Monday Motivation – Be The Leader Others Want To Follow

Welcome to Monday Motivation. It is the start of a new term. One thing I particularly like about the profession of teaching is we have opportunities to start a new. Each year, each term, and each time we deliver the same lesson to another class, maybe that week or the following semester. So many opportunities for a fresh start. So here we are at one of those opportunities, the new term. It’s the final run down to the end of the year, Term 4.

For some a new term might mean a new role, a permanent or an acting position. For some the new term might mean that there is only a term now between when they start their next role. For many leaders, this term is vital to set the team up for a successful 2025.

Leadership is an interesting thing in education. In many industries actually, because we don’t get taught it before we find ourselves in a position to lead. From there, the only option is to work it out as we go. And sure, mistakes are made and relationships impaired, but these are the things that help us to learn. As a leader, it is so important that you work out the sort of leader you want to be. Remember that you are a leader of people. People have feelings, aspirations, challenges and of course a life, plus pressures, outside of their work. What sort of leader do you want to be for them, your ‘people’, your team, the people who look to you as their leader to know how to conduct themselves, how to negotiate tricky situations, at what intensity to work, when to knock off, when to arrive at work, when to show up for morning Tutor Group, om time or a few minutes late, how to behave in meetings, at assembly, in the staff room. People are learning from you.

I want to give a shout out to Michelle Ironside, Christ Church Grammar School, VIC for sharing the quote below at one of my programs earlier this year.

‘True teachers use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to build bridges of their own’. Nikos Kazantzakis (acclaimed as the best Greek writer of the 20th century, wrote Zorba the Greek and was the Greek Minster of Education in 1945).

A great quote, isn’t it. I want to shift this quote’s subject to leaders. True leaders build the capacity of the people in their team so that they can carry on the work without the leader to guide them anymore. The bridge is the capacity building. Is that the sort of leader you want to be?

I heard on a podcast recently, SAPPA (South Australian Primary Principals Association Inc), an episode sharing content from the Trans-Tasman Principal Conference held in New Zealand recently. Gilbert Enoka, Mental Skills Coach of the All Blacks, said “be the leader others want to follow”. I strongly agree. By the way, here is the link to the podcast led by Adam Wilson.

Be the person your team look to as a role model, someone that makes them feel safe, someone they can trust and someone your team know want them to grow and development to be better. And they will thank you for it.

Here is the new term, the opportunity for a fresh start. What are you going to do to become the leader others want to follow this term, from today?

If you found this useful, you will enjoy the Leadership Blueprint program. You can find out about that HERE.