Emerging Leaders

“It was all about the Growth, how to be a good leader and to take good decisions.” Zukile

Emerging leaders cohort 1, 2023

With all the growth happening at Axium, the Central Education team "noticed that many of our newly appointed leaders need to adapt to the different pressures of management and leadership. The emerging leaders training aims to close this gap.”David De Gruchy, Programmes and Operations Manager

This year Axium Education marks 14 years of work. From an initial science and maths-focused team of two, Axium has grown to a staff of 160+ serving more than 5000 children in Grades R-12 and 70 teachers in 24 schools spread across two districts. Over 200 Axium alumni have accessed tertiary studies at universities or colleges across the country, with many returning to work as professionals in the communities we serve.

As we’ve grown, so has the need for a Central Education unit to "support education teams by helping them with curriculum choices, lesson planning as well as ongoing training and coaching. We also keep a big-picture view of how all the education teams are doing across the organisation, we review data and look for trends across all teams and support teams to review and analyse their data.” Mike Kent, Central Education Coach.

“Emerging leaders” is a term used to describe leaders who are starting on their leadership journey. They are staff who have recently been promoted to their first leadership role or who are taking on more leadership responsibilities in their teams. The Central Ed team took on the task of investing in our new leaders, aiming to develop:

1. deeper practical knowledge and skills required to be a leader

2. self-confidence in their ability to lead

3. strong collegial bonds between leaders in different programmes and across our three sites.

Modules on the course included:

1. Technical Skills - procurement, HR policies, etc

2. Management 101 - team management, leading meetings, etc

3. Leadership / Mindset - visibility and voice, difficult conversations, productive conflict, etc

Emerging leaders completing their morning challenge

This is how the week was experienced by participants:

“Being a leader at Axium means understanding Axium strategy and contributing to improving it from Leader.” Akhona

“Training helps teach the vision and mission, but employees must put training into action for it to have meaning.” Ayanda

“The training was so fruitful to me, and it also helped me to have more confidence about being a leader.” Fuziwe

“The experience that I got during the training is to learn different personalities. Learn to be calm during tough situations.” Hlumela

After the success of the pilot group in March, we’re excited to welcome cohort II in September this year. If the initial response is anything to go by, Emerging Leaders training will be a feature of the Axium landscape for years to come… and will be a key factor in our ability to grow both bigger and better.