Middle Leadership Training (Part 1)

*Originally posted on previous blog www.mrbowkerinmalaysia.com in February 2023*

This month I have just started the second installment of the leadership training offered by ISP, the parent company of my school. It's fantastic to have the opportunity to be supported in my new middle leadership role as I'm starting a whole new learning journey into management. However, this made me realise that I never posted about the first part of the course - so as a way to review what I learned and to share, here goes. In March and April of 2022 I was selected as part of a group of teachers in my school to complete the in house management training courtesy of the parent company of my school, International Schools Partnership. For me, this was in preparation to take on my new role as Primary English Coordinator. (Something I have since started in August of 2022) I always envisaged my career pathway in teaching would lead me in to management, but I must admit it is not something I have studied or read about in preparation for the move, which is an oversight on my part. That being said, I think this is the case for a lot of teachers, but I am so glad I was given the opportunity to study before taking on the role. The course itself was hybrid in structure and involved seven 3 hour online sessions followed by a 5 week personal enquiry into an area of management which would need to be presented to a small group. Each week there was reading to be completed alongside some other smaller tasks. The aims of the course were to; "develop participants' skills in building and leading high-impact teams, using coaching approaches to support team and individual team member development, as well as positively impacting learning in their areas of responsibilities" The information provided in each unit included evidence based strategies and techniques to be able to manage a team in an educational setting. This included running a successful meeting, how to approach difficult conversations with staff, coaching and mentoring colleagues, planning and managing successful change any many more. Each week I was thoroughly absorbed by the units and really enjoyed learning about the thought processes and strategies required to manage a team, school or other educational organisation.

Some of my favourite take-aways from the course came from reading sections of Andy Buck's brilliant book 'Leadership Matters 3.0' - which I now have my own dog eared copy of. This book is written by someone who has clear expertise in the area, but also a keen eye on the research behind good practice. He synthesises the vast amount of information into manageable chunks with clear practical advice of how to implement strategies in school. One of my favourites is a grid called the 'Dimensions of change' - Knoster, Thousand and Villa (2000). Essentially - to manage change then all stakeholders need to be clear on the vision, have the skills, incentives, resources and be aware of the action plan for the change to be successful. If one of these key elements is missing then the change will likely have a negative outcome - e.g. no clear vision and the staff will be confused, a lack of skills can lead to anxiety.

I now use this to analyse change within the school to attempt to work out a solution. For my role as Primary English Coordinator I have been able to rely on this to ensure I have covered key areas before implementing changes this year.

Another key element for me was learning about the SCARF motivational model (David Rock). This explains that different people are motivated by different elements of their job and that individuals may feel threatened by the lack of elements of the SCARF model, or more recognised and supported should the elements they appreciate be present.

This has come in very useful in my role as an instructional coach, as I set my coachee a task to complete an independent enquiry as a way to transition them out of the coaching programme and build their independence and confidence. I ensured that as part of the enquiry I had covered each of the SCARF motivational factors, and in doing so increased the chances of my coachee feeling recognised, supported and motivated to complete the task. The enquiry was a huge success both in terms of their progress and my management of it. I definitely feel the SCARF model had a role to play in this positive outcome.

There were many more things that I learned in this course - but the over riding feature of it was that management skills are something that should be taught and learned, not something that is expected of teachers. The course started by explaining that many members of middle management and SLT in schools acquire the role because they are good teachers, but being a good teacher doesn't automatically mean someone will be a good manager, instead good teachers need to be trained to become good managers. I am very much at the beginning of my learning journey into management, but so far I have learned some foundations and definitely agree that good teachers need training to become good managers.

I was delighted to receive my certificate for this course, and can't wait for the next part to start!

Thanks for reading,

Laurence