It’s the last week of half term and it’s a Wednesday evening CPD slot.  Together the group are focusing on Being at Our Best (from our shared book, Leadership Plain and Simple by Steve Radcliffe), an idea we take really seriously within Leadership Applied. The room is a wonderful mixture of teachers, teaching assistants and SLT from 10 different schools . Some teams have deliberately arrived en-masse with the specific intention of understanding themselves more deeply as a group.

As part of Leadership Applied, we see enormous power in the knowledge of what we’re like at our best and what we’re like when we’re just surviving. This knowledge gives us greater opportunity to make clear decisions over how we think and act –  we know this underpins effective leadership. This power is amplified enormously when this knowledge is shared with our colleagues  and when we use this knowledge to enable ourselves and others to be individually and collectively at our best more of the time. It’s a great contributor to building those Big Relationships.

To open the session we initially ask the questions:  ‘Why are you here?’, ‘What do you really want from this?’. We acknowledge that some might have arrived by choice, others by request.  We know it’s crucial to be open and honest about the purpose or goals we have for any time spent together.  We also think it’s important to model honesty and clear intent.

The room responds with real honesty – many highlight the deliberate choice of arriving together to connect or reconnect as a team.  Others state their own reasons but all are acknowledged and considered.

We believe in leadership at all levels and the fact that this same learning can be applied regardless of position or role, points out its universal application. In fact, we deliberately didn’t introduce ourselves as ‘positions’ – this is not necessary or helpful where leadership is a state of mind not a job title.  It’s important that we model what we believe.

The session deliberately builds with activities and structured talk. Real application rather than role play helps ensures the learning process is valuable. There are clear time limits and high expectations of everyone are explicit and unapologetic. Learning is taken seriously and this is lived out through clear explanation, high quality resources and genuine focus. As part of Leadership Applied we recognise the power of structured dialogue, clear questions and a protected opportunity to talk openly and be properly listened to. The permission that’s attached to this is crucial for success – this is clearly an environment in which these conversations are worthwhile.  The next step is to create a similar environment back in school.

At the end of the session we ensure there is a real commitment. Participants are expected to commit out-loud to their partner.  There is a gap task to ensure continuous practice of the learning and consolidation of today’s thinking.

And although it’s now nearly 6pm, and the session has finished, teams still remain talking, discussing and taking the opportunity to properly connect.

Liz Barratt Lead Associate, Transform Trust