Just a tin of paint?

At Dulux, “adding colour to people’s lives” is why we exist. Our passion for paint is deep rooted and I feel incredibly proud to lead a business that is so focused on great brands which colour our world and are the best quality money can buy. Our purpose however, stretches way beyond a tin of paint.

Last week I spent a week coaching a group of 9-13 year-olds from Washwood Heath, an academy of primary and secondary schools from inner city Birmingham. We were at the stunning Outward Bound Centre in Aberdovey and I was there to help develop their resilience and confidence to take on the challenges that life will almost certainly throw at them.

Why? Many people asked me. But this is important to me. It's important because I’ve spent the last five years leading teams from across the business to raise funds for this very special cause. We’ve engaged hundreds of employees, customers and suppliers to cycle over a million miles (Dulux London Revolution) raising well over ￡1m to sponsor kids to go on these life changing programs. I wanted to see the impact these programs have and to play my part in their journey. Our relationship with them is much deeper than just the fundraising. A key part of our talent development is to encourage our future leaders to coach and mentor pupils from schools across the UK. This in turn develops the breadth, and tests the strength, of their leadership skills

I was blown away by the whole experience, and I left on Friday with memories that will stay with me for life. My two daughters are a similar age to this group and I kept wondering how they would face into some of the tough challenges this group encountered during the week.

Under the admirable leadership of our instructor, Dan, it was incredible to watch how a group of 11 individual kids from different schools and backgrounds pulled together to become ONE brilliant team over just 5 days. The older kids ‘buddied-up’ with the younger kids to ensure we made the most of the age gap, which at first was proving disruptive.

Each day was filled with tears, laughter and challenge. By the end of the second day, we agreed as a group to ban the words “I can’t” as they started to believe in their abilities and had already conquered so many ‘firsts’.

Throughout the week they gave each other feedback - what’s brilliant about that person and what would make them even more brilliant. They then pushed themselves to improve every day through the challenges of mountain climbing, canoeing, beach combing, exploring disused slate mines and jumping off the local jetty into the icy waters of the Dovey estuary – trust me to choose November!

One evening, on receiving her feedback from her buddy, I asked the youngest girl in the group how it made her feel. “I nearly cried” she said and then went on to explain that she’d never received such positive feedback. She was one of the many stars within the group and hearing this gave me a real sense of pride and realisation of how influential these programs can be.The week finished with the group presenting back their learnings to an audience of over 150 people (something many of us would find daunting) and their theme was how they had all stepped out of their comfort zones. On the back of this week I’m sure all of their comfort zones have grown and their new found “can do” attitude will help them for many years to come.

For me it’s back to the office to ensure we get over the line in 2018, to celebrate some of our successes of the past year and to ensure we’re set up for a brilliant 2019. Mentoring this group from Washwood Heath was a ‘first’ for me and the kids showed me that as a team working together with resilience and determination you can achieve something truly remarkable, a great mindset to head into next year.

My Aberdovey experience will remain with me for years to come and the fact that I’ve played a small part in adding colour to the lives of these kids has left me with a great sense of fulfilment and commitment to continue supporting this incredible cause.

 More than just a tin of paint? I think so.