Training future and current leaders

The Student Ambassadors had the opportunity to partake in a Leadership Training Day, which was made up of a sequence of workshops and activities led by InnerDrive – a mindset coaching company working in education, business, and sport. They specialise in realising the potential behind Growth Mindset to improve motivation, learning, confidence, and performance.

The day, we started out by learning about the meaning of leadership and what it means to be a leader, thinking about the qualities that a good leader should have. We had many insightful discussions, especially regarding our committees, what each committee should be focusing on, and the qualities that define them. We would often give feedback on our ideas to the InnerDrive sales specialist, Matt Shaw, who would evaluate our outcomes and help us to delve deeper into what leadership should look like.

Flickr album: Training future and current leaders | Height: auto | Theme: Default | Skin: Default Skin

Throughout the session, both of us also thought about and discussed ways in which we could improve as leaders and, with Mr Hooper's help, brainstormed methods that would enable us to have consistent and effective outcomes for both our projects and ideas. We also learned about the psychology of leadership. Mainly about what steps to take when faced with pressure, e.g. public speaking. These were all techniques that the Performance Psychologist, Tia Prior, uses with her clients, who range from football clubs such as Manchester City to big tech companies like Microsoft.

Our day ended with an afternoon devoted to leadership activities, which aimed to teach us about the different types of leaders and how some work better in group environments than others. These activities consisted of seeing which group could make the longest strip of paper, which at first seemed easy but quickly turned into a race of who could cut paper fastest. In the end, we saw that the groups that succeeded the most were the ones that had a composed leader, delegated roles, and had the whole group work in harmony. Our last activity involved planning a trip to Pakistan to distribute books in English to underprivileged children. This required a lot of research, but most importantly, a leader who knew how to distribute roles and engage with the group. 

Tomás, Head Boy and Catarina, Head Girl