Teach Middle East Magazine Jan - Mar 2020 Issue 2 Volume 7 | Page 39

Sharing Good Practice become unmanageable. I have learnt to negotiate due dates, but never on quality. Always maintain the highest expectations of yourself, students, staff and parents - Robert Rosenthal defined the Pygmalion effect as "the phenomenon whereby one person's expectation for another person's behaviour comes to serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy" (American Psychologist, Nov. 2003, p. 839). Know your sphere of influence - That old saying, "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference." Stepping into senior leadership takes time for you to understand the limits and know the difference. Your influence also varies according to your role and the situation – in some cases, you are the decision-maker, in others, you are trying to influence the decision with your inputs. However, once the decision is made, you must support it even if it goes against what you wanted or thought. This is the cabinet mentality required at the SLT level. Transfer of skills – Yes! Transfer of experience – Not always. Understanding context is vitally important and probably even more so for us in the UAE. Don't make the mistake of assuming what worked in a previous context will work in your current one. Take time to understand your school, your staff and your parent body. Listen more, talk less – Just because you are the leader doesn't mean you are the smartest in the room. Quite contrary, if you are, then you need to refine your recruitment strategy. As Steve Jobs famously said "It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do." Play your position – All successful teams require people to fulfil their designated roles. As a senior leader, be clear about what your main duties are and facilitate an environment to allow others to play their position, with your support and encouragement as required. Don't fall into the trap of playing everyone else's position and forgetting about yours. Know what fills your bucket and what empties it – 'How Full Is Your Bucket?' was originally a children's book on happiness. Metaphorically, you can have multiple buckets - some that you are trying to fill and others that you are trying to empty - an example of which could be a 'Stress Bucket'. Learn to know what fills your bucket - which may include deadlines, presentations or home-life. Importantly, you need to learn how to realise when your bucket is reaching capacity and the specific strategies that empty your bucket. For me, this includes exercise or 'losing myself' in a good book. Many schools now realise the importance of keeping their staff happy and healthy. At Repton Abu Dhabi, we have recently appointed a 'Wellness Program Coordinator' who is tasked with embedding a wellness focus into all that we do within the school. Pick the right team - As a middle leader, it may seem that senior leadership opportunities are few and far between and that you have to jump at any and every job that becomes available. Be rigorous in your research of the school, the job for which you are applying, and the team you are potentially joining. Senior leadership has the potential to be very isolating. There is the pressure of increased public accountability and expectation as well as external pressures from governors and regulatory bodies, all of which can be offset by being surrounded by great colleagues. To flourish into senior leadership, you need the right environment. Find a coach and always be coachable - If you are lucky in life, you might come across one or two people that really have a positive impact on your professional life. Unfortunately, we can all suffer from subconscious bias, which may impair our decision making as leaders. Having a critical friend to run ideas past, or who can challenge your thinking is vital to ensure you are not making blinkered decisions that could inhibit your relationships and overall leadership effectiveness. An interesting fact is that the tube stop at Bank, on the Central Line, has the largest gap between the train and the platform, at 375mm. It's fair to say that most senior leaders' tube maps start at Bank! Reference List Buck, A. (2018). Leadership Matters 3.0. John Catt Educational Limited. Northouse, P.G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications. Steve Lupton is currently the Deputy Head (Curriculum) at Repton Abu Dhabi where he has worked since 2017. He has previously worked in middle leadership roles at Ravenscourt Park Preparatory School in West London and Sydney Grammar School in Australia. Steve has completed a Masters in Educational Leadership at the University of New South Wales. Class Time Term 2 Jan - Mar 2020 39