“Ko ngā pae tawhiti whāia kia tata, ko ngā pae tata, whakamaua kia tina.”
The potential for tomorrow depends on what we do today.
Module Objectives:
- Enhance self-awareness: Develop a deeper understanding of personal values, beliefs, and leadership styles.
- Develop emotional intelligence: Identify and manage personal emotions, and understand and respond effectively to the emotions of others.
- Identify personal strengths and areas for development: Conduct a comprehensive self-assessment and identify key strengths, weaknesses, and areas for professional growth.
- Build self-reflection habits: Develop and implement strategies for ongoing self-reflection and professional development.
Section 1: Exploring Self-Awareness
Resource 1: “Taking off the armour and showing up authentically“
According to a study in the Leadership and Organization Development Journal, employees’ perception of authentic leadership serves as the strongest predictor of job satisfaction and positively impacts work-related attitudes and happiness. Watch this video on authentic leadership from Brene Brown – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9669oUfqbDU Consider what this means for your leadership – how do you show up at school authentically?
Section 2: Developing Emotional Intelligence
Resource 2: “Emotional Intelligence for School Leaders”
Explore this podcast on why emotional intelligence is imperative for school leaders – https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/edcast/24/03/why-emotional-intelligence-matters-educators
Section 3: Identifying Strengths and Areas for Development
Self-review can take many forms and be carried out in a number of ways, but the underlying principles of effective self-review require it to be:
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- Purposeful – leading to action for improvement
- Meaningful – not reviewing for reviewing’s sake
- Manageable – realistic in terms of time and human and financial resources
- Systematic – programmed so it doesn’t get overlooked
- Reliable – based on relevant and valid evidence
- Collaborative – involving key stakeholders
Task:
Step 1: Reflect on your personal leadership style and identify areas for self-improvement.
Step 2: Discuss with your kaiarahi the most effective strategies for gathering feedback from others on your leadership strengths and weaknesses.
Consider options such as:
- 360-degree feedback surveys: Involving staff, students, parents, and other stakeholders.
- Informal feedback: Seeking feedback from trusted colleagues, mentors, or external coaches.
- Observations: Observing your own leadership in action and seeking feedback from trusted colleagues.
- Reflection journals: Regularly reflecting on your leadership experiences and identifying areas for growth.
Step 3: Develop a plan with your kaiarahi for gathering feedback from multiple sources and document your plan in the online forum. This can be discussed at your first coaching session.
Step 4: Post on the forum a brief summary of how you will collect feedback, from who and why.
Step 5: Implement this plan and, at your second coaching session, reflect on this.
Assessment:
- Completion of all readings.
- Participation in the online forum discussion.
- Development and implementation of a plan for gathering feedback on leadership strengths and weaknesses.
- Reflection on personal leadership style and development of a personal development plan.
12 Responses
Kia ora team!
For my feedback, I’ve chosen to use the Trust and Leadership Rubric as a reflective tool. I’ve asked my direct vertical team (11), the CRT specialist teachers (4), and the ESOL learning assistants (7)- whom I directly lead- to provide honest feedback using this rubric. I’ve also included our office staff (3), as I work closely with them every day and value their perspective on how I lead and collaborate across different roles.
The rubric provides clear indicators across key areas of trust and transformational leadership, which will help me reflect meaningfully on both my strengths and areas for growth. I look forward to learning about my leadership in others’ eyes.
Kia ora Stephanie. Thanks so much for your openness in our session. Great idea to include such a cross section of staff to gather feedback from. They can often have a slightly different insight than others which can be extremely valuable. Can’t wait to hear what you learn.
I enjoyed the Brene Brown video and the podcast, they made me realise how important it is to be aware of what you are feeling and how this impacts you and, therefore, others during your day. I’m interested to hear what others thought too.
Hi Philippa…great observation. I was re reading an article by Daniel Goleman over the break and I was reminded of this very idea. Easy to forget to look in the mirror in the business of the day sometimes. A while back I started doing 3 min mindfulness before meetings that had potential to be challenging. Just helps to get me back in the right head space 🙂
It was great meeting and having a conversation with Kyle.
I am one of 3 Aps and a syndicate leader. I work closely with 4 teachers and all the new teachers, esp the PCTs. I have used the assessment rubric which Kyle has provided. Like others, I too have used it as a baseline to assess myself. It took some deep thinking and already, I’ve felt that I needed to let my guard down about what I highlighted. I have also passed it on to 3 other teachers (not all from my own syndicate) but I will be asking a few others to carry out the assessment too. Thus far, it has been interesting to see the similarities and differences which they have highlighted. For me, the real interesting or ‘vulnerable’ part would be seeing what my colleagues where we’ve had to have those hard conversations, have to say. I look forward to that feedback.
Great to see you putting yourself out there Verna and being vulnerable. Those ‘honest’ conversations as I like to call them can be really tough but also the greatest source of trust.
Kia ora koutou,
Unfortunately, I haven’t had my first meeting with Kyle yet as I was unwell and had to reschedule. In the meantime, I’ve taken time to reflect on my leadership practice using the Trust and Leadership Rubric that Kyle shared with us.
In my role as Associate Principal of Pastoral Care at Ōtāhuhu Intermediate, I work closely with five teachers in a coaching capacity, and I’m supporting one beginning teacher. Through self-reflection, I’ve identified a few key strengths in my leadership: I’m confident in areas like admitting mistakes, offering trust, showing care and concern, affirming others, maintaining a calm and consistent demeanour, and upholding confidentiality.
At the same time, I know there are areas I’d like to develop further — particularly around active listening, involving others more in decision-making, and gathering regular feedback to improve my practice.
To start this journey, I’ll be collecting feedback in two main ways:
Informal feedback: I’ll have open and honest conversations with my Principal who see me in action regularly. I value their perspective and want to hear what’s working and where I can grow.
Anonymous survey: I’m also creating a short Google Form for the teachers in my syndicate to complete. I’ve chosen this method to give staff a safe space to share their thoughts honestly, without any pressure. I will be using the same rubric here that Kyle have shared.
I’m really interested to see how this feedback aligns with my own reflections and where there might be gaps I hadn’t considered. I’m looking forward to unpacking it further once I’ve had that first session with my Kyle.
Ngā mihi nui,
Pierre
Kia ora!
It was lovely to meet and spend time with Kyle, discussing where I am in my leadership journey and the next steps in transitioning from my acting principal experience to a full principal role. It was great to learn that Kyle also attended this school, which gave us plenty to talk about.
We also explored what kind of feedback would be most helpful. Having previously engaged in 360-degree feedback, we decided to use the rubric Kyle provided, which I really appreciate for its varied approach to leadership evaluation. The fact that it talks about being ‘vulnerable’ ( as Brene Brown talks about), is something I look forward to seeing how others see me in this arena!
With a staff of 45, I am tempted to invite everyone—including the grounds team and support staff—to participate. However, to start, I will share it with my Principal, Deputy Principal colleague, team leaders across the school, and classroom teachers in the Tuakana team ( year 5 & 6), as I work closely with them. By spreading the feedback across different areas of the school, I can gain a breadth of perspectives, helping me to understand my leadership from multiple viewpoints .
Ngā mihi nui
Kath
I enjoyed my discussion with Kyle and valued the opportunity to gain an ‘outside’ perspective on leadership and different aspects of where I am currently sitting. I am also looking forward to seeing the avenues that open up as I continue to improve my understanding of my leadership style and what I can improve or develop further.
I am planning on getting feedback from a variety of people that I work closely with in different capacities, initially using the rubric supplied by Kyle as I felt it was a quick and easy way for people to provide the feedback without adding too much to their workload. I will also complete it as a baseline for where I think I am! I will get feedback from the management team (Principal and DP) with whom I work closely every day, 2 or 3 team members that I have worked with for several years and I have also decided to ask a couple of LSAs and Office Administrators who I also work closely with on different aspects of my role.
Philippa
Kia Ora all,
It was a great first coaching meeting and I gained some insightful next steps to focus on from Kyle. I am also using the rubric Kyle sent out but have put each aspect into a Google Form for teachers to select 1- 4 for each question (happy to share this if anyone else wants it). I have chosen to go the anonymous route for feedback at the start of the year. The reason for this is I am hoping to gather more insight into possibly how people view my leadership and visibility within the school without them thinking they will offend me. Similar to Vicky I have decided to go a variety of staff members.
I will be asking our Middle Leaders in our school to complete this, 2 teachers from each team I work closely with (Years 4 – 6), the other DPs I work with and the PCTs and their Tutor Teachers who I support. I will get feedback from my principal as part of a discussion once we have collected the results and discussed these together.
I am sending out the survey by the end of this term to be able to identify next steps and start implementing these in Term 2. I am interested in seeing the results and if the align with where I have marked myself and what my areas for improvement might be.
Looking forward to hearing what others are doing.
Jess
Kia ora koutou
I have gathered some feedback from multiple sources. I initially used the rubric that Kyle supplied as I considered this to be a good vehicle for people to gather their thoughts about me, and it was considerate of their workload i.e. they did not need to write a huge amount. I choose colleagues who I have worked closely with for a few years, in different capacities. My tumuaki observes my leadership in action everyday so was able to give her honest reflection about my leadership style. I work closely with another DP and our LSC, so they were also another obvious choice. These people make up our school leadership team, so we have robust discussions on a regular basis, and we bounce ideas and approaches off each other when we are navigating our way through any issues etc that arise at school. I also selected my two learning learners with whom I work closely. They support me in the curriculum delivery for our Year 0-3 learners. I also selected two classroom practitioners who have been in my team for a few years.
This has given me a good variety of professionals to seek feedback about my leadership as they all come with a different view about the school e.g. some are classroom practitioners who see leadership from their classroom, others are leaders who see leadership through a different lens with many more pieces of the school puzzle.
After they completed the rubric, I had chats with each of my colleagues to see if I could glean anymore insights into my leadership style.
Ngā mihi
Vicky
Hi Team
Thank you all for confirming a time to catch up in person this term. The purpose of this initial conversation is to hear your story and to understand what you hope to gain form this experience and how you see me supporting you. As I get to know you all I may look to arrange some opportunities to connect on common issues, i.e. similar leadership challenges, admin roles of principals, working with BOT’s etc.
For now, take some time to digest the information above and reflect on where you see your strengths and areas for growth. The link below is a basic reflective rubric thinking about the characteristics of leaders and less so the technical skills. This may be useful in thinking about how your perception aligns with how others perceive you. Weirdly those with high EQ tend to judge themselves harshly and vice versa. I would encourage you to seek feedback from those you have worked closely with to see how closely your perception aligns with those you serve. This is one of many reflective tools out there. Feel free to use something else if yo prefer. The aim is ultimately to consider next steps.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-vS9XROEM1drQCk2ZJQGpC7dIixcJw6y/view?usp=drive_link
Kia pai tō rā
Kyle