LOTE Team Leader Seminar15 September 2011

What I’ve learned from where I’m from

• How do I define my role as a leader in my department?

• What challenges do I face as I work in this role?• What strengths can I rely on as I work in this

role?• What do I do when I don’t know what to do?• How am I building capacity & efficacy in my

team?• How am I building capacity & efficacy in myself?

What is my personal growth plan?

Definitions The educational leader is able to promote a shared community vision, mobilize people, lead curriculum and pedagogical practice, administrate effectively and reflect critically on all practice.

Educational and professional leadership enhances student outcomes through the creation of an environment where learning permeates the organizational culture.

“Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things” Warren Bennis and Peter Drucker

Your current leadership role

• What is in your background or areas of expertise that provides scope for you to be a curriculum leader?

• How have you demonstrated curriculum leadership so far this year?

• If you are struggling to answer the first two questions satisfactorily, what could change or should change?

Leadership

• What are the 3 Points?• How do these 3 points apply to your

roles?• What did you pick up from this video

that was not expressly stated?

Congenial staff relationships won’t necessarily do the business

‘…the quality of leader-staff relationships is not predictive of the quality of student outcomes. This is because there is more to educational leadership than building collegial teams, establishing a loyal and cohesive staff, and developing a shared and inspirational vision. Educational leadership is about focusing such relationships on pedagogical work’ (p. 201). (emphasis added)

Engage in open-to-learning conversations

Sometimes these are called ‘difficult conversations’ (e.g. Bruce Patton), ‘crucial conversations’ (Patterson, et al) or ‘fierce conversations’ (Susan Scott).

What types of professional conversationsmight be included here, and what makesthem so difficult??

An effective strategy for communicating concerns

• Disclose concerns• Disclose grounds for concerns• Leader indicates that concern needs to be

checked rather than assumed to be valid• Don’t surround the conversation with

‘pillows’ or compliments…get to the point quickly.

‘To lead is to live dangerously…Because when leadership counts, when you leadPeople through difficult change, you challenge whatpeople hold dear - their daily habits, tools, loyalties,and ways of thinking - with nothing more to offerperhaps than a possibility…people resist in all kindsof creative and unexpected ways that can get youtaken out of the game: pushed aside, undermined,or eliminated’

(Heifetz and Linsky, 2002, p. 2).

• Which of the previous 3 visuals illustrates the leadership role you are most comfortable with ?

• Which of the previous 3 visuals illustrates the leadership role you are most uncomfortable with?

What do greatTeachers & Leaders do?

Today’s workshop

• How do I define my role as a leader in my department?

• What challenges do I face as I work in this role?• What strengths can I rely on as I work in this

role?• What do I do when I don’t know what to do?• How am I building capacity & efficacy in my

team?• How am I building capacity & efficacy in myself?

What is my personal growth plan?

Next steps?

Personal Reflections

• What are three key messages you have taken from today’s conversations?

• What are three things you will try in your role in response to your learning today?