Tony Burkin - The Role of the Team Leader in ILE

What does leadership look like in the habitat?

Tony spoke about moving away from the traditional beliefs of a team leader who is expected to fix things. We are not fix-it leaders. We need to create a new belief system based around raising the capabilities of our mentors through provoking thinking.

We need to define our new role as a leader in the habitat. Work with the team to help clarify what they want to see or not to see and adapt our role depending on the feedback and experience. We need to open about our problems of having to work in Pipeline 1 and 2, describe how difficult that is and how we all need to support the leadership in the habitat.

Tony repeatedly referred to the idea that mentors are trying to protect their image. In a traditional environmental you can close the door and work or develop ideas. In our habitat that is not possible and we will feel insecurity. These are difficult conversations.

The job is gruelling. Coping with three things - new school, ILE, leadership. One of those elements would be difficult, this is going to be extremely difficult and not for everyone. To succeed we need to increase the capabilities of the mentors. They are in a better position to grow your leadership. You are on the track when feedback works both ways. Feedback is something I need to collect urgently and adapt my role. From there I can be explicit about expectations.

Ben explained the differences between technical and adaptive challenges. Technical challenges are based around systems and structure where the traditional role of a team leader can manage. These challenges are based around organisational skills and can be set up comfortably with experience and some managerial skills. Adaptive challenges are where they are no clear answers and requires leadership and deeper thinking to meet the needs of the problem. Our current situation has a lot more adaptive challenges than technical which makes it such a difficult role to define.

Tony and Ben highlighted the importance of understanding the concept of 'working as a team.' Collaboration is only one aspect. Ensuring we have consistent clear beliefs on everything we do will ensure the mentors have the confidence to lead. It is imperative that we create an environment where mentor grow as opposed to simply succeed. We need to find a way to help accelerate growth to help us all cope with the three elements.

At the end of the meeting I explained to Tony my next steps is to discuss Pipeline 2 with the mentors and clarify what they believe I should or not be doing as a leader. At the same time, we will be defining our leadership roles as a team and help define my role as a leader. With my job description of empowering my team to drive the vision of SPS, I want to provide opportunities for mentors to drive thinking around 'working as a team.'

Quiet Leadership by David Rock

'People do not need to be managed, they need to be unleashed.'

Just had a very thought provoking and defining week of PL. Our focus has clearly be defined by the idea of developing the capabilities of our teams. Moving away from telling mentors what to do and ensuring they think for themselves. My initial impressions are that I am pretty good at allowing mentors to have autonomy and they have many opportunities to take responsibility and lead our habitat. The crucial question is now to ensure that we are all agree on expectations and belief so we have the confidence to take decisions that we know the habitat will be happy with.

There is a new world to explore here. If we are trying to help other people think, we might develop a whole new set of skills - such as the ability to create the physical and mental space for people to want to think, the ability to help others simplify their thinking, the ability to notice certain qualities in people's thinking, the ability to notice certain qualities in people's thinking, the ability to help others make their own connections. 

These are some of the most important skills that leaders must master today, and central to being a Quiet Leader.

Early days with the book but the idea of developing the mentors ability to think as opposed to simply giving them opportunity will be crucial.  The idea of mentors 'wanting' to think will be one of the biggest challenges because at the moment seem tired and lacking the energy to think about things. Providing the opportunities and developing the ability will require a strong purpose and to be focused. The inspiration to read this book came from Darran who spoke how he is empowering mentors to drive deeper thinking around working together in the habitat is something I want to develop in Coronet. 

Doing the thinking for other people is not just a waste of our own energy; it also gets in the way of other people working out the right answers. 

Action: ensure mentors are not passive with progress pebbles - they create them, not given them. Giving mentors ownership of creating them will make it more likely they use them. We will have a regular slot in our team meeting to discuss progress pebbles, this will give mentors the opportunity to share valuable knowledge and understanding of the curriculum.

Too many thoughts, too little time - we can make a tremendous difference to other people's thinking by helping them clearly identify the insights they would like to hardwire, and over time reminding them about these insights. 

Action: to help mentors 'hardwire' their understanding of the progress pebbles we will discuss them and how we are using them, every week - it is understood that they will be a regular item on the agenda. Knowing that we will discuss it each week has placed a cognitive emphasis on it as well as a practical sense too. As long as continues to feel relevant and helpful for students this approach will 'hardwire' connections for the mentors and this new approach will become the norm.