What steps should we take to ensure leadership in primary schools is at its best in 2018?
2017 will have brought its successes and achievements and no doubt some difficulties and challenges, so you may be asking yourself, ‘what can I do this year to make progress in my school?’
The good news is that positive change is not only possible, but within your control, as all action starts with you. You have the choice and the power to make a significant difference to your school and particularly to those you influence – both directly and indirectly.
So how can you empower yourself and make that difference?
- It starts with a personal vision. Decide for yourself who you want to be and what you want to achieve. Listen to your own intuition, your own inner voice and it will help you find the answers.
- The next step is to encourage the staff in your school to develop their own vision for personal learning and development. The energy and enthusiasm created will become a springboard for achieving the school’s overall objectives.
- Recognise your own and your staff’s strengths and abilities. Leaders who focus on supporting and challenging others to fulfill their potential gain a strong sense of meaning and purpose and you will both engaging and motivating.
- It’s also important to surround yourself with like-minded people who will support you.
- Remember to be kind to yourself and to those who you meet as often we are too hard on ourselves. When you care for your staff they will care about the school.
- Spend some time planning your goals and with the right perspective you can focus on opportunities and possibilities that will bring about positive change. Be clear on your priorities as to be successful ‘less is often more’. Too many initiatives will exhaust your staff
Do you know that your greatest gift is your own free will and you can choose the way that you think and behave in other words to have a growth mind-set? When you have clarity on your goals you can then pull from your staff the contribution they would like to make to your school’s mission.
Sometimes we fear the future and see all too clearly the obstacles in our path however, but we can empower ourselves by living in the present moment, having the courage to take action by taking one step at a time. If we do this inevitably we will move forward towards our desired outcomes.
So in 2018, engage enthusiastically with your challenges, be empowered, excel in all you do and you will help yourself and your school create a positive way forward.
Continue the Conversation on leadership in primary schools:
If you would like to continue the conversation about leadership in primary schools, you can find me on Twitter:@lesduggan or alternatively contact the Focus Office on 01457 821 818. If you would like to enquire about inset consultancy related to Leadership, please click here.
5 Steps to Building a High Performance Coaching Culture
Successful Lives Primary Programme
Coaching for Success
Building Resilience
The 7 Steps To Creating Highly Successful Lives
Les is a highly experienced one-to-one executive coach, facilitator and leader. He is one of the founding Directors of Developing Potential Ltd, a not for profit company set up with Olympian Dr David Hemery CBE to focus on high performance in Business, Education and Sport.
