Supporting faculty and staff has been a central focus of educational leadership efforts, particularly in and during the aftermath of the pandemic.
The comprehensive impact of a global health disaster, social injustice and divisiveness, pervasive uncertainty, and the lingering effects of social isolation has compounded the pressures on school leaders. Many report feeling fatigued, ill-equipped to deal with the intricacies of the “new normal,” and vexed about how to guide faculty, staff, and colleagues through unprecedented challenges. There are different stressors now, many happening at once and in an accelerated fashion. Working harder and longer hours is not a sustainable model.
Decades of research by Daniel Goleman (2000) posits that to lead with others in an increasingly complex world effectively, leaders must first learn to lead themselves, which depends on developing self-awareness — the primary domain of healthy relationships. Leaders are and will be challenged to hold on to fulfilling their missions in strategic planning, and administrator teams are challenged to identify what problem they are really trying to solve as they pile up on their desks in quick fashion (and many of these “problems” are not solvable.)
In this workshop, we will work with a strength-based model to learn, practice, and refine applicable and relevant skills, mindsets, and toolsets central to offering a culture of interdependent, compassionate leadership.
Key Questions Covered:
- How do self-awareness and social identity influence our leadership efforts to support faculty in times of crisis, uncertainty, and recovery?
- How might our leadership and support need to change as colleagues react to and recover from uncertainty and ambiguity?
- What are some practical tools conducive to building our schools’ capability and capacity toward being more interdependent, inclusive, healthy learning communities?
