I used to think that people would show leadership first and then, as a result, you put them into leadership positions. It is not surprising I thought that way because that is how it happened for me. As a scale A teacher I was writing the whole school curriculum and significantly influencing what was happening before I was in any formal or recognised leadership position. I say this not to blow my own trumpet, because, actually, I can’t take any credit for it – I don’t think I could have done it any differently. If there was a leadership gap, I was driven to fill it. And if there was a leadership gap, and it was not my place to fill it, I had to step right back and almost be hands off, in order not to fill that space. I was often very conflicted when working with others, not really sure how to behave.

However, I have realised that not everyone is like me. Not everyone is driven to fill leadership gaps like I was. And so as a principal, I would wait for people to take initiative to fill a leadership space to see if they were ready for leadership; and they often didn’t and we would wait....and wait. There are a number of possible explanations for this.

• With a strong, capable senior leadership team, they may not have felt that there was any space for their leadership – that we were all over the work, and they had little to bring to the table.

• With our high expectations, strong vision and focus on alignment of practice with vision, maybe they worried that they would get it wrong.

• Perhaps they simply didn’t see themselves as leaders.

• Perhaps they weren’t sure that they wanted to pay the price of leadership, because it can be costly.

• And certainly, I know they did not want to risk relationships with colleagues. We had a culture of nice.

Most likely it was a mixture of all the above and sometimes it simply wasn’t the right time for them. However, the truth was, that as senior leaders, while we were waiting for them to show they were ready, we were running faster and faster on the treadmill, needing help with the load, but still looking like we had it all under control.

Making a deliberate decision to develop a middle leadership, whether they seemed ready or not, and bringing in a coaching leadership approach for that development, changed everything.

What we learned through our coaching leadership (TLIF) project was that we need every teacher as a leader and that once a teacher is past the initial steep learning curve of being a new teacher or even just new in our school (because there is a steep learning curve for every teacher who joins our staff), then they are ready to begin their leadership development journey. Try too early and it will just cause additional anxiety and stress.

With our coaching leadership approach, our emerging leaders begin their leadership learning in more facilitated and contrived contexts. They learn how to coach by assisting each other with the difficulties and issues they are facing.  However, we have noticed that accelerated leadership learning happens when their leadership learning moves into much more real life contexts such as a leadership position – team leader, for example, or tutor teacher. The fact that there is real purpose for their leadership learning and real motivation to get it right, means that they reflect more deeply and learn more quickly. The pain they experience, at times, when they get it wrong, and the pain they may cause others, at times, drives them to ask themselves or their mentors the hard questions, so that they have a better chance of getting it right in the future.

So we would say, move people into leadership positions early (not if they are already on a steep learning curve); but, and this is a BIG but and our biggest learning....don’t do it and leave them to it! Only do it if you are willing and able to provide regular, ongoing coaching and leadership support and challenge. This will help them to be safe and successful in that leadership role, even if they don’t seem quite ready for it.

These may not sound like earth shattering learnings. But they have been very changing for us; and we feel we make more confident, deliberate and better decisions about leadership appointments, as a result. However, the biggest change is one of perspective and motive. We no longer appoint leaders because we need them to do leadership work and do it well. First and foremost, we appoint leaders so that they have the opportunity to grow and develop as leaders and as people, through the process of learning to do the leadership work. It is a subtle difference, but it feels much better.

When we think of it this way, we focus on the huge joy of seeing our teachers grow and develop as people, as professionals and as leaders; and the school is also well served. There is little better!

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou.

Lesley

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PPS Here is a link to a Coaching Leadership Professional Learning Course - 15 and/or 16 June 2020