How to expand your influence at school

Expanding your influence in a school is a signpost that you are taking actions towards becoming a leader.

 

For many teachers, that influence starts in their year teams or faculties. Being seen as someone who gets things done, has new and innovative ideas and knows what is going on in the school.

 

If you're either new to leadership or an aspiring leader, you are more than likely already doing many things to expand your influence but may not be fully conscious of it.

These 5 points will either being them front of your focus and intention or they will provide helpful next steps in expanding your visibility at school.

Articulate what you're doing and why

In the classic Simon Sinek TED Talk "Start with Why", he clearly explains the benefits of starting with Why versus What. We can transfer this same concept to your leadership project. Focus on why your initiative is the right work to be doing vs what you'll be doing or how.

There are so many benefits to clearly articulating the why, what, and how of your project. Reconnecting with why allows people to join your journey. They know where you're heading with this project and can easily see the path forward.

Staff can see that you, as an aspiring or new leader are focused on the big picture and are working towards something. This kind of leadership is inspirational for staff. They often have no intention of going into leadership themselves, but they do want to work with someone who is intentionally improving things for staff and students.

A simple strategy to clearly articulate your why is to start each email you send to the team or whole school staff. This will keep it front of mind for everyone so when staff have ideas, concerns, or questions, you become the go to person for that topic. This is expanding your influence.

Be the person to expand your influence

To expand your influence, be the kind of leader you want to be. Many new and aspiring leaders are still crafting their leadership style so start by creating a 'profile' of behaviours, actions, and values that you aspiring to do, be and have. Look at past and present leaders that you've had or interacted with and think about what they did that you respect and admire and add those to your profile. Also consider those that you do not agree with and reframe the negative into a positive behaviour, action, or value that you will do.

For example, I had a leader who would start talking when I was mid-sentence. I knew it was because we were on the same page often and it sped up the conversation, but it made me feel unheard, not valued and that I was not worth their time. So, I made an intentional effort to have strategies when speaking with others so that did not happen.

Now that you have your leadership 'profile' you can start to model it with staff.

Practice being the person you want to be now.

You may not always get it right, but you can't get to mastery without practice.

Get the front of the bus people on board to expand your influence

Early adopters (a.k.a. front of the bus people) are those that will jump on board new initiatives, likes to try new things and the important foundation of any successful project. Most of the time they are several years into their teaching career and have the capacity to spend some time and energy on working with you on your project.

These people will help you expand your influence is several ways.

They will help your project move forward by doing the work with the students so you can see how your initiative improves student’s results. If you do the work with the students, it is not a leadership project. You need other adults to lead and then they do the work with students. It also provides you with data so you can change or pivot your initiative to still reach the intended goal.

Early adopter will also expand your influence because teachers talk. They will naturally share what they are doing in their classrooms and why they are doing it. Your name will be used as they share the success your imitative to others.

Front of the bus people are often tapped on the shoulder to become part of a project. Identify who you think may be someone of interest and be open to their response. Only approach them when you have a solid why and some idea of the how so that they know what they are signing on for.

As a final note here, be aware there will be staff who are only early adopters for projects that they are passionate about. I made a call out for people once and got, what I considered, a wildcard staff member put their hand up to work with me on a project. When I approached them, it was because all the other 'new and jargon-y' initiatives that were out there had not real meaning for them. But what I wanted to investigate improving, they saw as valuable work. So always open your call up for people to everyone in the school because you just never know who may be interested.

In conclusion:

1. Connect your project with a strong why
2. Be the person
3. Get front of the bus people on board

If you'd like my help in getting your project off the ground or not even sure what kinds of projects will get you the promotion you want, book a free call with me to discuss what you need to do and how I can help.