This is the sixth instalment of my journey through the 100 days of social leadership through the lens of my work at the Open University, based on the book by Julian Stodd. Visit HERE to see the start of the process.

Days 50 through to 59 look at the role reputation.

Day 50 – what is your reputation

This day asks us to reflect on whether we know what our reputation is and challenges us to go out and find out. At the OU my main stakeholders are my peers and students. I would also consider the 100 days OU collective as a reasonably new set of people I am connected too.

Feedback from students: I get this every six months and here my reputation is super solid. Conscious, proactive and engaging are three words that regularly come up. Below is some recent anonymous feedback:

Feedback from staff: This has been harder to get, but generally was positive: sharing, supportive and student focused were themes in short conversations I had.

Feedback from 100DaysOU: I have not seeked this yet. I will do when we meet up in January 2019.

Overall I feel very pleased with the feedback. It was great to go back and read the student feedback and see the impact I am having.

 

Day 51 – missing in action

I could not find 51 as I  developed this on holiday and took only images of the pages. This one asks us to get feedback on ourselves – overall pretty good to be honest!

Day 52 – look around

This day asks us to consider the reputation of people you admire. Overall I see that they are:

  • Sharing (ideas, resources, opinions)
  • Knowledgeable
  • Open for discussion
  • Present online or via social channels

They are not from one particular domain or area of the OU. There is a certain similarity to myself here. Wondering how to connect to those who are not so present online. I may need to break out of my box. THIS article from HBR around networking really resonated with me, as it discusses the need to expand.

Day 53 – Work in progress

This day asks us to pick up three things from feedback about ourselves / our reputation. The three things that I take from this activity are:

  1. I have a tendency to take on so many “side” projects and this hampers my delivery of those projects and other commitments I have made.
  2. That I should elevate my thinking and sharing of that thinking – really around sharing more strategic articles, ideas and so forth.
  3. I should make an effort to expand my network, both within the OU and beyond.

These are all habits that I can work on, number 1 is particularly tricky and I see number 2 as time consuming.

 

Day 54 – Habit

This day follows on from the previous day. Three habits I need to change or adapt:

  1. The habit of overloading, by saying YES to too many things.
  2. The habit of not planning sufficient time to get things done. Cause by underestimating the time / effort required.
  3. The habit of not focusing. Generally I am very easily distracted.

 

Day 55 – An action day

This action day was spent discussing the feedback and ideas from the first few days with my coach. The key take away was that it would be better to make “micro-adjustments” rather than massive changes. This is because massive changes are way harder to follow through on and deliver. A simple one, for example is..rather than saying “no” to new projects, it would be to say “let me think about it and get back to you tomorrow”. This would allow me to take on some projects AND think about real availability and other commitments.

 

Day 56 -Authenticity

On my reflections for this day I spent a while reflecting and reading on the topic. For me this is really about behaving and responding to situations in a way that is aligned with my beliefs and values. One of my reflections was that the people I most admire tend to be people that are value driven and this comes out in what they do, even when under pressure.


 

Day 57 – Impact

This day asks us to discuss with three colleagues what authenticity means. Whilst Idid not speak to 100DaysOU team members, I did speak to others and the replies came up as similar. Not toeing the line if you believe it is not correct was quite often repeated. This reminds me of Intelligent Disobedience which I cover when delivering training around VUCA (D-VUCAD) Leadership. THIS Fast Company articles gives a good overview

Day 58 – Thank You

This day asks us to reflect on recognising one person in out network. I chose Barry Verdin. He is the person that got the OU100Days community started. Beyond that we have also shared a whole range of resources around change and transformation and he is a founder of the OU Change Community! Definitely worth following on Twitter!

Day 59 – Call it out

This day was a really simple one, it asked us to reflect what is one thing that we need to do to enhance our reputation. For me, it is simply to stop agreeing to so many “side” projects and ideas. I am not great at saying “no” and this is having an impact on what I do, actually to quite a stressful level. So this is my “must change” area.

 

 

This was the final one here. The next section is on Authority (Days 60 to 69) and can be found HERE.