Right Sizing Your Leadership Across Multiple Teaching Teams To Build A Culture of Feedback

“Accomplishing the maximum impact on student learning depends on teams of teachers working together…” John Hattie

"Leading high performance teams is about right sizing your approach as manager, mentor & coach ..." Pete Stebbins  

with Judi Newman

All high performance teaching teams thrive on feedback. Yet, building a culture where feedback – healthy, professional, growth-focused feedback – is continuously shared among team members, is not necessarily a straight forward task. As teams develop and mature, leadership strategies must change to adapt to the ‘next level’ challenges the team is facing. Thus, building a feedback culture in a large organisation with multiple teams at various levels – such as a busy high school – could arguably be one of the most difficult challenges a leader could face.

Judi Newman is one such leader who has stepped up and successfully faced the challenges of customising her leadership approach to match the varying levels of teams within large and complex High Schools. Whilst now working as a leadership coach for Principals, Judi has 20+ years of experience working as a middle leader and senior leader in Education and a detailed understanding of how best to conduct team development and transformation initiatives such as building a cultures of feedback in large and complex schools.

Leading Multiple Teams: ‘Right Sizing’ Your Leadership Approach

Through the course of her career, Judi has worked as a Principal of different size schools, with differing team structures and challenges. In larger schools where there are multiple teaching teams spread across year levels or faculties (as well as non-teaching teams focused on administration and facilities management), there are usually a wide range of team performance levels which require the leader to use a different mix of skills to ‘match’ the needs of the team (see diagram).

HPT Leadership: A Combination of 3 Skills to Match Team Level

The 3 types of leadership skills needed to help teams ‘Level Up’ to higher performance are managing, coaching and mentoring. However the correct combination of these 3 skills varies depending upon the team's level of performance across the 5 levels of HPT.

Coaching is asking strategic questions to enable the team to realise their own insights and solutions. In coaching, the coach does not provide any content, only process. As you can see in the table below coaching is contra-indicated for Level 1 Teams and used as the predominant leadership approach for Level 5 Teams.

In contrast to coaching, Mentoring is the sharing of experiences to transfer skills and knowledge to another. Mentoring is the predominant leadership approach for Level 3 Teams and and used to varying degrees across all 5 Levels.

Finally Managing is giving the team clear expectations, specific accountabilities and instruction. The most emotionally draining and difficult type of managing is of course the management of poor performance (sometimes referred to as ‘performance management’) but this should not be confused with the skill of managing – which is an essential skills that is applied with varying intensity across all five levels of High Performance Teams. Managing is useful throughout all 5 Levels of High Performance Teams but most prevalent in Level 1 and Level 2 Teams.

Right Sizing Leadership Across The Levels To Build A Feedback Culture

When building a culture of feedback with teams, Judi suggests the following combination of leadership skills across Level 1 to 5 for a differentiated approach:

HPT Level 1 - Dysfunctional Teams

Manage (Most Often) In Level 1 teams, ‘managing’ is at its highest frequency. Line management occurs weekly, with clear individual expectations and instructions around role, accountabilities and timelines being set. Direct instruction is provided and reinforcement of priority work and tasks. It is also important to identify the strengths and areas to develop at both an individual and team level and provide mandatory professional development for any gaps. Mentor (Infrequently): Mentoring is used only occasionally in Level 1 teams with the mantra of “One part challenge, five parts support”. Mentoring topics are informed by relevant performance data and meetings focus on exemplars and modelling. Coach (Infrequently): The use of coaching with Level 1 teams is generally not supported, as the main focus is on managing the team towards compliance with policy and procedures.

HPT Level 2 - Functional Teams

Manage (Often). In Level 2 teams, ‘managing’ is used with high frequency. Line management occurs fortnightly with clear team level accountabilities and timelines set. Instruction and direction is provided to assist in development with a programmatic approach to the provision of professional development. Mentor (Regularly): Mentoring is used more regularly in Level 2 teams with the focus increasing to “Two parts challenge, five parts support”. Mentors aim to motivate and inspire the team and assist them to connect with other teams. Mentoring topics are selected by the mentor and team members are provided with a peer “buddy” who has a similar role with a little more experience. Coach (Intermittently): In Level 2 teams there is intermittent use of coaching for individual positive outliers. Here coaching is used to provide clarity of purpose and individual growth and development.

HPT Level 3 - High Performance Teams

Manage (Regularly): In Level 3 teams, ‘managing’ is used with moderate frequency. Line management continues to occur fortnightly with structures set up for ways of working. Support is also provided by providing appropriate resources that are selected by both the leader and the team. The leader also motivates team members to seek their own professional development. Mentor (Most Often): Mentoring is used most often in Level 3 teams with the focus now moving to “Three parts challenge, five parts support”. Mentoring topics are guided by both the mentor and the team with peer mentoring also provided. The mentor also assists the team to connect and collaborate with the whole staff network. Coach (Regularly): Coaching is appropriate in Level 3 teams, however team members may have limited insights and experience to draw on so coaching may require more structure and boundaries (known knowns) than in higher level teams. Coaching has a technical focus with some gentle challenging around interpersonal areas.

HPT Level 4 - Advanced High Performance Teams

Manage (Intermittently): In Level 4 teams, ‘managing’ is used with lower frequency. Line management occurs monthly with accountability reports provided each month by the team to show evidence of progress. In solving issues, Level 4 teams use their pooled expertise. Mentor (Often):  Mentoring is often used in Level 4 teams with the focus moving to “Four parts challenge, five parts support”. Mentoring topics are guided by the team’s needs and requests. A senior mentor is provided which can be used as a peer buddy to other teams. The mentor also assists with the connection of local level links with other schools and networks. Coach (Often): Coaching is used with higher frequency in Level 4 teams. Team members will generally display moderate levels of insight, however the coach may still need to use prompts (known unknowns). The focus shifts to interpersonal areas and mind-sets with coaching topics shared by the team’s and school priorities. The use of 360 degree assessment tools may also be used in Level 4 teams.

HPT Level 5 - Elite High Performance Teams

Manage (Infrequently):  In Level 5 teams, ‘managing’ is used least often. Line management occurs once per term with accountability reports provided by team members monthly. Level 5 teams have freedom in their ways of working and become the topic expert for schoolwide training. There is a high investment in providing them with opportunities and they are asked what resources and professional development they require. Mentor (Intermittently): Mentoring is intermittently used in Level 5 teams with equal parts challenge and support – “Five parts challenge, five parts support”. Mentoring topics are guided by the team’s needs and requests. A senior mentor is provided for topics with a narrow focus with the team used as a senior mentor for other teams. The mentor also assists in connecting and collaboration with external networks. Coach (Most Often): Coaching is used with the highest degree of frequency in Level 5 teams. Team members have high insight for deep reflection so the coaching topics are driven by the team and the coach says very little (unknown knowns). The team innovates and is invited to coach another team. The role of the coach is to also provide the team with coaching while they are coaching other teams (coach the coach). The use of 360 degree assessment tools are also used with self-assessment of the results.

Adjusting Your 'Right Sized' Approach As Each Team Levels Up

Once you have ‘right sized’ your leadership approach to match the team’s level of performance it is important to know when to ‘adjust’ the mix of manager, mentor and coach skills you use as the team ‘Levels Up’ to higher performance. For example, if you begin leading a team who is operating at Level 2, it will be appropriate to mainly use a management approach (e.g., identifying a clear common purpose, clarity of vision and the setting up of ‘givens’). As the team develops mutual trust and respect for each other’s potential, you will want to invest in their leadership by gradually increasing the use of mentoring skills to model the HPT Level 3 Team Skills such as the use of effective meeting protocols, sharing expertise around strategic planning, establishing data walls for accountability, mapping governance and management systems to maximise collaboration.

As the team approaches Level 4, stretching the team performance by also increasing the intensity and use of coaching will maximise their growth as a high performance team. At this stage the team will be self-regulating their own leadership and team development resulting in the team leader rarely reverting to management approaches. There will be rich debate inside the room and strong unity outside the room – a sign of a solid team. The team leader might pose a question like “How can I help your thinking on that?” or “What possible assumptions could be holding the team back here?” Note that the questions have no content (no advice).

Teams that I have seen operate at Level 5 are coaching other teams within the organisation and repeating the cycle of manage, mentor and coach. If this is successful everyone in the organisation feels and acts like a leader and everyone in the team feels and acts like a team player. This is a gradual release of responsibility by the CEO/ Principal as he or she shares their leadership and fully empowers the organisation at every level.

When To Adjust Your Approach: Timing Is Critical

As a team journey’s up to higher levels of performance, the leader has to make a range of adjustments to their approach – and timing is critical. Knowing what to ‘look for’ as lead indicators of improved team performance is vital in beginning to transition your approach – decreasing the intensity of your management approach and increasing the use of mentoring and coaching approaches.

Take a look in each of the “Look For” boxes in each of the HPT Level Up Tables above to see the indicators signifying the need to adjust your leadership approach. Getting the timing right creates a powerful catalyst to boost teams to higher performance levels.

Missing these important ‘Look For’ indicators and getting it wrong creates a ‘glass ceiling’ inadvertently blocking team growth and if not addressed over the longer-term will foster a sense of ‘learned helplessness’ as the team habituates to a leader unable (or unwilling) to empower their team to work at the highest levels. For example if a leader continues to only manage a team, the team will wait for approval and permissions for even the smallest initiative, resulting in a lack of ownership by the team. This eventually leads to disengagement and disempowerment of the team members. If a leader stops at the mentoring approach, the team will become dependent on the advice of the leader. However, if a leader uses a combined approach – adjusting correctly as the team levels up, they will go beyond mentorship towards coaching, and the team will be empowered to use their own initiative and energy to drive the improvement agenda and be accountable for their own results.

Passages: On-Boarding New Team Members To Match Level

It is also important to point out how critical the ‘on-boarding’ process is for new team members – especially in teams working at higher levels of performance. For example if you have a level 4 or 5 team and new members join, you as the leader will need to provide a very strong induction/ ‘on-boarding’ process into the team’s ‘agreed ways of working’ and provide short-term individualised ‘managing’ and ‘mentoring’ to quickly bring them up to speed so the full team can continue performing at the highest levels. Failure to properly ‘on-board’ new team members can drag the team backwards to lower levels of performance – this is far too common and the team leader is directly responsible for preventing this from happening.

Bringing It All Together

Building a culture of feedback throughout an organisation such as a large school is one of the ‘holy grails’ of all school leaders. However, a ‘one size fits all’ leadership approach across the organisation will not work as teams function at different levels of performance and have different needs. Thus, your approach to transformation must be differentiated to ‘match’ each team’s level and needs.

You can gauge the level of each teaching team by completing the HPT Team Level Assessment (click here) and then develop a differentiated team specific leadership strategy by completing the HPT Leadership Assessment (click here). By developing a differentiated leadership approach to match each team’s level and needs AND observing the ‘Look Fors’ showing you when you need to adjust your approach you can fast-track transformation and in doing so maximise the performance of each and every team!

Dr Pete Stebbins PhD

Dr Pete Stebbins, PhD, is a workplace psychologist, author & executive coach. Pete has many years of research and professional practice behind him and is the director of the High Performance Schools Program working with a large number of primary, secondary & special education schools developing High Performance School Cultures to maximise staff and student outcomes. 

High Performance Schools - Read More...

• Kay Kirkman on Mentoring Principals & Building High Performance Schools
• Samantha Donovan on School Culture & High Performance Teaching Teams 
• Dr David Turner on Leading High Performance Schools Into The Future
• Roselynne Anderson on The Power of Feedback in High Performance Schools
• Phillip Carleton on Building Explicit & Consistent School Culture
• Sharon Barker on Building High School Culture From Start Up