The Essence of The Recess College

The Recess College offers programmes that stand out from the other myriad of programmes due to its vision on what leadership actually means, for a person as an individual in their life and roles.

The dilemma of leadership is how you engage with what you can influence, but cannot control:

• The unpredictability of the world
• The unexpectedness of other people’s reactions
• The uncertainty of the future

The essence of leadership is:

• Credibly inspiring people
• Achieving real impact with courage and will
• Clarifying the principles you live by, and making them work in practice
• Taking action with truthful effectiveness in your life in personal, public, organisational and professional spaces
• Going beyond transactional models
• Treating people not as commodities

Who you are… and how you make things happen

What do you need to be an effective leader?

People must first lead themselves before they can lead anybody else.

• Self-leadership means understanding your particular relationship to your own anxieties, the way in which you handle them and do or do not impose them on your environment.
• Leadership is an inside-out process: starting from the self, going outwards to engage with the realities of the world and take decisions in face of change. Therefore, your leadership needs to involve, but go way beyond, the technicalities of the leadership task – into your own wisdom, emotional intelligence and personal, intellectual acumen for good judgment.

What do you need to be an effective leader?

People must first lead themselves before they can lead anybody else.

• Self-leadership means understanding your particular relationship to your own anxieties, the way in which you handle them and do or do not impose them on your environment.
• Leadership is an inside-out process: starting from the self, going outwards to engage with the realities of the world and take decisions in face of change. Therefore, your leadership needs to involve, but go way beyond, the technicalities of the leadership task – into your own wisdom, emotional intelligence and personal, intellectual acumen for good judgment.

The unique Recess College approach

In the programmes participants learn leadership not through didactic methods or instrumental exercises, but by experiencing what makes people good at what they do or alternatively how they sabotage themselves and others.

• Participants learn leadership through the experience the programme gives them, rather than through measuring themselves against theory.
• Participants experience and use their energy to good effect for themselves and others in real sustainable practice
• Participants develop and experience high performing teamwork
• Leadership then becomes congruent with their personality, and effective in real, complex and unforeseeable situations.

That means we can avoid:

• Simplified psychometric analyses
• Rule-based tips and tricks from popular management theory
• Over-reliance on personality tests
• The temptation of one-dimensional views & positions

Your organisation will benefit

If your organisation invests in sending a participant they can expect their candidate to return to work more comfortable with themselves and the challenges of their organisation. As a leader they will be now better able to:

Handle people, projects and strategy

• Recognize and respond to the dilemma of contradictory interests
• Skilled in making decisions, standing by them and – when needed – being able to change priorities on a clear basis.

Create effective and purposeful working environments

• Develop a sense of community in the workplace that fosters allegiance and direction for the organisation
• Avoid being distracted by organisational personality conflicts and politics.

By being effective, make work enjoyable.

• Honestly communicate with colleagues, superiors and those who report to them
• Handle issues of authority and conflict.