Evidence selected from Thing 4 -
On a personal level, it showed how inconsistent I am in my leadership. For example in the Collaborations and Influencing. I felt, prior to completing the questionnaire that I was good at collaborating as I feel that I spend time on the floor, with the team, however, the questions demonstrated that I only some times. It is clear that I do not challenge the team, I let things slide. A key example of this is an outdoor questionnaire I put out to all staff prior to Christmas. My Head of Centre stressed that it needed to be complete prior to Christmas holidays, however, when I logged into the forms it as clear that only 20% of the team actually took time to fill the questionnaire in, despite being very eager to do it. Initially I reflected on this statistic and collated the results and sent them to management, stating my disappointment in the uptake. However, I feel, after completing the feedback activity, I needed to be more vocal, so I have done just that. I was calm, polite and open, however I made it clear that it was unacceptable. I reiterated the importance of the questionnaire and the rationale behind it. At first, the team were unnerved by my stance, which made it uncomfortable to work alongside them, but within a couple of hours, I had all the replies so that my data was accurate and now we can take the improvement plan with the team at the front leading. There were some things which were not a surprise. I strongly believe that relationships are important and this was reflected in the feedback I received. What was surprising was the disparity between my answers and those of colleagues as I was stating “ sometimes” in my answers, however, they were pointing out that I was “ consistently”
I need to be more verbal and more proactive, taking risks, getting communication out to the wider ELC community about our improvement plans
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Across the six capabilities, what are your leadership strengths and areas for development? The exercises in Part 3 of the workbook can help you to identify how you evidence your leadership capability at all levels.
I completed the exercise in part 3 of the workbook in January 2022, and on reflection I have seen an improvement in my confidence when implementing changes within practice to improve the quality of service. An example of this is between March-June 2022 I ran a transition project using the QI methodology to measure impact and ran a Literacy project on the floor to improve quality, outcomes and the quality of observations . I led both projects from the front, modelling best practice, sharing results, discussing impact and significance. Although I was sharing my work and its importance, I was still shaking like a leaf in case someone took offence to what I was trying to do and when that happens, it escalates very quickly. This demonstrates that I am continuing to develop my leadership skills linked to motivating and inspiring
Empowering
Since November 2021, I have been working with the practitioners and management to develop a sense of agency within the team. Though my support and guidance we have successfully piloted “champion roles” and now, in this academic year we are encouraging all staff to take on a leadership role and be active within it. As mentioned in previous badge work , I have been running a narrative around evidence based practice , tracking and monitoring and quality improvement methodology. My narrative and modelling through practice is being embedded into the setting and the management are leading the changes. It was lovely to hear my words come out of the management mouths during the inservice day sessions. This has also demonstrated how through my creativity I have addressed the elephant in the room as my current setting is openly again data driven quality improvement.
What leadership skills would you most like to develop? What difference could this make to your work?
I am continuing to develop my skills within communication and building up my confidence in my Leadership skills. I feel that it will improve my ability to lead the team through the projects which my QIO sets for us to lead.
I am continuing to develop the resilience of our team and the narrative / dialogue. I am overseeing mental health / staff wellbeing. I am introducing mindfulness activities etc
What is your plan for continuing your leadership development?
I am continuing to work with my Quality Improvement Officer to build up my skills as an Equity and Excellence Lead which will also build up my person leadership skills and abilities to have challenging conversations and challenge oppression and discrimination.
