Education consultant and hypnotherapist
at Oxford Family Hypnotherapy, Julia Watson.
The demands on
the shoulders of our school leaders has never been greater, with
inordinate demands on time and resources distracting from the essence of the
role.
Amidst the heightened
pressures and challenges, what steps can School Leaders take to succeed in
their role?
1. Keep growing
Many SLT members
forego training for the sake of saving time and money. But professional and
personal development need not cost the earth: sometimes it can be as simple
as finding a course that suits you, reading an article or keeping up with
inspiring educationalists on social media.
After all, who wants
to follow someone whose leadership has gone stale? Keep reading, learning and
growing (all things we expect of pupils, lest we forget) and seek out anything
that will keep you engaged.
2. Focus on solutions
Find out what is
working well, and do more of it. Conversely, if something isn’t working, don’t
do it! Taking a solution-focused approach to challenges and change avoids
blame, and promotes a positive culture of problem-solving.
3. Let people do their job
Leadership is not an
exercise in writing your colleagues’ to-do lists. Micro-managing is important
to a point but can also be demotivating and harbour feelings of resentment.
Give staff the means to do their jobs, and seek support when they need to. But
there’s enough to do in the day without covering someone else’s work as well as
your own!
4. Stay organised
Whether it comes
naturally to you or not, keeping on top of admin is key to managing your
workload. Grabbing hold of the reins is crucial, lest this particular horse run
away with all your precious free time.
Missing data, losing
important files or even forgetting you are due to cover break duty… all can
cause frustration in the staffroom and waste valuable time. Identify a time of
day to answer emails, rather than responding to them as they arrive. Delegate tasks
as appropriate. Create a system that works for you – if you’re not adept at
time management, find someone who is and shadow them.
5. Be realistic
As a member of the
SLT, a certain amount of ‘firefighting’ is natural. There will be plenty of
things that arise each day to keep you from the work you had planned. Hence why
it’s important, at the beginning of the day, to identify three things you want to
get done. Not twenty or even forty, just three.
This will help you
stay anchored when other things (inevitably) crop up, and give you a
better chance of succeeding. This feeling also releases Serotonin, and the
reward of this lovely little chemical boost increases motivation, meaning that
you might even achieve more than you set out to do.
6. Be human
Most of us enter this
profession because they are interested in other people, and want to help them
learn and grow. But it’s easy to lose sight of this core purpose under a
mountain of work, and more and more time spent away from the classroom. Human
interaction is vital to all people, but as our stress levels rise, social
isolation becomes increasingly common.
Good leaders maintain
positive relationships with the people they work with and show a genuine
interest in them. This isn’t by chance; they purposefully allocate time to
keeping in touch with their colleagues. This might be by dropping into
classrooms and asking how the day is going, or remembering to ask after a
family member. It’s showing your face in the staffroom and remembering to say
‘thank you’ for a job well done. An open door policy for SLT is just one way of
fostering an open and supportive culture in schools.
7. Look after yourself
Anyone who has ever
travelled by aeroplane will know that you secure your own oxygen mask first and
then help the child next to you. Taking care of yourself is not selfish. If you
are rested, nurtured and happy, you are better placed to support others.
You cannot reach your
full potential as a leader, or, importantly, inspire others to greatness if
your basic needs are not being met. These include feeling safe, being nourished
with healthful food and hydrated with enough water. You need to Viagra sleep and exercise. You need to
spend time with people you like and love and more. These are not luxuries, but
necessities.
Taking care of
yourself is not selfish!
When humans are not
having their basic needs met, they begin to make their decisions leading with
the amygdala, the centre of the ‘fight or flight’ responses. In terms of age,
these decisions are that of a three to five year-old. It is your ‘toddler’
brain, which will explain why grown adults sometimes behave like children.
An effective school
leader knows that to be great at what they do, they need to give themselves a
break.
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