The first one being my Middle Management Leadership course run by Murray Fletcher. The main key points that I feel I have gotten out of the first two days are:
- reflecting on the type of leader and personality as a leader I have. Using the activity 'Who is Waka' based on thinking by Suzette Lovely. This required us to select words that we best associated with ourselves. Once completed we counted the group we had the most old whether it be A, B, C or D. I ended up being mostly C's which linked to being a Collaborator.
"They are process-orientated team players,and seek areas of agreement. As respectful listeners, they strive to facilitate involvement, build consensus and promote group stability - all in a relaxed atmosphere. Collaborators value their personal and professional relationships with others. However, their unhurried style can be frustrating to those who prefer structure and results. After all, their focus is on process, not product! Collaborators tend to shy away from confrontation and conflict . Such avoidance may lead to bigger problems later. People describe collaboraors as adaptable, patient, considerate, relaxed and good natured".
I'm not sure I agree with all of this description, but I certainly see elements of my leadership style in this, especially the points about relationships, shying away from conflict, being a good listener and facilitating group involvement are certainly areas that I can relate to as things I'm aware of and things I do.
Murray continues to reiterate that we are there as listeners, not to cast judgements, we are not there to fix it. I talked to him about the struggles I often feel being generally a single person department, as my other team member only has two hours in my department and I feel awkward about taking up her time when she wears so many other hats in the school. He suggested I look at how I structure my communication and ensure that it is specific, and perhaps look at different medias to share ideas and the level of communication so we are both on the same page.
I found his tips on structuring meetings below very interesting and liked how it was based around celebrating the successes and things done well, which are often not talked about. I will certainly be trying to implement this more into my meetings.
RUNNING OF MEETINGS
celebrate and share the learning 6mins
Share children/student issues or tracking of high risk students 3min
Share info on department admin sort of stuff if you don't get to this then that's placed on google site
Focus ons - where to, work ons,
Understand urgent vs important getting the balance
what's important now
What matters now
What would be nice if we got there
What can wait
