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
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