Personal Leadership Challenge

In May 2011, a group of people from across the Leeds Community Healthcare, Leeds Partnerships Foundation NHS Trust and NHS Leeds started their ILM 5 – High Performance Leadership course run by The Learning Grove.

At the beginning of the residential in Ross on Wye it is fair to say they didn’t know each other that well but…. that wasn’t the case by the end of the gruelling 5 days.

They all led a different task; this one saw Maria and Melody as the group leaders.

The task

“To arrange an evening of entertainment, organise a menu and raise money for our chosen charity by selling tickets to businesses in the local area”.

This was initially planned by the facilitators, Huw and Neil, as a competition between the two teams. The team leaders, Maria and Melody, quickly decided to join forces and the charity chosen to be a recipient of any money raised was the Midlands Air Ambulance Service. The rationale behind this; following research it was identified that the local community valued and recognised the need for this service due to the rural area it covered.

It soon became clear this was not going to be possible, and it was recognised that we had to raise the money ourselves… how?

I’ll tell you how, by recognising the talent amongst us: Caricature drawing, Roman blind maker, Car washing, England rugby signed shirt and photo, A supply of organic eggs, various baking options and an individual Indian cooking class. This is how the idea of an Auction transpired. The inspiration for the evening was in the main down to Julie… and her newfound talent as Auctioneer. I think it is fair to say that Julie’s talents made people part with far too much money… but all in a very good cause.

The Outcome

The charity event raised £1,047.50 for the Air Ambulance. The evening also saw the talent of Stream A, ILM 5 showing off their acting skills… but there lies another story…..

Well done and a fantastic achievement for all involved and special thanks to The Learning Grove for parting with the most amount of money.

High Performance Leadership ILM 5, Stream A, 2011.