The honeymoon period is over, or is it?  It has been 8 weeks in my new school as TL, in a high school, from a primary school library.  I still love my job, everything I do, every challenge, every opportunity, every resource and particularly my team gives me joy.  So if the timeframe for the honeymoon period is thus, and the shine hasn’t worn off,  then I can only deduce that I might be have arrived ‘home’. – there is no place like, is there?

The environment in which I work, now, has so much potential to apply my the knowledge I have learnt from every unit thus far.  I have learnt enough to take some ownership of what I can bring to my team and develop my skills with confidence.  I am also able to identify different leadership styles within every team member in our library team and how vital it is for the TL to be a chameleon leader – adapting to the needs of the students, teachers or the library itself (staff included).  While I am not head of library, I am fortunate enough to be a leader in a productive way, implementing projects to connect across the curriculum and build collaborative relationships with staff.

I had the opportunity to sit down with my principal last week and we learnt a little more about each other’s professional vision.  He reminded me that we have all of these tools in our tools box, learn different skills to enhance teaching and learning but none of that matters unless we really believe that what we implement and practice really has value.  Which consolidated a lot of what i have learnt so far – a leader needs to see the vision, believe the vision and trust the vision to live the vision. Regardless of what leadership style you called to embody, or the context in which you are a leader, you can not sell your vision, motivate others to be a part of your vision or embed you vision into your everyday life – personal or professional – without believing in the vision.

Their are skills I believe are core to any leader, among others – collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity.  In the age of inquiry based learning and team teaching collaboration is more important than ever. We cannot have strong collaborative relationships, nor can we model them for our peers and students, without effective communication skills – this also means hearing and understanding what we are listening to build on what we have.  With that leaders need to have creativity and critical thinking skills. In order to build trust in those we work with we need to have a certain level of openness and vulnerability to acknowledge a mistake or something is unknown. It the courage to overcome these personal challenges that we can dare to lead with greatness (Brown 2019).

Brown, B. (2019). Dare to Lead. Retrieved from https://daretolead.brenebrown.com/