The Point of Difference

During my state of play with Ben he asked me the question of why Coronet reached a 9/10 for teaming. I subsequently listed lots of hows and whats ie high trust, leadership opportunities, clarity and purpose of what we do. I left the meeting with that question ringing in my ears as I felt I haven't answered the question very well - I struggled to answer something that was so important it bothered me greatly.

As I am reading Start with the 'Why - How great leaders inspire everyone to take action' by Simon Sinek this question continuously bounces around my head and I now have more clarity.

The reason we were successful was because the majority of the team bought into the why ie our vision was to create an environment where 'We set students up for success.' Both Rachel and I were driven by that vision and every decision we made was put through the 'celery test' ie will this decision/change help the students to succeed. Will this change set students up for success?

Our early decisions to focus on students reading skills as many were below what we expected had to be addressed but at the same time we identified that to succeed we had to focus on our teaming. We all had a wide range of skills and knowledge to offer which meant were not afraid to admit that we didn't have the skills and knowledge to meet those needs, but Rachel did. We followed her lead, high trust, and we made a difference. It was a team effort based on using the teams strengths and working together. Through that experience we built trust by working towards a clear vision.

There were many other factors too such as the modelling of sweep the sheds - hugely important. However, I want to put out something challenging and essential to the success of future teaming. Team leaders need mentors who believe in their vision and bring it to life. Mentors should have the choice to join a team leader's vision ie at the end of the year they meet the team leader and put a case forward of how they believe in this vision and what their understanding looks like.

This year has not been as successful due to a mentor having different beliefs and if they were in a different habitat with the right vision that aligns with their values and beliefs it would bring the best of the mentors and students.

I believe we need to challenge the process of leadership creating the teams and, at least, include the mentors and team leaders in the creation of teams based around the vision of the leaders. You could argue that those visions would/should be similar - walk around each habitat and you will clearly see and feel a very different team. The point of difference? Vision.