I read a BLOG Post today which came to my email box. It was about 200 words of high octane energy:

“Are you showing up with enthusiasm and excitement?....Does your energy inspire others to do more and be more?....So bring your best energy. Bring your passionate energy. Bring your determined energy….Your energy is your leadership.”(1)

I think that I have always brought oodles of energy to my principalship – passionate, determined, sometimes inspirational energy. Nearly always my best energy. I think people who know me would say I have an abundance of energy – perhaps, even too much energy, at times. But it doesn’t mean that people have always “followed” me as a leader. The fact is, energy is simply not enough. People don’t follow because of energy levels, certainly not over the long term. They follow (or not) because of what you believe and how closely those beliefs align with what they believe; and how closely the leader’s espoused beliefs align with how the leader lives his or her life. Infectious energy may help people stay on the journey for a bit longer when the going gets tough or while they are coming to a greater depth of understanding about what it is you believe; but in the end, they won’t remain “followers” unless they believe in the cause and in the authenticity and integrity of the person. Energy will help, but it certainly is not enough.

Now for the moment of truth. If I had to fill in the blank, “Your____is your leadership”, what would I say? Firstly I would prevaricate and say that leadership is much more complex than a one liner. But if push came to shove, I’d put “growth and development” into the blank. My view is that people who are growing and developing are growing into leadership; and if we focus on growing and developing people first, we will grow and develop leaders, as a result.

At Amesbury School, our approach to developing leaders in our school is one that focuses on the growth and development of teachers, first and foremost, and then on their development as leaders second. It uses coaching professional development (that is, being coached and learning to be an effective coach) as the main focus for professional learning to assist growth and development; and it uses leadership roles within the school as the context for learning to be a coach and, therefore, as the site for growth and development. In my experience, coaching professional development leads to integrated (by that I mean across the multiple dimensions of the moral, social, emotional and cognitive/intellectual) growth and development which leads to leadership.

I tracked the growth and development of eight teachers over a two year period as the result of coaching leadership professional development and I noticed remarkable similarities in the way teachers grew and developed and the impact it had on their sense of themselves as leaders and on their leadership actions. I remember one teacher talking to me excitedly about finding that he now had that brief moment of time in which he could adjust his initial reaction from giving advice (as he was wont to do) to asking a reflective question. In the next breath he said, “I am beginning to feel like a leader” and later on he said, “It has changed what I see leadership as. It is about letting others.” And then, in wonder, and some relief, he said, “People are solving their problems more without relying on me”.

That brief moment of time to make a different decision is the beginning of emotional self-control. The awareness that he now has of the propensity to give advice rather than ask a question is self-awareness and is essential to the development of emotional self-control. Actually making the decision to ask a question rather than give advice requires putting ego to the side and is driven by serving a purpose greater than self and shows growth in the moral dimension. The comment about what leadership is, reflects a cognitive shift and a changing narrative of leadership.

Growth and development across multiple dimensions, as a result of coaching professional development, led this young man towards a greater sense of being a leader, and the “right” kind of leader; an authentic, moral leader, whose growing concern is the growth and development of others.

Hence, my view that, “Your growth and development is your leadership”; but also, “Your leadership is growth and development”.

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou.

Lesley

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(1)    Leadership is Energy: Bring It! The @DavidGeurin Blog