Middle Leadership Blog Series Practice Post 2

In this scenario, when someone is so keen, it is very hard as a leader to dismiss them or say that you are too busy. Most leaders always want to be accommodating and give time to others. However, it seems that this teacher has a dependency or a learned helplessness that you may be encouraging.  

For the benefit of the teacher themselves, you want to be able to develop their independence, so that they have the confidence to use their own initiative and be self-reflective. Therefore, the next time this happens, I would suggest that you as the leader are a little more assertive (with a smile!), using a commanding (coercive) approach – kindly. Share that you are very interested in what they have to say, but you are unable to chat right now. Ask them to email you to arrange a time when you can have a more focused conversation. This way, you have shown that you still have time for them, but it is going to be when it is more convenient to you. 

Once you arrange this meeting with that teacher, the coaching style could then be adopted. As long as you are the leader who is just verifying any query they have, they will always be dependent on you as they see you as their mentor. However, if you use coaching and develop their skills to be able to think for themselves and empower them to take their own initiative, you will develop their independence. I always find the GROW model is a simple and effective strategy when coaching and the results I have achieved have been very successful. Many teachers have thanked me for opening up their own minds to solutions they didn’t know they had.  

GROW is an acronym for Goal/s, Reality, Options, Way Forward.   

G - In the initial stage, start by asking what they want to achieve from the conversation, or what they would like to chat about, i.e., their goal or aim.  

R – Then move onto asking them what the current reality is, and why it is important to them – i.e., what is happening now.  

O – Once you have established this, the most substantial part of the conversation is about discussing and debating what the relevant options are to achieving the initial goal. Depending on the teacher, you may need to step in with some possible options, but I would always encourage you to provide a choice to the teacher, so they always feel that it is them who has made the decision and feels empowered.  

W – Finally, once all possible options are discussed, ask the teacher how they would like to proceed – i.e., what is the way forward from here? 

Hopefully, a few of those conversations will significantly reduce the amount of long-winded corridor conversations and move your teaching team from dependent to independent.  

With this scenario, it seems that you have two options or two directions you can go in. 

1. Follow the initial instructions and work out the fairest way to provide teacher judgements as per the deadline.  

1. Speak with the senior leader again and try to negotiate – i.e., Lead up. 

1. Or, perhaps a third option – whereby you do 1. first to demonstrate compliance, and then follow up with 2. in an attempt to try and influence different future ways of working.  

I’m sure that you are already thinking of a specific senior leader, and you will know whether they are approachable for negotiation and whether they would be open to a further discussion. Equally, you will probably know whether their request is flexible, or whether it is due to an external request and is, therefore, not flexible. This is the relational aspect of being a middle leader within a school and working with people you are familiar with. There will be certain norms that have been established in the hierarchical leadership context, and you will be aware of how flexible these are, or not.  

However, the bottom line is, that in this scenario you don’t know why this data is needed within two weeks as the senior leader did not share that information with you. 

Therefore, let’s consider what leadership styles are most appropriate for option 2 – ‘Leading up’. 

Although the leader is perceived to be using a commanding style, you may wish to approach your leader in a more affiliative way. Perhaps share your own feelings about the request and ask if it would be possible to speak with the senior leader again. Sharing a degree of vulnerability should evoke a response from your senior leader, so they agree to meet with you again. It will be important to establish what the vision is with respect to the request (i.e., the why), encouraging your senior leader to adopt a more visionary style. Once you understand the vision, you could then request a coaching conversation in order to support you in this task and new role. Alternatively, you may request the senior leader to conduct some learning walks or lesson observations with you, so you know you are making the correct judgments. This way you are encouraging the senior leader to adopt a more pacesetting/mentoring role. Either way, you are encouraging a particular leadership style from your senior leader based on what you need, and effectively communicating how you would like to be led.  

With this approach, it is also important to consider your own integrity within the ‘sandwich leadership’ scenario and whether what you are asking of your senior leader, you would be willing to do for your team.