Sustaining the Leader Cumasú

 Explore where you are now in relation to the challenges that you face  Examine your own well being and strategies for the upcoming school year  To explore ways that you can maintain your vision/values and sustain yourself while facing these challenges  To explore the role of virtues in the life of a leader.

 "Self leadership is the courage to face the challenge between success and right now" (Chalklen, W. 2008)  Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job. That takes all of the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge, skill, implacability, as well as determination not to accept failure. ~ Admiral Arleigh A. Burke

 What are the challenges that face your school in the coming year?  What are the stressors/pressures that face you as a Deis leader in meeting those challenges?

 How does the challenge of the role affect you?  How does it affect your energy?  How does it affect your mid set....optimism, hope, ability to think clearly...?  How does it affect your relationships?  How do you know that your wellbeing is being affected? ie. Triggers, symptoms of stress, alert mechanisms.

Work-Life Balance Fun & Creativity Spiritual & reflection Friends & Social Career & Finance Personal Development Health & Fitness Partner & family O Mental & Emotional

Virtues that sustain-Courage, Authenticity & Hope Self Reflection/Awareness Values/Vision Relationships/Supports

...if you want to be a leader, you have to be a real human being. You must recognize the true meaning of life before you can become a great leader. You must understand yourself first. (Senge, 2004, p.186)

Your first duty of care is to yourself  Self reflection is a key skill in remaining effective.  Recognise the stressors/triggers that alert you  Be conscious of your actions and how they affect you  Be conscious of the people around you  Be conscious of your feelings  Make changes based on the knowledge.  Be Authentic. Be true to yourself

 Know the challenges  Build on the strengths  Be aware of cause & affect  Develop strategies to minimise depletion  Know your vision for the school  Systems & structures  Policies  People  Delegation  Be involved in what you enjoy-’purple places’  Humour

 What are the core values that underpin your leadership?  The values that I live by are  My values have been compromised when  I have learned that  I must remind myself that......

 Knowing when to focus on your highest values  Knowing when to shift with the moving sands  Knowing when to stand firmly in the mud  Knowing when the conflict of values happens  Knowing when you and your values have lost touch  Knowing what this does to you as a person  Knowing what to do about it

 ENERGY & HEALTH  In what ways are my energy & health affected by my job?  What strategies can I avail of that will help me maintain health and energy levels?

 Identify the key relationships in your life  Identify other relationships that support you  Identify relationships that have a negative influence on you  What strategies can I put in place to maintain my positive relationships?  What strategies can I put in place to minimise the effects of negative relationships?  What supports can I avail of that will help me this year?

 Focus on yourself from time to time  Identify the things/people that stress you  Deal with what you can change/influence  Manage your time effectively and put some time aside for you!  Visualise your vision  Avoid negative people where possible. Engage with those who reenergise you.  Accept support-seek help! Don’t go it alone...

 Know your strengths and personal challenges  Know your school and the staff  Know your values and beliefs- identify the non negotiable values.  Reimburse your energy in all areas.  Formulate & Articulate your Vision  Build and maintain healthy relationships  Weekly self appointment-see handout

 Identify 3 really positive aspects of your leadership role ie. your staff, your community, your students.  Each table is asked to identify 3 strategies that will help sustain the leader this year in meeting the challenges that face you.  Personal statement- Reflection for future action

 Virtue is a strength of character that you uphold and build on, in order to enhance your leadership capacity.  “ people become virtuous by practising virtue and by living with moral mentors. Disciplined organisations reflect disciplined leaders whose honed abilities lead them to behave consistently, almost instinctively, in moral ways” Walton (1998)

 Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. ~ John WayneJohn Wayne Authenticity-Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. ~ Harold GeneenHarold Geneen Hope -You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down. ~ Mary Pickford  A leader is a dealer in hope. ~ Napoleon BonaparteNapoleon Bonaparte

 To have any single strength of character in full measure, a person must have the other ones as well.  Courage without good judgment is blind, risking without knowing what is worth the risk.  Courage without perseverance is short-lived, etc.  Courage without a clear sense of your own abilities is foolhardy. 20

 “Leadership is much more about who the leader is than how the leader applies leadership principles or adopts a leadership style” Evans 1996  The most fundamental moral choice we make on a daily basis is the choice to be ourselves, to live by our values, to be true to our inner moral compass, to listen to the voice of self truth that resides within us…  Authentic leaders understand themselves in relation to others, they engage in a dialogue with the emerging self and the other self, they reflect on their authenticity with courage and humility.

 Why is it important to know who we are as a leader?  What does it mean to be authentic?  What is the impact on you of not being authentic?  How can you remain authentic?

 Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up. ~ Anne LamottAnne Lamott  Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible. ~ Charles Caleb ColtonCharles Caleb Colton  Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. ~ The Shawshank RedemptionThe Shawshank Redemption

 “Virtues strengthen the heartbeat of schools. A strong heartbeat is a school’s best defence against the obstacles leaders face as they work to change schools for the better” Sergiovanni 2007