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MINIPD CORE COURSES TO SUPPORT LEADING AT ALL LEVELS

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MINIPD CORE COURSES TO SUPPORT LEADING AT ALL LEVELS

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Go to MiniPD Core Courses to find out more about the course above.

Key Words: Strategic Leadership; Collaborative Leadership; Distributed Leadership; Teacher Leadership; Student Leadership.

- Bookmark this page - Jump into the card that appeals, or access content in daily bite-size chunks.

- Scroll horizontally along. Scroll each card vertically. Click links and images for take-aways.

Thank you to MiniPD Coaches, IB and Non-IB educators, who have co-constructed this calendar with the MiniPD Team.

Stay safe. Stay well. Stay connected.

The MiniPD Team
Get in touch: hello@minipd.com
minipd.com

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MiniPD Core Course - Desining the Family Journey

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Cultivating Leaders in International Schools

There are ways to overcome the revolving door of leadership in international schools to avoid a lack of sustainability in programs and systems.
* Create a succession plan that includes teacher and leader mentorship
*Communicate the plan clearly and simply to all stakeholders.
*Model the role of a mentor by cultivating leaders at all levels to lead tasks and projects
*Encourage ideas to improve systems and programs

Add your thoughts to the #MiniPDchat on Twitter

Dr. Ilene Winokur

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How International Schools Cultivate Leadership Skills

Almost everyone dreams of being a leader. However, not many people have what it takes to be one. Some essential skills are required to rise above the rest and be king of the hill. However, international schools do not just seek to educate, they seek to raise up the leaders of tomorrow. Here's how.

Organization & Management

To transform their vision into reality, leaders need to build an organized and effective system. This is achieved through meticulous attention to detail, realistic target-setting and precise scheduling. According to the Harvard Business Publishing Report on Leadership, good leaders possess a talent for systems thinking, viewing organizations and environments as complex, interdependent systems.

Effective leaders have the foresight to think strategically about long-term consequences rather than immediate gains. This includes the ability to delegate tasks efficiently and assign them to the most appropriate individuals based on their distinctive talents or skill-sets. In addition to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of others, leaders need to be aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, and optimize their team to complement their abilities.

International schools differ from traditional schools in that they actively seek to improve each individual student's future employability . There is a large emphasis on imparting practical skills. Some schools have internship programmes that give students real world experience early on. Additionally, international schools are usually less rigid and 'structured' compared to traditional schools. However, this is a positive because it encourages students to be independent and disciplined. Students are given the responsibility to be accountable for their own academics. Hence, they quickly learn the importance of good management skills and organizational abilities.

Innovation & Flexibility

The real world is not set in black and white. A variety of unpredictable situations can and will occur. Some of these issues will not be solved through traditional means. Hence, a combination of critical, analytical and creative problem solving skills allows one to think outside the box. You need to be open to consistently learning new things, have the courage to embrace radical approaches and take the road less travelled, and adapt to changing trends. This is especially important in today's fast-paced, ever-evolving world.

In fact, researchers at Harvard business school have found that embracing curiosity, makes individuals less likely to commit confirmation bias (the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories while ignoring evidence that opposes it), and stereotyping people. Thus, leaders who are open minded will be able to generate greater alternatives and make more rational decisions.

International Schools have a variety of art programmes including art, theater and music. Though many traditional schools consider these supplementary, international schools value the importance of cultivating creativity. Thus, these programmes are not just taught by regular teachers but experts in the field with years of experience. By giving students the tools and confidence to express their individuality and passion, international schools encourage inventive and original thinking.

Communication

A good leader is able to convey their message clearly and concisely. Many successful captains of industry such as Richard Branson and Warren Buffet credit their success to their communication skills. This goes beyond the words articulated and includes non-verbal cues, such as tone of voice and body language; and it is not just a one-way street. The communication process requires two or more people. This is where the act of fully concentrating and responding to what is being said - or active listening - is essential.

Receiving feedback and addressing criticisms help individuals and organizations grow stronger and better. In contrast, another survey found participants rating effective communication skills as the most important factor in making an executive "promotable," more important than ambition, education, and capacity for hard work.

As mentioned above, many international schools have arts programmes including theater or performance arts. Other than nurturing creativity, these programmes allow students to develop effective communication skills. This also includes non-verbal communication skills. Hence, they are able to project and convey their message in the best means possible.There is also a large amount of collaboration and discussion in even normal academic courses.

Students are encouraged to actively work together to complete projects, presentations and assignments together. In addition, many international schools have intensive language programmes. Other than English, students will have the opportunity to learn a multitude of world languages such as French, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese and so much more. More than that, international schools have a exceptionally diverse student body. Hence, international school students interact with peers from a variety of different cultures early and learn to adapt their communication style to each one.

Hence, we see how international schools are the best place to ensure your child does not just grow into an exceptional individual but a visionary of the future. So, go on ahead and take a look at our list of international schools today and turn your child into a leader of tomorrow!

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How International Schools Cultivate Leadership Skills - The Global Scholars

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Almost everyone dreams of being a leader. However, not many people have what it takes to be one. Some essential skills are required to rise above the rest and be king of the hill. However, international schools do not just seek to educate, they seek to raise up the leaders of tomorrow.

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Identifying growth for leadership skills

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Identifying Growth for Leadership Skills

Betty Molerot, MiniPD Coach, writes,

Which strengths and areas of development will you identify? Use Ash’s guidance on how to do a swot analysis and the leadership skills, such as the ones above offered by the IB program:

Strategic thinking

Leadership mindset

Reflection

Learning

Culture

Insightfulness

Relationship

And to go further, how about connecting on minipd.com to share our analysis?

Betty Molerot

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Join the MiniPD Twitter slow chat

Leading at All Levels
@FariaMiniPD #MiniPDchat

The MiniPD Team

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Leadership - Take the Risk

Heidi Oxley-Whitnell, MiniPD Coach, writes,

Leadership is about not being afraid. How do we role model to our students that we are good leaders and willing to take risks? We are encouraged to try something new every day. But do we, and how will that help us be better leaders?

Stepping out of your comfort zone will help you be more innovative, and creative and help you come up with innovative ideas.

'You Miss 100% Of The Shots You Don't Take.' as Wayne Gretzky said. Starting is hard, but without that first step, we become complacent and stay within our comfort zone. Like all challenges have a plan.

Set your intentions. Talk about your plan and surround yourself with support. Who Consider who will hold you accountable and motivate you.

Be prepared to learn. With every risk, there will be elements of reward and failure. Celebrate your successes however small, and reflect on the what and whys of things that are not going to plan.

Evaluate. Get feedback every step of the way, open your self and be prepared to feel vulnerable. Be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Take the first step. Have their confidence to go for it. Not just dipping your toe in, but taking that first big jump.

Consider

What is something new that you have tried today?

How are you going to challenge yourself this month?

How are you role modelling leadership to your students?

Heidi Oxley-Whitnell

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In June, we had the last ride with @Jason McBride, a guiding light of @UWCThailand over the previous four years and a keen member of the Phuket Peloton, a UWCT cycling group made up predominantly of middle-aged men in lycra. (MAMIL).

The ride was meant to be 100km around the island of Phuket. However, as the group consisted of various fitness levels and experiences, it soon became apparent that this may take all day. Something that many of us had not anticipated as we were averaging under 20km an hour. Not because we were not capable, but because of the mechanicals, coffee stops, the miscommunications about who was leading and which way we were going.

It was great to chat about anything and everything during these rides, and this particular week was no different. Or was it. There have been very few times that a conversation has got me thinking about my life and how I can take an idea and see how I can implement it in my teaching of @Service-learning and @CAS.

During the ride, I was introduced to the concept of Misogi. So, upon researching it, I found that @Misogi (Jap., 'pouring water [over] the body'). An act of ritual purification. A form of harae, misogi is technically (though now not restricted to) a ritual performed at a river or seashore for cleansing pollution from the body, often as part of preparations for a more meaningful religious ceremony.

As I read about this, I am drawing breath, as someone who dives with a wetsuit on, even in the warmest country, and who felt physically sick as I did the ice bucket challenge, the thought of anything to do with cold water sends shivers down my spine.

Jesse Itzler talks about the concept of a Misogi Challenge in a podcast describes it as "The notion around the misogi is you do something so hard one time a year that it has an impact the other 364 days of the year." He continued, "Put one big thing on the calendar that scares you, that you never thought you could do, and go out and do it."

Having competed in 10km open water swims, I have cycled across Tibet, completed 1000km on my bike in a month, and challenged myself to various fitness prog; I am not afraid of a challenge. However, I had to ask, were these worthy of being a Misogi challenge?

In reading that, the main principles behind a misogi challenge are :

You can't train for it - the uncertainty of the challenge is meant to be part of the difficulty and something that needs to be overcome.

It should be really tough. You should be genuinely unsure as to whether or not you can complete it.

It shouldn't be something you pay for or publicise. The challenge should be designed by you and for you.

So the first year I did the 10km open water, I paid for it, so that has already broken one of the "rules". It was part of the Oceanman race series. However, I had not trained for it, and some might think this is foolish, swimming 5km out to an island and 5km back without training. But it was more the case I couldn't train due to a road cycle accident 6 weeks earlier, which left me with fractured vertebras and broken ribs. It was painful to walk and agony to swim. So being told that I should not do it was like a red rag to a bull. I was very unsure, but in this case, stubbornness got the better of doubt. So is meeting two out of three rules ok?

Last week I retold that story to my Grade 11 Diploma students to discuss the CAS learning outcomes. Focusing on Learning outcome 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
A new challenge may be an unfamiliar experience or an extension of an existing one. The newly acquired or developed skills may be shown through experiences that the student has not previously undertaken or through increased expertise in an established area. · participates in an experience that demands an appropriate personal challenge; this could be with · new or familiar experiences · is willing to become involved in unfamiliar environments and situations · acquires new skills and abilities · increases expertise in an established area · shows newly acquired or developed skills or increased expertise in an established area.
We discussed what "challenge" meant to them. At this point, we were not talking just about CAS but about any challenging scenarios.

Now, it is essential to mention that the @UWC Thailand Grade 11 cohort is just 46 students from 29 different countries, 31 of them being new to the school. So for many, the fact that they had applied for UWC, flown in a plane, faced numerous PCR tests, were quarantined, moved into a boarding house, shared a room with another student (who could be from another country that they are in conflict with) and started the IB may have been one challenge too many for the year.

So, during the conversation, we talked about all sorts of experiences. How they demonstrated the ability to assess their problem-solving skills, the types of challenges, and how they considered instances that presented a struggle that they were able to solve or overcome. Our conversation then naturally went back to the Misogi challenge. Students discussed their own "misogi rules" and looked at what they could do in the up and coming future.

Asking themselves three questions

What is your misogi challenge? Be specific.

What do you need to do to make it happen?

How can we make it happen? Who is there to support you?

So I apologise to those who are "Misogi purest" and feel that I have watered down its principles. However, the challenge is a very personal concept; what is easy for you may be a real challenge for someone else.

What we want our students to learn from these challenges is that -

When failure knocks us down, the most challenging part begins. Now begins the opportunity to grow even more. These situations provide us with the chance to grow and will prepare us for what lies ahead. If you hide away from challenges now, you will never know what you are capable of.

Beneficial risks can help boost confidence, build camaraderie and develop self-awareness. Confronting fear and failure instils resiliency.

That there is support and guidance available - It is essential to support the students through the thought process of what and why they want to take on the challenge, knowing that they may not always get it right. Elizabeth Weybright, an assistant professor at Washington State University - As their brains develop, she notes teens sometimes acquire physical skills and strengths before they mentally grasp the consequences of their decisions. "They don't necessarily have those abilities to think through what might happen," she says. "It's like having a car with all gas and no brake".

Student X story
My own Misogi challenge would be completing a notorious 3 days kayak trip that I voluntarily signed up for, part of the @Duke of Edinburgh Silver award. One of Misogi's principles is the challenge is uncertain and can't be trained for; I also was not aware that the required adventure trip for the silver award would be Kayaking. I remember getting so seasick and exhausted that I told my supervisor that I was quitting on the first day. One part of me was sick and tired, but another part of me was excited to take on the challenge. So I took a pill each day, got on a boat and threw myself into the ocean again. Paddling and paddling until I reached the endpoint. This challenge shows that I found my weakness and overcame it. Moreover, it allowed me to see my potential and strength to achieve other challenges. I am thrilled to see what challenges I will be facing in the future. The exact words repeatedly come up - 'challenging' and 'rewarding' throughout the final interview and reflections.
Regardless of how big or small the accomplishment, these words resonate with many as they review their Misogi journey or challenge. A journey of memorable experiences that provides opportunities for self-determination and collaboration. Experiences that foster a sense of accomplishment, enjoyment, and unique benefits give them the confidence to achieve their life goals.

So what is your Misogi Challenge - Taking Risks and Crushing Your Comfort Zone

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What is your Misogi - a discussion with my grade 11 CAS students.

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In June, we had the last ride with @Jason McBride, a guiding light of @UWCThailand over the previous four years and a keen member of the Phuket Peloton, a UWCT cycling group made up predominantly of middle-aged men in lycra. (MAMIL).

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Getting into step with Accreditation
Preparing for accreditation/inspection?

Paul Richardson, MiniPD Coach, comments,

Increasingly, accreditation agencies are following the lead of inspections and focussing on how well the school is doing identifying development priorities, how involved is the school community as a whole and how effective are the schools mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating progress. Data is triangulated across the school and assumptions regularly tested.

The need for distributed leadership embedded throughout your organisation has never been greater and this topic aims to lead schools at all levels, through the process and the practice of ensuring engagement throughout.

Empowering the school community to understand the accreditation process, to take ownership and make it a living entity within the school.

Developing a deeper understanding of validation indicators, methods of evaluation, evidence gathering and working with accreditation agencies in the cause of whole school improvement.

Paul Richardson

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Leadership at all levels: Teacher Leadership

Leadership at all levels is a paradigm, in which regardless of your title, tenure or compensation, you relate to your company (school) as if "you own the joint." That is (basically), you generate ideas and make decisions from a place of ownership.

(Papadopoulos, 2016)

Connect with Nick Nwolisa on MiniPD

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

As a child in 1980, I heard Al Michaels count down the clock, "6, 5, 4"...and then in a chilling and dramatic tone say, "Do you believe in miracles!"

USA Hockey
1980 Olympic Winter Games

The U.S. Olympic hockey team had just accomplished the unbelievable: they defeated the Soviet Union team and went on to win the Olympic gold medal. It was indeed a miracle.This was a group of college kids from around the country, who previously had fiercely competed against each other and were about to compete again for spots in the NHL. By contrast, the Soviet team had many years of experience playing and even winning gold together. On this day in 1980, the U.S. team put their personal aspiration aside and united a nation that was much in need of a moment like this.

This sort of team effort can, and should, be applied to your business. But how do you inspire a group of people, like the US Olympic hockey team, to play for a bigger game and to think outside of their individual gain? It comes down to sharing a greater purpose and fostering " leadership at all levels."

Leadership at all levels: the what and the why

Leadership at all levels is a paradigm, in which regardless of your title, tenure or compensation, you relate to your company as if "you own the joint." That is, you generate ideas and make decisions from a place of ownership. This paradigm, which I learned while consulting at ThinkHuman, creates an environment around self-expression, self- organization, self-management and full accountability for results.

Evidence shows us that leadership at all levels not only wins gold medals, but it also creates stronger companies. Richard Feloni recently published an article that helps you understand why creating this environment should be one of your top priorities for 2016. In it, Feloni compares the weakness of a typical corporate structure to the resilience of structures that succeed in nature, such as the human body. In traditional corporate structures, employees operate out of compliance rather than self-management, meaning that they wait for management to generate direction and innovation. By contrast, the human body operates out of a self-managed model, and it is incredibly resilient and strong.

My experience working as an executive for a number of organizations and consulting with Fortune 500 companies has only confirmed these findings. These organizations all have the same goals: to drive, to thrive and to build towards something bigger. The ones that accomplish these goals are the ones with leadership at all levels.

Leadership at all levels: the how

As a leader, there are a few things you can do to foster this paradigm in your organization.

Create a higher purpose: This purpose should inspire people to play a game that is bigger than what is in front of them and bigger than their individual job descriptions or mandates.

In my experience, people are purpose-driven and choose to align with leaders who strive to make a difference. This is exactly what Herb Brooks was able to get the 1980 Olympic team to realize: they weren't just playing for a gold medal, they were playing a game that could unite a nation when it desperately needed to be united.

In a previous role as VP of sales at a technology company, I directly witnessed the effects of creating and communicating a purpose. During the process of growing from startup to successful IPO, our purpose of "Connecting the world collaboratively in order to do better business" was instrumental in creating alignment and inspiration. We all really believed this, and it is what propelled us to success.

Trust yourself and your team: Step back to let your team step into their leadership. As Pat Riley, the successful basketball coach and executive, once said: "A leader's responsibility is to create an environment where people and their talents can flourish.

I saw this done successfully when consulting a company with thousands of employees. With their purpose and values in place, they created an infrastructure in which each department, location and division established its own culture teams that had the ability to implement change in their respective levels -- everything from collaboration to productivity increased. This is a great example of what it looks like to create responsibilities, put people in those seats and watch them do the right thing.

This concept can sound scary to some, but under a trusting leader, people will step up in ways that matter. Your team will do the right thing for you, the company and its clients, because people want to make a difference, create an amazing experience for clients, be innovative and above all, they want to leave behind a legacy.

Just like the coach of the 1980 US Olympic hockey team created an environment where his talent could flourish, leaders need to do the same. When you commit to leadership at all levels, people start to believe in miracles and take ownership over their results. That's how your team can win its gold medal.

Entrepreneur Editors' Picks

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How a Culture of Leadership at ALL Levels Will Help Your Team Take Gold

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. As a child in 1980, I heard Al Michaels count down the clock, "6, 5, 4"...and then in a chilling and dramatic tone say, "Do you believe in miracles!" The U.S.

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Department Leaders:  Leading Change for a Culturally Responsive Curriculum

Alexia Uhia, MiniPD Coach, invites department leaders with teams to consider the development of a Unit under a culturally responsive curriculum:

Here I offer a simple analysis of a traditional MYP Spanish unit on food "We are what we eat" using some criteria of the "Rubric for a Culturally Responsive Curriculum Design" (Adapted from Jean Aguilar-Valdez, 2015).

The unit provides a range of possibilities for the students to lead and explore a more inclusive content to define the cultures of the target language.

What actions might we take for developing a culturally responsive curriculum?

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Culturally Responsive Curriculum - Spanish unit "Somos lo que comemos" (We are what we eat)

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Jump back into the MiniPD Twitter slow chat

Leading at All Levels
@FariaMiniPD #MiniPDchat

The MiniPD Team

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Mission Driven Student Leadership

Heidi Oxley - Whitnell, MiniPD Coach,  explains,

Your school mission statement is the GPS for your student's future, providing guidance and direction. The Mission determines a school culture and provides a focus for teachers with regard to strategy and professional development, and should provide a framework for student leadership. Do your student leadership programs encourage leadership that fits with your mission and values?

Mission-driven leadership comes from the heart and provides purpose, focus and guidelines to work within. Students are able to value the history and roots of the mission but as faculty, we have to provide the modern context for them to succeed.

To help provide a better GPS consider for your students consider

How well do you know your mission and values - What parts of your mission statement are you encouraging your students to demonstrate? Can you give examples? What are they doing well, and what needs to be improved?

Do you have a leadership framework or curriculum, does the curriculum align with your school mission. We can not explicit stydneys to know what to do, we need help and support them with guidance and a framework.

Enable - encourage students to be creative. Provide them with a range of creative thinking and systems thinking tools. Do you teach these skills?

Empower students - encourage them to work in partnership with faculty and local organisations. How do these organisations align with your school's mission?

Provide opportunities through a range of experiences - look at how these can be challenging. For example the Duke of Edinburgh Award Model United Nations and Round Square etc.

Accountability - how do we support, mentor and guide the students through the process. Who are their significant others who will meet, discuss and mentor their journey?

If we are in the pursuit of purpose we need to provide framework and support. To discuss more about how to make this happen reach out to Heidi Oxley - Whitnell via her Landing page on minipd.com.

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Melati Wijsen: A roadmap for young changemakers

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Activism is a tough job, especially for young people yearning for immediate change -- something climate activist Melati Wijsen has learned over ten years of pushing for environmental protection, starting at age 12 in her home on the island of Bali, Indonesia. How can young changemakers acquire the skills they need and keep from burning out?

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Tips for achieving the 5Ps levels of leadership

Here are some tips to help you achieve the 5Ps levels of leadership:

1. Ask for and employ constructive feedback.

2. Find your leadership style.

3. Accept leadership opportunities.

4. Find a mentor.

5. Develop leadership skills.

The 5Ps levels of leadership are: Position, Permission, Production, People development and Pinnacle.

(Click t o read more about the five P-levels of leadership)

Connect with Nick Nwolisa on MiniPD

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Building school culture

Paul Richardson, MiniPD Coach, writes,

Create that inclusive vision which gives real meaning to your school. Develop a sense of belonging and desire to shape the school vision fulfilling the needs of students, parents and staff.

Watch this video. Go to Paul Richardson's minipd.com landing page to book a coaching conversation.

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Great Reads for Leading at All Levels (5 -10 minute read)

Consider, what are effective leadership practices (at any level)? What can we do to develop shared leadership so everyone at all levels is working together to collaborate with purpose?

- Access more MiniPD Coach articles and resources by creating an account at no cost
- Get to know MiniPD Coaches experienced in language teaching and learning who can support you 1-on-1!

The MiniPD Team

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So, what are effective leadership practices (at any level)?
What can we do to develop shared leadership so everyone at all levels is working together to collaborate with purpose?

"Leadership at all levels is a paradigm, in which regardless of your title, tenure or compensation, you relate to your company as if 'you own the block'." (Papadopoulos, 2016)

Leadership Matters. So let's get straight to the point about why leadership matters in schools. To quote, Professor Alma Harris, Prof. of Educational Leadership at the Institute of Education, London, "Creating a leaderful school and developing capacity is likely to result in a greater impact on student learning." While Fullan writes, "The greatest influence on student progression in learning is having highly expert, inspired and passionate teachers and school leaders working together to maximize the effect of their teaching on all students in their care." (Fullan, 2015) So, cultivating a collaborative culture is critical so leadership at all levels can thrive.

So, what practices are effective to support leading at all levels? Take 5 minutes to scroll through daily strategies and resources for 'Leading at All Levels' or read a MiniPD Coach article below.

Student Leadership

Are we ready for the future - how can CAS support students in a changing world (part 1)? by Heidi Oxley-Whitnell, MiniPD Coach. In this article, Heidi asks, " When was the last time you considered how CAS was helping your students be future-ready? What skills are they developing, and are we providing opportunities for skills to become dispositions?" She writes, "Take some time to review the skills for the future and reflect on what you are doing." This is a great read for teachers of high school students whether you are following CAS or not. Heidi's follow up article, Are we ready for the future - how can CAS support students in a changing world (part 2)? introduces strategies to use to develop future-ready students looking through a CAS lens. Heidi, MiniPD Coach, has 30 years of experience across 6 international schools. Having fulfilled a number of roles from Head of Physical Education, Vice Principal of Student Life to CAS & Service Learning Coordinator.

Teacher Leadership

Cultivating Teacher Leadership at All Levels by Dr. Ilene Winokur, MiniPD Coach. Ilene writes, "There is no mention of where in the hierarchy of an organization a leader emerges, so why do we usually think that a leader needs to be in a role on the top steps of the hierarchy? Schools are organizations with many examples of leaders at lower levels of the hierarchy like teachers and staff that demonstrate leadership. They should be mentored by leaders to build capacity and sustainability." Read more in Ilene's article as she outlines key traits in team members who show leadership potential. Ilene, MiniPD Coach, is a professional development specialist and coach supporting teachers globally including refugee teachers. She is also author of the book, Journey to Belonging: Pathways to Well-Being.

Documenting Teacher Leadership by Betty Molerot, MiniPD Coach. In her article Betty highlights , "Teachers every day demonstrate a wealth of resourceful skills to facilitate students' learning." She asks us to consider questions such as, "How can these [skills] be evidenced as leadership? How can leadership at all levels be promoted in education settings? What does an effective leader in a classroom look like?" and "Where will your leadership take you next?" Betty has 15 years of international teaching experience and advocates for the importance of building partnerships, relationships, and connections among dedicated educators in order to serve with equity and justice the diversity of all communities.

Driving Teacher Leadership: Empowering teachers through agency and differentiation by Fernando Ramirez, MiniPD Coach. In this article, Fernando prompts us to consider, "If we agree that applying differentiation strategies and promoting agency in students will help them remain more engaged and motivated, fulfil their potential and improve their performance, would it not be fair to think that applying the same principles to teachers would have the same positive impact on their capacity to succeed?" Fernando is PYP Coordinator and aims to inspire and empower students through concept-based, inquiry-driven teaching and learning practices that will allow them to become self-regulated, life-long learners. He has led numerous workshops hosted by organisations including the IBO and Managebac. Read his story here.

Leading Dynamic Change by Kristy Beam, MiniPD Coach. In this article Kristy identifies how "leaders [can] break down barriers to successfully lead organizational change." Through the metaphor of captaining a ship, she provides helpful insights into how leaders can use leadership models to navigate change in order to avoid "everyone getting seasick." Kristy calls upon leaders to be transformational where both leaders and followers motivate and support each other's growth. Leaders might want to learn about or review John Kotter's 8 Steps for Leading Change to guide successful change processes. Kristy is the Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning with 24 years in the field of education. She believes that schools must move beyond random acts of improvement to targeted, intentional moves, and helps educators examine data to create and implement strategic plans to achieve their goals.

Leadership Matters - at all levels. So, we leave you to consider these uplifting words from Hargreaves et al, " Leadership should lift us up not drag us down. We should be shooting for the moon, not racing to the top. We should be stimulating and supporting our teams and their leaders to be as creative as we want our students to be. We should be collaborating with other schools for mutual advantage and greater good rather than trying to vanquish them in a win-lose competition. We should be combining good data with good cooperative judgment rather than being driven only by the data in everything we do. We should pull our people forward whenever we can by inspiring them. " (Hargreaves et al, 2014).

Join the Conversation

We invited educators from around the world to join us in a Coaches-in-Conversation on our theme, Leading at All Levels 2022. The recording is shared below.

Wanting to further the conversation?

Needing a thought partner? A critical friend?

Schedule one-to-one and small group coaching sessions with any of our inspirational MiniPD Coaches mentioned above. They can support you and your team to nudge your practices forward.

Want to learn more?
Leading at All Levels

Buck, A., (2018). Leadership Matters 3.0. How Leaders at all levels can create great schools . Woodbridge. John Catt Educational Ltd.

MiniPD Coaches (August, 2022). Leading at All Levels - Strategies from Educators

Fullan, M., & Quinn, J., (2015). Coherance, Putting the Right Drivers in Action for Schools, Districts and Systems. Corwin

Hargreaves, A., Boyle., A and Harris., A. (2014). Uplifting Leadership: How Organizations, Teams and Communities Raise Performance. Jossey-Bass.

Papadopoulos, N., (2016). How a Culture of Leadership at ALL Levels Will Help Your Team Take Gold. [Online]. Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/271411 (Accessed 07/29/22)

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You will have access to information on live events and our bite-size action-based calendar created for, with and by our community of international school educators.

You can access articles published by MiniPD experienced Coaches, IB and non-IB international school educators, on topics that matter to you.

You can connect with our experienced Coaches quickly and easily for ongoing one-to-one supportive conversations.

What topics matter to you?

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Great Reads for Leading at All Levels - MiniPD

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So, what are effective leadership practices (at any level)? What can we do to develop shared leadership so everyone at all levels is working together to collaborate with purpose? "Leadership at all levels is a paradigm, in which regardless of your title, tenure or compensation, you relate to your company as if 'you own the block'."

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Planning for success?
Failing to plan is planning to fail

Paul Richardson, MiniPD Coach, comments,

Demonstrating the need for data driven identification of development priorities and the creation of self evaluation systems in order to empower development planning at all levels in the school community is essential.

This unit will empower senior leaders, middle leaders, teachers and the broader school staff to identify key priorities, based on valid data.

We will look at the process of writing, monitoring and evaluating the plan and encouraging ownership by the whole school community.

Watch the video. Connect with Paul Richardson on minipd.com for a one-to-one conversation.

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SSS3 Strategic development-How to write a development plan

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Traditional Leadership V Collaborative Leadership

What might we shift in our leadership practices to become an increasingly collaborative leader?

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The Value of Cultivating New Leaders

It is important for continuity in an organization for its leadership succession to be smooth and seamless. In order for this to happen, current leaders need to cultivate and mentor new and upcoming leaders.

Key Words: Strategic Leadership; Distributed Leadership; Teacher Leadership; Student Leadership.

To find out more: https://www.minipd.com
Dr. Ilene Winokur

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Share the post "Leadership mentoring: The key to developing and cultivating effective leaders"

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Creating a strong pipeline of capable leaders — commonly referred as succession planning — is one of the core jobs all executives and people professionals face. It’s not just their job to ensure success today, but to set the company up for success tomorrow as well. This means that an organisation must constantly have one eye trained on the future, and the people who will take it there.

Is there a better way to develop great leaders than granting them time, advice, and insight from current great leaders?

I don’t think so.

Leadership mentoring is a tried and trusted method for developing the best leaders of tomorrow.

How mentoring develops future leaders

Imagine if you could sit down with your future self and ask for advice. You’d have some incredibly wise and valuable snippets to share with your current self that would really help you navigate the coming months and years — and enable you to better prepare yourself for what’s to come.

This is what leadership mentoring does for prospective leaders. It provides them with a forum for setting, discussing and disecting a path to leadership with someone who has walked that path before.

We all like to think of our journey as absolutely unique, and while there are of course some unique elements (including you), there are a far more similarities and shared experiences between your path to X or Y, and someone else path to that same destination.

Because of this fact of life, many of the leadership challenges the leaders of tomorrow will face — the leaders of today have faced.

Learning from seeing

Leadership mentoring enables mentees to see what great leadership looks like, as the mentor is technically leading them; using soft leadership skills to effectively communicate; leadership skills to encourage them and drive them forward; and hard leadership skills to hold them accountability for real progress.

Feeling how the mentor coaches and mentors the mentee through the process enables the mentee to learn about people management, discover how they like to be treated from a ‘superior’, and learn what type of encouragement and interaction spurs them to be the best version of themselves; the hallmark of great leadership and great mentoring.

Learning from doing

Mentors also provide mentees looking for improved leadership with development tools, activities, and practical suggestions for transitioning to becoming a better leader.

Mentoring isn’t just about coffee, chatting, and the odd bit of verbal advice. Great mentors spur proactivity in mentees, and encourage them to participate in activities, tasks and events which better prepare them to achieve their overarching goals.

A good mentor will know how to draw a mentee out of their comfort zone into more leadership oriented environments and scenarios, and can talk with a mentee about how they can address certain scenarios they are encountering in real-life, putting leadership skills into real-life context and real-life practice.

Networking and sponsorship

In addition, a great leadership mentor naturally has a great network of leaders. He or she can certainly push a high performing and/or diligent mentee in the direction of other leaders who can help you develop and manage your growth.

The leadership mentor likely has some power or influence at their organisation or in their friend circle to sponsor the mentee into a leadership role, should that be appropriate and fruitful for the mentors own reputation.

As a mentee, however, you shouldn’t enter into a mentorship with the intention of asking them for sponsorship or networking favours. This is something which naturally evolves over time — and happens organically when you do the right things.

How mentoring cultivates current leaders

Mentoring has historically been seen as a pretty one-sided affair, where the mentor volunteers their time at a cost (their time), and the mentee profits with advice, insight etc. In recent times, however, this notion has shifted.

The benefits of being a mentor has become almost equally valued and sought after —  for a number of reasons.

Reverse mentoring

One of the reasons is that in today’s rapidly evolving workplace, mentees can actually mentor the mentors.

More and more executives, managers, and leaders are leaning on their younger and less experienced colleagues and networks to understand new technologies and consumer preferences straight from the horse’s mouth.

Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, popularized reverse mentoring in 1999, when he required 500 of his top executives to pair up with junior associates for the purpose of learning how to use the internet.

Reverse mentoring is a great way to use existing company resources to bolster tech savviness in senior colleagues — and also helps to connect different demographics and age cohorts, who don’t always understand or support each other as much as they could.

Holding up the mirror

It’s long been known that one of the best way to test your knowledge of a subject is to teach it. This mantra also applies to mentoring.

When a mentor talks a mentee through leadership scenarios and events, they are naturally forced to hold up a mirror to their own behaviour and leadership style.

Does the mentor advocate for a certain style of leadership which they fail to practice?

Does the mentor see negatives tendencies in the mentees own managers which they themselves have exhibited or continue to exhibit?

How much can the mentor actually explain about being a leader? How introspective and self-assessing has the mentor been over their own career?

These are all questions which are naturally surfaced when a mentor talks to a mentee about leadership.

Interacting with different types of people

Mentoring is also different from management in that a mentor can elect to support and advise mentees outside of the group of people they are forced to manage on a daily basis.

While a number of mentors elect to stay inside their domain and sphere of influence, they can (And should) elect to expose themselves to a variety of people and different types of personalities and leaders.

In fact, a number of mentor movements including #MentorHer have pointed to the fact that it is the responsibility of male leaders to mentor more women. And the same idea stands for other underrepresented groups.

This type of leadership mentoring serves the mentor extremely well, as they get to interact with different types of people and broaden their own horizons. And it’s also the right thing to do.

How leadership mentoring levels the playing field

One of the known reasons that there is an under representation of certain groups and individuals at the leadership level is that these groups simply don’t have the mentoring, sponsorship, or support networks required to get there.

It’s also harder for them to seek out examples and inspiration in a world where people like them have struggled to blaze that trail in the past.

Leadership mentoring, at the individual level and organisational level, truly levels the playing field for all people.

When female leaders mentor prospective female leaders, they can speak to what it took to break through the glass ceiling.

When male leaders mentor female mentees, they can talk about what they have seen work in leadership, and break down the male cognitive siloes and heuristics which feed into the current and  viscous leadership cycle.

When ethnic minorities are mentored by people who look and sound like them, they understand that they can get there too.

Leadership mentoring (and sponsorship) provides underrepresented groups with the exact arsenal and cognitive fuel they need to push through obstacles and make it into leadership positions – where they can mentor, give back, and jolt the status quo and tired paradigm of leadership we have to come to know — and not necessarily love.

Actively mentoring for diversity and inclusion is the responsibility of all of us.

Would you like to run a leadership mentoring program at your organisation, and help build a full leadership pipeline and bullet-proof succession plan?

Contact us to hear about how we have helped other organisations like you before >

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Leadership mentoring: The key to developing and cultivating effective leaders - Mentorloop Mentoring Software

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Leadership mentoring is the tried and trusted method for developing the best leaders of tomorrow and cultivating the leaders of today.

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Make Distributed Leadership Happen

The MiniPD Team recommends exploring the work of Leithwood and Harris on distributed leadership.

So what is distributed leadership?
It is "‘leadership by expertise’ rather than leadership by role or years of experience. Genuine distributed leadership requires high levels of trust, transparency and mutual respect."

Why is it important?
"The evidence increasingly points towards a positive relationship between distributed leadership, organisational improvement and student achievement." (Hallinger & Heck, 2009; Leithwood & Mascall, 2008).

What is one practical way to make it happen?
"One practical way forward is to create strong collaborative teams or professional learning communities where leadership is naturally and authentically distributed. The evidence about group learning is clear: purposeful and focused collaboration is a skill that has to be acquired, repeated and practiced in context."

https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/distributed-leadership

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What is distributed leadership? What does the evidence say? And, can it work for your school? Professor Alma Harris, an expert in this area, discusses.

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Genuine leadership – leadership with a “little l”, is not conferred by a title, or limited to the executive suite. Rather, it is shown through our everyday actions and the way we influence the lives of those around us.

(Makwana, 2018)

Among the qualities that genuine leaders share:

Acting with purpose rather than getting bogged down by mindless activity

Caring about and listening to others

Looking for ways to encourage the contributions and development of others rather than focusing solely on personal achievements

Creating a legacy of accomplishment and contribution in everything they do

Connect with Nick Nwolisa on MiniPD

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You Don't Need a Title to be a Leader ebook by Mark Sanborn - Rakuten Kobo

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Read "You Don't Need a Title to be a Leader How Anyone, Anywhere, Can Make a Positive Difference" by Mark Sanborn available from Rakuten Kobo. 'Despite popular myth, leaders - whether titled or untitled - aren't born. They learn how to lead. The real test of lead...

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Watch Leading at All Levels: MiniPD Coaches in Conversation (60 mins) with Dr. Ilene Winokur, Heidi Oxley-Whitnell and Nick Nwolisa.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH at no cost

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Creating system to make space for student leadership.

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Turning Student Voice and Choice into Leadership

Get inspired by Catlin Tucker’s expertise in blending learning and station rotation model and watch students’ leadership flourishes.

To explore further: How could these other resources from Dr. Catlin Tucker enhance students' leadership in your classroom?
3 ways to build student agency in your classroom
Would you rather: Designing with choice in mind

I am also available to support you as a coach if you wished to connect to dive deeper into the technical aspects of these approaches.

Betty Molerot

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Student-Centered Leadership

The MiniPD Team recommends reading Student-Centered Leadership by Viviane Robinson.

“The most powerful way that school leaders can make a difference to the learning of their students is by promoting and participating in the professional learning and development of their teachers. [...] The average impact (0.84) of these leadership practices on student outcomes was twice that of any other leadership dimension.”
(p. 104, Robinson)

Robinson, V., (2011) Student-Centered Leadership. San Francisco. Jossey-Bass.

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Developing Sustainable Leadership Criteria

Christine Orkisz Lang, MiniPD Coach, writes,

Especially at the middle leader level, colleagues can work collaboratively to create success criteria that can positively impact student learning by developing knowledge, effectiveness, impact, and contributions toward professional culture. Developing criteria and reflection routines for leadership success that can be sustained over time, adapted, and used at your school will help measure leadership growth and its impact on student learning. This process allows the consideration of individual leadership, team, and overall school growth so that appropriate support can be offered where needed. It allows schools and leaders to know how they are doing and where they might need to make adjustments and/or decisions to continue on the same path.

Here are some ideas for getting started:

1) Define learning in your school's context.
2) Define the purpose of leadership in your school's context.
3) Define the school's stated approach to leadership.
4) Define the purpose of the development of leadership success criteria.

Read the full article here and access a sample here. Good luck!

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Leadership Matters from ASCD

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) offers a helpful guide called Leadership Matters, considering the many roles leaders have.

Find out more about the roles you have as a leader, including:

Leader as Visionary

Leader as Instructional Leader

Leader as Influencer

Leader as Learner and Collaborator

Christine Orkisz Lang, MiniPD Coach

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The fours I's of transformational leadership (Bass, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2008)

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What is Transformational Leadership?

Christine Orkisz Lang, MiniPD Coach, writes,

Transformational leadership is a leadership style that can inspire positive changes in those who follow. Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate. Not only are these leaders concerned and involved in the process, they are also focused on helping every member of the group succeed as well.

There are many models of transformative leadership. You can start by considering these four components to see if exploring further would support you and your teams to improve learning in your context.

Charisma or idealized influence - This is the degree to which the leader behaves in admirable ways that cause followers to identify with the leader. Charismatic leaders display convictions, take stands and appeal to followers on an emotional level.

Inspirational motivation - The degree to which the leader articulates a vision that is appealing and inspiring to followers. Leaders with inspirational motivation challenge followers with high standards, communicate optimism about future goals, and provide meaning for the task at hand.

Intellectual stimulation - The degree to which the leader challenges assumptions, takes risks, and solicits followers' ideas. Leaders with this trait stimulate and encourage creativity in their followers.

Individualized consideration or individualized attention -The degree to which the leader attends to each follower's needs, acts as a mentor or coach to the follower and listens to the follower's concerns and needs. This also encompasses the need to respect and celebrate the individual contribution that each follower can make to the team as it is the diversity of the team that gives it its true strength.

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Leading at All Levels

Share a story of impact on our Twitter chat

- Share a real story this month of impactful leadership.

@FariaMiniPD #MiniPDchat

The MiniPD Team

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Teacher Leadership: Driving Teacher Agency and Differentiation

Fernando Ramirez, MiniPD Coach, writes,

You can drive teacher leadership by empowering teachers through agency and differentiation. Read about how you can support agentic teachers in this article.

Here are some practical actions you can take:

Perform surveys to receive feedback and suggestions

Identify and celebrate success

Facilitate peer observations and interactions

Increase accountability by giving teachers choice

Please, reach out through app.minipd.com if you would like to discuss how to promote agency amongst your teachers.

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What Makes Successful School Leadership?

The MiniPD team shares this report from the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services, U.K,

"which summarizes the findings of a three-year national research project on the impact of leadership on student outcomes, with particular reference to the leadership of the headteacher.

"The research found that leaders of successful schools define success not only in terms of test and examination results, but also in terms of personal and social outcomes, pupil and staff motivation, engagement and wellbeing, the quality of teaching and learning and the school's contribution to the community." It also found that "successful heads improve student outcomes through who they are - their values, dispositions, attributes, and competences - as well as what they do in terms of strategies they select and ways in which they adapt their leadership practices to their unique context."

This report is from 2010, yet still provides a valuable read for reflection on what makes successful school leadership.

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Student Leadership: Building Leaders for the Future

The MiniPD recommends this short read, Beyond Vision to Action: Student Leadership, Intercultual Learning and Service by Lydia Eckstein and Rebecca Butterworth, Inter-Community School, Zurich, Switzerland, CIS

Extract:
"International schools have long catered for the children of the internationally mobile and influential. The concept of building leaders for an unknown future is hardly a new one, but it is one that deserves focussed attention given the current backdrop of global politics and ethical action. How can we ensure that our students are not seduced by the path of key political figures who have gained success whilst showcasing values that are in direct contrast to those that we value in international education? How can we establish leadership systems that support ethical and moral leadership and inspire a sense of shared humanity? How can we equip our students with the intercultural, interpersonal understanding to pull away from the egocentric and be drawn towards the inclusive? How can we help students feel empowered to be agents of change within education? In short, how can we promote leadership for a better world?"

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Beyond vision to action: Student leadership, intercultural learning and service
By Rebecca Butterworth and Lydia Eckstein, Inter-Community School, Zurich, Switzerland
Setting the Scene

"I experience learning as coercive." When one of our student ambassadors made this statement at a leadership conference about the future of learning, it gave us good reason to pause. As committed educators we believed that students were at the heart of our decision-making. How could this be that learning was coercive? Were we truly that controlling?

According to this student, yes. Choice in what and how to learn is limited, and even more so as students move through the system and sit final examinations. This student was articulating that her experience of schooling reflected a top-down power structure where the adults 'called the shots' and the opportunity for truly democratic conversations about learning between adults and students were limited.

On the flipside, we have witnessed students enacting this top-down power structure even as they seek greater voice in their education. We have all encountered, at some point, Student Council elections that mirror the worst (albeit in a milder fashion) of democratic election campaigns: election speeches and debates that slide into personality contests and personal attacks on the opposition's ability to speak for the majority. Speeches that are all style and little substance, no matter how carefully engineered the process is by teachers. Election outcomes that reflect the power of charismatic leadership and promises that cannot be realized. I think we have also all experienced the most well-intentioned Student Councils getting caught in the bottleneck of their own structure, where action is channelled through a conventional hierarchy (the President/s having most direct access to the adult leadership team in the school) and therefore the efficacy of the Student Council is limited by its ability to enact meaningful change quickly.

The irony is that Student Councils often play out the power dynamics that actually prevent students from having an authentic voice in their learning. Moreover, we teachers are complicit in this process by re-creating student leadership structures that reflect a conventional understanding of leadership.

Building Leaders for the Future

International schools have long catered for the children of the internationally mobile and influential. The concept of building leaders for an unknown future is hardly a new one, but it is one that deserves focussed attention given the current backdrop of global politics and ethical action. How can we ensure that our students are not seduced by the path of key political figures who have gained success whilst showcasing values that are in direct contrast to those that we value in international education? How can we establish leadership systems that support ethical and moral leadership and inspire a sense of shared humanity? How can we equip our students with the intercultural, interpersonal understanding to pull away from the egocentric and be drawn towards the inclusive? How can we help students feel empowered to be agents of change within education? In short, how can we promote leadership for a better world?

When we reflect on the values that we celebrate within international education, we should pause and consider whether our student leadership systems serve to enhance these chosen values or work against them. At our school we actively encourage student participation through leadership programmes. As noted above, though, we have discovered that through hierarchical leadership models we inadvertently promoted individualistic, superficial virtues that were guided by a desire for status and power. How often do we hear in our communities that the position of "President / Vice-President" looks "wonderful" on the college application form and serves to open doors to the future? Sadly, it is rare to hear how "wonderful" it is that this positional leadership role serves and unites community members in building a better future. Schools create positional leadership systems to build leadership capacity, but the paradox is that the values that these systems promote contradict our philosophies of inclusive leadership, intercultural understanding and community engagement. As we reflected upon our student leadership structures we realized that we needed to create spaces that value different forms of leadership and therefore different ways of being in the world.

Hierarchical leadership that focuses on status and position is exclusive, divisive and superficial. However, if we recognise that leadership is a collaborative process whereby the learner develops a sense of efficacy through an enhanced understanding of their own individual values, their group values and their community values, then not only do we begin to align our international school values with our practices, but we also extend leadership to all students. This is where it gets interesting!

Messy Leadership

"To me, leaders and bosses were the alpha types. Leaders are the big and bold men and women who enjoy being center stage. People who like to hold forth; people confident in their pronouncements; people comfortable with other people; people other people want to be around. People very different from my quiet loner self."

"Yet all the things I beat myself up about were actually what the research says makes introverted leaders successful. We take the time to think through where we want to lead an operation next. We ask questions and make sure we truly understand a situation when we're called on to make a decision. We empower others to be leaders in their own right. And we know it isn't about us but about our team." - Tamar Charney

Tamar Charney's words are powerful because they articulate a journey of self-realization and individual and group empowerment. Her words also imply that leadership is multidimensional and shared. As voiced by Justin Trudeau, "Leadership should be focused on extending the ladder of opportunity to everyone". In this case, leadership needs to get a little messy!

In our Secondary School we decided to embrace the messiness of leadership as a way of de-stablizing traditional ideas of positional power and the notion that "[l]eaders are [only] the big and bold men and women who enjoy being center stage." We wanted all students (including those quiet leaders like Tamar Charney) to feel valued and find their voice in change processes. We wanted our students to feel connected to and engaged in their school community and to know how to work together for a better world. The notion that learning was 'coercive' was the antithesis of what we aspired to, so authentic agency was key. We did away with positions on student council and instead invited all students to participate in leadership groups; it was a self-selecting process rather than a personality contest. We took the time to work with these students on different models of leadership to support them in articulating their own vision of inclusive and ethical leadership. Instead of believing that only the bold and confident could lead, we introduced students to notions of situational and strengths-based leadership. In this sense, students realized that depending on the context, different leadership strengths are needed and therefore nobody can effect change on their own!

Now the students who have gone through this process are talking about how to make sure all students are involved in conversations about transforming learning and their experience of school. They want student learning committees and they see it as the responsibility of all students to take part in the changes they want to see within and beyond school.

This is all about distributing leadership and building efficacy. It is also about building the understanding that we'll need to compromise - we're a community of voices that need to be heard and work together. It is not all about what "I want" but about what "we need" and how best we can achieve this. It is about "looking in" at ourselves, understanding who we are and what we need, and then "looking out" to see what I can bring to my community either as a bold, quiet, patient or charismatic leader. Ultimately, it is messy and we can't be certain where the conversation will go once we empower all of our students. However, it can disrupt the idea that power resides in one individual at the expense of the diverse voices that can work together to realize a shared vision. Hopefully it will reinforce philosophies of inclusive leadership, intercultural understanding and community engagement.

Lydia Eckstein is a multi-lingual TCK who has spent the last 20 years working as a teacher and coordinator in international schools in London, Istanbul, Chiang Mai and Switzerland. In addition to her work as coordinator of MYP Service Learning, Round Square and Self-Taught Languages, Lydia is managing a Character Education project at the Inter-Community School in Zurich. Experiential learning, character education and student leadership form the heart of her day-to-day life working with students and administrators.

Rebecca is currently the Secondary Principal at the Inter-Community School, Zurich. This is Rebecca's 5th year in Zurich and prior to Switzerland she lived for 9 years in Beijing. As an Assistant Principal in charge of Curriculum and an MYP Coordinator at the Western Academy of Beijing, Rebecca regularly led staff in-services focused on developing intercultural understanding through the written, taught and assessed curriculum. Similarly as an IB workshop leader and team visitor, one of Rebecca's key roles was supporting teachers and school leaders with unpacking notions of global citizenship and its realization in practice, especially through the IB Learner Profile. More recently, her interest as a school Principal has been how to build more authentic opportunities for student voice and leadership that cultivate the attitudes necessary to be compassionate and engaged citizens of the world.

Further reading and references:

Covey, Stephen R. Principle-Centred Leadership. Free Press: New York,1991.

Hargreaves, Andy. Boyle, Alan. Harris, Alma. Uplifting Leadership: How Organisations, Teams and Communities Raise Performance. London: John Wiley and Sons, 2014

Hart, R. Children's Participation from Tokenism to Citizenship. Unicef Innocenti Research Centre: Florence, 1992.

Higher Education Research Institute, compiler. A Social Change Model of Leadership Development. HERI: California, 1996.

Rath, T. Conchie, B. Strengths-Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams and Why People Follow. Gallup Press: New York, 2008.

Seligman, M. Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being. Atria: New York, 2011.

Websites: https://edcamphrva.org/blog/

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Beyond vision to action: Student leadership, intercultural learning and service

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Beyond vision to action: Student leadership, intercultural learning and service By Rebecca Butterworth and Lydia Eckstein, Inter-Community School, Zurich, Switzerland "I experience learning as coercive." When one of our student ambassadors made this statement at a leadership conference about the future of learning, it gave us good reason to pause.

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Inspiring and Uplifting Leadership

The MiniPD Team invites you to read below:

"Leadership should lift us up not drag us down. We should be shooting for the moon, not racing to the top. We should be stimulating and supporting our teams and their leaders to be as creative as we want our students to be. We should be collaborating with other schools for mutual advantage and greater good rather than trying to vanquish them in a win-lose competition. We should be combining good data with good cooperative judgement rather than being driven only by the data in everything we do. We should pull our people forward whenever we can by inspiring them."

Research by Hargreaves identifies six factors that are crucial for uplifting leadership:

1. Counterintuitive thinking combined with disciplined application
2. Dreaming with determination
3. Collaboration with competition
4. Metrics with meaning
5. Pushing and pulling people into change
6. Long term sustainability with short term success

Hargreaves, A., Boyle., A and Harris., A. (2014) Uplifting Leadership: How Organizations, Teams and Communities Raise Performance. Jossey-Bass.

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Description

What does it take to do more with less? How can you do better than before, or better than others? How do you turn losses into wins, or near-bankruptcy into strong profitability, or abject failure into stellar success?

The power of uplift enables any organization to do more with less, beat the competition, and perform better than ever. Leaders who uplift their employees' passions, intellects, and commitments produce remarkable results.

Based on original research from a seven-year global study, Uplifting Leadership reveals how leaders from diverse organizations inspired and uplifted their teams' performance. Distilling the six common characteristics of leaders at high-performing organizations across business, sports, and education, authors Andy Hargreaves, Alan Boyle, and Alma Harris explore the nature of uplift, its impact on performance, and the ways to achieve it within and beyond an organization's walls, revealing how leaders:

Identify and articulate an inspiring dream that is coherently connected to the best of what the organization has been before

Pursue that dream at a sustainable pace without squandering resources, incurring excessive debt, or burning people out

Forge paths of innovation and improvement that others have overlooked or rejected

Monitor progress by using metrics and indicators in a mindful and meaningful way

Build teams that naturally pull people into change rather than pushing them through it

Featuring case studies of organizations as diverse as Shoebuy.com, Fiat, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Marks & Spencer, Cricket Australia, Burnley Football Club, and the Vancouver Giants, as well as world-leading educational systems, Uplifting Leadership provides tools for leaders to incorporate these performance-driving strategies into their own.

For leaders who want their people to try harder, transform what they do, reach for a higher purpose, and stay resolute and resilient when opposing forces threaten to defeat them, Uplifting Leadership provides a path to better performance across any organization.

About the Author

Andy Hargreaves (Boston, MA) is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education at Boston College. In 2014, he was ranked as one of the twelve most influential scholars on US public education policy. He has written or edited more than twenty-five books on leadership and change, including Sustainable Leadership (with Dean Fink; Wiley, 2006) and Professional Capital (with Michael Fullan; Teachers' College Press, 2012). He has delivered keynote addresses in thirty-seven US States and forty-three countries. www.andyhargreaves.com

Alan Boyle (London, UK) is director of Leannta Education Associates, a company he founded fourteen years ago. As a leadership consultant he designs and creates professional learning for education leaders in the United Kingdom and abroad. He is the coauthor of Big-City School Reforms: Lessons from New York, Toronto and London (with Michael Fullan; Teachers' College Press, 2014). www.leannta.com

Alma Harris (Kuala Lampur, Malaysia) is professor and director of the Institute of Educational Leadership at the University of Malaya. She is also Pro-Director (Leadership) at the Institute of Education, University of London. Alma is internationally known for her work on school improvement, and her book Distributed Leadership in Schools ( Routledge & Falmer Press, 2008) has been translated into several languages. She is president of the International Congress of School Effectiveness and School Improvement. www.almaharris.co.uk

Table of contents

Introduction: Uplift 1

1 Dreaming with Determination 17

2 Creativity and Counter-Flow 45

3 Collaboration with Competition 67

4 Pushing and Pulling 93

5 Measuring with Meaning 113

6 Sustainable Success 137

7 Uplifting Action 159

Appendix: Research Methodology 177

Notes 181

Acknowledgments 207

The Authors 209

Index 213

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Uplifting Leadership: How Organizations, Teams, and Communities Raise Performance

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What does it take to do more with less? How can you do better than before, or better than others? How do you turn losses into wins, or near-bankruptcy into strong profitability, or abject failure into stellar success? The power of uplift enables any organization to do more with less, beat the competition, and perform better than ever.

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Appreciative Enquiry for Transformational Change

The MiniPD Team recommend s using appreciative enquiry as a positive approach to transformational change and development in schools.

Why?

It is an ongoing, regenerative process

Seeds of excellence can be found and grown

What now?

Seek out examples by sharing stories to create images of excellence to move forward towards a goal.

Read more here.

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Subscription websites for IB teachers & their classes

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The Tool

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a form of professional inquiry and research. It is a tool for change and organizational development. The AI approach builds on positive practice already in existence and asks how it can be extended into other areas. It is a great tool for sharing and growing best practice within and between schools. As the term suggests AI is appreciative in nature.

The assumption of AI is that there are already a lot of good things going on in most schools. The intention is to capture it so that it can be recognized and spread and therefore have greater influence. Appreciative Inquiry brings the positive practices out into the open in the form of telling stories that can be shared and their influence therefore spread.

It is a good tool to use when carrying out action research. It is a constructivist model of learning and building greater knowledge by exploring the practice of others and learning from it.

How to use

a school improvement tool

action research tool

to learn from and share best practice

to celebrate and reinforce perceived success

to respect the perspectives of people whose practice you are exploring

to build a vision for the future

to create a culture of growth and development

to involve people in bringing about change in a positive way

Listen to this introduction to Appreciative Inquiry:

Activity

Appreciative Inquiry is sometimes referred to as the 4Ds model. This model was coined by Cooperrider and Whitney. The four stages are:

Discovery: begin by looking for what is working and/or what is best practice. The discovery is based on carrying out interviews with the purpose of appreciating what is happening. In this stage when carrying out interviews find out how practice has been developed and led. What were the actions, but also what were the attitudes and behaviors that had facilitated developments? Discover what actually happens which has had a positive impact on students. Find out what resources, both human and physical have helped practice become established.

Dream: this is where you envision what might be in your own situation or school. It involves creating a compelling positive image of the preferred future. These could be in the form of 'provocative propositions'. You consider the future - 'what might be' - through reflection on the discovery outcomes. You then consider what the implications are for people (both yourself and other people in your school) if you are going to bring about the positive change which you have learnt from your best practice discovery. What are the implications for the development of people within your school or leadership actions / behaviours? Having reflected on best practice what might your school do more of or do differently, to achieve even greater success? What resources might help this become a reality?

Design: This is where you start to turn your dream into reality by formulating an action plan. You may wish to choose your existing school development, operational or improvement plan as a format. It should, however, focus on both what you personally will do to make the dream become a reality and what your school will do. You need to identify those who will carry out the actions and ways in which they will be supported. What will be your role as a leader? What are the anticipated outcomes, impact measures and evaluation strategies? Establish both principles and priorities.

Destiny: This is the delivery stage when the actions that you have determined for the design are implemented. the focus is on taking sustained action to bring about the dream in your school.

Top Tips:

Sue Annis Hammond talks of the eight assumptions of Appreciative Inquiry:

1. In every school something works.

2. What we focus on becomes a reality.

3. Reality is created in the moment, and there are multiple realities.

4. The act of asking questions of an organization or group influences the outcome in some way.

5. People have more confidence and comfort to journey to the future (the unknown) when they carry forward parts of the past (the known).

6. If we carry parts of the past forward, they should be what is best about the past.

7. It is important to value differences.

8. The language we use creates our reality.

Where to learn more

Appreciative Inquiry Commons. Click HERE to access this site which provides many resources on carrying out appreciative inquiry.

5-D Cycle of Appreciative Inquiry

There is also a 5D model of appreciative inquiry that starts with a defining stage - what is the topicof inquiry?

1. Define - What is the topic of inquiry? - It is important to define the overall focus of the inquiry (what the system wants more of). Definition is used to clarify the area of work to be considered. Despite being the starting point of the cycle, it's a recent addition - the 5Ds were originally the 4Ds, including discover, dream, design and destiny. Definition defines the project's purpose, content, and what needs to be achieved. In this phase, the guiding question is, "What generative topic do we want to focus on together?"

2. Discover - Appreciating the best of 'what is' - Discovery is based on a dialogue, as a way of finding 'what works'. It rediscovers and remembers the organization or community's successes, strengths and periods of excellence.

3. Dream - Imagining 'what could be' - Imagining uses past achievements and successes identified in the discovery phase to imagine new possibilities and envisage a preferred future. It allows people to identify their dreams for a community or organization; having discovered 'what is best'. They have the chance to project it into their wishes, hopes and aspirations for the future

4. Design - Determining 'what should be' - Design brings together the stories from discovery with the imagination and creativity from dream. We call it bringing the 'best of what is' together with 'what might be', to create 'what should be - the ideal'.

5. Deliver/Destiny - Creating 'what will be' - The fifth stage in the 5Ds process identifies how the design is delivered, and how it's embedded into groups, communities and organizations. In early appreciative inquiry development, it was called 'delivery', based on more traditional organizational development practice. The term 'destiny' is more prevalent now.

Moore, C., What is appreciative inquiry? A brief history and real life examples. This article provides a good background to AI and provides many resouces for use in professional development - TED Talks and YouTube videos.

What is Appreciative Inquiry? A Short Guide to the Appreciative Inquiry Model & Process, Benedictine University

Appreciative Inquiry and SOAR

Following the strengths-based leadership philosophy of Peter Drucker, Appreciative Inquiry says "the essential task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make a systems' weaknesses irrelevant." It says that managing and leading change is ALL about strengths: elevating strengths, magnifying strengths, and creating new combinations and chemistries of strengths in ways that propel innovation.

The SOAR Analysis Framework provides a good tool alongside Appreciative Inquiry.

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Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a form of professional inquiry and research. It is a tool for change and organizational development. The AI approach builds on positive practice already in existence and asks how it can be extended into other areas. It is a great tool for sharing and growing best practice within and between schools.

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Cultivate Collaborative Cultures

The MiniPD Team writes,

Why is cultivating a collaborative culture essential?
Within school variability is the largest barrier to improving student learning and one of the variables is teacher effectiveness. (Hattie, 2015)

What is the purpose of a collaborative culture?
Fullan writes, "The 'No child Left Behind' policy should have been named 'No Teacher Left Behind'. [...] The greatest influence on student progression in learning is having highly expert, inspired and passionate teachers and school leaders working together to maximize the effect of their teaching on all students in their care." (Fullan, 2015)

How can we cultivate a culture of collaboration?

Support teachers and leaders in their own professional learning and growth within a system of collaboration

Consider cross-divisional transition teams to support a smooth student educational pathway

Read Fullan, M., & Quinn, J., (2015) Coherance, Putting the Right Drivers in Action for Schools, Districts and Systems. Corwin

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Next Month: Promoting Positivity

In September 2022, MiniPD's theme is Promoting Positivity.

What's coming next month?

Leadership focused:

#MiniPDchat on Twitter

Padlet Calendar for actionable strategies and practical resources

Free live session with experienced MiniPD Coaches in Conversation - Mark your calendar for Thursday, September 15th!

Register here for this and future live events.

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Time Zone:

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Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Promoting Positivity: MiniPD Coaches in Conversation. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

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This is a conversational session that will last between 45 - 60 mins to support educators in international school contexts. Spotlighted MiniPD Coaches will share concrete strategies around our theme 'Promoting Positivity'. Topics can include: Positive Learning Cultures; Relationships; Behaviours; Mindsets; Attitudes; Soft Skills for Success; Character Education.

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Professional Learning with MiniPD

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Questions? Get in touch with us at hello@minipd.com

Stay safe. Stay well. Stay connected.

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"I really appreciated the session and know there is a lot more that I can discover [...] I know that I will benefit greatly from more sessions."

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