Rethink leadership!

The role of middle leaders is to strengthen relationships

If relationships are a key element of a vibrant education system, then that would imply that a major part of a middle leader’s role is to help teachers improve their relationships with each other and with their students.

We know what this entails.  It means for the individual to extinguish their triggers so that they can respond to anyone (or any set of circumstance) with equanimity and freely choose their response.

It also means for the individual to redress mistaken notions they may have about themselves, about others, and about the world, and the conditioning patterns that have formed around those mistaken notions.

Paul Cezanne - Le dejeuner sur l'herbe - 1867-77

We know that there are various practices that help in these endeavours.  Mindfulness helps in controlling our ‘red brain’ and in extinguishing triggers and, along with concentration meditation contributes to the development of insight that is crucial to helping re-frame fixed beliefs.

Inquiry, a sort of talking meditation, when done in small groups provides a mechanism for reframing beliefs but also in building deeper and richer relationships.  Collectively, such groups and practices build collective teacher efficacy, one of the practices with the greatest impact on student learning and outcomes.

The self-transformation of behaviour is an untapped and powerful source of educational value.

Let’s start tapping it.

 John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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