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Ep 23. Leonor Stjepic, CEO Montessori Group: A values-based approach to education, life and leadership
56 Plays3 years ago
“To be able to say, in a small way, I moved the needle to make (someone else’s) life better, is actually something that money cant buy...”
Leonor Stjepic is Chief Executive of the Montessori Group.
Montessori education was created by Dr Maria Montessori over 100 years ago. Leonor talks about Montessori education being an approach rather than a curriculum, providing the framework and structure, within which the child has the freedom to learn. The aim is to prepare children for the current realities of the world they are growing up, whilst instilling them with core values such as curiosity, kindness and collaboration.
We talk about leadership and Leonor shares the 3 qualities she thinks are most important in a leader: being authentic, having empathy and being ready with a Plan A, B, C & Z! We also talk about the new Montessori Leadership Programme that overlays Montessori values on to a leadership development framework for Board and Executive level leaders.
Leonor shares personal stories from her vast leadership experience and we discuss the #KindnessMatters campaign: the organisation’s quest to share One Million Stories of Kindness.
Recorded July 2021.
Guest Biography
Leonor Stjepic is Chief Executive of the Montessori Group, as well as an award-winning social entrepreneur.
The first part of Leonor’s career was spent in the private sector in several senior roles and then running her own consultancy. In 1994 Leonor decided to volunteer to work with children and women who were victims of the war in the Balkans. Upon returning to London, she then transitioned into the charity sector.
Leonor has served as CEO of the Galapagos Conservation Trust and CEO of the medical research institute, RAFT. During her time at RAFT, Leonor created a life sciences company, Smart Matrix Ltd, and was at its helm for five years, whilst concurrently serving as CEO of RAFT.
Leonor sits on the Advisory Board of Global Thinkers Forum and the Steering Committee of Karanga.
Links
https://montessori-group.com/ https://www.edentreeim.com/insights/edentree-sponsor-the-charity-ceo-podcast-season-3
Leonor Stjepic is Chief Executive of the Montessori Group.
Montessori education was created by Dr Maria Montessori over 100 years ago. Leonor talks about Montessori education being an approach rather than a curriculum, providing the framework and structure, within which the child has the freedom to learn. The aim is to prepare children for the current realities of the world they are growing up, whilst instilling them with core values such as curiosity, kindness and collaboration.
We talk about leadership and Leonor shares the 3 qualities she thinks are most important in a leader: being authentic, having empathy and being ready with a Plan A, B, C & Z! We also talk about the new Montessori Leadership Programme that overlays Montessori values on to a leadership development framework for Board and Executive level leaders.
Leonor shares personal stories from her vast leadership experience and we discuss the #KindnessMatters campaign: the organisation’s quest to share One Million Stories of Kindness.
Recorded July 2021.
Guest Biography
Leonor Stjepic is Chief Executive of the Montessori Group, as well as an award-winning social entrepreneur.
The first part of Leonor’s career was spent in the private sector in several senior roles and then running her own consultancy. In 1994 Leonor decided to volunteer to work with children and women who were victims of the war in the Balkans. Upon returning to London, she then transitioned into the charity sector.
Leonor has served as CEO of the Galapagos Conservation Trust and CEO of the medical research institute, RAFT. During her time at RAFT, Leonor created a life sciences company, Smart Matrix Ltd, and was at its helm for five years, whilst concurrently serving as CEO of RAFT.
Leonor sits on the Advisory Board of Global Thinkers Forum and the Steering Committee of Karanga.
Links
https://montessori-group.com/ https://www.edentreeim.com/insights/edentree-sponsor-the-charity-ceo-podcast-season-3
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Transcript
Most Fulfilling Moments in Life
00:00:00
Speaker
At the end of the day, when we have to look back on our lives to be able to say,
00:00:06
Speaker
In a small way, I moved the needle to make life better is actually something that money can't buy. It may not feel like that, but that is exactly what we're doing. I do look back and I think, wow, the stuff that I'm proudest of, the stuff that I really feel, if my life ended today, it was worth living, was the stuff that I did when I was in the charity sector.
00:00:33
Speaker
It will have just changed someone's life for the better. That is something that you cannot buy or find anywhere else.
Introduction to Season 3 of the Charity CEO Podcast
00:00:52
Speaker
This is Season 3 of the Charity CEO Podcast, the podcast for charity leaders by charity leaders. I'm Divya O'Connor, and I never imagined that this show that I started as an experiment during the pandemic would turn into a number one ranked global podcast with thousands of listeners all across the world. It is truly humbling to know that the show's content is valued by so many.
00:01:15
Speaker
And, thanks to our Season 3 sponsor, Eden Tree, I will continue to bring you inspirational and engaging conversations with a host of leaders who are all truly driving change in the non-profit space. Eden Tree themselves are owned by a charity, and have led the way in responsible and sustainable investing for over three decades. Thank you to Eden Tree. Now, on with the show.
Montessori Educational Philosophy and Leadership
00:01:39
Speaker
Leonor Stierpich is the CEO of the Montessori Group. Rooted in the child-centered approach to education and learning that was created by Dr. Maria Montessori over 100 years ago, the organization's vision and mission is to prepare children for the current realities of the world they are growing up in, and to equip them with the tools that would enable them to grow up to have a positive and transformational impact on the world.
00:02:04
Speaker
We talk about their new leadership programme that overlays Montessori values such as curiosity, compassion and collaboration onto a leadership development framework for leaders at executive and board level. Leonore shares some brilliant personal stories and advice gleaned from her own leadership journey over the past 20 years, as well as her quest to share one million stories of kindness through the Kindness Matters campaign. I hope you enjoyed the conversation.
Childhood Dreams and Career Evolution
00:02:34
Speaker
Hi Lionel, welcome to the show. Delighted to have you as a guest here. Well, thank you very much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Excellent. So we are continuing season three with the tradition of starting the show with an ice break around. I have five questions for you and if you're ready, we can get started. Yep, let's go for it. Question one. As a child, what did you dream of being when you grew up? Oh, an archaeologist.
00:02:59
Speaker
And let me tell you why. I had a teacher at the time, and this is how old I am. When I was at primary school, the Tutankhamen exhibition came to the British Museum. I didn't get to see it because I was too young. But I became fascinated by this. And then I decided that that was what I was going to be when I grew up. I was going to be not just an archaeologist, I was going to be an Egyptologist. Of course, that didn't happen, but that was my dream.
00:03:23
Speaker
Wow, what a wonderful dream. Question two, what would you say is your professional superpower?
Essential Leadership Qualities
00:03:31
Speaker
Oh my goodness, my professional superpower. Oh, I think that, and this is something I've learned over many, many decades is to trust my intuition.
00:03:46
Speaker
That would be it, I think. Excellent. Question three. What are three qualities you think are essential as a leader? Okay. Well, the first has got to be you have to be authentic. You have to bring yourself to the role. If you don't, people will soon discover that it's not really you. So I think that would be the first one. The second one, I think, has to be
00:04:10
Speaker
I should think probably empathy because you have to put yourself in the shoes of the other person. I think there's a difference between being empathetic and understanding where the other person's coming from and kind of immersing yourself and trying to be the, you know, sort of solve other people's problems, but you have to at least understand where the other person's coming from. And I third one, I think would have to be the ability to always have a plan B, plan C and plan D.
00:04:38
Speaker
Mm-hmm, and probably plan Z as well in the current context. Absolutely, absolutely, yeah.
What Adults Can Learn from Children
00:04:44
Speaker
Question four, what are three things that you think adults could learn from children? To continue to be curious about everything in the world, to ask questions, not to be afraid to ask questions, and not to be afraid of the unknown.
00:05:02
Speaker
And our final icebreaker question, if you had the opportunity to interview anyone in the world dead or alive, who would it be and what one question would you like to ask them? That's a tricky one.
00:05:17
Speaker
You'd think that I would say Maria Montessori, wouldn't you? I did think you might say that. But actually, it wouldn't. I think what I would actually would go back and I would ask a question of Elizabeth I, and the question that I would ask her would be, how did she manage to create
00:05:38
Speaker
the image she created and how did she manage to handle the power and keeping in power for so long, given that she was a woman. I mean, we talk about being in a male environment in modern times, but that was a very male environment. I think that would be quite interesting to hear how she managed that.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yes, I would be fascinated to hear her answer indeed.
Understanding Montessori Education
00:06:04
Speaker
And talking of course of Dr. Maria Montessori, you are the chief executive of the Montessori group. So I'd like to start off our conversation talking about Montessori education and for those listeners who may not be familiar with the work of Dr. Maria Montessori, can you tell us what Montessori education is and how it is different from other approaches to early years learning?
00:06:29
Speaker
Okay, so Maria Montessori, it's an approach rather than a curriculum, which means that it can actually fit into any education system in the world. It's child-centered, so it's about following the child. What is the child wanting to do? And following the child's natural inclination, because that is what will make a child learn.
00:06:47
Speaker
We talk about freedom within a framework, and the framework is there to provide safety for the child and a safe space. But within that framework, we allow the child to choose what activities it does, when it does them, how long it does them for. Because some children, it takes them less time to do, say, a maths problem. It might only take them 10 minutes. And if they then have to sit for 50 minutes whilst everyone else is trying to work out the maths problem, you can get very bored.
00:07:15
Speaker
And for some children, it may take them two hours to work out a maths problem. And it's about allowing that child to learn. So that's just an example. It's actually not that different from where a lot of early years education is at the moment. And this is one of the things that I find quite fascinating, that the Montessori approach is quite widespread. It's just that people don't call it Montessori, because it's almost become part of normal
00:07:42
Speaker
practice in early years education and i've had this conversation with many people when they've asked me this and they said oh but we do that and i said well that's great you know you kind of do you're doing montessori without realizing it but it's very much that focus on trusting the child to learn there are other elements of it such as learning through activity that's really important so you learn not just
00:08:03
Speaker
abstract concepts, but actually through your senses. And obviously, which is very valid today, this thing about indoor and outdoor classrooms. So learning about the world around them, learning about nature, being encouraged to grow things and interact with nature is really important because we talk about
00:08:22
Speaker
nowadays, you know, sort of the buzzwords around, you know, education for sustainability. Well, Maria Montessori was actually doing that 100 years ago. She didn't necessarily use those buzzwords, but that was the concept. It's still the same concept of teaching children about the world around them and understanding that they are part of a bigger world, that they need to respect that world, respect each other, respect themselves. So I think it's not that different because of the influence of Montessori throughout the decades.
00:08:50
Speaker
I really love that baseline value of respect and indeed learning through the senses. So tell us more about your organization, the Montessori Group, and what is your work about and what is your vision and mission at the organization?
The Montessori Group's Mission and Social Impact
00:09:05
Speaker
So the group consists of two entities really, which is a charity that owns a company as well. We also have co-created the International Montessori Institute with Leeds Beckett University last year, which provides Montessori degrees.
00:09:20
Speaker
So we have a whole range of activities. At the heart of everything we do is social impact. That's our vision and our mission is actually going back to where Maria Montessori started and Maria Montessori's first school was in the slums of Rome at the beginning of the 20th century. So you can imagine the sort of the conditions that she worked in.
00:09:42
Speaker
And one of the first Montessori schools, nurseries in the UK was actually set up by the suffragettes in the East End of London. So when I became CEO three years ago, that was very much what I wanted us to go back to, to sort of thinking she started from working with the most socially disadvantaged
00:09:59
Speaker
children in society so we need to go back to that and it's not just about supporting the child although of course we are child centered but about supporting the families as well. Maria Montessori was a pioneer in women's rights she spoke at the first
00:10:16
Speaker
International Congress for Women's Rights in 1896, even before she thought of the Montessori approach, talking about equal pay. So it's very much about kind of how do we support that empowerment of the family, empowerment of the women, support the child.
00:10:32
Speaker
So social impact is at the heart of everything we do. We have a whole range of activities from purely social impact projects done in collaboration with others. So for example, we have a six-year partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute Roots and Shoots program. We've done some work quite recently working with a small NGO that's working with street children in Pakistan.
00:10:53
Speaker
Then we have our higher education work. As I said, through the International Montessori Institute, we're able to offer degrees, accelerated degrees, in Montessori education, actually the first in the UK to be solely Montessori education, this start in September.
00:11:09
Speaker
But we recognize that also we need to make it accessible to as many people as possible. So we offer also scholarships because although people may have the opportunity to apply for a student loan, there may be other barriers to them coming to study. So we want to support
00:11:26
Speaker
Everyone who's interested. We're doing Masters and PhDs in research through the International Montessori Institute as well, and we'll have the world's first Professor of Montessori Education. We do further education through host centres that are around the country to make it more accessible.
00:11:43
Speaker
We have an accreditation scheme that is very much a nurturing, supportive journey for people that want to commit to quality, and that's open to anyone, whether they're Montessori or not. And we also have our Montessori network, which is a free online resource for families and practitioners who are interested in Montessori. Again, whether they're related to Montessori in any way or not, it's really about supporting families.
00:12:08
Speaker
And we are thinking of doing Montessori leadership, which is our next initiative as well. Wow. Sounds like you're really covering a lot of ground there. And I know that Dr. Maria Montessori was such a champion of humanitarian causes as well as being an educator and a scientist. So it's great to hear that social impact is really at the center of everything that you're doing. And I know that you operate in over 70 countries across the world. And Selena, I'm curious to hear
00:12:36
Speaker
In the context of where we are right now, what you have seen this past year in terms of the pandemic impact on education and what your opinion is on how we collectively move forward towards achieving SDG4, the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring equitable and quality education for all.
Impact of the Pandemic on Education
00:12:56
Speaker
Well, obviously the pandemic has had a big impact, just starting from families. I mean, this is actually why we enhanced the work on the Montessori network at the beginning of the first lockdown in March, 2020, because we could suddenly see that a lot of families had to cope with having children at home. Of course, there were nurseries open for key workers, but not all nurseries could be open, not all primary schools were open, and therefore we wanted to support families. So that's part of
00:13:26
Speaker
Kind of this demand that there was for additional support I think what that has done if we can bring some positives because I am an optimistic sort of person so some of the positives is and we've seen this from Some of the surveys we've done with families is that it did give parents a chance to understand a little bit more in-depth of the importance of that early years education and how
00:13:52
Speaker
difficult it can be to have your children at home the whole time and trying to do a full-time job at the same time, as I'm sure that a lot of your listeners will understand that will resonate with a lot of people. But for children, it was also a chance to have a little bit more freedom as well. So there was a little bit of benefit. However, having said that,
00:14:14
Speaker
It's been incredibly difficult for families because it's gone on for so long. It's been obviously incredibly difficult for the sector. A lot of nurseries are struggling and this is a big issue. This is why we were one of the signatories to the letter that was written to the Telegraph.
00:14:30
Speaker
recently around asking government to put children at the heart of everything that they do because it's had a big impact. Of course, it's a huge shift for families, for children, children having to deal with fear, having to deal with acting in a different way. We've had reports of toddlers going to hug another toddler in the street and being shouted at, for example.
00:15:00
Speaker
incredibly difficult if you're a small child. Understanding why can't I go and hug my friend? Things like that. There's a lot of obviously issues around mental health. We're looking to work with a project with a collaborator, another NGO on actually what can we do to support that mental health issue. Of course, the economic impact on families is going to be quite tough.
00:15:25
Speaker
Again, this is one of the projects that we're doing is with a social enterprise called Venner about trying to support families with plant-based, very good nutritional food boxes, because we understand that there are families that actually might be struggling. And when we talk about the environment in Montessori, we, as the Montessori group, see it as the whole environment. If children are hungry or not well-nourished, they're not going to learn. So we need to look wider than just what happens within the classroom.
00:15:55
Speaker
So I think it's an incredibly difficult time. I think that what the pandemic should teach us are two things and particularly around the sort of achievement of UN SDG4. The first is that
00:16:12
Speaker
we are in a world of complete change, not just because of the pandemic, but what the pandemic has done is accelerated many of the issues that were sort of bubbling under the surface. And therefore, we need to really think about what is the purpose of education for the future, what is life going to be in the future, and support children
00:16:35
Speaker
in a way that enables them to have the tools to live this new life that is going to be what the future is going to be. I hear people talk about, oh, we're soon going to go back to normal. We are never going to go back to where we were before, ever. I agree. And the sooner we realize that, and the sooner we try and have global discussions about what that world now looks like, the sooner we can get around to sort of deciding what the education system is that would allow children
00:17:03
Speaker
to be prepared for that new world. So I think that's one of them. I think the second thing that I think the pandemic has taught us is that we have to talk to others and work together. We have to collaborate. And there is no point in being tribal or nationalistic about these things. What affects one country will have a knock-on effect on another country.
00:17:30
Speaker
and therefore we have to work together to achieve these SDG goals because we can't do things in isolation. Completely agree with you there and collaboration has certainly been such a big theme that has come out of the pandemic, certainly with my conversations with many leaders across the sector as
Kindness Matters Campaign and Its Goals
00:17:49
Speaker
well. And Leona, I'd like to come back to talk about the leadership program that you mentioned before, but it feels like actually this might be a nice
00:17:57
Speaker
segue to talk about a global campaign that I know the Montessori group is leading in collaboration with the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development, which is the Kindness Matters campaign. So can you tell us about how this campaign came about and what you are hoping to achieve through it?
00:18:17
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. So this is an initiative of the UNESCO and the Mahatma Gandhi Institute. And we were talking to them and they said, well, we'd love to get young people involved, get children involved. The idea is to collect 1 million stories of kindness across the world to be able to then go to UNESCO in November and ask them to create a UNESCO International Day of Kindness.
00:18:44
Speaker
But I think, obviously, that's the purpose of the campaign. But it has a bigger purpose than that. And I think that the bigger purpose, certainly as far as we're concerned, is first of all celebrating the many, many, many acts of kindness that have happened. And I think it can be sometimes quite depressing to read the news and to see what's going on in the world.
00:19:06
Speaker
But underneath that there are some fantastic acts of kindness going on and I think we need to sort of talk about them and celebrate them because it's important. You know, my experience is, and I'm not an idealist by any chance, I'm too old to be an idealist, but what I have seen and have been very fortunate to see is the very best of people and the very worst, but certainly the very best. And when you see
00:19:33
Speaker
These individual acts of kindness is so uplifting and so inspiring that I think it's important that we celebrate that. And they can be small things, really tiny little things. I'll give you an example. We had one child writing to say, oh, I weeded my grandmother's garden because she wasn't feeling well.
00:19:55
Speaker
And you just sort of think, you know, that that's just such a lovely thing that sort of, you know, has to bring a smile to your face to think about something like that. So there can be very, very small acts of kindness. So that's a bigger thing is about kind of celebrating that. But I think also, if we can encourage everybody to actually think about that and think, well, I'm going to do what just one act of kindness a day, then, you know, we begin to have a different world.
00:20:20
Speaker
because it automatically makes you feel good to do something for someone else. But also it kind of starts creating that thinking of doing something for someone else and doing something that's not just about yourself. And I think that that's a really important
00:20:36
Speaker
way of living your life that can only help bring this new world around that we so desperately need. So I think it's a really important campaign and I'd love for people to get involved. I'd love to hear more stories of kindness. I think that'd be fantastic for people to share with them. And as I said, it doesn't have to be very kind of like world shifting, just something that people have done every day would be lovely.
00:21:02
Speaker
I love that one million stories of kindness. And yes, I certainly think we could all do with more kindness in the world and celebrating that absolutely. A number of other leaders that I've spoken to on this podcast have actually talked about the need for compassionate leadership and leadership that is really empathetic to where people are right now and how we all need to move forward from the current state of the world with kindness.
Montessori Leadership Program
00:21:26
Speaker
So coming back then to your Montessori leadership program that I understand is based on a charter for compassion and essentially seeks to embed a values-based approach from the classroom to the boardroom. Tell us more about this, Lionel. Well, I think that we've all seen this. We've seen good leadership and we've seen bad leadership during the pandemic.
00:21:48
Speaker
And I think again, what the pandemic has done is that it has exposed people in a way that they can't hide things as easily. And so what we believe is that the Montessori values, those values of respect, those values of empowering children, those values of giving children freedom within a framework are very much what modern leadership should be about.
00:22:14
Speaker
As leaders, being guides and facilitators and being observant of what is going on around you is really important. We're very fortunate we've just partnered with the Global Responsible Leadership Initiative because I strongly believe that
00:22:32
Speaker
being a leader requires you to be responsible, not just accountable for the actions of your organization, but you have to have, I think, a deep sense of responsibility about what it is that you're trying to achieve and the people that you work with. And that doesn't necessarily have to be your staff. It can also be your beneficiaries if it's in a charity or your customers if it's a company.
00:22:57
Speaker
your stakeholders, the people that you collaborate with, that sense of responsibility about being thoughtful as to how your actions will interact. I was at a conference many years ago.
00:23:11
Speaker
And somebody made a comment, which I thought to me just still resonates with me today. And when you sort of learn, if you do management training, if you do a degree or an MBA or something, they talk about, you know, you learn about value chains. And this person talked about a value web. And that made me think about the interconnectedness of everything that we do.
00:23:36
Speaker
and how everything doesn't have to be linear, everything doesn't have to be top down. And that's really what this sort of Montessori and leadership program is going to be. We are actually going to create training around leadership using these sort of Montessori and values. And part of it is going to be also what we call the impact program for boards, for charity boards, particularly.
00:23:59
Speaker
Because having been a charity CEO for 20 years, I've had some really fantastic trustees and I've had some not so fantastic trustees. And I can tell you from my own personal experience, but also from talking to others, to my peers, that when you don't have a board that understands about leadership,
00:24:22
Speaker
and understands about not just how they lead, but how they interact with each other and how they interact with the executive team, you have real problems because you get distracted and taken off task. And at the end of the day, my job as a charity CEO is to actually deliver the mission that will benefit the beneficiaries. And if I'm being taken off task because I'm having to deal with
00:24:49
Speaker
board politics, I'm not doing my job properly. I am not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I am not being responsible to the people who I should be responsible to. And I think that there's some work that needs to be done there.
00:25:06
Speaker
I think it's so fascinating how you are overlaying the Montessori education values onto the leadership approach, if you like. And I like what you said about freedom within a framework and then the value web of interconnectedness. I think that's so relevant.
00:25:22
Speaker
for CEOs and board members today
Career Journey from Charity to Nonprofit Sector
00:25:26
Speaker
as well. And so talking about leadership, Lionel, I'd love to hear more about your own background and your career journey, and how have you gotten to where you are today? Tell us your story. Okay. Well, first of all, I am the first woman in my family to have a career. Oh, wow. I'm the first woman in my family to get to a senior role, and that's because of education.
00:25:47
Speaker
And that's why I'm so passionate about giving every child the opportunity to fulfill their potential. Because if I hadn't had that opportunity, I wouldn't be where I am today. I'm very clear about that.
00:26:00
Speaker
So my involvement in the charity sector really started when I was 18 and I helped set up the amnesty working group for children at a time when children's rights wasn't part of amnesty and this was a voluntary group and when amnesty did
00:26:17
Speaker
make it part of its mandate and it was sort of brought into in-house professionally. We disbanded the group. But at that time, to be honest, going into a job in the charity sector did not appeal because this was the 80s. It wasn't really what I wanted. So I went into the private sector and I spent
00:26:35
Speaker
probably about the first third of my career in the private sector doing a whole range of jobs from merchant banking to academic publishing to working for a record company before setting up my own business as a consultant helping smaller medium-sized enterprises with change and transformation.
00:26:53
Speaker
Then I was very fortunate I had a really lucrative contract that ended, which was actually based in Spain because I'm bilingual Spanish, and I didn't have to go and find another contract. So I decided to volunteer to work in a refugee camp in Croatia during the war.
00:27:10
Speaker
What I didn't expect was to meet my husband there, but I did, hence the Steepish bit of the name. But when I finished doing that, and that was mostly working with children and women who unfortunately had been raped. When I finished doing that, I came back to London and I thought, I do not want to go back into running my own business. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
00:27:42
Speaker
got a job in a charity as a receptionist. I was very fortunate that the CEO at the time of that charity actually gave me a job because she said, you are so overqualified for this. Why do you want it? And I said, well, I actually want to work for a charity. And she said, okay, which is quite unusual. I have to say, I now realize actually how quite unusual that was. And it was a charity that was going through a transformation. She'd been brought in to do a transformation. And of course that was kind of, I knew how to do that. So in my spare time, I actually wrote her a strategy.
00:28:01
Speaker
So I basically...
00:28:12
Speaker
and then went to see her and said, this is what I think you should do for the next six months. Let me do it. Don't pay me anymore. And if it doesn't work, I'll go back to being a receptionist. But if it works, then we can have a conversation. And then it did work. And so that was kind of where I started my professional career in the charity sector. And I sort of
00:28:34
Speaker
worked with her on that. I sort of kind of fell into fundraising because there was no one doing the fundraising at the time. And then I took on another fundraising job after I'd left there and then was headhunted for my first CEO role, which was a CEO of the Galapagos Conservation Trust.
00:28:51
Speaker
I was their first CEO. This was a small charity that had been run by the founders. I was there for six years and then I moved to run a medical research institute. I did that for 11 years and then went to work for Montessori Group.
00:29:09
Speaker
Well, that is such a brilliant story, Leanne, and there was so much rich detail there. And I love the bit about how you as a receptionist essentially led the strategic transformation of the charity. Well, I had to say that was down to the sea. I mean, you know, she could have just said, oh, go away. What are you talking about? But she didn't. She actually listened. And that was really good that she listened and took me seriously. So you can never tell who has information or knowledge or ideas.
00:29:39
Speaker
Another really good and important quality in a leader is the ability to listen, indeed. Yes, and not discount anything because I always say, I don't have all the ideas. I don't know who might have the next best idea for us as an organization. It really could be anyone in the organization. It doesn't have to be someone that's necessarily in that area.
00:30:02
Speaker
you know, just being open to people and listening to ideas. And sometimes I find this, somebody will say something and it's not quite right, but it sparks another idea in my head that I go, okay. And then we do get to where we want to be, but it wasn't necessarily my idea initially. It was just actually a completely different sort of thought that someone had or question that someone had. And just building on that a little bit then, Leonore, what advice would you give to yourself on day one of first becoming a CEO?
Advice for New CEOs
00:30:32
Speaker
Oh, just absolutely always ask questions, always, always listen to people. I've always done that anyhow, because that's just kind of, I'm just naturally curious. I guess if I was going to go back, I would say the one thing I would say is, I think I said at the beginning, the importance of intuition, and I had to learn to listen to my intuition. And I think that would be the thing if I was to go back now, I would say, actually, don't be afraid to listen to your intuition.
00:30:59
Speaker
Because often at the beginning of my career as a CEO, I would sort of have, I think about something. I think, oh, I really don't think that's right. Or I think I should be doing that. And then I would be argued out of it because I hadn't trusted my initial sort of gut feeling, as it were.
00:31:16
Speaker
And what I realized is that actually when we talk about intuition, it's nothing sort of mystical. Often it's our brain sort of quickly pro or conscious, quickly processing a lot of information that we or a lot of knowledge or experience.
00:31:33
Speaker
that we probably have and coming to an answer. So it's not necessarily, it's not sort of woo coming from the ether. It's actually probably there and based on things that we've done before, experienced or seen or heard or read, and it's all sort of pulling it together. I mean, the brain is an amazing thing. We don't quite yet know how it all works. So when I say about intuition, often I realize when I think back on it, actually I know why my first reaction was that because
00:32:03
Speaker
I can sort of track back so yeah. I wonder if that would be the answer that Elizabeth I would give that one of the reasons that she was so powerful and successful was that she listened to her own intuition and instinctively what she felt was right.
Leading Innovation and Challenging Norms
00:32:20
Speaker
Probably, and also not being afraid to do something just because you've never done it before. When I was CEO of the Medical Research Institute, we spun out a company because we'd invented something that needed to go to market. And at the time, and the traditional route to market was to find another company that had VC back in to actually take it to market.
00:32:45
Speaker
This was at the time of the recession, we couldn't find a company, so we came up with this idea of why don't we set up our own company and find finance. We couldn't finance it, but we need millions and find social investment to do it. The first four investors said, well, we will invest if you are the CEO.
00:33:05
Speaker
And I said, I'm not a scientist. And I've never run a life science company. And I have a job. And they said, yes, but we're not going to invest unless you do it because you have a track record for delivery and you know the project and stuff. So I was actually CEO concurrently for the company and the charity for five years. But what was really interesting
00:33:26
Speaker
was the number of times I'd say, oh, I think we're going to go out and raise this much money. And people would say to me in the sector, oh, but that's not the way it's normally done.
00:33:37
Speaker
And I remember doing one presentation once and where I had a slide where I actually put that up and I said, if I had had a pound for every time someone had said to me, that's not the way it's normally done. I wouldn't actually have had to go out and fundraise for anything because I would have had all the money I needed. And it was quite interesting that I just felt instinctively right for us to do this. And it really attracted a lot of funding. I mean, we raised, I think, 6 million pounds in the end in social investment.
00:34:06
Speaker
Well done you. I didn't know anything about social investment. I didn't know anything about life sciences and a lot of it was and one of the things I did which again and everybody told me oh no you don't you don't do this but I thought well why not is I actually went to a lot of investors in that sector and said to them
00:34:23
Speaker
Tell me where things have gone wrong where you've made an investment I don't want your money But I do want you to tell me where you've invested and it's gone wrong why it's gone wrong so that we don't do that and so many people said to me no one's ever asked me that before and It was just and I just kept thinking well, why not and I think to a certain extent there's yeah Don't be afraid to ask questions because it can lead you to all sorts of different things. I
00:34:48
Speaker
I have a rule that I tell my executive team that every time I hear the words, that's not the way it's normally done. It's like a light switch goes up in my head and say, aha, that means there's something broken with the process, or this is something that can be improved upon. I need some scrutiny. Exactly.
Inspiration from Montessori Practitioners
00:35:07
Speaker
So, Lionel, what would you say is most inspiring about being the CEO of the Montessori group?
00:35:13
Speaker
I think what's most inspiring to me is the people that I meet who are actually practitioners. I think that the way their dedication, their commitment, I mean, this is true of any, obviously any charity, but I think there's something really remarkable about watching practitioners with children. I think there really is. But also just seeing how children,
00:35:42
Speaker
flourish and blossom and just things like that I think just you know I'm very fortunate because often you know you can work for a charity where you don't see that you don't actually see almost the instant reaction
00:35:57
Speaker
Whilst I think with education you do, because particularly with young children, when you see a young child solve a problem and their face lights up, you see that instantly. And I think there's something sort of just so amazing about seeing that.
00:36:13
Speaker
But as I said, you know, having been the product of education, I can also see where that's going to lead and the potential that that has for that child. And again, that's something that's very powerful for me. I mean, that's very meaningful for me. It's what makes me get up in the mornings and work the hours I work, I think.
00:36:34
Speaker
My husband has a phrase that he uses in describing our children as we've obviously been watching them grow up and he says, it's like watching perfection discover itself. Oh, yes. That's lovely. I love that. Yeah.
00:36:47
Speaker
And I can see, you know, from what you're saying, you know, that real joy of discovery and watching a child blossom must just be so rewarding indeed. And in closing now, I mean, this has been such a fascinating and insightful discussion. Do you have any final thoughts or reflections that you would like to share? I mean, what is one thing that you would like listeners to take away from this conversation?
Encouragement for the Nonprofit Sector
00:37:10
Speaker
I would say that if you are involved in the charity sector, not-for-profit sector, whether as a leader, whether as a member of the exec team, whether as a volunteer, it's really worthwhile.
00:37:26
Speaker
I think often it can feel very hard. It can feel very difficult. I took, as I'm sure many did, I took a 75% pay cut when I went into the charity sector. It is not a sector where you're necessarily going to have the most wealthy lifestyle possible compared to, say, going into being the CEO of a company, for example.
00:37:51
Speaker
At the end of the day, when we have to look back on our lives to be able to say, in a small way, I moved the needle to make life better is actually something that money can't buy. And it may not feel like that, but that is exactly what we're doing. And I say this from a, let me tell you from my own personal experience.
00:38:13
Speaker
I had cancer last year and I'm very lucky. I was managed to get treatment. I'm in remission. But it really made me focus on, okay, you know, reflect on my life because you do when you have these sort of life changing situations.
00:38:28
Speaker
And I do look back and I think, wow, the stuff that I'm proudest of, the stuff that I really feel, you know, if my life ended today, it was worth living, was the stuff that I did when I was in the charity sector because it, you know, it will have just changed someone's life for the better.
00:38:48
Speaker
that is something that you cannot buy or find anywhere else. So do not ever despair. I know sometimes it can feel quite stressful and it can feel like a struggle and it can feel quite difficult. And you can look around you and think, oh, how come my peers is going off on five holidays a year and I can't afford to do that?
00:39:11
Speaker
but you're going to have something at the end of your life that others aren't necessarily going to be fortunate enough to have. So do not despair and keep doing what you do. Thank you, Lionel. On that inspirational and really powerful note, thank you so much for being a guest on the show. Well, it's been a pleasure. I've loved speaking to you. Thank you.
00:39:33
Speaker
I really enjoyed my conversation with Leonor Stierpich, CEO of the Montessori Group. I love how the organization has developed a leadership program based on the core principles and values of the Montessori early years education approach. And I completely agree with Leonor's message to charity sector leaders that at the end of the day, the knowledge that our work and efforts have helped make someone else's life better is something that money can't buy and that we should all be proud of.
00:40:03
Speaker
I hope you enjoyed this latest episode of the Charity CEO podcast. A show that, thanks to you, our listeners, has repeatedly reached the number one spot in Apple's non-profit podcast category. If you found this conversation valuable, please help spread the word. Share or tag us on Twitter or LinkedIn or Instagram, and make sure you subscribe to the show by clicking the subscribe button on your podcast app.
00:40:25
Speaker
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