Why did you choose NFL?
NFL was recommended to me by my CFO. Given I was transitioning from a practice role into a Head of Finance industry role, NFL appeared to provide a good forum to network with people in similar roles to mine, but which had more experience than me. At the same time, the curriculum was centred around development of leadership skills which are essential to my role, hence I thought I would benefit from added tools and structure in this area.
Did you have any reservations about joining NFL?
I didn’t have any particular reservations, other than recognising that this would add some pressure to my already busy schedule. However, during the course there were various sessions centred around prioritisation and delegation, from which I was able to implement a number of tools, meaning that overall my time management improved as a result of the course.
Past participants describe the NFL programme as a transformative journey, do you agree? And if so, how has it changed you?
NFL is indeed a transformational journey. For one, it helps you realise the importance of investing time in your professional development outside of requirements of your daily role. Secondly, it provides very useful tools to help improve one’s team management skills, time management, handling of difficult conversations. Third, but not less important, it provides a forum to discuss issues arising with like minded peers, which are on a similar journey, and which are happy to share their own experience and provide their helpful insights.
One unique element of NFL is the coaching participants receive. How did coaching benefit you?
The one-to-one mentoring sessions have been really insightful and I was able to get direction from my mentor on how to handle specific situations and conversations that were ongoing in my work life. The mentor’s input was especially useful in helping me to set my goals more effectively and approach the situations better prepared.
NFL is renowned for its blended approach to learning, particularly, for its peer learning groups, how did you find them?
I thought the peer learning groups were great as it allowed us to share ideas and help each other and ultimately to build lasting professional relationships.
What has been your biggest takeaway from NFL?
One of my key take-aways from the course was the importance of acknowledging the split of my time between doing tasks, investing in people and in my team. From what was previously a split skewed significantly in favour of doing tasks, it is now a much more balanced split, with significantly more time spent investing in developing my team for long term success.
Would you recommend NFL to others?
I would recommend NFL because it provides a forum to share ideas with likeminded peers and the facilitators are very knowledgeable and provide practical tools for supporting one’s leadership journey.