Impactfully influencing your peers can lead to a more effective learning environment for all. It helps bring people together for common causes, creates collaboration, and helps to share messages and ideas that you, as a leader, strongly believe will have a positive impact on your team. Here are three key ideas, along with resources, for having an impactful, positive influence on your teams.

Questions are powerful tools to help engage others, as well as to help steer a conversation in the direction you want it to go and get the most important information for both you, and the people involved in the conversation.  Jim Knight’s “Impact Cycle” questioning resources helps break questioning down into various categories which can be used to help guide conversations. I found these very useful during instructional coaching situations, as well as in less formal conversations where there is an opportunity for influencing others in a positive and impactful way.

Show, don’t tell is more of a metaphor for the power of modelling what you believe is important and want to influence others to believe, think or do. Telling others about professional development, strategies, or ways to improve their teaching practice is far less powerful than modeling these practices through actually doing them.  Whether during workshops, in the classrooms of others, or in any other faucet of your professional life, model and show your teams, not just tell. 

Whenever you see an opportunity to point out the positives that you see - find a platform to do it. Whether it is directly to the person, in front of colleagues, a weekly newsletter shout out or post, find opportunities to celebrate the smallest of positives in order to influence others. On top of pointing out the positives, reinforce these with other staff by creating opportunities for them to share what you are celebrating. At our school we have the “Star of the Week”, a teacher who is being celebrated. The following week, that teacher leads a short, 5-10 minute workshop to all staff to share about what they are being celebrated for.

If we want high-performance teams, we need to start by reflecting on our own mentalities, which is something I believe in with all of my heart. People who have a growth mentality do not perceive challenges as impediments to their progress; rather, they see challenges as problems that need to be conquered on the journey to accomplishing their goals.

Firstly, people are motivated when you have established a good relationship with them and their voice and ideas are heard. Just like children, when we have a high level of involvement, we can become engaged and enthusiastic about what we are achieving. 

"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will learn"

Something that I always share with my team to remind us of why we do and love the job we are in, is this video by Rita Pierson:

Rita Pierson- Every child needs a champion

This immediately aligns our focus to why we are here and we can discuss and brainstorm ways we can support our children and be the best they can be. 

Another favourite video I have is this video of Molly Wright- a 7 year old who presents a Ted Talk all about the importance of being present and building relationships with children. This for me, this articulates beautifully that our main job is to be there for the children and ensuring that they are in an environment that they can grow within.

Molly Wright: How every child can thrive by five l TED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aISXCw0Pi94 

We are all teachers for the same reason: we have a passion for children to have an incredible childhood. With this at the heart of all our practice, a team can build upon this foundation and go through a fun, engaging and ever-changing journey as we navigate the year together. 

All of the points she makes, although directed towards her students, definitely rings true for other situations such as motivating a team. ‘If we nurture the individual and make that investment, people will be more able to buy into a group goal of excellence’. 

Her key points: