Leadership: time to tap into your potential

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By Becky Park, Programme Manager, Osprey Leadership Foundation

We live in a time of great uncertainty for the natural world; a time when every small action which helps prevent further biodiversity and climate breakdown counts. As conservationists, we have a duty both individually and collectively to demonstrate the authentic, effective and brave leadership the world so desperately needs.

However, leadership is a word we often associate with management positions and is overlooked as an essential transferable skill to develop early in our careers. It is often viewed as something to build up to in the future as we work towards roles which come with the responsibility of managing others. The Osprey Leadership Foundation aims to change this narrative and encourage young conservationists to recognise that they are already a leader: they simply need to tap into their potential. We believe everyone has the capability to change the world around them, but many of us need a little encouragement recognising that for ourselves and support learning how to go about it in the right way. Leadership is a skill that, like any other, takes practice and grows in strength with time and experience - the sooner you begin, the more successful you will be in your career and beyond.

At its simplest, leadership is influencing others to achieve a goal. Everyone influences others in some way for better or worse, every single day. So it stands to reason that anyone can be a leader, at any level of the hierarchy. You don’t need to be given a title, you can choose to be a positive force for change and hold yourself accountable. Either way, even in the early stages of your conservation career it is likely you are already practicing leadership in some way. You might be regularly encouraging other people to advocate for nature, or undertaking engagement work in the wider community. You might be providing experiences for volunteers and/or visitors. You might be active on social media engaging online followers in the causes you care about, or offer your skills and expertise to train others on a regular basis. Consider this: do you want to be the reason people take action for nature, or the reason they don’t? If you do, I would argue you have already begun your journey to become an effective leader.

It’s also likely that you have experienced a range of leadership styles already and probably have a good idea of the kind of manager you do or don’t want to be - I’m sure the people who have shown you great kindness stand out just as much as those who have knocked your confidence in the past.

There are opportunities to lead in all areas of life, and like kindness, effective leadership is extremely powerful when small acts collectively make a significant and meaningful difference. We all know how damaging poor leadership can be so it’s really important that once we recognise the opportunities we have to have a positive impact, we aim to maximise that impact by endeavoring to influence others in the right way.

But what is the right way? There’s a lot of leadership material out there, so much so it’s hard to know where to begin and it’s not always easy to apply insight and experience from the corporate world or other sectors to the day-to-day realities of working for a conservation organisation or similar. The Osprey Leadership Foundation aims to make your first steps into leadership simple and straightforward by providing a widely applicable yet concise starting point which will help you to raise your self-awareness and provide food for thought. Our online, introductory programme “Becoming A Conservation Leader” is centred on our organisation's values: authentic, effective, brave and community, which we think underpin the traits of the most successful leaders. Our inside-out approach will help you examine how to go about creating change not through the position you hold but from who you truly are. We’ll get you thinking about your own values and how they guide your decision making and why it’s important not to try and be someone you’re not. You will be encouraged to think about how you manage your attitudes, behaviours, time and relationships. You’ll consider the importance of developing resilience and how to overcome challenges and stand up for what you believe in with courage. And finally, we hope you’ll set aside a competitive mindset and realise the value of community; the need to cooperate with, support, and combine strengths with others so that together you can achieve more. In just six weeks, we hope to empower you to face the future with resilience and the belief that you can, and will, make a difference.

The Osprey Leadership Foundation’s support doesn’t have to end once you have mastered the mindset, you have the opportunity to join a vibrant community of like-minded young conservationists, take part in further leadership workshops, networking events and other activities as well as receive invaluable mentoring from an experienced conservation professional - all designed to develop your leadership confidence over time as you progress through your career and apply the principles in the real world.

The Osprey Leadership Foundation is a tiny charity with a huge amount of hope for the future. Young people joining the movement are bringing with them an energy that is unmatched in its dynamism, determination and accountability for the impact they have on people and the planet. This energy needs to be nurtured, your voice needs to be heard and you should be making the most of opportunities to develop the skills you need to harness your zeal for protecting the natural world, to bring out your ability inspire and enable others to undertake transformative work in our organisations, communities and beyond. As you progress in your career, seize opportunities to practice small acts of leadership, so that by the time you're in a position to take responsibility for the big acts you will be ready and willing.

It’s time to tap into your potential. 

Find out more: The Osprey Leadership Foundation is on a mission to inspire and empower young conservationists to make sustainable change to the world around them through the power of authentic, effective and brave leadership. We do this by inspiring young conservationists to recognise their ability to influence change, providing opportunities to learn leadership skills, supporting individual professional development and building a supportive community of like-minded conservationists. To find out more about our work and how you can get involved visit our website: www.ospreylf.org or email info@ospreylf.org.

Testimonial: "At first glance a ‘leadership course’ is not something that would have piqued my interest, I did not see myself as a leader and nor did I think an online course in it was something that would benefit me. How naïve I was. I found this course to be nothing short of empowering, and maybe in a few years I will reflect that it was life changing. I found myself wishing I could absorb every single word I read or heard; it was one golden nugget of wisdom after another. I’ve come away with quotes and ideas not only to lead by, but to live by. In no way I’ve experienced before, it has shown me that it is perfectly within my power to be brave, to act, and to be led by what I believe in. On top of that, it has connected me to other young people who have the same worries, feelings and experiences, which has been thoroughly cathartic. I look forward to using everything I’ve learnt from this course, I feel I have accumulated a careers worth of leadership knowledge in 6 short weeks and am so very grateful to have this insight at the beginning of my career. I can’t recommend it enough to any other young person who wants to make a difference for nature. Don’t be dissuaded, as I was, by any preconception you may have about what leadership is, I am certain this course has something to offer you."

(Sam - 2024 participant of Becoming A Conservation Leader)

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