The new Front Team, along with their peers from Haberdashers’ secondary schools, were invited to participate in a Haberdashers’ Leadership Conference in London. The event began with a networking dinner, at which ON Harshini Muthukrishnan spoke, followed by a full day of talks and workshops.
Speeches
During the morning students enjoyed a number of inspirational talks delivered by seasoned leaders. The keynote speech, ‘Leading from the middle and following from behind’ was delivered by Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick. It was a masterclass in how to deliver a speech and focused on the theme of integrity and what constitutes success.
Tom Vallings reflected on the lessons learnt from a 30-year career in the army in ‘The Theory and Practice of Leadership’. He emphasized the importance of energy as well as ‘counting and caring’ - valuing the support staff whose roles are vital to the running of an organization. His final point was ‘Hog the agony’ – be prepared to do the worst jobs!
John Griffiths and Dr Joanna Abeyie led on ‘Civic Responsibility’ and engaging in leadership roles at a local level – in this case the City of London Council. Joanna was particularly impressive. She came from a council estate in south west London, and at university set up a business to enable people from less privileged backgrounds to apply to banks and businesses in the City. The talk highlighted self-belief and the need to find mentors to navigate the challenges.
Finally, ‘Leadership and Perspective’ was delivered by Fleur Brading. After reading English at Cambridge she had a very wiggly career path. She started as an assistant to a film director, rose up the ranks of two NGOs, started a mobile banking app (which failed) and then joined the world of corporate finance. She is now a director of the largest Canadian pension fund with assets of trillions of dollars. Among her many top tips, she recommended imagining the pressures your supervisor might be under and then anticipate ways to alleviate that pressure if you want to get promoted!
Workshops
Divided into mixed school teams for the afternoon, the students rotated through three workshops on Body Language, Team Building and Leadership Challenges.
Finally, the students regrouped for a Plenary session with Anujo Dhir who was a High Court judge and did a great job taking feedback from the students.
Darwin House Captain, Milo Watson, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the day. I found the networking sessions particularly useful and have made new friends at some of the other schools, as well as contacts within the Haberdashers’ themselves. I found the various speeches and talks very insightful, with my favourite being Harshini’s at the dinner as it outlined her experience when applying for Darwin House Captain, the position I currently hold.”
Olivia Haves, Webb House Captain, added: "It was really interesting to see the variety of ways the schools structure and run their front teams, whilst also getting to know new methods of leadership. All of the talks were really inspiring, with my favourite being Joanna as she explained her journey to becoming involved with the Haberdashers. She really highlighted that with hard work you can do anything, as shown through her business."
