How do you
have those difficult conversations that you sometimes need to have as a Head of
Department?
I’ve been a
Head of Department for only 1 year and 1 term, though until Christmas the
department was just myself. However since moving to my new school my department
is now made up of myself and 2 other members of staff, one of whom I directly
line manage and appraise, and I would say that this has been the greatest
learning curve and challenge over the last term in my new school – learning how
to formally line manage someone and be a leader!
Leading
myself I’ve always found relatively easy because I can be pretty determined and
focused, but leading and appraising other people, especially those who are more
experienced and older than you, can be bit of a challenge (and is made even
worse when you’re in a new school and learning the ropes yourself!)
This term
I’ve had to do my first formal lesson observation as part of an appraisal cycle
and give formal feedback and whilst there were some good points to the lesson,
both myself and another member of senior staff felt that it wasn’t as good as
it could be and was of concern.
Having that
conversation with a more experienced and older member of staff was difficult, especially
when they may not agree with it, and whilst we discussed it and I used some
coaching skills that I had learnt previously, it still felt immensely
uncomfortable for both of us and rather awkward, and led to a little bit of awkwardness and tension over the following few days.
Now any other advice to improve this would be great! However the other night, whilst driving home listening to Simon Mayo on Radio 2, he was talking
to Clare Balding about a book that she had written, “Walking Home”. As they
chatted Clare shared that she had discovered that the simple act of walking
alongside someone for a prolonged period of time (not just walking to the
staffroom) causes them to open up more deeply than they might have otherwise (especially
sat in a classroom!) because not only the lack of eye contact involved helps reduce any sense of awkwardness, but more importantly the act of walking together to a shared goal or destination as opposed to walking alone.
And this got
me thinking…whilst I was at Uni I was President of the Christian Union and was
leading a committee of 5 other people, alongside jointly running a small group,
and that whenever I wanted to talk to someone in depth about something, which
sometimes may be uncomfortable for either of us, we use to go for a walk along
the seafront in Pompey.
Now I'm a keen mountain walker, and love heading to the Lake District, donning a rucksack and books and heading off for the day exploring and getting lost on the hillsides, but I've always walked alone (except for the trusty ipod) and whilst this is great sometimes, you can get a sense of loneliness. So at Christmas I took my girlfriend up to Keswick for a few days and even just us, walking side by side around Grasmere and Buttermere led to us chatting about things that we have never done before and the shared goal spurned us both on, and even more recently me and my dad have completed the Wainwright Coast to Coast walk, and walking alongside each over for 2 weeks led to us both opening up and sharing more than what we might otherwise have done.
So the
question is this, would lesson observation feedback and discussions around
that, rather than being given in a rather awkward, fixed, staged classroom sat on school chairs at a desk or table, be more effective if we went for a walk? Can that uncomfortable walk out after sometimes an awkward meeting and possible sense of loneliness actually be changed to one of walking together towards a shared goal?
Now I
haven’t yet tried and experimented with this yet (I mean what happens if you go
too far, it still gets awkward then there’s a long walk back!) but certainly am
going to over the next term, and will share my findings. I'm very fortunate in that despite working in inner Lewisham we have a woodland walk located directly behind our school so can get away from the hustle and bustle.
But I wonder if we
make this wider and if other
people give it a go what would the effect be? Even if it is just round the local housing estate. How might going for a walk for line management meetings and coaching conversations
and feedback, change our departments, and schools, if we all just simply took a walk together, as opposed to going it alone?
