Core Day 2. Commitments has meant a request to change groups and venue, but needs must. A very warm, very pleasant welcome from Jane and Lisa, much like the setting here at The Beach Hotel, Portsmouth. Aims, agenda and housekeeping for the day covered, its onwards and upwards.
Progress since Core Day 1
What have been the highlights for you – mapping out the online units to best address my professional areas of interest and to accommodate the needs of the school.
What have you valued most – time with the Principal discussing leadership and reflection. A conversation less focused on school business and more of leadership development.
What has been the greatest challenge for you – (other than time) prioritising managerial tasks against leadership opportunities.
Looking at the online learning, creating a strap line reflecting the learning undertaken. I very useful learning technique.
For example – Understanding self was ‘peeling the onion’ and Harnessing Technology was ‘Developing our skills to keep with theirs.’
Describe a change you have made in your leadership approach
There are two key changes in my leadership approach since accepting the post of Assistant Principal. The first is that I have slowed down and narrowed my focused. I am more understanding that wholesome change, real change and not just lip service changes, requires a deeper embedding, than I previously had understood.
Second, I have tried to listen to advice from my line manager to be less curious. To reduce the scope of my interest and investigation. To encourage that aim, I have openly shared my aims and ‘parked’ certain professional area of interest.
Outcomes from this leadership change include good Coaching, wider work experience and the importance of family time.
There has a been a positive change in myself, and it is possible that those who have stepped into the space vacated, have benefited also.
Developing and refining the Leadership Change Project
One very interesting task under this heading was the request to visually represent our project. Now I am no artist but it certainly made me think about the project.
It reminded me about the fantastic RSA animations of key speeches, such as the Dan Pink Drive and the Sir Ken Robinson keynotes. Out of this activity two poignant thoughts span out. The first, that I could share the parental engagement project as a visual representation when sharing it to staff for the first time and second that staff could use the technique to
- think through their own projects
- feedback to me how their understanding of a project I am leading.
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