A Leadership Night at Knox Grammar School
I’ve spoken at Knox Grammar in Sydney many years ago, but back then it was for the students. This time was a little different. The audience was made up of Knox staff, teachers and leadership teams, along with some leaders from other local schools. I’d actually spoken just down the road at Ravenswood recently with a similar staff audience, so it was great to be back in that part of Sydney again.
Leanne from Knox gave us a great brief in the lead up. Knox runs two annual Leader Development Programs, one for aspiring leaders and another for current leaders, and throughout the year they hold twilight events where staff and leaders from peer schools come together. The focus for these events is leadership, resilience, dealing with challenging situations and conversations, and the different things leaders are navigating in education right now. AI was obviously a hot topic too and how teachers and leaders manage that changing world.
It sounded awesome and very aligned with what I love speaking about.
I’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of time speaking at conferences and leadership events across Sydney lately, and these kinds of rooms are always a lot of fun because people are there because they genuinely want to learn, connect and look at things a little differently.
The team sent across the promo material, the event was locked in and we were good to go.
I arrived about an hour before start time because there was some setup to do and a networking event happening beforehand. I always like getting there early when I can. It gives me a chance to get amongst it, meet a few people and get a feel for the room before I speak.
Although first I had to actually find the room.
I parked in the wrong spot. My attention to detail is impeccable…
It ended up being a huuuuuge walk to the auditorium. It probably wasn’t anywhere near as huge as I’m making it sound, but carrying two boxes of my book, Stabbed Ego, definitely made it feel like a mission.
I eventually arrived, got set up and was escorted over to the networking catch up to… catch up I suppose.
I walked in and there were a heap of people dressed sharply, chatting amongst themselves, eating some snacks and having a sneaky glass of champagne. I remember looking around and laughing to myself a little.
All these people are here to see me.
That’s a trip.
I wouldn’t call it imposter syndrome. It’s more that I still find it funny sometimes that there’s a room full of distinguished looking educators and school leaders eagerly waiting to listen to a street kid who grew up carrying on, and now he’s going to talk to them about leadership, change, connection and development.
Life’s funny.
There was already a cheeky laugh during the introduction which helped build some immediate connection with the room, and then we just went from there.
And build it did!!
What a session.
We got into leadership, resilience, authenticity, change, connection, personal responsibility and how we actually show up for the people around us. There were plenty of laughs throughout, but we also went into some deeper stuff and the room was incredibly open to it.
One of the things I love exploring with leadership groups is bringing some of the focus back onto ourselves. Leadership can easily become about how we motivate someone else, manage someone else or get someone else to change, but there’s a lot of power in first looking at how we’re showing up ourselves. What example are we setting? What energy are we bringing into the room? How present are we? How are the people around us experiencing us?
The feedback afterwards was pretty bloody special too.
Leanne sent this through the next day:
“On behalf of everyone who attended, thank you so much for last night!! I’ve already had quite a few staff provide feedback on your keynote. It was such an engaging evening filled with insight, humour, and stories that were so incredibly relatable. It was a lot of fun hearing colleagues giggling away too.”
She also said she looked forward to welcoming me back to Knox again.
I’ll happily take them up on that :-)
Knox also put together their own recap of the night on their website, with some photos and a write up about the event.
A massive thank you to Leanne and everyone at Knox for having me back. Last time I was there I was speaking to the students and this time it was the people teaching, leading and supporting them. Very different audience, but just as special.
Hopefully it won’t be quite as long before the next visit.
And next time I’ll park a little closer.
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