“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication.
It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”
-Stephen Covey.
Module Objectives:
- Identify and adapt communication styles.
- Build and maintain relational trust.
- Apply emotional intelligence to communication.
- Reflect and apply learning to practice.
Communication
Our communication style affects our relationships. Intentionally growing our communication skills gives us the opportunity to utilise self-awareness, self-management and social awareness Emotional Quotient skills.
You will be aware already that within your team there are a number of different personalities and communication styles. Understanding and navigating these differences and paying attention to which styles our teammates gravitate towards, can improve our interpersonal skills, build trust, and help us get more done with less frustration.
There are many different analytical systems used to identify communication styles. One of the more well-known is DISC profiling. (Often used by recruitment companies to ‘find the right person’ for effective team cohesion.)
Essentially, the 4 main communication styles are: Dominant, Influence, Conscientious and Steady. See the link in the resources section for more information.
Investing time in developing our EQ around how best to communicate as a leader and facilitator with each of these personality/communicator types leads to stronger working relationships and more cohesive, productive teams. Connecting with team members who sit in different quadrants requires slightly different approaches.
Many of you will be aware that our responses to situations will invariably be influenced by the internal and external factors at play in our lives. As aspiring and emerging leaders, the time we invest in developing relationships with our team members is vital to establishing an understanding for what is going on in their lives both within and beyond our kura.
In times of stress any communication style can be impacted by a person’s innate ‘default’ setting and so understanding this and being aware of what each team member’s default setting is can give you, as a leader, an early signal that all is not well. These communication styles are overtly assertive, passive, passive-aggressive and straight out aggressive.
Relational Trust
“High trust relationships exist when leaders are respected for their deep educational knowledge, their actions and values, and the way they engage respectfully with others with empathy and humility, fostering openness in discussions. Leaders have good emotional intelligence and self-awareness.”
– Educational leadership capability framework, Education Council, 2018.
Trust provides a strong foundation for effective working relationships which, ultimately, has a positive impact on student achievement. Trust has been shown time and time again to have a huge benefit in leading change and in creating great teams. Teams and schools with trusting relationships have staff who are open to sharing practice, taking risks and sharing what is and isn’t going well in their teaching. However, it does not happen by accident and it is not built in the same way for every person, depending on their personal narrative. As a newer leader, it is important to intentionally work to build trust with colleagues, whānau and community. So how do you do this? Below are some aspects to consider but do look through the resources below too.
- Trust goes both ways. Actively extend trust and assume positive intent, if you would like others to trust you in return.
- Be respectful and show integrity in all interactions and decisions.
- Demonstrate competence in what you do. This can be a tricky one for a new leader. You will need to patiently build credibility through your interactions with others and transparency in showing your practice. Be a professional at all times. Keep up to date with, and implement, best practice in your teaching.
- But this doesn’t mean you need to know everything! Be a learner and be humble. Everyone in your team will have something to bring to the table and every person will have their own perspectives that you can learn from. Take the time to learn from others.
- Be consistent and keep the students at the heart of everything you do.
Task: Due 16th May 9am
Think about what you have learned about communication and trust and apply it in the following two ways:
- Comment on a fellow delegate’s post from this module and give them feedback. Be mindful of how you might come across, given your preferred method of communication. Also be aware of how you might begin to build trust between yourself and a fellow delegate, prior to meeting them in person at the Emerging PLG and, hopefully, commenting further on each other’s posts in the forum.
- Reflect using the thinking frame, “I used to think, now I think….” to share your learning from this module in the forum in 150 words or less.
Now is also a great time to get in touch with your learning partner and check in on how they are getting on, as we draw close to the end of the term.
Resources:
Communication and DISC:
- DISC styles explained – https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc/disc-styles
- Michigan State University article explaining DISC and how this can be used to create strong teams – https://www.michiganstateuniversityonline.com/resources/leadership/observe-learn-and-lead-your-team-by-following-disc/
- There are also plenty of references to communication in “Fish!” by S. Lundin (required text for course). Here are two key quotes: “You can observe a lot by watching.” and “If you want to change your culture, change your conversations.”
Trust:
- Trust in educational leadership settings – https://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leadership-development/Professional-information/Leadership-capability-framework/High-trust-relationships#:~:text=High%20trust%20relationships%20exist%20when,emotional%20intelligence%20and%20self%2Dawareness.
- “Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for School Reform” B. Schneider. – https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/trust-in-schools-a-core-resource-for-school-reform
- “How the Best Leaders Build Trust” S. Covey. – https://www.leadershipnow.com/CoveyOnTrust.html
- “Five Faces of Trust: An Empirical Confirmation in Urban Elementary Schools.” – W. Hoy and M. Tschannen-Moran. – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NBTBXVSjokVr_RPx3Qlze-Ao3E1m6XWI/view?usp=sharing
Optional Resources:
- “4 Communication Styles and How to Navigate Them in the Workplace” – https://www.atlassian.com/blog/inside-atlassian/how-to-navigate-diverse-communication-styles-at-work
- ‘The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organisations by Encouraging People’ By Gary Chapman and Paul White
- ‘Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when the Stakes are High’ By K. Patterson, J. Grenny, R. McMillan and A. Switzler
- Stephen Covey’s book, “The Speed of Trust” and his many videos on YouTube are also worth looking into as an optional extra.
6 Responses
Kia ora whānau,
I read “How the Best Leaders Build Trust” and was interested in his views on ‘cost’. What does low trust cost us, what can be gained by high trust? I hadn’t thought in those terms before.
Funnily enough, I completed my job description goals this morning. My big goal is to have a sense of being better organised, to help maintain my work-life balance, but also to help provide certainty to my team and colleagues. So I sat up when I read about trust having two dimensions- character and competence- because this is highly relevant to me and my goals. (My goals and I?)
E kī ana te whakataukī: Moea taku poi, moea taku taiaha. Being prepared (and organised) is one hallmark of a trustworthy leader, and there are clear benefits to the team as a result.
I used to think trust was someone sticking to their word, now I think it is a combination of words and actions.
Ngā mihi,
Damian
Yes you are right Damian. Words without the deeds to back them up look rather empty don’t they. So pleased that those readings came along at just the right time for your current mahi. Thank you for gifting us that wonderful whakatauki. It’s a keeper!
“If you want to change your culture, change your conversations.” This particular quote from ‘Fish’ resonated with me a lot. It aligns well with the work we have been doing in our setting regarding cultural responsiveness and deficit thinking. Prior to our learning focussed meetings we get reminders from staff to make sure our discussions avoid any deficit thinking e.g., comments on the home environment. However this statement is also so pertinent to many different settings in our workplace e.g., the staffroom and around the photocopier.
At the very beginning of my leadership journey I used to think my actions were important and I placed a lot of weight on them, but now I think what I say is equally as or more important.
I really enjoyed unpacking the DiSC model of personalities and the way these were explained in some of the readings. Finding out the characteristics of each style is really valuable information as a leader. This sort of information can help us to communicate more effectively with different members of our staff, utilise staff strengths and develop a greater understanding of what others say and do. In other words, to build stronger relationships.
I used to think that by providing solutions to problems I was helping others, but now I think people often just want to be heard.
I was interested to discover the connection between what Louise Anaru was saying in her video and what Stephen Covey was saying about trust. Louise shared that she had an action plan for building relational trust and Stephen Covey talked about how the best leaders make the creation of trust an explicit objective. “It must become like any other goal that is focused on, measured, and improved.”
I used to think building trust was mostly about relationships and communication but now I think competency and delivering results also contribute to maintaining and developing high trust.
Kia ora Kim,
Tau kē, well said. I think you have captured what ‘trust’ is, especially as you have identified there are different aspects of trust; not just talk and actions, but competency and results also play important roles.
Nā,
Damian
Great feedback Damian.
I really like the DiSC model too. I spent too much time trying to fit people I know into the right categories.
You had the disadvantage of being the first to post so haven’t been able to do the task relating to giving feedback on someone else’s post. Hopefully you have some to choose from soon.