WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED POST-COVID ABOUT WHAT MOTIVATES OUR PEOPLE BEST?

As schools complete the first stanza of this year of unknowns, school leaders are reflecting as they always do on what has worked well, on what is challenging them, and what now needs thinking about. It has been a tough term. Everywhere. The virus continues its relentless thrust – kids and teachers alike have been stricken, some for the second time. Programs in and out of class have been thrown into disarray as key staff drop out and students become ill.

Staff again have shown their agility and flexibility reinstating online learning while simultaneously teaching face to face – yet another version of hybrid learning strategies. Students of all ages have shown what we have always known – with Not again! on their lips as they don their masks for class and sanitise their hands over and over automatically, basically they are cheerful and getting on with things, resilient as only kids can be. Not all kids of course – some are seriously burdened still, anxious, distracted, despondent, disengaged, alienated – and dedicated welfare staff attend to their well-being whether they are present or absent from school.

What have we learned, though, as school leaders, about our amazingly talented, resilient, hard-working, diligent, caring, inspirational staff teams? What have emerged as the consistent messages our staff have sent us through this so-called Living with Covid period?

According to Peter Cohan (in 4 Crucial Things Leaders Must Know About Their Employees, in Inc, 8 Sept 21), people are seeking individual, personal recognition for their work and the contribution they are making; seeking opportunities for further professional learning; seeking adequate compensation; seeking the opportunity to work with colleagues who share their values; and earnestly seeking to be able to trust their leaders.

Even before Covid, these were reasonable expectations for those who work with us to have of us as leaders. Especially since Covid, and its telling impact of making every one of us very reflective about what was most important to us in the daily work we do, these expectations have come into stark relief. People’s personal priorities have changed since Covid struck. Teachers’ personal priorities have changed. In these difficult days, sensitive, alert, empathetic school leaders will not overlook these expectations. Those who work for us will be stronger, more engaged, and more focused on their work with students in our schools if we recognise, understand and respond to these expectations.

1. People like to be recognised.

Your teachers are motivated by receiving authentic, genuine, heartfelt recognition from others whom they respect – such as their own immediate team leader and of course from you. It can be as simple as a quick Well done! In the corridor as you pass, or a brief handwritten note of appreciation, or calling them out in a Staff Meeting for a particular achievement or contribution. It does not take much, but its effect far outweighs any effort of yours to take the trouble to do it. Peter Cohan suggests that at that moment when people feel recognised, they receive?a powerful dose of the brain chemical dopamine--the chemical of reward. As Cohan says, harnessing this power can have enormous benefit for the organisation and for the school as a whole. When teachers are valued and appreciated for their work, their work gets better as does their engagement.

2. People want to learn and achieve their goals.

As a leader, especially in a learning community, you obviously must recognise that your teachers want to rise in their careers. You are Head Learner in your school as well as Head Teacher; all good teachers want to continue to learn and grow and develop their pedagogical skills and understanding. Covid forced all schools rapidly to up-skill their teachers in skills involved in online teaching and learning. Many teachers embraced it as their misgivings subsided and online learning became the only option.?Most teachers love learning – it is part of what drew them into teaching.

Post-Covid, schools need to continue to invest in accordance with their means in carefully planned, targeted and relevant professional earning, both individual, such as encouraging and supporting post-graduate study for individuals and whole-staff professional learning on campus or off. A good school leader will also support initiatives offering staff the opportunity to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Cohan asserts that the organisations that attracted and motivated the best talent, particularly in the midst of the?pandemic where demand for talent exceeded supply,?offered the most compelling blend of ongoing professional learning and scheduling flexibility. The Head can make a big difference in achieving this balance, Cohan attests, setting up initiatives that map out a professional learning and skill development pathway aimed at enabling every teacher to realise their potential and their purpose, making their personal goals a reality.

3. People thrive in collaboration?with others who share their values.

In a school, this is a no brainer, of course, and in well-led good schools, the kind of internally coherent culture that sponsors and nurtures collaborative planning, programming and assessment, as well as collaborative strategic planning by executive staff, fosters a sense of belonging for staff and of staff ownership of shared decisions about the school’s future direction and preferred approaches in pedagogy. Cohan reminds us that Peter Drucker famously said that culture eats strategy for lunch. By that, he meant that if you try to execute a strategy that is at odds with your culture, you will fail.

Good school leaders create and sustain a culture based on shared values which ensure the school achieves its objectives for individual students and as a learning community as a whole. Smart schools communicate their shared values widely in their own and the wider educational community, using them as Cohan suggests, both for recruiting and retaining good staff, and also as the basis for how people collaborate. Since people thrive when they work with others who share their values, your ability to create such a culture can be a powerful contributor to your organisation's success, Cohan affirms.

?4. Leaders must create and keep their peoples' trust.

An internally coherent, collaborative culture lays the foundation for the development of trust and confidence in the school’s leadership. During Covid, if we learned nothing else, we learned as leaders that leaders must create and keep trust. The key to doing this well is to tell people what you are going to do - including articulating and living by your organisation's values - and then consistently to do what you undertook to do, Cohan explains. Teachers are not easily fooled and quickly see through school leaders who are not authentic, and who lack the integrity of walking their talk, doing what they say they will do. Every time you fulfil your commitment, you add to the well of trust. And every time you break a promise, you must apologise and fulfil a new commitment. Otherwise, people will stop trusting you and head for the exits, Cohan concludes.

Regular Inc commentator on leadership Marcel Schwantes has suggested that developing a culture promoting psychological safety is critical in building and maintaining trust, especially ?as we learn to live with Covid. In the age of Covid, with mandates, loss of individual freedoms,?and fear?and uncertainty permeating daily life, leaders must face some brutal truths about what it takes to motivate and inspire people on a human, emotional, and psychological level, he writes, (in Here's the Biggest Mistake That Many Leaders Still Make, in Inc 18 Feb 22). The first leadership lesson to help them set themselves and others up for success is that human beings can't perform at their best in fear-based pressure cookers, Schwantes continues. In?traditional top-down power structures, fear is par?for the course as the primary?motivator, he adds, noting that In today's?social economy driven by employees, the best leaders pump fear from the atmosphere and?create?psychological safety among their people.

The internally coherent, collaborative culture outlined above provides a haven where people feel safe. Schwantes refers to research into psychological safety which shows?that when leaders foster a culture of safety, it leads to better performance outcomes. Plain and simple, Schwantes suggests, the effects of psychological safety are?enormous and immediate. It liberates people to freely collaborate, innovate, and engage.

Schwantes continues: Releasing psychological safety and crushing fear in the process requires?modelling the behaviours that foster trust between people.?If you want to elevate?your leadership skills to meet the expectations of your staff post Covid, trust is a pillar your leadership should stand on, he says.

Here are three ways to?develop a personal and professional growth mindset and create more trust with your people:

1. Be willing to listen to feedback.

Many leaders choose to cut themselves off from listening, growing, and developing self-awareness, Schwantes observes. They are afraid of?what they might hear. School leaders?at all levels of leadership who actively listen, acknowledge and genuinely value various perspectives offered by members of their staff are?the leaders who are?open, humble, and accountable. They?seek the facts – the best ideas, the most appropriate response, in order to respond appropriately to serve the needs of others.?

2. Put your staff first.

Speaking of serving the needs of others, every school leader's role should be about serving?their staff - those who are closest to the ‘customer’ experience - first.?Great leaders realise that their primary responsibility as Head Teacher is to their staff. At the end of the day, good leaders ask themselves Robert Greenleaf's fundamental question for true servant leaders: How did those whom I lead grow today as a result of my leading? If leaders take care of their people, train them, and empower them, those people will become fully engaged in?what they do, Schwantes points out. In turn, they will reach out and take care of the school’s overall most important client:?the children and young people who sit in their classrooms day by day.

3.?Bring?your?humanity?to the workplace.

Schwantes avers that the pandemic has shifted?leaders to embrace vulnerability and show a new level of humanity?in the workforce. According to Schwantes, many leaders now have?embraced this shift to being more authentic and open about sharing personal and mental health struggles, as well as openly sharing organisational challenges the school may be facing that may in turn affect members of staff. In the past, it was much more convenient to?sweep?things under the rug and not speak the full?truth on business matters, but things are different now, he contends, adding, leaders today see the advantage that comes from being transparent in the face of adversity; they?are dropping their masks to ask?for help--even from their own employees--to cope with?their own uncertainties.

In Schwantes’ opinion, by demonstrating their essential humanity and authentically revealing their emotions, their empathy and their compassion, qualities that in former times were mostly concealed, leaders are now fostering the cultural environment?within which their teams can?follow suit, working together toward creative solutions and common objectives more effectively and efficiently.

Cohan and Schwantes would both agree that in these post-Covid days, what our teachers, along with people in other organisations, are looking for in these days is a?fully accessible?human being?as a leader, the kind who readily recognises and values their staff; who systematically and routinely offers targeted and relevant ongoing professional learning opportunities to all staff; ?who promotes an internally coherent and collaborative culture within the school; and who fosters and nurtures trust in relationships between members of staff and their leaders by being a good listener; who is an authentic servant leader; and who speaks and acts with integrity and humility.

As Schwantes himself concludes, one silver lining from this pandemic is that it created a crash course on how authenticity,?empathy, and compassion?have become guiding principles to leading people exceptionally well. School leaders especially should be encouraged as they recognise the full impact which these?essential, so-called ‘soft’, interpersonal skills have on accomplishing whole-school objectives and delivering consistently superior learning outcomes.?

?

?

?

?

?