Pearl of Wisdom

In a check in meeting my Head of School he asked me how things were going and I told him great, (I wasn’t going to be the first person he fired). After all the nicities what happened next reshaped how I see leadership.  After I shared my story about how I became an educator and all the places my feet have led me he then asked me, "What can the school do for you?”. ,”How can we support you in achieving your professional goals?” “What will help you THRIVE?” In that moment all and nothing came to mind. I asked for a little more time since no one has ever asked me that before. 

I think in that moment my Head of School served as a catalyst to what has led me to this very moment where I stand terrified to the core sharing my pearl of wisdom. Today I am standing in a moment that  I co-created with my HoS.

In my many years of commitment to education, no leader had ever asked me how I wanted to be led. For the first time I had the opportunity to inform a leader ! my leader! on how I wanted to be led! My responses went from a wish list and turned into a 13 page Strategic Leadership Framework on how to lead me. He actually read it… 

This is what I wanted him and my future learners to understand about leading me:

1. Affirm my identity as a strength.I want my leaders to recognize that my background, experiences, and perspective as a Zimbabwean educator are assets that enrich the school community.

2.  Create conditions where I can thrive professionally.I need an environment built on trust, respect, and the creation of meaningful opportunities to grow and, if my DISC profile is anything to go by, just know I’m a “D,” so I’ll probably run with those opportunities at full speed (with or without a map).

3. The journey of leading me needs to be a collaborative process.I want a partnership where we work together to shape pathways that are thoughtful, inclusive, and sustainable.

Leadership does need to be a jack in the box where a leader's actions or decisions are a surprise to us all. It doesn't need to be a space where you use my horoscope to formulate leadership strategies although that could help, I am a capricorn just saying. 

Therefore my pearl of wisdom is: 

What if we simply started by asking, “How do you want to be led?” Imagine how much time we would save, it opens dialogue, builds trust, and invites clarity. It shifts leadership from a set of deliverables to a shared process of growth.