Your approach to developing middle leaders in school is focused on the wrong thing.
Just because a particular leadership tactic or classroom management technique worked for you – doesn’t mean it will work for every teacher.
No – I’m not saying there aren’t valid techniques and tactics.
I’m saying that focusing on improving weaknesses is a waste of energy.
Most of the teacher training I’ve attended is about identifying and improving areas of weakness. A bit like “if you have this problem, then do this and it will be solved”.
At worst, It sometimes left me feeling tired, disempowered, and unappreciated…
…through to complete indifference…
…ending up at feeling as if I didn’t learn anything new at best.
I remember sitting in one session listening to a ‘motivational speaker’ share his story about ‘overcoming adversity’. He presented a lot of platitudes (most of which I’d heard) and then said he’d written a book.
My eyes rolled so much they were in the back of my head.*
Most teacher training doesn’t acknowledge the unique set of talents and personalities that are already in the room amongst staff – and then build on that.
Training could start from a position of appreciating everyone’s unique strengths and talents.
Identifying what’s wrong that staff can improve is easy for middle and senior leaders.
(It’s also easy for a profession that’s hyper-focused on ‘Even Better If’ – which is code for ‘the weakness you need to address’).
Coaching is harder.
Thinking from people’s strengths is harder.
Identifying and asking people to do more of what they’re good at – that’s almost impossible without deep self-awareness and a framework.
The challenge of leadership is not only having people ‘buy-in’ to a vision – it’s having staff take ownership and engage with it.
Institutions say they are ‘strengths-based’ without a definition of ‘strengths’
They pay lip service to being strengths-based by creating values statements of platitudes, running ‘team-building’ activities, or updating the ‘ethos-statement’ on their website.
It means little because the school and its senior leadership don’t give teachers practical ways (or support to identify practical ways) to connect personally with the bigger school purpose.
Deputy Heads aim to get ‘buy-in’ from staff by doing surveys aimed at getting consensus and then creating inspiring presentations.
And it’s not as effective as it could be.
It’s not the fault of leadership.
It’s the lack of an effective framework for identifying and empowering the strengths of staff.
It’s the lack of an effective methodology to identify and develop the unique combination of talent that is in every single school’s staff body.
Just as there’s a shift in teaching to embrace coaching instead of line-managing, I’m proposing a movement towards integrating strengths into everything a school does.
My perspective is based on a deep interest in self-development that is practical.
I’m the person that reads the book and then does what it says.
I also enjoy reading and engaging with teaching literature and research.
So finding out about a cost-effective, research-based framework to allow people to discover their strengths matched my interests perfectly.
Especially as it’s made a game-changing day-to-day difference in areas as diverse as my approach to teaching and my marriage.
The framework is Gallup’s CliftonStrengths.
Its originator Don Clifton started with a question “What would happen if we studied what is right with people instead of focusing on what is wrong with them?”
I like this framework so much – I certified as a coach with this approach – funding it myself.
I think this framework has the potential to alter entire schools – perhaps even our entire profession.
But it’s more than just completing an online assessment and learning some terms. It’s easy to do a self-development course, report, or book – and then the material stays in a drawer – or when we get back to the day-to-day of planning lessons it’s too hard to implement…
Becoming strengths-based teachers requires a re-think of our entire philosophy of training.
To develop middle leaders, focusing on improving weaknesses is a waste of energy.
It’s because most senior leaders and teacher training simply shares ideas that work – from their experience.
My metaphor is the ‘if you have a hammer everything is a nail.’
I extend it by saying ‘not everyone has a hammer – some have screwdrivers (so they see screws) and others have spanners (so they see nuts and bolts).
If you’ve got a trainer or senior leader speaking…they’re saying “I’m a hammer, and I see a nail, so if you hammer it will work”.
Except they’re talking to a room full of teachers with spanners, hammers, and screwdrivers.
CliftonStrengths training and coaching meets teachers where they are, acknowledges and uplifts who they are, and provides specific actions to grow.
It supports the creation of a strengths-based culture and all the benefits.
Photo by The Climate Reality Project on Unsplash
*Terrible INSET is probably another post topic…
James D'Souza 