BRAVE Reflections

I am sitting at my desk sometime after one of the most powerful days in my life. Reflecting on the result of something I took a chance on earlier in the year. A summit of speakers, workshop leaders and conversations to encourage leaders and those who are considering treading the path of leadership to be braver.

To those unfamiliar with BRAVE, it is my approach to inclusive leadership. BRAVE is about getting those leading to be BOLD, RESILIENT, AGILE, VISIONARY, and ETHICAL. BRAVE dispels any attempts to see leadership through the lens of one charismatic individual and instead takes a systemic approach with a focus on sustainable change.

The purpose of the summit was to show others that even though I talk about this A LOT and do coaching on it and a helluva lot of writing on it, I am not the only one. I wanted you all to see that there are others. There are brave leaders and coaches spreading the gospel of inclusive leadership in corporate spaces, the civil service and the third sector.

I want to think the BRAVE Summit has gone some way to making us a community.

Back to the beginning

There was no way I was going to do this on my own, so I contacted an amazing friend I had worked with years ago. I loved Jordan Graham’s energy and work ethic the last time we worked together, so I promised that if I were ever brave enough to put on a conference, I would want her to run it for me. I made good on that promise, and boy, did she deliver!

We discussed the vision, what kind of speakers we wanted, how diverse it would be, securing venues, visual production, branding, and more. Jordan does not, and did not, leave anything to chance. I make no bones in stating that I fully trusted her to run with it and obviously having to deal with the mad hatter that is me to bounce ideas off.

Getting the speakers right was my biggest focus, and I say that unapologetically. I didn’t want the lineup to look homogenous like I had seen at many other leadership conferences. I wanted more women, cos truth be told, way too many men’s voices dominate this space. I gave Jordan my wishlist, and we put a call out for others.

The universe was operating very much in my favour. We managed to get all but one of the speakers on my list. Unfortunately, Chin Roo had an urgent family issue to attend to. All the others who could make it on the day smashed it out of the park. Patrick Cozier, Heidi Stewart, Collette Phillip, Shazia Ginai, Lauren Williams, James Jackson, Phyll Opoku-Gyimah aka Lady Phyll, Tokunbo Ajasa-Oluwa, Nicole Bosky, Nick Eagleton, Mo Ali, Dom Scott, Frank Starling, Alex Magloire and Safia Iman.

They all took the subject matter of being brave and inclusive and ran with it. Each speaker brought their flavours to it. Stories of resilience, innovation, resistance, metaphysics, agency, and all showing how leadership can be Bold, Resilient, Agile, Visionary and Ethical.

I want to thank all my speakers, my volunteers Emma, Alex, Josh and Karl, my daughter Rianna and her visual production team Tam and Kaiyan, and the event architect who held it all together, Jordan Graham.

Lessons learned organising my first conference

There were many lessons, but I’ll focus on the ones I felt most impacted me.

Share the load - I need to delegate more

One of the things that struck me was how often people wait until the last minute to buy tickets for a conference. I won’t pretend it wasn’t frustrating. I realise I need to separate myself from that part of the organising. In the future, this event's marketing will be in another's skilled hands. My job was to curate the vision and expectations, not bombard my LinkedIn and email list with constant reminders. Constant marketing and reminders can be effective, but this shouldn’t fall squarely on my shoulders when others can do it better.

Be clear about my audiences

Profiling audiences for a conference takes a lot of work. I realised that I didn’t have a clear idea of the person(s) who would ideally be attending. Considering my years of experience in the field, you'd think this would be easy. But remember, my clients are not my clients in this instance. My peers are now my clients. On the upside, I now have a pool of data to work with to help me figure that out for the next time.

Not everyone is willing to put their money where their mouth is

In true transparency, cos this is all about being brave, right? At some points on this journey, I felt a huge frustration with companies and individuals attempting to haggle over the ticket price. These are companies and individuals I have worked with; individuals I know would pay upwards of £5-7k to host a table at an awards ceremony and keekee for prizes and selfies on socials. But there they were, quibbling over something at a fraction of the price that would have likely benefited them tenfold.

On more than one occasion, I was told there was no L&D budget after I made it clear I didn't want money from a diversity pot. I’m not snooty. I have always been clear about the fact that inclusive leadership must be systemic and rooted in everything an organisation does. If you aren’t committing from a centralised L&D budget, I know you ain't serious.

I ain't mad. I am just making notes.

Accessibility isn’t easy

As much as I wanted it to be a fully inclusive conference, my late planning meant this wasn’t possible. We didn’t get a signer, and there was a breakroom without adequate wheelchair access. I am disappointed, and I apologise to anyone that was affected on the day. Accessibility will be at the top of the planning list next time round.

What next for the BRAVE Leadership Summit?

Notes have been made, and we are ready for the next one. My team and I have a blueprint now, and we’re already strategising to make the next BRAVE Summit even better.

In the meantime, we are in the editing suite, pulling together some fabulous photos and video content from the summit. However, we won’t release any full-length video footage of the talks or sessions. Highlight reels and snippets only. Out of respect to the people who paid to be in the room, I am not about to release full content, and also, some people shared quite sensitive stuff that would require a full media release. They were brave enough to share that, so I stand bravely and say, unlike other events, I am not releasing that content.

We have taken time to reflect on all the lessons and start planning again. But for those anxious to know, the next BRAVE Leadership Summit is November 21, 2024 (more details to follow in the new year). See you there.