The Brilliance, The Huddles, The Karaoke and a Hair Brush... that’s Aspire !

We have all attended workshop/events where a group of women get together and work on their self confidence, life goals, business/life objectives, etc. Many of them are really very good and productive, others not so much. And let’s face it, they can also get a tiny bit boring and repetitious.

So when I received an email from Aspire Trailblazing Women (check them out at www. aspirewomen.co.uk) asking if I would be interested in being a ‘host/facilitator ‘ at a two day Reimagine Leadership event, my initial reaction was ‘same old, same old’. However, I had been mentoring on behalf of the Aspire Foundation for 18 months and this was a unique opportunity to work alongside the woman (Dr Sam Collins) behind this remarkable organization, so I figured "Why not?" 

The night before the event, I did wonder what possessed me to sign up, particularly as the meet up time was scheduled for the ungodly hour of 7am. 

On a cold very early morning

Still on the 28th January at exactly 6.59 am, there I was at 200 Aldersgate in London, holding on to a coffee cup like it was oxygen - while praying that I had made the right decision. 

By 7.15 am, I was sitting in a circle where I met the other 9 hosts (or “huddle hosts” as we decided to call ourselves), the 5 volunteers and also Dr Sam Collins and Caroline Dawson from Aspire, the organisers and facilitators of the event. Apart from Sam, I did not know any of the other women; to be perfectly honest, from where I was sitting most of them seemed very self-confident and successful; it was all a bit daunting and nerve wrecking. 

As the introductions were being made, the phrase ‘what the hell am I doing here?’ was a recurring thought and somehow I don’t think it was just me having that thought. However, once circle time was over, we did have a better idea (thanks to Sam and Caroline’s organisational and motivational skills) of what we had to do and nerves were replaced with a sense of excitement and anticipation. 

By 8am, we were ready to meet and greet the women who would be attending the event - eighty of them in all. 

9am and its Show Time (...Manic Monday style)

Everyone, women, huddle hosts and volunteers, were seated and waiting nervously for the event to begin. You could sense the trepidation and anxiety that was circling the room; no one really knew what to expect and even worse, exactly what was expected of them. Suddenly music started blaring and along comes Sam using a hairbrush as a microphone - singing and dancing to the song “Manic Monday”. Like most of the women in the room, I started laughing and at that moment, I just knew this event was going to be an amazing, if unpredictable, two days.

It was awesome and there were many Ah-ha moments

The women came from different backgrounds, countries and cultures, diverse professions and careers, young and not so young, some were in a relationship, some single and some were divorced; some were mothers, or step mothers or god mothers or had never been mothers at all.
Throughout the two days, Sam and Caroline led and facilitated “Reimagine Leadership” workshops and we talked, discussed, learnt, laughed, cried, shared, found and gave compassion, understood and were understood, acceptance was given naturally, without judgement. Each of us could identify with each other’s experiences; there was a familiarity in the stories being shared, recognition of an emotion, a feeling, and so many times ‘I know just what you mean’ was heard throughout the room. 

There were hundreds of ‘Ah ha’ moments and many women jumped head first out of their comfort zones as Sam and Caroline skilfully and expertly led everyone through a series of leadership exercises and tasks that were original, rewarding and fun.  

On Being a Huddle Host

Being a huddle host at Aspires’ Reimagine Leadership event was an extraordinary experience and I am so proud to have been a part of it. Experiencing first hand Sam’s unique ability to motivate and inspire women to greatness was extraordinary. Also in two short days, all the huddle hosts and volunteers bonded and connected with each other. Far from being intimidating, these were all brilliant, smart, kind, compassionate women. By the end of the first day, we felt like we had known each other all our lives. A cliché I know, but during those two days, that kind of experience was commonplace: inexplicable yet at the same time made perfect sense. 

Tracy, a fellow Huddle Host said about her experience “I attended Aspire's recent Reimagine Leadership workshop as a host and facilitator, being asked to come armed with two inspiring real life stories to share with the participants. Well, I hope that a few of the participants gained some inspiration from my stories, but I what I can definitely say is that I sure as hell got inspiration from them. Everybody was so open and supportive; the event so well run, it was an experience well worth the investment of two days hard work. Personally, it has helped me to sharpen my focus on my future journeys in both career and life, given me the confidence to aim higher and introduced me to some amazing women, some of which I have a feeling are going to become lifelong friends. And that was despite my appalling Frank Sinatra impression in the karaoke celebration at the end” Tracy Woods, IT Director.

It’s a wrap.  

Many thanks and cheers   
To Sam and Caroline for organising and hosting such an awe-inspiring and exciting event - many lives changed for the better because of those two days

To all the lovely women who attended, your courage and brilliance is impressive and you made the two days very special.
And to my fellow huddle hosts and volunteers, I am inspired and humbled by you all.

  

A word about Aspire (www.aspirewomen.co.uk) –  

Aspire is the brainchild of Dr Sam Collins and for over ten years has successfully developed female leaders and the role models of the future through coaching, leadership development, seminars and workshops.




* Photographs have been reproduced with permission from Aspire 

Hope… Our Reset Button!

Hope, the word and the emotion, is such an inherent part of our way of thinking and being that we rarely notice how much of our behaviour and actions are based on it. Just for fun, record how many times in one day, you have hoped, were hopeful, lived in hope, and used the word hope in your thoughts and in conversation.

On opening our eyes in the morning, our first lucid thought is about hope: ‘hope it’s going to be a great day’; hope it won’t rain’; hope there is not too much traffic on the way to work’; and hope continues to show up throughout the day: It permeates and transcends all aspects of our life…..from hoping for a better life, to getting better, to hoping for the one, more money, better job, new car, and on and on.

This is because hope is intrinsic to our basic survival instinct and is fundamental to surviving anything. We don’t have to learn to have hope or to be hopeful; we just know how to hope, instinctively. When all else fails, there is always hope.

As humans we do hope very well.

Hope fulfils our need for instant gratification. When we feel down, some small incident, random thought or word, gives us hope that things may turn around, and in a split second our mood lifts and we are able to look forward with hope and make plans that hopefully things will work out.

In business, hope is a natural sales and marketing tool. Let’s face it, when we are pitching our products and services to potential clients, we are for all intents and purposes selling hope. People want and will buy hope. They may not necessarily want solutions – but rather they buy into the hope that something can be done to solve their problems/issues/pain. Consider the first time Obama was elected US president; the campaign that won him the US presidency, was based on “Hope and Change “.

Yes, hope sells.

Why do we jump head first into business deals relationships, partnerships, friendships that we know are illogical or improbable?

Well, when someone sells us hope or gives us hope, no matter how illogical or improbable the end result is or that we may end up getting hurt or losing lots of money, most of us will jump, eyes wide open, on to that band wagon.

We don’t question hope, we just do.

Hope also relives us of accountability, while giving us the illusion that we are in control of a situation. It provides us a way out when things don’t work out as we hoped that they would.  More often than not, we place the onus, on the person or thing, we have pinned our hopes on.

The thing about hope is that it gives birth to other emotions like trust and faith, two very close cousins of hope. For example, we put our trust in someone or something, hoping for the best, and we have faith that things will hopefully work out.

Hope is a fundamental and necessary gateway to our other emotions:

Trust: the sum of Hope + Desire/Need. We trust in something or someone when we are hoping they/it will give us what we desire/need.

Certainty: hope on steroids;                                                  

Prayer: a litany of hope;

Inspiration: Hope + Creativity compel us to change our circumstances and ourselves;

Hope is a pure and a very powerful emotion, one that we create effortlessly; yet paradoxically it can also be toxic when hope is false or unrealistic. Devoid of hope, we open the floodgates to despair, helplessness and anguish.

As a mechanism that allows us to replace fear and anguish with courage and determination. Hope also allows us to reset our expectations and face our tomorrows with a degree of optimism, regardless of how grim and terrible our circumstances are today.

Luciana Cousin- July 2013