I have no need to convince you that the role of the teacher is one of the most complex that we have in the world. You've been there, you've done that. You understand the complexity of all of the things going on in the world of the teacher. , being a leader of teachers is even more complex, and this program is built around supporting middle leaders, especially new and aspiring middle leaders to get the best foundation in a range of areas, skill sets, mindset in particular, that will assist in shi
fting you through progressively to become a very effective leader, hopefully maybe being a senior leader in your later years. This program has been born out of work that I've been conducting with middle liters since 2006, and that heritage and the DNA of that work over the journey lives in this program and in my work with middle liters in a range of contexts, countries, and situations, I've seen three constant problems persist with the middle leader cohort. Especially for new and young, even asp
iring middle leaders, there is a narrative that goes on in the minds of these people that says, who am I? When I've got a team of people, some of whom have been ex principals, maybe. And most of whom are older and more experienced than I, who am I to guide them? Who am I to, to instruct them? Who am I to challenge them? Now, this mindset is absolutely unnecessary and even damaging in terms of leadership confidence. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. It undermines the outcomes of leadership that we
all aspire to. And so it's one of those elements that we address significantly in this program towards leadership confidence. Addressing that voice in the head that says, who are you to be here? And actually reframing your approach to be really confident in the value that you bring as a new middle leader. Another common problem that I see, and this is universal, I think for most humans, but especially those who are in positions of leading a teacher team, and that's the issue of managing conflic
t. Most people, uh, including those who are new middle leaders, are conflict averse. And respond at either end of the scale, either by being too assertive or running away and hiding in a cupboard somewhere. And you'll see this in the following slide that I describe the progression, if you like, of a middle liter through this particular dimension. What we wanna do here is shift the approach in the disposition and the surrounding skillset to leverage the challenge for its opportunity and for its i
nnovation. There's nothing wrong with conflict. We deal with conflict all of the time, but creating cultures where the conflict remains cognitive around ideas and actions, and very much away from conflict around personality. We can then start to create the opportunity where the ecosystem of a conflict can result in significant develop innovation and new outcomes. The final problem that I see that's very common is this somewhat naive idea. As new leaders come into being a leader, thinking that th
ey are responsible for everything, the uh, motivation. The drive, the outcomes, the agenda, the process, and that this becomes a burden to carry. It's like pushing a heavy wheelbarrow up a muddy hill, and you slide back and it's, you get caked in the mud and it's just not very pleasant. And in fact, once we release the shackles of this burden by both a mindset and a skillset, We enable the new leader, the developing leader, to become more facilitative rather than command and control. And so we w
anna move from the officer in charge type persona through to being someone who can craft, create and drive collaboration. And the tools and the mindsets that we develop in this particular part of the program really release the potential of our new young leaders to begin to have serious influence on the development of a team. And its. So in many ways this slide represents the big why of this program to help emergent and new leaders move through these three channels upwards in this progression lad
der, if you like, through confidence, challenge, and collaboration. And if we take a look at the first ladder in particular, we'll have a range of dispositions and self narratives around the legitimacy of the leader in this particular situation. . If you're a doubter, then you have a solid belief that you shouldn't be here. You're a complete imposter. But this is completely debilitating and reduces any effectiveness that you might have as a leader in this role. I guess in this particular place,
you are faced with a decision as to whether to stay a leader and develop or move away and not be a leader. In many ways, this slide represents the big Y for this program where we look at these three problem sets and we then rework them as opportunities for development. So there's the vertical of confidence, the one of challenge, and the one of building collaborative skills. You could see this is a rubric, if you like, and in looking at this, you'll be able to place where you fit in each of these
three domains at the moment and where your aspiration might be. . If you look at the vertical, that's all about confidence, it starts at the very bottom where people have no belief that they are in the right place as a leader, and they are completely debilitated by this. Sense of I'm an imposter in this role. And as we progress up through that, the belief of I'm in the right place. I have the legitimacy to be a leader in this context grows and that foundation, a deep foundation of confidence st
arts to build over time. And we progress through the hesitant to the emerging to the confident contributor all the way up through to the fearless leader. and I must say the fearless leader is not entirely a hundred percent immune to self-doubt. In fact, there's an element of self-doubt that's healthy that we always need others around us, helping us reframe our approach and adjust the way things are going. If we look at the second column in particular where challenge and conflict are the theme, t
hen we start. The most averse people at the bottom who cannot cope with any level of conflict and do what they can to calm, troubled waters at the expense of growth and innovation. It's much more about, I'm super uncomfortable with conflict and dissonance and therefore, I'm gonna make sure that it just never appears. As we progress up through this particular ladder, you can see that we move through, um, conflict avoidance to problem solving, to embracing challenge, and being a conflict master, i
f you like, of being truly open to the opportunity of conflict and having a big influence in shaping the nature of that conflict so that it's not involving the personal. but it's involving outcomes, approaches, actions, and thoughts effectively. . So that's a tank of development that we'll go through in particular. And in the collaboration side, you can see that we have people who started that command and control level, the authoritarian, I'm the officer in charge, even if it's the only way I kn
ow to be, and that's what I think I need to be as a new leader. That's something that will progress our way through from micromanaging where there's a lack of trust through to beginning collaboration and using the protocols and the tools of collaboration through to actively building team through cultural development. And finally being at a, a true champion at creating and managing high performing teams. I'd love to know, as I pause for a moment here, in each of these verticals, what color are. W
here did you identify yourself or as a leader of the people who you would like to have developed? Where do you see your people in these three progression ladders? I've mentioned mindset, and mindset is at the core of all of this. In many ways, the way programs can be developed can sit around the signin model where the simple, how do I fix a leaking tap is. Uh, in an asynchronous self-paced course type structure, it's fairly low level. There's not a big gap in skillset, and there's no mindset cha
nge. When I start to need to move into a significantly new domain of work, I'll need an expert. There's no real mindset change yet, but I've got a load of new skillsets and approaches, so I need an expert that's in the complicated domain for the signif, A model. When there is a mindset shift required, that mindset creates a glass ceiling, if you like, and limits the use of integration of the transfer of new skillsets. So I might learn new skillsets, but I don't employ them because the underlying
mindset, the underlying narrative, prevents me from taking full advantage of those skills and opportu. . So this program significantly addresses mindset of young people, young leaders, and fact, any leader to be honest. Uh, and once we clear the mindset, then we've got the opportunity to take full leverage of the skills and tools and protocols and processes that will learn in this particular, um, program. To do this, we need one-to-one coaching. An asynchronous course won't do this for you. A c
ourse with live group sessions won't do this substantially, but one-to-one coaching does. And I've had numbers of conversations where people have big imposter syndrome dispositions that have been, um, dismantled by our coaching process, even situations. Normally a leader is sound in their approach and disposition and impact, but particular situations cause all of that to dissolve away and that is addressed through the one-to-one coaching as well. So then the image behind me of breaking the glass
ceiling with the hammer is all about that mindset shift that occurs through the length of this program. So now we've got to the what of the course, and I'm not gonna read each of these out. You can see them and glance at them and get them quite quickly. Now, this is a substantial program that will occur over four months or more, depending on scheduling. And this is mapped to the time it takes for the brain to change, which is generally three months or more. It's also time, specifically now to b
egin the journey of development well before the start of the new academic year in the Northern Hemis. So as we start this work before the end of this current year, move it a little bit into the summer holidays and we'll have some opportunities to connect, particularly one-to-one coaching. and then continuing to support our new and young leaders as they land in role and provide further coaching and mentoring. As that happens, this then becomes a program of significant opportunity for really devel
oping our young leaders. I look forward to you yourself as a young leader or your team joining me in this program. So please, if you have further comments or questions. Reach out to me by email or book a call with me for 30 minutes. I can take you through, explain the design a bit further if you have questions that need answering. Looking forward to seeing you or your team on this program. Take care. Stay well.
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