requirements and their standards, and they've got to be kept happy and moving forward.
So, in some respects, it's potentially even that step harder.
Now, there were a couple of other bits that. I want to pick up on...
ONE:
Sonya's key methodologies are having successful difficult conversations and it's something that I've spoken to at length with Sonya.
It's also something I've attended one of her training courses of how to do that, where we did various role plays and we learned methodologies and techniques, but that actually.
The number one technique really from that is having the conversation. And I remember sort of Sonya saying that actually most of us probably avoid those conversations completely.
So, somebody maybe within our team or as our loved ones, whenever they do something, we are not happy with and we don't think it's acceptable.
We probably either do nothing, say something or talk bad of them behind their back and don't actually let that person know and make them aware that actually this action or this non-action is affecting me.
I think very much so, I've been guilty of that in the past.
That feels a bit too painful to go and talk to somebody and say:
“Oh, your behavior wasn't as I expected.”
But actually, Sonya had some great teachings and it was how to highlight that certain actions that maybe is the issue.
It was to deal with the elephant in the room.
That you've got this problem with it, then it's not being talked about and it's not being dealt with and moved forward.
And that actually by not dealing with it, that's probably the worst possible treatment or outcome. If there is a problem, it needs to be discussed and the person, like “the senior person”, if you like... needs to lay out the problem to the person whose actions are creating that, or non-actions are creating that.
But that person -- with that you're dealing with, you are having the difficult conversation with-- they need to be able to themselves come up with the possible solutions of how that can move forward.
They need to be given that opportunity.
They may not take it right, but they need to be given that opportunity.
And this comes back to like coaching. If we spot something that's an issue and we just say to the client: “Oh, this is your problem. You must go do this.”
Whereas actually, if what we do is we ask great questions and lead and guided that person to the answer that they always had inside.
Actually, you are much more likely for them to take that appropriate action and move forward because actually it feels like it's their idea. And seem like they knew that information.
It was inside them.
They knew that requirement.
Most people probably aren't having those difficult conversations, and I think if in the majority of situations, if you are doing the things that other people won't because
you are going to go further far quicker.
TWO:
The other key thing I wanted to pick up on within that episode is Sonya had a business that was completely built around going and delivering face to face training, guidance, methodology, coaching in schools. And it was a successful business.
But as we rolled into the pandemic and suddenly that all just stopped, you know, schools were closed and nobody could meet face to face anymore.
She was very much faced with the fact that she got people who were engaged and on programs with her.
She's got deposits and everything for future courses. She'd got people who'd already paid for delivery to happen and it hadn't yet happened. And yet she was in a situation where she went:
“Oh my God. But the business that we've built and the way that we do things and what we do, we don't have a business anymore.”
And obviously that's a natural emotional reaction just to go:
But actually, the fascinating part is that actually. For a period of time, Sonya sort of feel like wallowed in her pity and her problems that she'd in faced at that time.
But actually, the great thing is that she snapped herself out of that and she went and spoke to various people. She got input from other people.
She, she widened her thinking, she deepened her thinking and that actually she came up some with something that was bigger, better.
And able to be delivered anywhere because it could be delivered online using the likes of Zoom and teams and whatever.
Actually, meant that in some cases, opened up, more opportunities because actually people could or teachers could access this when maybe they were teaching from home or that actually you can get everybody together.
You can record sessions and people who can't attend it can be played back to you.
There was a great moment of learning through,
pausing,
stopping the emotion,
and then just going:
“Where do I need to go to get better information? To get more information?”
And ultimately, what Sonya created out of that was a better business.
Through the conversations within the show, we know that Sonya’s built a business that's financially more capable today.
They can help more schools. They are helping more schools. They can help more of the senior leaders within schools. They can get to areas that they couldn't have got to before because maybe travel restrictions or the distance from their main HQ was just too far.
They've been able to engage different people throughout the country to deliver their various teachings and methodologies and overall.
Actually, I think it's testament to Sonya's leadership skills and her character of how actually in the time of crisis and need, when there's complete panic going on around us that's on social media, on the news, people you meet...
It's just easy to go:
Actually, with all of that going on around her, Sonya was able to just become sort of very tunnel vision to go:
I'm sure in the VER.1 (version 1) of it probably wasn't that great because that's just how things are. But VER.1 meant that she very quickly got VER.2 (version 2), and then the cohort very quickly is VER.3.
God knows what version she's now on!!!
But I'm sure that actually first of all, it was just right, we just need to get going.
We just need to know that this can work.
We know this is what we can do, this is what we need to start delivering.
And then it was, “okay, great. What, how do we reflect on that and how do we learn, how do we improve?”
And I think that actually there's some great learnings that we can take from that, which is
we're human beings and we make decisions based off.
And naturally we're very aware of what can destroy us
What's a threat to us? What could kill us, what could cause a problem for us? Because that's our default brain that we've got within.
But actually, sometimes we need to slow down and we need to fight off that and go,
“Hang on, maybe I need to take some risks.”
“Maybe I need to look at things differently.”
“Maybe I need to change how I'm operating and what I'm doing.”
There's certainly a lot we can learn from Sonya's processes that she followed in those early stages of lockdown. And that's not to say that we need a trigger, like a lockdown to put us into that.
If you've got something that's in your business that's causing a severe challenge or difficulty...
Actually just to slow down your thinking and go in, speak to other people, go and do some research, go and test out what other options there are inside and outside the industry.
You just become a better thinker, a better strategist, and somebody who's then able to make better decision.
I'd like to think that I do a great deal of that and I put plenty of time aside to do thinking.
I'm sure there's always room that I can improve and make that better. But I think it was just fascinating just to go:
“Actually, you got somebody here who's being a great, successful leader, teaching other leaders how to also be great, successful leaders, and that actually in a, in a moment, Craziness that was going on within the world.”
She had her moment where she was like the rest of us and it was just a typical reaction.
It was emotional.
It was, oh my God, everything's over. But actually, she snapped straight back out of that and she was into leader mode again and go, how do I move forward with absolute clarity in terms of what can work and how we're going to deliver.
She did just that.
And its testament to Sonya and her leadership skills and her ability to be a great thinker and strategist that she's hitting more and more of her goals that she wants to achieve today.
So, set time aside, do some thinking. Slow down your decision-making process.
Thanks so much for reading!
We hope this has been so valuable to you in terms of then developing you and your strategy for building a better business.
