Something a bit Different!

09 Sep 2018

Keeping with this year’s theme, The Year of Smart, I participated in my first non-technical training programme. The course was run by the Centre for Creative Leadership, a US-based non-profit organisation who focus on leadership development. CCL run the Maximising Your Leadership Potential course only three times a year at their Europe HQ in Brussels, so after booking in March I had to wait a while before attending.

The wait was absolutely worthwhile, while I was a little apprehensive I really enjoyed the course, met a lot of interesting people and learnt more about myself than I could ever have possibly imagined. The programme is very well structured and split into three components:

1. Pre-work, this includes employee 360s, surveys, questionnaires and feedback. This information is used to build a picture of the attendee’s personality, role, approach, etc.
2. Course, this included 2.5 classroom days spent reviewing the pre-work results, as well as many breakaway sessions, social events and even a personal 1:1 coaching session
3. Follow-up, this will consist of applying the tools and techniques learned and a 6-week post-course coaching session to review progress.

While there wasn’t much time for sightseeing I managed to spend some time walking around the European Quarter with one of the other course attendees, Steve. I had visited Brussels before but I don’t remember much more than the Grand Place so was eager to see more, the European quarter is an interesting place, with many buildings signposted as to their purpose, many I recognise from News/TV. As a remain voter, it was striking just how large the EU organisation is and brought home the reality of what how different things could be if the UK opts for a ‘Hard Brexit’.

We also walked around the beautiful Cinquantenaire park and stumbled across The European Sport Climbing Youth Championships and a lovely little pop-up bar. The combination allowed for a nice relaxed beer while watching children fall from a climbing wall, very entertaining!