On the fifth episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael welcomes Radha Ruparell, author and Head of Global Leadership Accelerator at  Teach For All, into the conversation to talk about the main ideas in Chapter 5 of Ron Heifetz legendary book, Leadership Without Easy Answers (1998), namely informal and formal authority, holding environments, and nurturing our inner capacity.  When talking about what it means to practice leadership, we often think about what we can do for others, how we can increase learning and stimulate growth, but more often than not we forget about what we need to do for ourselves

As the Head of Global Leadership Accelerator at Teach for All, an organization that develops collective leadership to change the future of education, Ruparell has found herself in scenarios, both with informal and formal authority, where she’s needed to take a breath for the sake of herself and her team.  Too often does leadership’s glitz and glam overshadow the pressure, stress, and discipline that come with the role.  That’s why it’s all the more important to grow your inner capacity, ground yourself, and find solace in the hearts of those around you.  Being in charge and practicing leadership is tough work that requires a lot of self discipline and poise.  So if you listen to today’s episode, our two seasoned experts can help you learn how to achieve just that.   

The Finer Details of This Episode: 

• Informal and formal authority
• The holding environment
• Teach for All
• Growing Our Inner Capacities
• Self-discipline and poise 
• The innate power in young people

Quotes:

“When you have authority, whether it's formal or informal, you have this opportunity to shape the container– to shape the space.” 

“We only move at the speed of trust.”

“How do we bring people across the globe to develop these leadership capacities together?”

“So our belief is creating a world where students can shape a better world for themselves and for all of us. And more and more, we're seeing the power of activating the leadership of students.”

“We talk a lot about these holding environments.  We talk about the ability of those who are exercising leadership to hold under a lot of conflict, to hold a lot of tension, to hold different views. And yet, I don't think we talk enough about the inner work that we need to do ourselves, that inner discipline, that poise, that groundedness that's required, in order to be able to hold that.”

“Part of the know-how Parsons required was a discipline, poise.  She had to have the emotional capacity to tolerate uncertainty, frustration, and pain. She had to be able to raise questions about preparing for the possibility of death without getting too anxious herself.”

“So I encourage those who are in formal authority positions find a support network. There's no shame in getting support. In fact, it's the opposite. Again, if we want to be able to hold space for others We have to be held ourselves.”

Links: 

On The Balcony Podcast

Leadership Without Easy Answers 

Brave Now 

Radha Ruparell on Instagram

Radha Ruparell on Twitter   

Radha Ruparell on LinkedIn

Teach for All

Mentioned in this episode:

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