- About us
- About colleges
-
Corporate services
- Corporate services
- Mental health and wellbeing
- Data Protection/GDPR
-
Employment Services - college workforce
- Employment Services - college workforce
- Employment: How we support members
- Introduction & Employment Helpline
- Absence & Sickness Management
- Contracts and T&Cs
- Disciplinary, Capability & Grievance
- Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
- General Employee Relations & HR Issues
- Holiday/annual leave related
- Industrial Relations
- ONS reclassification related guidance
- Pay & Pensions
- Recruitment
- Redundancy, Restructuring & TUPE
- Safeguarding/Prevent
- Workforce Benchmarking, Surveys & Research
-
Governance
- Governance
- Governance: How we support members
- Governance Timeline
- Representation
- AoC National Chairs' Council
- National Governance Professionals' Group
- Code of Good Governance
- External Governance Reviews
- Resources
- Governors Inductions
- Student Governor Inductions
- Student Governor Support Hub
- Guidance
- Hot Topics
- Governance Briefings
- Archive
-
Projects
- Projects
- Get Involved!
- Resources
- Contact the Projects Team
- Apprenticeship Workforce Development (AWD) Programme
- Creating a Greener London – Sustainable Construction Skills
- The 5Rs Approach to GCSE Maths Resits
- Creative Arts in FE 2024 – developing student voice through creativity
- DfE Multiply Capability Support Programme
- Digital Roles Across Non-digital Industries
- GCSE Resits Hub Project
- Pears Foundation Youth Social Action Programme: Phase 2
- T Level and T Level Foundation Year Provider Support Programme
- T Level Professional Development (TLPD) Offer
- The Valuing Enrichment Project
- Resources/Guidance
- Sustainability & Climate Action Hub
- Partnerships
- Honours Nomination
- Brexit
- Ofsted Inspection Support
- Recruitment and consultancy
-
Events and training
- Events and training
- Events
- AoC Annual Conference and Exhibition 2024
- T Level and T Level Foundation Year Events
- Events and training: How we support members
- Network Meetings
- Previous Events and Webinars
- In-House Training
- Senior Leadership Development Programme
- Introducing AoC's Early Career and Experienced Managers' Programme
- Sponsorship and Exhibition Opportunities
- Funding and finance
-
Policy
- Policy
- Meet the Policy Team
- Policy: How we support members
- Policy Areas
- Policy Briefings
- Submissions
- Policy Papers & Reports
- AoC Strategy Groups
-
AoC Reference Groups
- AoC Reference Groups
- 14-16 Reference Group
- 16-18 Reference Group
- Adults (inc. ESOL) Reference Group
- Apprenticeship Reference Group
- EDI Reference Group
- HE Reference Group
- HR Reference Group
- International Reference Group
- Mental Health Reference Group
- SEND Reference Group
- Sustainability & Climate Change Reference Group
- Technology Reference Group
- WorldSkills Reference Group
- Opportunity England
- Research unit
-
News, campaigns and parliament
- News, campaigns and parliament
- Post-election hub
- General and mayoral election resources
-
Comms advice and resources for colleges
- Comms advice and resources for colleges
- Media relations: 10 ways to build effective relationships with the media
- How to choose a PR agency
- Legal considerations for communications and media work
- How to plan for a new build
- Crisis communications: your go-to guide
- How to handle photo consent for media and marketing
- How to evaluate a PR and media campaign
- How to react to regulation, funding and restructuring issues
- How to react quickly and effectively to the media
- Working with the media: a complete guide
- How to write a compelling case study
- How to write for the web
- College communications, marketing and campaigns community
- AoC Newsroom
- AoC Blogs
- Work in Parliament
- AoC Campaigns
- Briefings
- Communications, media, marketing and research: How we support members
-
Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Equality, diversity and inclusion blogs
- AoC’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Charter
- AoC’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Charter for further education sector organisations
- AoC’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Charter signatories
- Diversity in Leadership
- Black FE Leadership Group and AoC partnership agreement
- AoC's Equity Exchange
- Equality, diversity and inclusion: how we support members
- Equality, diversity and inclusion case studies
- ETF Inclusive Leadership Coaching Programme
- Equality, diversity and inclusion briefings
- Home
- News, campaigns and parliament
- AoC Blogs
- Role models taught me resilience. Time to repay the favour - Katie Stafford
Role models taught me resilience. Time to repay the favour - Katie Stafford
Having supported one of my recently promoted team leaders, I was privileged to be invited to observe and offer feedback on the presentations of a cohort of new middle managers who had successfully completed their “Leading from the Middle” course. I was impressed not only by their enthusiasm for the course, but the detail and thought put into solving the problems that they had experienced. In recent years, we have made substantial progress in developing our own managers and we now have a community of college leaders who meet for mentoring and support discussions with those who want to progress their careers. In my own experience, these sessions have grown trust and confidence and have now become a two-way process in which both sides share problems that need solving. The conversations are helping us grow in our capacity to deal with the complexities of the FE system. During these sessions, I often think about the role models and mentors that have believed in me and helped me navigate through the successes and most difficult issues. The ones who showed me what it meant to be a good leader and grew my inner resilience. I hope I can do the same for our own future talent.
My theoretical knowledge of management and leadership began through my Btec in business and finance at college and then at university. In my studies I became very interested in the organisational behaviour units of these courses, particularly approaches to motivating and engaging people within the culture of the organisation. Many years later, as a perpetual student, I have found a new source of inspiration through the podcasts of Steven Bartlett, Diary of a CEO, who explores with simplicity and candor the lives of his guests. Simon Sinek in his “A Bit of Optimism” podcasts discusses and shares new thinking, ideas and insights from the world of business. Brené Brown, an American professor, offers us podcast conversations on her powerful vision of “awkward, brave and kind” leadership.
The authenticity of the guests and the narration of the stories told on these podcasts is palpable and provides a very powerful basis reflection and self-awareness that I believe is important to be a good leader. To develop and improve our own leadership practice, it is crucial to be open minded to new ways of thinking and behaving. I welcome the recent publication of the ETF Professional Standards for Leaders which outline the need for reflection, the importance of leadership values and behavior which inspire others and the emphasis of a positive working culture.
As a Research Further Scholar, I have a responsibility to share the findings of my research and support research in the sector. With a passion for developing future leadership approaches and models for the sector I have a strong feeling of personal responsibility to support, inspire and develop the new and emerging leaders of the future. Compared to schools, research in leadership in further education is very rare and so there is a necessity to grow this area of research and work towards a better understanding of what it means to be a leader in a sector that we cherish.
Exposure to positive role models and coaching from within the sector is crucial to ensuring that FE continues to serve the communities of teachers and students within the values of integrity and high expectations. At sector level, understanding our own leadership practice supports the recruitment and retention of leaders from a diverse range of backgrounds and encourages the divergent thinking that is necessary to help stimulate discussion and problem solving that keeps colleges agile and responsive.
The complexities of navigating and mediating the policies that surround us, combined with the challenges of unequal funding make the sector a difficult place to work at times. It often feels that policy makers and ministers struggle to fully understand the sector. This makes it an incredibly important mission to grow and nurture our own talent to be reflective, confident and passionate leaders. Role modelling and mentoring good leadership from within makes an important contribution to that.
The views expressed in Think Further publications do not necessarily reflect those of AoC or NCFE.