Floyd Woodrow
Floyd Woodrow is a decorated former SAS major and head of the counter-terrorism unit. Now, as an award-winning prestigious speaker, author and entrepreneur, he uses his knowledge, skills and experience - focusing on the importance of values - to work with organisations all over the world. Floyd has established an international reputation for designing and running leadership and elite performance training in sports, business, government and education.
He explains his ethos through his books: ‘Elite: The Secret to Exceptional Leadership and Performance’ and ‘The Warrior, Strategist and You: How to Find Your Purpose and Realise Your Potential.’
Floyd Woodrow’s Compass for Life analogy is a unique approach that brings together some of the best aspects of leadership training currently available into a simple, concise and effective framework. It compliments all leadership methodology by aligning them with each cardinal (North, East, South and West) so that everyone can have a compass for life that works for them as an individual, family, team or organisation:
Your North Star is a clear, unambiguous statement of intent: What do you want to achieve? What are your dreams? How ambitious are you? Can you visualise it? Can you articulate it?
Being a Strategist involves having a clear plan in place and building a team to help progress towards your North Star.
Your Ethos defines you: what values are important to you? (Resilience, Collaboration, Empathy).
Having a Warrior Spirit relates to not giving up; embracing opportunities; having mental determination and the strength to keep going; being able to battle through challenges to continue to strive towards your North Star.
These are explained in more detail throughout Floyd’s TED talk:
How are we inspired at Hazeldown?
After meeting Floyd at a leadership conference, we planned our own compass for life journey - ensuring we have a clear direction of travel and know how to get there. We then introduced the compass for life analogy to our pupils - encouraging them to dream big and reinforcing that they can achieve anything they put their minds to. All staff refer to our pupils’ individual North Stars during everyday school life, reminding them that every lesson will help contribute to achieving their personal goals.
Impressed with what our pupils were doing, Floyd visited Hazeldown to interview the children and give additional feedback to tweak their compass for life maps. See our pupils talk about this experience by following this link: