World Quality Day 2017 was a celebration of everyday leadership, to find out more I attended an event organised by Lucy Payne of Vale QMS in Evesham. Lucy had arranged two speakers, Kath Clark of Authentic HR and Gail Gibson, a business performance coach to talk to us about different aspects of everyday leadership.

Kath spoke to us about self-awareness and having a realistic knowledge of what you are – we were asked to pick out three words from a slide of characteristics, I immediately picked sociable, strong willed and enthusiastic which will probably resonate with anybody who knows me well! During her presentation, Kath used the Insights Discovery colours of:

I have come across these before in another guise at a behavioural styles workshop run by Clare Davis, the descriptors Clare uses are Socialiser, Director, Relator and Thinker. Kath pointed out that we are all a mixture of all the colours, and whichever colour is dominant at a particular time will depend on the context and situation around us. Kath used some examples of behaviours for each colour to help us be aware of how we deal with other people in daily life, for example a dominant Cool Blue person will not appreciate flippancy, an Earth Green may not feel comfortable making quick decisions, a Fiery Red likes thing straight to the point and a Sunshine Yellow does not like to be tied down with a routine, obviously these are very brief examples and life is generally more complex than that!

Gail spoke to us about self-leadership and the growth mindset of seeing opportunities, putting effort in to get results and responding well to feedback. Gail also talked about the need to look forward and build on self-belief using knowledge, skills and embracing the process of self-development.

I particularly liked her 3 B’s of her #CanDo coffee club:

• Be bold – in your personal and professional life
• Be brave
• Have Belief in your self

I found this event really interesting, I met some great new people, ate a fab cupcake or two and have some things to think about for my personal development and goals for next year, so a worthwhile event all round!