Website – https://www.paultwalton.com/about
“To Be a Leader Is Both a Privilege and A Great Responsibility”
Working in education provides leaders the opportunity to work with professionals from a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and a wide range of pedagogical ideas and approaches.
School leaders can often share successful examples, strategies and processes that have made a significant positive impact on a community of learners. They have improved the quality of education and outcomes for many students and inspired staff to learn, grow and flourish under their inspirational leadership.
An experienced International School Leader, Dr Paul Walton brings his views on creating vibrant communities, developing staff and building a positive school environment. He is a strong believer in high quality professional development for all staff, fostering a culture of collaboration throughout a school and lifelong learning.
Experience
With over 20 years of experience in education both in the UK and internationally, he has been a Principal of international schools in various countries and led schools to ‘Outstanding’ inspection ratings. He has worked in Hungary, Malaysia, the United States, Slovenia, and Bahrain enjoying a rich variety of cultural differences, experiences and adventures.
He started his career in the UK as a computer science teacher, quickly moved into leadership and led schools on Teaching and Learning, Technology for Learning and Professional Development, and becoming an International School Principal.
As a Principal and School Inspector, he has continued to visit, support, and learn from schools around the world, developing strategies for best practices to develop the highest possible quality of education throughout many British International Schools.
Starting Points
I believe that understanding dedicated and passionate professionals starts with building trust, being consistent, and earning respect. If compassion and understanding are not modeled, then this will not occur in the workplace. Showing authenticity in your everyday approach will slowly create solid building blocks of building trust and then setting high expectations will lead to improved performance in others according to the Pygmalion effect (1968).
According to Covey (2006), the first steps in creating trust are through self trust and ‘in our ability to set and achieve goals, to keep commitments, to walk our talk’. In a nutshell, it is created by actions and ‘doing what you have promised to do’. Fulfilling the promises over time starts to create trust in any sector and having a high standard model for all.
I would personally recommend five points to address in the initial plan to create opportunities for everyone to work together to help build a positive school environment for staff. The points below are some that I have implemented in British International Schools. These are:
- Demonstrate a Growth Mindset
- Foster a Sense of Community
- Engage in Open Communication
- Celebrate Successes
- Encourage Personal Growth
Growth Mindset
When facing a new challenge we often reference ‘Mindset’. According to Dweck (2007),‘The growth mindset creates a powerful passion for learning’. Moving from a current to a desired state in an environment requires perseverance and resilience. Adopting a ‘Growth Mindset’ equips all staff with the belief to improve through hard work, good strategies, and input from others. It creates a love of learning, embracing challenges, applying effort on the path to mastery and gives staff a greater sense of free will.
We expect our students to do this each day in class and this is the same approach needed when creating a positive community. It reinforces what we ask students to do by modeling this ourselves.
Sense of Community
A sense of belonging starts with effort first. Planning and creating meaningful opportunities for your team members to work together needs careful consideration to think about time, environment, purpose, support, and resources. With this careful consideration, approaching each of these with empathy helps to understand the motivations and worries of members of staff.
These could include off-site functions, a social activity, team building, designated time for a clear and specific purpose of learning or student progress, work in the local area, etc.
Once staff have met in a safe and comfortable climate then follow-up sessions and meetings should be created to further embed this practice.
Over time, this will transform into trust, dependence, and a sense of working together for a common vision. The staff will be professional first but will have a stronger respect and sense of care for one another personally.
Communication
Anticipate each interaction as an opportunity to demonstrate clear, consistent, and concise communication skills. Ensure that you are listening actively, and giving your colleague your full attention during the conversation. Be mindful of your body language and your non-verbal cues such as folding arms, avoiding eye contact, or creating barriers. Use positive language to motivate and inspire action such as ‘Thank you, Let’s try, We can, Let’s do this, etc.’. Be open to feedback and listen to the views of others to engage and realign staff when they have questions.
Demonstrate Empathy. ‘Empathy’ as reported by (Forbes, 2021) is the most important leadership skill according to research, it is essential for happiness and performance and tops the list for enhancing innovation and retention.
Staff appreciate honest and open communication, avoiding verbose and obscure language helps with engagement and understanding.
Successes
(Wang et al. 2017) stated when people ‘celebrate their achievements, they are more likely to remain motivated and pursue further goals, creating a positive feedback loop of success and satisfaction’.
Celebrating the successes of teams can create further bonds, comfort in this new environment, and extra motivation. Leaders who focus on the successes of others first again demonstrate a humble, authentic, and ‘service-minded’ approach to leadership and a passion to put others first.
Celebrating quick wins and successes have a positive impact on individuals when building a collaborative environment and also through change management processes. This then creates a sense of purpose as mentioned in the 8-Step Process for Leading Change by Kotter (2002). The sense of purpose and urgency can be clearly communicated to all staff together and one important aspect of change management is to celebrate successes and quick wins. Kotter mentions ‘Nothing motivates more than success’.
Personal Growth
Enable personal growth by applying various coaching methods, support, and mentoring. Staff should be clear on their roles and responsibilities and receive regular feedback related to their performance. The feedback should include constructive feedback, with encouragement to seek new challenges and to improve as a lifelong learner. A key emphasis on active listening should be employed with guiding questions, a demonstration of empathy and a focus to help. This is a supportive process in a safe environment that can foster further continuous learning in all professionals.
Outside of the meeting, professional development can be introduced in the form of online, in-person, guest speakers, external courses, and internal development. There are many approaches that can be used to give staff autonomy and ownership and these can be aligned with the vision and development plan of the school.
I am very motivated to help all staff improve and would encourage all staff to work with other schools as I have seen firsthand the huge impact of TeachMeets, workshops, and hosting professional development events. I have implemented these in all schools I have worked in including the first TeachMeets from 2015 in Malaysia. They are inspirational and are available for all educators to work together and make a difference for all students in all schools.
A Step towards the future
In the next 5-10 years, I believe that a greater emphasis on Emotional Intelligence, Coaching, and Leadership will be included in schools not only for staff but wider opportunities for students as these skills are becoming more desirable in the global workplace.
Final Words of Wisdom
Start with the five building blocks listed above and then add more complex and innovative strategies on top of these.
Put the needs of your team first, and be visible and at the forefront of situations when a crisis, difficult situation, or the inevitable tough days are upon you, and behind the team when the plaudits arrive.
Always celebrate the successes of the staff team.
References
- Carol S Dweck, (2007). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
- Stephen M, R, Covey (2006). The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything,
- Kotter (2002) Kotter’s 8-step change model available from: https://www.mindtools.com/a8nu5v5/kotters-8-step-change-model
- “The Pygmalion Effect: Definition & Examples” Simple Psychology, (1968): https://www.simplypsychology.org/pygmalion-effect.html
- “Empathy is the most important leadership skill.” Forbes, (2021): https://www.forbes.com/sites/tracybrower/2021/09/19/empathy-is-the-most-important-leadership-skill-according-to-research
- Wang, W., Li, J., Sun, G. et al. (2017). Achievement goals and life satisfaction: the mediating role of perception of successful agency and the moderating role of emotion reappraisal.
