Honest Matt McHugh

Of topic but a very cool and honest 20 questions with Matt McHugh of The Beautiful Girls fame by Grace Goodfellow.  He shares some very interesting and honest thoughts.

http://gracegoodfellows-words.tumblr.com/post/28900707531/i-answer-to-music-an-interview-with-mat-mchugh

Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) Video - Stages of Concern

Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) Video - Stages of Concern

Leadership Styles

After reading Goleman's leadership styles I have realised that for the past 10 years I have been lucky enough to be part of a team with an affiliative leader - people were always more important.  Being a small school it worked incredibly well.  As a staff we worked very well together and would do anything to assist and support our leader as well as each other. We loved work and our students education greatly benefited from this climate.

Good Leaders

• Leaders must have a vision
• Leaders develop relationships
• Leaders strategize
• Leaders resolve conflicts
• Leaders make decisions and solve problems

Leading Effective Teams

Law, S., & Glover, D. (2000). Leading effective teams. In Educational leadership and 
learning : practice, policy and research (pp. 71-86). Buckingham, England : Open University Press

I found this article enlightening to read.  Working, as I do, in a small school I am greatly aware of how well we work as a Team.  Our team has been very successful over the last 10 years which has been exhibited by the development and performance of our students.

Our principal retired at the end of last year and we are now going through the anxiety stages mentioned in the  above article as we rebuild our team to include a new leader whom is making sweeping changes to our little school.

We are all working together with him to continue providing a successful environment for our students (small school family).

Core Steps in Decision Making

Harvey, T. R., Bearley, W. L. & Corkrum, S. M. (2001). Core steps in decision making

This article suggests a practical guide to problem solving within organisations, though not specifically related to the educational field the steps are easily transferable.Leaders spend much of their time making decisions or facilitating others in solving problems and so the authors suggest a 6 step approach to successfully negotiate decision making and problem solving.

The six steps are : 

• Mind-set
• Problem Definition
• Solution Criteria
• Possible Solutions
• Solution Choice
• Implement (action)

Human Interaction heavily impacts throughout the process and determines success and failure.

Quality Management

Collaboration is the key for T/L's.  It is refreshing to read about Quality Management in regards to the school context Streeton Primary School (2000), ‘The 12 quality principles’.. It confirms the idea of leading from the middle and collaboration being the key for T/L's.  Collaborate with Staff and Students and lead from the middle.

School's as Organisations

School's are organised therefore are organisations.  I think this is a dangerous way to think of schools unless of course you specify the most important aspects of schools as that of a Learning Organisation as outlined by Peter Senge: "learning organisations" [are] where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning together" (p3) in Senge, P. M. (2007). "

Donham & Leadership

I found it interesting reading Bennis' (1999) characteristics as applicable to T/L's. Reading further I like the idea of leading from the middle and in more of a collegiate role. The main them that continued throughout the article was the importance of T/L's having a Vision for their library in line with the goals of the school.
As for keeping a journal it really does take me a lot of time to collate my thoughts into something which I would like to share on my Blog however, I agree it is a worthwhile challenge for me.