Leadership Teams
Creating strategically agile and heart-led teams
Have you ever started at a new job, or in a new role at the same workplace and found yourself unsure of what to do? It’s your first day, no one’s walked you through what’s expected of you yet and you’re stuck sitting there twiddling your thumbs feeling stressed and starting to question if you’ve made the right decision.
Asking for help or guidance at this point can feel overwhelming, or maybe it’s a situation of you don’t even know WHO you would ask for help.
While it might have been a long time since you’ve felt this way, it’s something that many leaders feel on a daily basis.
Why?
Because leadership teams are often viewed as a set of individuals working in their own department to achieve one set of goals. But they shouldn’t be.
Executive teams across all industries, whether it’s education or corporate or something else entirely, need to work together as a team. While this might seem obvious, it’s not the reality for many. This hyper-individualism creates teams of employees who feel unsupported, overwhelmed, which then shows up as a lack of creativity, innovation, and productivity.
Does this sound like what might be happening to your team?
This doesn’t have to be the reality your leaders face. They could enter a team environment where they work together to roll out important strategies and create future opportunities for your organisation.
They could feel so supported that they enter a period of professional intimacy – “I care for you and you care for me”.
Leadership teams who support each other, and collaborate achieve greater results…
But first we need to start with trust and that’s where Ferocious Warmth – Leadership Teams comes in.
Tapping Into The Joy Of Working Together
Welcoming you to the world of Ferocious Warmth with Tracey Ezard. Ferocious Warmth originally began its life as a book, designed to radically change the way educators and leaders thought about teams and leadership.
However, the idea has grown beyond the pages and is now something that helps build up leadership teams and help individuals grow their leadership capabilities.
By introducing Ferocious Warmth to your teams you can help go…
From:
To:
Dysfunctional as a group of individuals unable to work together
Balanced between head, heart, strategy and culture
Too results-oriented and not concerned for the wellbeing of the team
Able to create transformation across your organisation
Slow to adopt strategic change due to breakdowns in communication
Strategically agile and able to debate for the best outcome
Unable to work together to achieve better results
Willing to learn from each other
Unable to create lasting impact within your organisation
Able to build their own leadership capability while also building up others
It’s not just a new way for your team to relate to each other, it’s a new way for them to approach leadership as a whole.
But to truly understand how this framework and ideology can transform your team and your organisation I think it’s important to see the impact it has had for others.
How Ferocious Warmth Has Changed These Teams
Our network executive deliberated long and hard about what professional learning we could work on as a network that would benefit every principal and every school. Tracey Ezard and her work about Ferocious Warmth met all our criteria. Regardless of where our schools are at, we are all seeking to better utilise our greatest resource – our staff.
Tracey has inspired and motivated us all to build stronger more collaborative, connected teams with shared purpose and understanding. She has both challenged and supported us to be vulnerable and seek help from our colleagues as we learn from and with each other. She brings a practical understanding of the work and operations of schools, a keen understanding of the leadership challenges faced by principals and middle level leaders and many, many practical strategies to empower, enable and connect people in pursuit of improvement and excellence. Tracey has connected with us as a network, as principal leaders in our schools and as middle level leaders. She has tailored a professional learning program to meet the needs of our network and has exceeded our expectations in extending that as she works with individuals and their schools.
Debra Gibson, Principal, Doveton College (Casey North Principal Network)
What is Ferocious warmth
If I asked you to imagine what Ferocious Warmth looked like in our world, what would you imagine?
For me, there are several images that spring to mind. The one of the lioness protecting her cubs. The warmth and love she has for her cubs that instantly changes into ferocity when it needs to. In my book Ferocious Warmth, I mention how when watching a mother giraffe teaching her baby to walk we can see Ferocious Warmth play out. She watches carefully and pushes the baby to stand even when that means pushing the baby away when it tries to lean on her. The baby needs to learn to walk to survive and the mother knows this.
Ferocious Warmth is that push that also comes with a sense of protection. The idea of safety and stretch. Push and pull. This is what true leadership requires and is the skill we need to foster within our teams.
Instead of simply placing the emphasis on one area of our leadership, our ourselves, Ferocious Warmth requires each person to look within and allow themselves to continually learn, rather than relying on others to fill the gaps in their leadership style.
A team of balanced leaders becomes unstoppable. They continue to grow and learn from each other. They continue to collaborate and overcome common obstacles as a team rather than leaving people behind.
It becomes about: Results AND Relationships
Head and Heart
Strategy and Culture
No longer an OR but an AND.
Leadership is a daily dance of balancing seemingly contradictory forces. Ferocious Warmth leaders embody the art and science of this dance, creating a space where results and relationships are equally important.
This is your chance to create lasting change, so stop waiting for “the right moment”, that moment is now!
It’s time to stop doing things the way they’ve always been done
When Covid happened in 2020, I think it’s safe to say that it shook the leadership foundations of many businesses. I was privileged to be able to work with several leadership teams that navigated this sudden change. And after speaking to others across this time, it became apparent just how much of an impact leadership had on their employees and colleagues ability to cope during this time of upheaval.
Especially in the world of education, entire systems had to be changed overnight once lockdowns were put in place. It required many organisations to think in ways they had never thought before, do what they had never done.
It was through this experience that the idea of Ferocious Warmth was born.
We needed to have this balance, the balance between head and heart to successfully accommodate these changes while also making accommodations for what could be going on for employees outside of their working hours. Companies that did this successfully often thrived during Covid, those that didn’t, collapsed.
Covid, however, is not the only ‘why’ when it comes to Ferocious Warmth.
When it comes to leadership research there’s a lot that gets put on the “to-do” list but not a lot that highlights who leaders need to be. That’s where Ferocious Warmth differs.
It’s not simply a list of to-dos that could result in zero long-lasting changes. It’s a way of being that directly challenges your teams to work on their weaknesses in order to build them into something more. More than a team on paper, but a team in real life. A team that welcomes change, embraces challenges, because they know that who they are is a team capable of handling it together.
Most importantly, is the ‘why’ for you.
Why should you make this investment in your team?
If you want your organisation to grow, to adapt, to be strategically placed for the future, then you need not just leaders, but a team. You need more than people who exchange time for a wage, you need a team that cares about each other, cares about the results and cares about how they show up in the organisation. They need that balance.
They need to lead fiercely.
They need to create environments of safety and warmth.
They need to embody Ferocious Warmth.
Download Ferocious Warmth Brochure
Click image below to download more information on Ferocious Warmth Leadership and how you can work with Tracey.
Meet Tracey
With a passion for cultivating robust cultures of trust, collaboration, and learning, Tracey is the driving force behind Ferocious Warmth Leadership. Showing up as her authentic self, Tracey translates complex ideas into visually engaging representations, adding a distinct dimension to her work.
Tracey works with senior leadership teams, whole organisations and systems to create environments of safety and stretch through leadership and collaborative learning cultures. Using evidence-based approaches as well as her own thought leadership based on observation of excellence in practice, Tracey can help your leadership teams embrace their strengths together and rise to a new level of leadership. She believes great leaders have deep connections with their teams, as well as the courage to face challenges and inspire their people.
Tracey is also a keynote speaker, author and educator, who is dedicated to inspiring people to collaborate and thrive in the workplace. She is an educator and a Fellow of the Australian Council of Education Leaders (FACEL) and a Certified Speaking Professional.
When it comes to a partner to help create transformation in your leaders, Tracey is who you want in the room.
If you’re ready to take the leap and invest in your Ferocious Warmth experience for your teams…
Here’s What Others Are Saying About Tracey
What truly set her apart was her adeptness at engaging the audience. Through clear processes and tailored approaches, Tracey crafted a day that resonated with our specific context and design brief. Her understanding of our sites and leaders fostered a sense of psychological safety, allowing for open dialogue and meaningful exploration of ideas. She delivered an unforgettable experience, leaving our educational leaders inspired, equipped, and empowered to drive positive change within their respective communities.
Nicola Launder, Principal Consultant – Adelaide Prospect and Morialta Partnerships, Department of Education, South Australia
I have worked with Tracey on an individual, school, network and regional level, in half day, day and weekend workshops. I have seen her interact and lead small groups, but also groups of over 100 participants. She has an incredible ability to draw together and give voice to the often disparate groups of clients who may range from inexperienced through to managerial level… In her workshops, she brilliantly engages all participants with her creative activities, thought provoking suggestions and beautiful graphic summaries. The activities that she runs are always engaging and fun, as she structures and scaffolds the learnings of the group… You are extremely fortunate indeed if your organisation has the opportunity to work with Tracey!
Kate Mitchell, Principal
It has been a pleasure to have worked with Tracey on a number of team development initiatives and the provision of leadership development for senior staff. Tracey has always provided professional, creative and confidential services; demonstrates well rounded strategic development processes and a range of people development and training expertise.
Caron Hill, Health Leadership
Under your guidance, your insight, our reflections and conversations, made for a deeply enriching, affirming, challenging and inspiring day for us all. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to learn from and with you, and the seeds planted (in heart and mind) will be nurtured throughout my year and career ahead.
Dr Merinda Bermingham Head of English - Senior School, Haileybury, Keysborough
FAQ’s
What if we simply don’t have the time?
When stress is high it can be hard to find the space to take time away from the ‘doing’, but I want to reassure you that this is worth your time.
In fact, the most common response I receive from principals and CEOs alike when we reach the end of our Ferocious Warmth journey is, “I’m so glad we took the time to do this.” If it has been worth the time to do the research, find yourself here on this web page and reading this right now, it’s worth the time to undertake the training. Your future self will thank you for finding the time.
Can I really afford this?
The real question is can you afford not to? If your leadership team is underperforming, imagine the effect that this is having down the line. If every single person in your organisation is performing at only 30% of their capability right now, imagine what would happen if by simply investing in this leadership transformation you saw them rise to 50% then to 70% then to 100% before the end of the next 12 months. What impact would this have on your organisation? Crunch the numbers and tell me if you still can afford NOT to do this.