I have been fortunate in my professional life to have worked with some amazing and inspiring leaders. They each have their unique abilities and characteristics and have been effective in different areas and roles within the school and with different types of tasks.

I worked with Margaret in my first years of teaching. As AP, She provided a positive model of how to run a class to me as a very new teacher. She offered feedback that was timely, useful and within my zone of proximal development. She encouraged teamwork and facilitated collaborative planning and preparation, encouraging each member of the team to rely on the others, ultimately showing that each member was reliable, capable and trusted to do their job well. Her special skill lay in servant leadership and team dynamics.

A few years later I worked for AP and later DP, Rae. She had a way of keeping the workload and expectations manageable. In her everyday, get the job done, arrive at the end of the week, task oriented leadership, she kept the team on track by setting realistic goals, providing plenty of notice about work that needed doing and taking care to keep student learning at the forefront of all discussions and decision making. She developed positive relationships with all members of the school community and was proactive in dealing with issues as they arose. This meant that students, parents, teachers and the school leadership all felt a sense of shared direction and support and that she had their best interests at heart.

Currently I am working with a teacher leader who, although relatively new to teaching, brings a wealth of experience in other industries with her as well as experience bringing her own two boys through the special education sector. Jo has a way of listening and getting to the heart of a problem quickly and succinctly. She is intelligent as well as intensely practical and identifies problems before they begin, allowing her to be proactive and avoid potential pitfalls. Jo asks questions and really considers the answers. She identifies those people who know about topics she is investigating and asks for help as needed. Similarly, she offers advice and counsel to others as needed and people listen. She is a reflective practitioner and skilled communicator.

In thinking about the leadership qualities demonstrated by these leaders, I see that the attributes that make a good leader are:

great communicator
reflective practitioner
excellent listener
proactive
considered, thoughtful and measured
collaborative
a model of best practice