I use my favourite ‘F’ word at work all the time. So much so, that I am sure that my staff get tired of hearing me banging on about it. In fact, it is almost a running joke around our place. Only, it is not a joke – I am quite serious.This ‘F’ word you…
Category: leadership
Those Dreaded Few Words…Do You Have a Minute?
Imagine if you will, that you are sitting at your desk, busily beavering away at the three quadtrillion (yes that is a word) things on your ‘to do’ list. Outwardly, you are looking calm and on top of all your tasks, even if your heart is doing that flip-jack, twitchy thing that suggests that inwardly,…
Self Review and Change
This morning I was participating in a Twitter chat on Change at #asiaED. The question that inspired this blog post was “How do you stay focussed and take care of you when working on change projects?”. My answer to that was that I have found self review is a good driver of change because it…
School Principal’s Day – I know
This is my first #edsketch2015 for May – seemed fitting at the timeno awards for drawing heading my way anytime soon! Today, May 1st, is School Principal’s day. I have been doing this job for over a decade, and if it wasn’t for the presenter…
When Your Strengths Blindside You
I have had an epiphany. Not a world changing, best thing since sliced bread kind of sudden enlightenment, but one that might help with my own leadership.One of the books I am reading is The Principal: Three Keys to Maximising Impact by Michael Fullan. It is a follow up from his book Whats Worth Fighting…
Strengths Vs Weaknesses
In a previous post, I wrote about how sometimes your strengths as a leader can blindside you and become your weakness. You can read about that here. As a leader, it is always a good thing to know more about ourselves so that we can continue to improve and do the best we can. After…
Day 11: Are Schools Like Businesses? #28daysofwriting
Earlier this week I was at a Math inservice with one of my SLT (senior leadership team). Over lunch we were chatting about what her career might look like in 5 years time. Her response has left me wondering and I confess, not overly satisfied with where my wondering wandering has taken me. Her response…
Day 7: Educational Piranhas #28daysofwriting
Mary and May (2009) Earlier this week I was in a meeting with my appraiser and we were having a long conversation about all things education related, and of course what my goals might look like, and how we were going to get the 360 feedback. As part of our conversation we had a general…
Christmas Gifts for Leaders
Leadership is a rewarding job, and at times, somewhat problematic. Seems like some of these ‘gifts’ could help – I like the Neuralyzer, bunker and ‘instant calm’. I wonder if its too late for Santa to work some miracles? Enjoy. easel.ly
The IES Elephant in the Room
It has been a busy week for me, with a board meeting, community consultation evening, IES combined cluster and boards of trustee meeting and a fabulous Pasifika Festival. All of these things have been part and parcel of what it is to be involved in educational leadership, and all of them require teams of people…