Why are women great leaders?

NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by Otter. Apologies in advance for any typos or errors.

Christalla  Jamil 0:00  

#WomenEd it is a global grassroots movement that connects aspiring existing women leaders in education. It’s for women: run by women. And though we have he for shes men, of course support us and our co feminist. It’s just for women. It’s for black women. It’s not for black men. It’s for for example, you know, Muslim women, not Muslim men. I can go on and on and on with a comparative, but my message is #WomenEd it is for women to support, to grow and empower women.

Kathleen Cushnie 0:45  

Welcome to Voicing Education – The Podcast. I’m Kathleen Cushnie, founder of Voicing Education, a Senior Leading Education, Trainer and Coach. My mission is to help new leaders and teachers aspiring to leadership become confident in their ability to lead others successfully. Whether you’re a new or aspiring leader, this podcast will help you to become confident in your ability to lead others successfully. We discussed key themes in education and personal development, and how this can impact education and leadership. Let’s move that needle from confusion and overwhelm to clarity and inspiration. I’m so excited to share my first episode of view, please subscribe and renew as it would mean so much to me. I’m starting with a conversation with an empowering leader, who’s also a dear friend. I’m very supportive. This is the first in a series of women leaders. Each conversation gives you a different perspective of leadership from a woman’s point of view, confirming that there are many journeys to leadership. No two journeys are the same. Christalla Jamil is an experienced executive head teacher with a demonstrated history of working in the education management industry. She is skilled in inspections coaching crime, education, early childhood education, educational consulting, leadership and school improvement. In her spare time, Christina is a national leader for #WomenEd England, and lives by the motto. “Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.” Christalla holds the torch and leads the way for others, encouraging them to be #10% braver, I know this as I speak from experience. Hello Christalla and welcome to the very first episode of Voicing Education. And obviously you had to be my first interviewee, because you were there at the beginning of my journey, and I thought it was so important that you were here at the next stage of my journey. So welcome. And I’m so excited to kind of talk to you and unpick your leadership style. And just so other people can see how great you are. So the first question is, tell us why are you so fabulous and so great at what you do? And I’m not saying that lightly. Christalla works hard, professionally, but also her professional life seems to seep into her personal life because she is just passionate about what she does. So tell us.

Christalla  Jamil 3:04  

First of all, I want to say I’m delighted to be invited, let alone be your first guest. So thank you for this opportunity. Well, as you know, I’ve been in education for almost 18 years now, I commence quite late in life. So I joined teaching at 36. And I’m currently the Executive Head or in Tottenham. And I commence this role in April 2020. Just as we all faced our first experience of lockdown. That’s kind of who I am and where I’ve come from.

Kathleen Cushnie 3:39  

Fantastic! And what you’ve missed out as a big part of what you do is that I know that you have a big role or your national leader for #WomenEd England. Can you tell us how being involved in #WomenEd England has impacted you as a person?

Christalla  Jamil 3:55  

Oh, gosh, yes. So I joined #WomenEd in 2016. So I went to one of the I think it was their second unconference. I’d been existing for about a year then. And I was just drawn to the power of community camaraderie support for women at the time, I’ve managed to take my own school out of some challenging measures. And we’ve got to good and beyond. And I think joining women at that time was perfect for me because that’s when I started to define my style of leadership. And what attracted me to #WomenEd, is the fact that we join that it’s a non judgmental group of women, but genuinely there to support each other so that so that we grow there, there are four main campaign so they have we’ve added to them over the years that the main one in the beginning was reducing the gender pay gap. And that’s something I’m extremely passionate about. More recently, we’ve become advocates for flexible working practices, we’ve always spoken and supported and want our voices heard impact on change with regards to representation of women in leadership roles. And that includes the increased diversity of women in leadership roles. So it’s just, it’s a role that it’s a community of women, that drew me because of their impact not only on myself, but on others. And since joining back in 2015, within my first year, I was invited to become a regional leader for London. So that meant, you know, holding my first event at my school, I believe it was the first event for North London, I know you attended, you know, lots and lots has happened since then. And #WomenEd has just grown significantly, both nationwide and across the globe. So we are now I believe, now, this might not be completely accurate, because our data changes on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. But I believe we’re in approximately 19 countries now there are 34 networks globally. And hence, due to our growth, the strategic group have now formed WomenEd England, which gives me a role where I’m accountable to support three regions. So it’s women at London, east and southeast and, and I do that with a group of other women in #WomenEd England. And so that’s, that’s kind of what drew me to start the work there.

Kathleen  Cushnie 6:49  

And how has so you do a lot in terms of supporting other women and I know you do a lot of coaching, as well as part of your role. How would you say that it’s impacted you as a leader?

Christalla  Jamil 7:02  

Or, you know, back from when you you trained in my class, goodness me, I forget the year you trained, but it, it feels like yesterday, often, and I’ve still got lots of memorabilia to remember 2006 Actually, I didn’t actually look upon you as a trainee, because I did so much amazing learning by having you as a co partner in my class. And I believe coaching is that same model. So regardless of rank, role, where you stand, whether you’re a teacher, a leader, a business manager, ahead, I feel we grow from each other. But where I’ve shifted my skills is really understanding the difference between mentoring and coaching. And not that coaching isn’t relationship focus, but I feel that challenge strategy, and really defining a purpose so that you embrace your successes, your accomplishments, but you’re also unafraid to face your challenges. And though they don’t always turn out the way you’d like them to having strategy helps you develop that having strategy helps you grow in confidence, and when through questioning the challenges that I pose on others that that have been posed on me throughout my career, I believe to strengthens the the ability for women, to lead in an authentic way not to be afraid to be kind to be authentic, to have feelings to be sensitive, and yet had simultaneously have the ability to hold people to up to account to be courageous to be determined to have faith in in their decisions in the processes and procedures that they deploy. Because people I deal with tend to be of the similar vision to myself. So you know, their values lead leaders, that ethical, you know, they have integrity, which allows them to choose courage. So I’m always the optimist. And I think that reaching out to others pays back tenfold. And it always comes back. Kathleen always comes back.

Kathleen Cushnie 9:21  

Yeah, I would say that I’ve noticed that it does. It always comes back. I mean, that’s how you know the universe works really, you know, you give and you receive and it always comes back to you. When you were talking about the challenges that you’ve faced. I was just interested in knowing really what is the toughest challenge that you’ve experienced that has enabled personal growth for you Christalla.

Christalla  Jamil 9:44  

I think sometimes going through challenges you don’t, you’re not always aware. And there are there are two ways out of it. Either. You keep your head down and you get on with things and and you endure and I suppose like Darwin, you know, you find a way to survive because sometimes it’s you know, survival of the fittest. through experience, I’ve learned that you have to also be very mindful of the impact that other people’s behaviours other people’s actions have on you. So, instead of being hurt and closing my door and doing my own thing, I think I’ve learned that you use every experience, literally as that as a learning experience. So you’re then in control to make choices. So if I look at main challenges, I think it was having a paid career so late in life, and one of the main challenges was having faith in myself and developing my own style of leadership. I think another challenge was being awarded quite a damaging judgement from Ofsted, in my third week of my first headship, meant that I took onboard other people’s ideas when I say other people, the people moderating us as a school. And I think when I look back and see how I grew, the real growth, and the real ability to face challenges when I it was when I became more courageous. So the biggest learning point for me is not to be afraid. It’s is to have, you know, your group of critical friends and an I seek personal challenge. I’m self aware, you know, I know what I’m good at. But I also know what I need to develop. You know, I’m not by far I’m not perfect. I don’t know everything. I have a skill, though. So I employ people that are things I don’t know, they know. And we complement each other well. And I think the other thing that has been pivotal to my to my personal growth, is understanding that, through errors through mistakes, we continue to grow. And I’ve learned not to repeat those. And I’ve learned to coach people to warn prewarn people through what has happened to me, perhaps, to avoid them, partly, but more so to strategise for them. So that if something did happen, you know, we’ve, we have our safety net, we’ve got our bulletproof vest, we’ve got a load of strategies that will help us climb out of that pit. So I think the challenges I faced, at the time may have been challenges, but I see now that they’ve been pivotal in my understanding of how errors or negative experiences can actually shape not only myself as a leader, but can shape the impact I have on others.

Kathleen  Cushnie 12:52  

Yeah, absolutely. It makes you stronger in history is like what you’re saying about having the strategies, there’s almost like that toolkit to armour up yourself, because the unknown is the place where you grow, right. So if as long as you have the strategies in order to be able to tackle any unknown obstacles or challenges that may come your way, I think, really, that’s where the truth growth happens. And to be, to be clear, quite frank, in order to grow, you have to face the challenges. And I think in terms of supporting one another, and like you said, giving and sharing the things that you’ve been through, it pulls everyone else up the ladder, really. And I think that that’s what you’re about. And that’s what WomenEd England is about what women ed is about. Totally. And I think really, as women, and particularly, we need to see more of that happening all of the time, there is no competition, we’re all on a journey. There’s no. And also, another thing that I think is quite clear. And I just want to highlight that there’s no finish line, there is no finish line. So we’re all just moving through.

Christalla  Jamil 13:55  

It’s something that when we formed women aired, I mean, it’s about a year ago, and then we had these, you know, huge ideas for the launch and then lockdown happen. So I mean, you have a part of our new voices. And I think I’m really passionate about empowering other voices. It’s not about hearing the same old, same old experience voices, which is great and has its place. But it’s also about there’s this quite a corny phrase giving a voice to the voiceless, not always the voiceless, but perhaps the unheard. And it’s, it’s about growing together. And I think as as we formed women at England, we wanted to have our own thing, something that we didn’t do before in our regions, and it’s linked to empowering people perhaps that haven’t presented or spoken to audiences before. And it’s also linked to safe spaces because you know, things happen in life and unfortunately, more things have come to my attention in our in the group of women that I work with. So additionally, it’s about giving them strategies. To cope with scenarios that perhaps make them unsafe. And I mean that in a physical sense and in an emotional sense, and in a professional sense. So by by having this new outlook, this is what women, Ed England wants to do, I think it’s given us a whole new fresh challenge, fresh scenario of challenges to meet. And not only that we met yesterday, and it’s about finding out what our communities want. So, you know, hang in teaching, we always say that one size doesn’t fit all. So you don’t use the same scheme in your five schools, or it’s according to need. So it’s about relationship building, it’s about listening effectively, because you don’t have all the answers because you need to know what the situations are that need support, you need to know the areas that need growth. And then it’s about being solution focused through teamwork, through supportive groups. But I also want to say, it’s the women only this, you know, creating these safe spaces and being heard, it’s not because we don’t like men. And there are many men that you know, are co feminists with us. And they’re, you know, lots of great people that are here for she’s, but this particular journey of women and England is actually it’s for women only because we are tired of not being heard, we are tired of being underestimated in our impact. And, and it saddens me that often the people that come to me for coaching are because they’ve experienced inequality at such a level, not just gender inequality, you know, it comes from women, too. But often the people I’m exposed to have come to me because they’re suffering from being mistreated, being treated unfairly. So I think that’s what we you know, and actually, it’s so lovely that we’re meeting you today, because you are a part of that journey. When we initially set up women, Ed, and I’m just in the stage of writing a blog, and reviewing how you’ve grown over that year, since that first experience, and just having this show, Kathleen, you know, there’s lots to show how you’ve grown and, you know, really defined your purpose and in you’ve gone out there fearless, and achieved great things. And what I love, about the way we’ve worked together, just as friends, as professional colleagues, and I mean, friends and and beyond, is that you’re now doing that with other people, you know, so beaming with pride may sound a little cliche, but that’s the whole point of women aid. You know, we impact on a small group, that small group impacts on another small group. And you know, before we know it, we’re across 34 different countries globally. So yeah, I just hope that ripple effect. I know not going to hope I know, it will continue, though I’m optimistic. And I say hope, you know, how can it not except women remain loyal? How can it not?

Kathleen  Cushnie 18:09  

Yeah, it’s… that is so powerful, because we just all get inspiration from one another. And people are doing great things. And I think one of the important things about women, Ed, is that, like you say, so many people doing great things, but they keep it to themselves, because they think no one’s going to kind of want to listen to me, no one’s gonna hear I understand my viewpoint on my perspective, what for me personally, I think one of the things that #WomenEd’s has helped me with, is yes, I was a new voice and getting my voice out there. But as soon as you speak up, you realise that other people are feeling exactly the same way as you, you know, the imposter syndrome. You know, the challenges that you face, everyone, if you can’t kind of keep yourself quite singular and not connected, you don’t realise that or other people feeling the same things or similar, not the same, but perhaps perhaps similar situations. So I think it’s so important that we talk, we express our emotions, we express our feelings. And the key thing that you said really about is this being authentic being an authentic leader because that you can only win by being yourself I think, personally, anyway.

Christalla  Jamil 19:16  

Women trying, you know, to rise up in leadership face so many challenges that, you know, they could be cultural challenges, they could be symptoms, systematic hurdles, and often that, you know, you were talking about the imposter syndrome. It’s, it’s hard that you know, we, we have our own unconscious biases. And I think, through my experience, overcoming a lot of those hurdles was exactly what you said about forming those close connections with other women who can share experiences from other women who have been there who’ve done that, who feel the same as you. And, and that’s how we ask and that’s how we bring about our unique talents and realise that and knowledge our self worth and not Did you know our achievements and acknowledge our impact and start to strategise the, you know, the rest of our journey, and we review and reflect, and we’re not afraid to say, I’ve got it wrong. I got it wrong. And I’m going to do this next time. So absolutely spot on exactly what you said.

Kathleen  Cushnie 20:19  

Yeah. And you know, I was just thinking as you were just talking, like when you think about imposter syndrome, surely, is life in a syndrome really imposter syndrome? Surely, maybe it should be reworded, as I don’t know what to call it, but something that is there as a reminder that, okay, this is the point where if you push through this, you will grow, you know, it’s maybe it’s just a shell that we need to push through. So this is a reminder, you haven’t been here before, it’s okay, just keep going. But what happens many times with imposter syndrome is that it, depending on your mindset, it can force you back into your shell back into yourself. And if we don’t push through, then you know, the joy and beauty and opportunities on the other side will remain entertained. So I don’t know it may be…

Christalla  Jamil 21:02  

…this is the connection is this is the beauty of talking to others seeing things through a variety of perspectives, not being put off by negative experiences, all experiences in power are certainly all experiences teach us perhaps some of them teach us how not to behave. But still, we gain experience by using them in becoming better, better leaders, better people with the ability to see life through multiple lenses, then I agree, it isn’t a syndrome, it’s got a label, everything has a label, whether we agree with that label or not. It’s the behaviours of that label that we try and eradicate together. Because by by doing that, we you, you gain confidence by doing that you gain power. And it’s okay to say, you know, I’m hard working. I, you know, it’s it’s all right to admit all those things. You know, I’m, I’m a real woman, I’m strong, I’m protected by my courage. I know how to cry, but I know how to party and I know how to laugh. It’s okay, to be able to do that. And it doesn’t mean that I shy away from challenge, it doesn’t mean that I should shy away from accountability or holding people to account. It just means I’m good at what I do.

Kathleen  Cushnie 22:23  

Yeah, yeah, you don’t have to be one way. One way is not the only way. You know, we’re multifaceted. So for all of this Christalla because I know you are extremely busy woman, and I’m so grateful to have your time today. So how do you maintain you? How do you maintain, you know, how do you look after yourself? self care and all of that?

Christalla  Jamil 22:43  

That’s an interesting question. And, you know, I’d like to say I’ve got a gazillion hobbies, and I like to read. And as I’ve grown mature in life, I like a bit of me time. So though, obviously, you know, I have I’m married with two children and two grandchildren, I relish time on my own at home or in the garden or wherever. And not that I’m a son lover. But I think having me time and thinking space is great. And you know, I do a few things I like to walk I like to get out I like I go horse riding I like to cook. All that aside. I think for me, is the work I do with my church. It’s the work I do with #WomenEd, even you know, the Chartered College and the network of women that that have grown to be you know, my fellow sisters, that keeps me sane. I volunteer at a women’s refuge that keeps me on track. I think I have a need to feel needed. Which may sound bizarre, but when I needed I feel accomplished. When I support others, I feel I grow. So there’s a big part of my life that is private to me. And you know, my husband will often say, but it’s Saturday, are you going out again, or I feel that Yeah, I want to, you know, I’ve got to go to the refuge today. I’m, I’m at church, I’m supporting that group. We’ve got another women as event I’m on the phone coaching, but that busy is good busy for me. And if I didn’t have that, good, busy. I’m a better person because of that much better person because of that. And I also think that in life, you know, you know, my husband’s from the Middle East and we’ve experienced so many atrocities, which includes, you know, fatalities in in large numbers. I feel I’m grateful for, for what I’m truly grateful and truly blessed to have the opportunity. You know, to gain a qualification to become a teacher at 36 is phenomenal. You know, and I try to empower the community, especially my my mums, And the children I teach that, you know, people can take away family members literally rewards, they can take away your materialistic things. They can take away you know, your home your money. Again, it’s all linked through wars, but nobody can take away what you’ve got up here in your brain. So training and having qualifications of some sort, whether they’re, you know, practical qualifications, technical qualifications, academic qualifications in their life. They’re there for life, and nobody can take that away from you. And that’s why I’m so passionate about where I work, perhaps choosing more deprived more challenging borrowers and showing that the challenges are only there. If we see life through challenging glasses, lenses, actually, it’s probably the most delightful, definitely not probably, the most delightful community that I’m serving at the moment is my N17 postcode community, Tottenham has not only welcomed me in the most serene, unusual, annex unexpected, global pandemic time, it’s also given me a huge amount of worth, and giving that back through giving the children the best we possibly can through their education. And the adults I serve is is halfway to achieving kind of my life goals. Like you say, we constantly review and reflect and, and our journey continues to take another route. Yeah, so yeah, that’s how I look after myself.

Kathleen  Cushnie 26:43  

Yeah, I love that. It’s just…the only words, I can think of the kind of backup, what you’ve just said is that you clearly have a strong sense of purpose. And you’re extremely compassionate, like the things that you’ve mentioned, it’s all about helping others, understanding others through their lens, through their viewpoints. And that strong sense of purpose, you know when you said, I need to be needed. I think it’s that you, you just want to give, you just want to give and that’s your purpose in life through through whatever avenue you you take that, really, and I think…well, you know, I’ve been on the receiving end of that. And you do you just give, give, give, support, support support. And I just think is, is so nice. It’s such a nice way to be.

Christalla  Jamil 27:30  

I’ve been on the receiving end of that, too. And that’s why and that’s that ripple effects. That’s, that’s what I was talking about earlier. Because when you do receive you experience and then you give so it’s all kinds of Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, a great game. Pass the parcel with that fear is that it own the fear find the cave is it is it Brene that said, that so that you choose courage over comfort… sometimes.

Kathleen  Cushnie 27:58  

Absolutely. Yeah. So good, is also what you were talking about, as well, I can, you know, think it’s Viktor Frankl, his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, you know, where you’re, you’re really thinking about them despite what’s going on. You’ve got you and how you can respond to those situations.

Christalla Jamil 28:22  

I’ve just ordered that on Amazon because I’ve met somebody through Twitter through women as I mean, you know, I’m obsessed with Twitter for CPD for you know, reaching out to more women, to more colleagues to more professionals, and somebody who recently found me found my school is gonna run some chess lessons at school also recommended that book to me recently. So I literally love my audit. And so yeah, I will be feeding back in another one of these sessions. My dear, I’ve read that Yeah,

Kathleen  Cushnie 28:57  

Great! And you’re very welcome back anytime. Christalla talking about resources and things that you dip into what’s the best resource that has helped you throughout your many years?

Christalla  Jamil 29:07  

I don’t know if there’s one to be honest. I think I’m I like to read and I like to steal. So I think that by networking by opening up to you know, when when I’m looking at school improvement, I go to the EEF. I look at research, that’s why I joined the charter college because Alison Peacock is a beautiful person. So I knew Allison from my days back at Oakthorpe, actually, and when you work with like minded people, do you know everyday is a good day. So using research to guide my practice to guide my behaviours because then I Christallaify them, because it doesn’t always work in its entirety. So I I’m led by others experiences that, you know, were backed up with evidence and then I make it fit myself for all my communities and then I think the whole thing about networking about bringing challenge to yourself so that you can bring conflict to scenario so that you can question procedures and processes in place. And I don’t just mean for sport improvement, I’m talking about personal growth, growth of others, I think really is my response to that.

Kathleen  Cushnie 30:29  

Brilliant that is a great, great, great, great answer. But we’re coming to the end. And this is where we do our free deep dive statements. And then I just throw in a random question. There we go. Just also honestly, the first thing that pops into your mind, so Okay, I’ll try. What I love about my role is…

Christalla  Jamil 30:51  

….oh, gosh, building relationships, building relationships and making a difference.

Kathleen Cushnie 30:56  

If I could change one thing in education, it would be…

Christalla Jamil 30:59  

…the ability for everyone to listen to each other effectively, to hear it from front liners. And to know that leaders know, the best solution to any challenges their schools, their communities face. Yeah, cuz they live in it. Right? Gosh, yeah. Yeah. And it’s not the same solution for every setting. Yeah, you got to be in it to understand it. And my voice is important, because, because it’s my voice, because I’m patient. I’m empathetic, I know how to love. I’m resilient. And I’m optimistic.

Kathleen  Cushnie 31:40  

Agreed. And then the question, your random question is you have the ability to alter opinions in society. Who do you tackle first, the pupils, or the parent?

Christalla  Jamil 31:51  

That’s an interesting one, going with pupils, because through the pupils, the parents come on board. And then again, I’d say kind of do it simultaneously, because you’ve got to be a clear communicator. So I would say, if I had to pick one, I’m going with pupils. But I think through osmosis, it’s actually both that are impacted anyway. By going through the pupils. Yeah, brilliant. Yeah. So true. Actually, he can, it’s all about perspective isn’t. But we often say I just because we often say that, you know, parents are hard to engage. And then that’s where our, our powers lie with changing that narrative through the children, because every parent loves their child. And every parent doesn’t listen to their child, hence my response.

Kathleen  Cushnie 32:39  

Brilliant, very, very reflective. And deep there actually has a great response. And so as we come to the end, and you did mention Twitter, how can people connect with you online?

Christalla  Jamil 32:51  

Oh, I’m easy to find. My handle is @ChristallaJ. So you know, I’m on Twitter, I don’t do Facebook or Instagram I that’s the only form of social media I do professionally, I do take part in. So follow me, send me a message. And it’ll be great to connect to grow women Ed even further. And let’s work together this family that we belong to is a great family. Fantastic. And I’ll also drop the handle for #WomenEd in the show notes as well.

Kathleen  Cushnie 33:21  

Christalla, this has been fantastic! Thank you for again for your time, because like I say you do so much. And time is precious time is invaluable. So thank you. Thank you for having me. Bye. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you were inspired and gain some insights, which can help you as you progress on your journey to share your key takeaways on social media and let people know what resonated with you. Remember to tag me, I’d love to see your thoughts and subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already. Thank you for being here. Until our next episode, be safe, be well, but most importantly, keep growing.
Remember, there is power in your voice and it all starts with a conversation.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai