Yesterday was one of those “full head, full heart” days.
In the afternoon, I was at Madingley Hall in Cambridge with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) to deliver the penultimate session for Cohort 28 of the Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Business (Organisational Stream). Many thanks to Dr Tanja Collavo and Theo Hacking for inviting me.
Sessions with the postgrads are always among the most rewarding, as I’ve walked in their shoes, having done my Master's with CISL too. And it was life-changing.
I facilitated a Leadership Storytelling session, exploring how the stories we tell can help people make the most of the micro moments of influence and impact in their roles – and how they can engage, motivate and mobilise their stakeholders in the midst of real-world constraints.
If I’m honest, I started the day feeling both stretched (especially after two train cancellations) and excited.
Stretched, because alongside preparing to be fully present with the group, my mind is also juggling the to-do list for next week’s book launch.
Excited, because I’m with people genuinely trying to drive systems change – and because it’s in sessions like these that I have honed my craft.
The book - Story-Centred Leadership: Crafting Cultures of Change – comes out on 5th December. I wrote it because I want to have a positive impact on people I will never meet (and I need to reframe it as an invitation and not an ask!). I also wanted to positively impact the participants in the room who have spent four days thinking hard about sustainable business and what it asks of them as leaders.
My goals for the group were:
- Create space to explore how to better connect with their stakeholders
- Offer practical tools to make their narrative more human and compelling
- Support them to live their own story with energy and intent
And if you’re holding ambitions about leadership, story and sustainability, I hope the book will be a useful companion when it lands next week.
For those who’ve asked where to find it, thank you for your patience – I’ll be sharing more details very soon.