Leaders in education feel the weight of their responsibility to their teams and students. This weight can feel like it is theirs alone to carry and can impact their practice and decisions. What if leaders could have partners in this burden of leadership?
I see this often as a coach in CLEE’s Transformational Leadership program. One example: A leader that led their district’s curriculum implementation team was both a participant and facilitator in the meetings. It mattered to her that she was able to provide clarity and create the space for the team to feel good about the work, all while engaging in the process authentically. As part of my coaching, I observed her take all this on.
Afterward, I challenged her to think about why she felt she needed to wear all of those hats. Reflecting on her “why”, she connected it to feeling anxious when preparing to lead these meetings. She realized she was both owning all of the work herself and not building others’ capacity. She was being too helpful. She then determined how she could build others’ capacity to lead within the sessions and also thought of ways to help them take ownership of the work.
Janelle Clarke-Holley, Director, Executive Leadership Programs
This shift to sharing leadership and building capacity in team members impacted the work and capacity of the entire team. I saw a weight lift from her. Now she is excited to continue the work. Moments like this matter because leading for equity requires shared leadership and ownership of continuous improvement.
Transformational Leadership Coaching is a partnership to help leaders build-up their teams. Observations and feedback identify areas of need and ways to strengthen leadership. We help leaders build their own capacity to facilitate meetings and teams effectively and provide strategic support for critical and systemic dilemmas.