Why Not - Why Not?

I made an Infographic!

I’ve been facilitating Why Not workshops for about 18 months now, so it seemed like a good time to evaluate participants’ experiences and learning so far. I made an infographic for the first time in my life, and it describes findings from midwifery workshops. I’ve worked with other healthcare professionals too, but thought I’d focus my first evaluation on midwives.

As you’ll know from previous posts and my website content, I use Insights to support workshop learning. I’m excited to share this feedback from participants, as it makes me feel optimistic about the work I’m doing. The other day, I was on a call to some midwives who attended one of my workshops about a year ago, and they were telling me how much they continue to use the learning from their workshop. One of them told me she’s now thinking about her communication style when engaging with colleagues, because she’s acutely aware that information giving and receiving is filtered through our behavioural preferences. It’s great to hear the workshops are having the longer lasting impact I was hoping for.

So here we are (please insert a tiny drumroll at this point): my very first infographic!

Coming soon, a copy of my ICM 2023 poster, which describes the findings from workshops in relation to Insights colour energies!

Together again after all this time

According to the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), this year’s theme for the International Day of the Midwife last week (Together Again: from evidence to reality) is ‘a nod to the upcoming 33rd ICM Triennial Congress, where our global midwifery community will come together for the first time in more than 5 years’.

Reading that, and creating my annual IDM piece of embroidery (the illustration for this post is full of sparkly beads and was created to represent the global nature of the midwifery community), I took a moment to reflect on what I’ve been doing since the last in-person ICM congress, when we met in Toronto in 2017.

Back then (and it really does feel like a lifetime ago) I was a Research Fellow in Maternity Care at the University of Nottingham. In Toronto, I presented on aspects of my doctoral research into midwifery leadership and identity, and brought a poster along as well. One of my doctoral supervisors had suggested my research into midwifery leadership and identity would create a career’s worth of work, and thinking about that now I don’t believe he was far from the truth.

Since leaving the University of Nottingham in June 2018, I’ve continued to explore the subjects of leadership and identity, both within and beyond midwifery. First, I moved into the business school at Northumbria University, where I took up a lectureship in leadership and management. I worked with undergraduate and postgraduate students from healthcare, other public sector and private sector organisations, developing my understanding of how identity narratives are created in a range of professions and contexts. While at Northumbria I also completed my PG Certificate in Coaching, and I became an Insights Discovery practitioner. I found that Insights could create a valuable framework through which individuals, teams and organisations might develop awareness of and solutions to such challenges as leadership, communication and collaborative working, all based within a positive psychology approach – celebrating strengths and at the same time addressing limitations.

In 2019, I took up the role of Professional Advisor for Leadership at the Royal College of Midwives, and brought my background in clinical midwifery, my research-based understanding of leadership, and my Insights-based understanding of identity narratives with me. Having been briefly away from the midwifery profession, I was now back in its midst, and I worked to develop workshops and programmes based on my hybrid learning and understanding.

On leaving the RCM in 2021, I established my own business – here at Why Not, I support midwives in their personal, team and leadership development. I love working with the profession so much! In the face of reports critical of midwifery and multidisciplinary leadership, my focus is always on what midwives do bring to the table, and exploring their understanding of leadership from a personal perspective – taking ownership of (and challenging) the idea that midwifery is leadership.

What also brings me joy is the range of opportunities I’ve been given to work with other professions. Within Why Not, I’ve recently expanded my workshops to include nurses and other healthcare professionals, and it’s been joyous to be able to see how Insights can impact beyond my home profession. Alongside Why Not, I’m an Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham, working on the NHS Leadership Academy’s Anderson Programme. I work with some inspiring and dedicated NHS leaders, both clinical and non-clinical, exploring how the core tenets of contemporary leadership theory (compassion, authenticity, collaboration, engagement) play out in their working lives. Beyond the NHS, I also hold an Associate Lectureship at Northumbria University, and there I work with student police officers. Again, I feel an immense sense of privilege to be supporting their development, exploring their understanding of self and others, leadership and teamworking.

What a few years I’ve had. Never having had any kind of career plan, I do feel that following opportunities and running headlong down unexpected paths has brought plenty of adventures. And so to Bali for ICM 2023, where you’ll find me presenting a poster on the subject of midwifery leadership, the theme I always come back to. I’ll be highlighting how the professional identity of midwives is inextricably linked to leadership, using learning from my Insights workshops to explore the assertion that midwifery is leadership. I’m excited to have the opportunity to be together again, after all this time: back in the room with so many inspirational midwives from around the world. Wherever I go, and whatever I do, I always come back to midwifery, and I’m grateful for it.

Bringing your Authentic Self to Work: fairy lights and origami

Bringing your authentic self to work, and particularly in the context of leadership and management, has been a hot topic in recent years. It sounds simple, and actually pretty logical, if you think about authenticity in terms of your values and behaviours:

‘Being your true authentic self means what you say in life aligns with your actions… It is who you are at your deepest core. It is about being true to yourself through your thoughts, words and actions, and having these three areas match each other’. Read more about authenticity here.

But what does it really mean for us to be our authentic self in the workplace, and what are some of the challenges? This week, I’m exploring the topic of authenticity in relation to my own office space.

As you can see from the image adorning this post, I don’t have what you might call a muted office backdrop. This is my most recent office space (at home, of course) but wherever I’ve had a desk I’ve taken the same approach. My colleagues at the University of Nottingham will remember my year-round tinsel and the seasonal crochet displays, while at Northumbria University I had a noticeboard full of Instax photos and running medals. While working at the Royal College of Midwives, I somehow managed to persuade the facilities manager to put up a shiny new noticeboard behind my desk, and I imagine he assumed it would be for important notices and spreadsheets. Well, it definitely did have some spreadsheets, but of course there were many other things on it as well. Although no fairy lights.

The backdrop I’m working with at the moment might look chaotic, but it’s actually been quite carefully thought out. The fairy lights are pretty normal for my house (to the point where my mum said it looks like we live in a grotto!), but the other elements are worthy of a closer look.

First, the origami cranes. I had a pretty tricky beginning to 2021, and during the first few months of the year I needed to work quite hard at distracting myself from some challenging events. I’ve always used origami as a means of disconnecting from problems, or as a support for thinking time (try it – it’s ace!) and someone told me that if I make 1000 cranes I can have a wish. I mean, I could just go and throw a coin into a well, but this method of getting a free wish will be such a conversation starter!

Next, the embroidery. For one thing, I love to sew (and I was sewing when it most definitely was not a cool thing to do), and I was exploring how sewing might be a way of expressing myself. As for the designs, these reflect all things midwifery: the giraffe relates to the subject of my doctoral research, while the other two pieces reflect the most recent themes for International Day of the Midwife.

And finally, there are several little art pieces and postcards, all of which have been gifted to me by significant people or chosen as a memory of important places in my life.

So how does it feel to bring my authentic self to work every day? At first, I found myself worrying that the backdrop to my office was just too colourful – should I be more corporate? Do I look like a crazy lady? But then I thought, should this even matter? And in fact, it’s proved a really positive ice breaker and conversation starter in lots of contexts. I’ve been told by midwives in my leadership workshops that they feel relaxed because they can see immediately who they’re working with. And in meetings, I’m very (very!) often greeted with expressions of delight at the fairy lights – apparently, they’re guaranteed to brighten up the dullest morning.

I’m lucky, in the sense that it’s easy for me to show myself at work: that backdrop is visible every day, and let’s not forget that I also have a long history of (perhaps) over-sharing. For others, it may be more of a challenge, as they prefer to keep some things back. For some people, there’s comfort to be found in separating work from home entirely. It really doesn’t matter which approach works best for you – it’s just important that you’re comfortable with what you choose to show, and that you’re not in a position where you feel it’s based on others’ expectations rather than your own decisions. That’s the true key to bringing your authentic self to work.

Knowing your Values: why it matters in leadership and in life

When I began this blog a couple of weeks ago to launch Why Not, I thought I would just be writing about all things midwifery leadership and identity. So how did I come to be writing a post about knowing your values?

I’ve realised that in reflecting on the process of setting up the business I’m also finding lots of links with the work I do around developing career and leadership thinking. So I’ve decided to blog about the path I’m on personally as well – establishing Why Not is quite the journey (oops, there’s that word – but actually, it’s entirely apt). I’ll be writing some of my posts to reflect on my experiences along the way, and to suggest how these reflections might also link to leadership more generally.

I’m a big fan of books (and podcasts, and videos, and websites…) that can offer guidance when I do something new and exciting, so I’ll be discussing some of these from time to time. This week, I wanted to mention Rebecca Jones‘s very clear and thought-provoking book, Business Start-up Your Own Way. In it, Rebecca guides the reader through the start-up process, beginning with the big questions about why you might want to run your own business. This week, I was doing some work on the chapter, Your Value System, and this stood out for me:

‘If you feel your business is in line with your morals, values and beliefs you will believe in your business… Ultimately, your value system will help underpin your mission statement and your purpose’.

The importance of knowing our personal values is discussed in the leadership context, too, in terms of both self-leadership and leading others:

In the context of self-leadership, values are linked to the central theme of self-awareness: ‘Self-awareness is about knowing your intentions and values’ – Andrew Bryant

And in leading others: ‘We are able to lead with greater clarity around who we are and what vision we’re working towards when we lead with our values’ – Carly Sime

So while I’ve discussed the importance and development of personal values in relation to leadership before, the idea of how my own values might impact the development of Why Not has been a new thought exercise.

The funny thing is, I actually found it quite tricky to write down my personal values, which is part one of the exercise. It turns out that even if you feel like you know what guides you, it can be a challenge to get this into words and phrases! Luckily, I found this page at Mindtools to help, and was able to identify particular words I might associate with my values. From there, I wrote down five key phrases, and these are a summary of my values:

Stay curious

Count your blessings

Value relationships

Do your best

Be kind

In doing that exercise, I realised that the values I identified are my guides in whichever bit of my life I’m thinking about. I could apply these values to my home life, to the work roles I’ve held in the past (whether in music, midwifery or academia), and to this latest adventure in business building. My next step is to condense and mould those phrases into my mission statement, and that’s a work in progress. For now, I’m playing with words and thinking a lot.

Now, over to you – are you able to articulate your personal values and make links between them and how you live and work? I’d recommend this as a really useful reflective exercise, particularly if you’re thinking about how you might behave as a leader (of self or others). And if you’re considering starting your own business, Rebecca Jones’s book is fab – her positive language is especially good for those times when you’re questioning whether it’s really possible to go it alone!

A new adventure in midwifery leadership development

Photo by James Wheeler from Pexels

It’s June 2021, and we’re at the back end of nearly 18 months of restricted living. Out of the blue, I find myself at something of a crossroads, career-wise. I need to make decisions about where exactly I should go next, and that’s a tricky process. Midwifery leadership development has been my working life obsession since about 2009, so I really want to stay in that world.

When I was doing my doctoral research, one of my supervisors came up with the idea that I should regard myself as one of the subjects of the study, because like the midwifery leaders I was observing and interviewing, I too was going through something of an identity transition. Having been first a musician, then a midwife, I was now in a liminal space: if I stayed in the Business School, where the doctorate was based, how would I ever be able to call myself a midwife again? But if I went back to clinical midwifery, as a band 6 with a doctorate, I wasn’t going to fit in very well and I knew I would struggle to move the research on in any practical way.

So I spent the next few years flitting between disciplines: some years spent as a maternity care researcher at the University of Nottingham, then some time as a lecturer in leadership and management at Newcastle Business School. Finally, I took up a role that seemed to incorporate both practical and academic elements, enabling me to work with midwives to support their career and leadership development – but here, of all places, my identity came to be challenged (and ultimately rejected) beyond anything I would have expected.

So here I am, in June 2021, remembering something a very good friend once said to me. I was sharing my worries about belonging nowhere at the end of my doctorate, and she said, ‘You won’t belong nowhere, you’ll belong everywhere’. I’ve never forgotten that, and it’s the principle that will drive this business idea: I’m bringing clinical experience, meaning I can speak the language of midwifery and healthcare, academic understanding of leadership and identity questions, and practical tools to support midwives’ learning. If I can do anything to help the midwifery profession develop a strong identity and support the development of our future leaders and effective teams, then it doesn’t really matter what my own identity might be – and maybe that’s at the heart of belonging everywhere: being useful to lots of people in lots of contexts.

Today I’ll be presenting on the subject of midwifery leadership and identity at the International Confederation of Midwives‘ Triennial Congress – it would have been in Bali, but for obvious reasons it’s now a Zoom event *sigh*. This seemed like a good day to launch Why Not, so pop along to my shiny new homepage to explore what I’ve been up to lately. There you’ll find lots of information about how I’m working to support midwifery career, leadership and team development – using some very colourful psychometric profiling tools, a giraffe, and an unusually happy pig!