Staff PD Day: Monday 14th October 2019

8:30am-2:30pm

Schools are People Places: Building Trust is Essential

By Steve Francis

Today we had a staff professional development day about the importance of building trust in our work place and finding a good work life satisfaction and balance. I really enjoyed today’s PD and found it quite useful to have time to reflect on our current skills and what we could do to improve our individual situations. We also spent time unpacking effective teams and how to work efficiently and collaboratively.

Here are some of my notes and take aways from today’s session:

• People Skills vs Technical Skills. In our profession you require people skills to be successful.

How do we build trust relationships?

1. Trust Yourself
2. Having credibility in other people’s eyes. 4 Cores: Character & Competence

• Integrity (Do you do what you say you’re going to do?),
• Intention (What they think our intentions are, assumptions about our intentions),
• Capabilities (Skills, Knowledge, Expertise, Experience)
• Results (Do we deliver, do we follow through with what we plan to do?)

Building Trust Relationships, 13 Behaviours

• Talking straight- balance between sugar coating and addressing issues
• Demonstrate respect
• Clarify expectations
• Create transparency- no hidden agendas
• Confront reality- address issues
• Practise accountability
• Rights wrongs- when we make mistakes, own it, apologise
• Listen first-be a good listener and understand what other people’s concerns are
• Get better- strive to be our best and improve
• Keep commitments- delivering on the promises we make, following through
• Show loyalty- talk about people as if they were present
• Deliver results- do the things that matter, that make a difference
• Extend trust- trust others, we are a team

Parents see moments of truth and base their trust about ourselves and school in these moments of truth. These can be simple things like the way your classroom looks, the atmosphere in the yard before school, how a teacher greets people in the morning, what their children say about their day at pick up time etc.

Teamwork

Why work as a team? Lightens workload, shared experience, develops relationships, working to our strengths, feels good to be part of a team and feel trusted and to trust others.

Efficient, Effective and Consistency of good practise. Gives people a sense of connection and belonging.

• Does the team have a clear purpose for existing?
• Will working together lead to better results?

Highly Effective Teams Model:

• Identifies Purpose, Clear Processes, Establish Trust, Focused Lead.

Line of Life: Ownership, Accountable, Responsible

Challenge others and ask them if they are living above the line of life. Below the line, we see blame, excuses and denial. Above the line we own our decisions, are accountable for our own actions and take responsibility in the role we play in our lives. I found this quite useful, and thought about applying this concept to student thinking. I have discussed the “Blame Game” with my students before, this could link in nicely.

How to respond to change: 3 choices

• head in the sand
• complain and deny
• steer it

Stages of Change/ Concern

• Information: What is the change, what do I need to know?
• Personal impact: how will this impact me and my workload?
• How to implement this change: what will we need to do to get this going?
• Impact concerns: What impact have happened since the changes have occurred?
• Collaboration: How do we work together to manage the change?
• Refinement: Redo something that we didn’t do before, tweak and refine things.

You get to choose your attitude!

Attitudes are contagious. Is your attitude worth catching?

I loved this. It’s all a state of mind and how we deal in any given situation. I find that when I get into a negative headspace, feel pressured or stressed, my class picks up on my mood and we end up having a more challenging day. I want to bring this to my students’ attention. All of our attitudes are contagious, act with kindness, be treated kindly, act with anger, receive anger etc. Something to think about.

7 Steps to Successful Change

What would I need to accomplish today to feel good about the day?What is the most important thing for me to do now?

Email warning: Email Survival Rules

4 D’s: Delete, Delegate, Do it Now Or Decline. Deal with it, Decide and move on.

7 Tips to Increase Work Life Satisfaction

1. Monitor your self talk
2. Stop Feeling guilty about what you haven’t done
3. Stick to your golden rules (Own family rules that suit needs of all, create with partners)
4. Use your time well
5. Keep perspective: in a year from now, will this matter?
6. Look after yourself: self care routines
7. Avoid DHS (Deferred Happiness Syndrome)

Overall, I had a great day. I had time to reflect on my personal work life balance and satisfaction and identify the areas I need to be more mindful of. In particular, I need to think about self care, exercising and having some me time. All very well and good however, I find excuses or busy myself, especially when I’m working/ teaching full time, have a 2 year old and two teenagers at home, am planning our wedding (happening this Saturday!) and running a household cooking, cleaning, etc. Luckily I have a great partner at home and we support one another. Both of us being teachers, we understand the pressure, workload and needs required to be successful and manage.

The point from today is, we are all busy and we need to prioritise what’s important, address what needs to be done first and don’t sweat the small stuff. Make time for the important things and use systems to be efficient with our time. Teaching is a demanding and highly rewarding profession. I get great work satisfaction as this is my passion, however it can also be draining and mentally challenging. Finding a healthy balance is key.

Here’s to a positive start to Term 4, starting refreshed after a holiday, excited about our wedding this weekend and looking forward to a strong and rewarding finish to a wonderful year back with my Year 3’s.

Have a great term everyone.