Cultivate your own self-awareness to unlock your potential and fuel teacher self-efficacy and student achievement. Leverage these key practices.
BIG IDEAS in this recent post from New Leaders:
- Self-awareness is more than looking in the mirror.
- The impact you have as a leader can be amplified by knowing your own values, beliefs, preferences, and perspectives AND recognizing how those you serve experience your leadership as well as what they think you are capable of.
- Be aware of how you are being perceived so the good you do isn’t overshadowed by negative perceptions; our values and beliefs shape all that we do. For example, you might think your intentional daily interactions with staff are building trust, so you don’t think anything of the fact you visit with the kindergarten team several days a week after school because they frequently stay late. Some, however, see this as playing favorites. Others who are aware think the kindergarten team unduly influences your decisions.
- Align your words and actions to build trust.
Reflective Questions to process in your mentoring partnership:
- How do you demonstrate your belief that all students can achieve at high levels within your school community?
- How do you convey this belief to your students?
- How do your teachers know that you believe in students?
- What happens when your belief is challenged? How do you handle those situations?
KEY PRACTICES:
- Seek input.
a. How are you feeling about your work?
b. Is there anything you’d like to share about how you’re feeling or how your work is going?
c. What supports/resources would make work easier for you?
- Interact with those outside your circle.
- Listen! (note body language, tone, facial expression—get curious about what’s going on for this person)
- Learn and grow. Engage in your own professional learning and tell staff stories of how you’ve changed because of what you learned, share mistakes you made because you tried something new.
- Self-reflect (choose a progression each month for your focus). Where are you today? Where do you want to be tomorrow? What’s your next littlest thing in moving you forward?
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