I’ve just come back from four days in the French Alps, where I was participating in (and contributing to!) an Alumni version of the year-long Evolving Leadership programme I was on in 2024. The Alumni event brought people back together from the last five years of the programme. It was a great way to dip back into the programme content, how I felt and what I learnt. Plus, being in the mountains also brings me back to myself. I wrote about my experiences from the first half of the programme in 2024 here.

Lessons in facilitation

It was so helpful to be able to be behind the scenes of a retreat just before my own. Hearing how the programme has evolved over the years, from where it started to where it is now. It reminded me that I am just at the beginning of my own journey, and that I’m excited to see where it will evolve to over the years.

I paid super close attention to the flow and dynamism of the week. When to stick to our plan and when to notice that the group needed something different. Being over-planned can be restrictive and may not serve everyone well. Trust that the right question will come out when it needs to.

Sally-Anne is a master of being able to command a space. And she does it silently. She doesn’t raise her voice. She gives out an energy that draws people’s attention. Something for us all to remember: loud and big isn’t the only way to get people’s attention.

Building internal capacity

The part that stayed with me most, though, wasn’t about facilitating. One of the group conversations we had was about how we are keeping alive the things we gained from the leadership programme. We all shared our stories, whether through conscious practices, less conscious ways of being, or how we use what we learnt with other people. Some talked about it feeling far away. For others it felt closer and more intentional.

I couldn’t find the words at the time I shared, but I believe the kind of internal leadership development, really expanding how and who you are as a leader, is about building a CAPACITY within yourself that you can draw on in good times and in tougher times. Having a clear purpose. Having fearless compassion. Building an inner stability. Ensuring you have balanced awareness and act with the whole picture in mind. And doing this for yourself and for others.

Mountain Anne

For me, that capacity has a name: Mountain Anne.

The mountains are my happy place. They are the place where I feel calmest and most at ease. A big part of my journey through the programme was realising that I can access Mountain Anne whenever I want. I don’t have to leave that feeling in the mountains. Reconnecting to a sense of grounded, inner confidence, accessing a calm stability anywhere and anytime in my life.

Reminding myself of this connection and cultivating it over the next week and into my own retreat is going to be really important to me.

I feel so lucky to get to do things like this, with people like this, in a place like this. And I am so thankful for the experience.

I leave feeling reconnected, restored and ready to go!

(Thanks to Simon Airey for these great photos!)