OK, in this post I mentioned that I was volunteering to run a number of 20 minute workshops for teenagers who will soon be entering the world of work. The workshops will be within the Surrey Youth Festival on 27th September at Epsom racecourse and I would welcome your help with a few ideas here…

I am a member of the IoD Team dedicated to providing Employability Skills input into this event.

Helping kids understand their  Teamworking preferences, gain insight into their strengths and appreciate differences  through using Social Styles profile

About 2000 kids will attend this event to learn about the world of work, Apprenticeship schemes and vocational training opportunities. Most will roll through our 20 minute back-to-back workshops (it will be an exhausting but exhilarating day, I’m sure).

I will be getting these groups to self select themselves into one of four  ‘Social Styles’ quadrants. Social Styles is a model for identifying your preferences around interpersonal effectiveness. It has been popularised by many training organisations, notably Wilson Learning and Tracom Group. We won’t be using pen and paper, the kids will be moving into their quadrants on question prompts, then deciding how they would describe people in ‘their ‘ quadrant and – importantly – how they would describe those in other quadrants. It should be fun and, I hope, insightful and instructive.

So, here’s where I ask you to contribute

Richard Maybury uses Social Styles to leverage influencing skills

I’m looking for suggestions about who, in popular culture or high profile leadership, would fit into each of the quadrants. The only criteria is that any names must be known to the average 14 to 16 year old school kid! I’m guessing that putting Maggie Thatcher into the Driving style quadrant would not mean a thing to these kids.

Go on, drop a suggestion, no prizes but grateful thanks

Onwards and upwards

Richard