Dare2Lead was delighted to once again work with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards (DofE) – running leadership training for their operational staff over a dynamic three-day residential.
With over 300,000 people currently enrolled for a DofE award in one of the 1,269 licensed organisations, it’s impact is huge and it’s reach wide. We are humbled to be contributing in our own way to the positive change made to the lives of millions young people by one of the world’s leading youth achievement charities.
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”
A breadth and variety of programmes were delivered across the three days as participants were encouraged to self reflect, challenge and be open to new learning experiences. Different interactive, participatory and dynamic delivery styles were used with a focus on embedding skills long after the course had ended. The training was based on Dare2Lead’s own Personal Authentic Leadership model. As Aristotle said, “Knowing yourself is beginning of wisdom” – therefore all our training puts self-awareness at the nucleus of our approach. We believe you must begin with the ‘inner person’ before moving on to the wider principles, practices and processes of effective leadership.
Module One of our training therefore focused on Identifying the Present. It captured a strong understanding of the “now” by getting participants to gauge their own skills at present, review their approaches to their role, network as a peer group and embed a sense of team unity – and fun! A ‘time donut’ was used and then discussed which helped participants pause and reflect on current situations.
After this, Module Two lead into an interesting exploration on ‘Understanding of Leadership Styles.’ After a discussion on leadership theory, the Bolton and Bolton Framework was used to help participants identify and reflect on their working and social styles. This practical tool helped to start a theme that will be revisited in later modules – making bad relationships good, and good relationships exceptional. This was the basis to explore theories around Personal Brand building. Exercises and discussion centred on our belief that:
Your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room – Jeff Bezos, Former CEO Amazon
Participants sometimes have to speak in front of large audiences, especially when presenting young people with their DofE Gold Awards in front of thee actual Duke of Edinburgh himself! Everybody found our public speaking training particularly useful as participants were recorded making a presentation and then given some 121 coaching on how they could improve.
We’ve already had some amazing feedback from participants:
‘Talking about things in a room of like minded people has been great’
‘I’ve learned not to pre-judge training courses we go on!’
‘There has been so much relative content, especially when we looked at where are your time stealers?’
Working with our trusted partners at the DofE, we contribute to the life changing and inspiring work they offer young people of all backgrounds. Our values are aligned – we too are passionate about the potential of young people. The next generation is any communities’ greatest natural asset and Dare2Lead are committed to investing in youth opportunities.
If you have ambitious plans for your organisation, or a team or movement that Dare2Lead can help, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Lets together unlock the leader within!
This is why our partnership with the @DofE is something we are very very proud of!