Skip to main content

What is a cultivational leader?

Having mentioned 'cultivational leadership' in a few of my posts, and alluding to what it means, I thought that today it would be a good idea to go into a bit more detail, so I am going to write about the key characteristics of a cultivational leader.

Empathy - a cultivational leader will have empathy for all members of their team. As well as challenging them to be the best they can be they will always provide support wherever it is needed and in the form which best suits the member of staff.

Trust - cultivational leaders need to trust their staff to do their role without micromanaging them. They need to instil confidence in them to take risks and try new things, knowing that they will not be reprimanded for doing so.

Realism - with the constant pressure to improve results year on year it is very easy to lose focus on the fact that the children carry with them a lot of factors which may limit levels of progress. These factors can be addressed, and mitigated to some extent, but they cannot be completely eradicated. A cultivational leader will always be aware that they can only aim for their staff to be the best possible versions of themselves, and that this might be different to the leader's ideal scenario.

Determination - Cultivational leadership, with its focus on nurturing and support, can at times be mistaken for weakness. As a cultivational leader you must be prepared to step in and change your approach if it is required, and act if a member of the team is undermining the success of the organisation.

Relational - a cultivational leader understands that a successful organisation is built on a positive culture, which comes from positive relationships. They facilitate these by making expectations clear, by modelling them to all staff and by stepping in if negative behaviour is noted.

Patience - achieving results with cultivational leadership takes time, but the results will be more sustainable than results achieved using an approach achieved by a higher level of challenge without the support that cultivational leadership requires.

The cultivational approach to leadership can be applied to the staff team or to the pupils. It can also be used to achieve effective and long lasting school improvement. In my first book, as yet unpublished, I go into some detail regarding the specifics of these areas and I am hoping to expand on them further in my planned second book.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Things I have learned since leaving the classroom.

I know in my first post I set out a grand plan for what I am going to write about, but I want to slip this one in first. Here are some things I have learned since leaving the classroom. Parents are right when they complain about school traffic. It is as bad as they say it is. I have found that there are times of day that it is wise to stay off the roads if you live within, or want to get to somewhere within a mile of a school. Its not just primary schools, as I have been caught out visiting a supermarket close to a secondary school at home time. It seems that the children (sorry, young people) are too cool to have mum (or dad!) pick them up at the school gate but not too cool that they mind being collected from the Sainsbury's car park next door. The flip side of this is that, if you time it just right, the supermarkets are almost completely deserted if you can find one that is not too close to a secondary school and get there at about 2:55pm. Mums (or dads!) will be otherwise enga...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is 'teacher mode'?

The inspiration for today's post came recently during a walk around the town in which I live. I have spent the past two decades residing in what could loosely be described as a small but popular resort town, the type that only has a low-cost supermarkets in its centre. I was entering one of these recently when I came across a family who were clearly having an off-season break, probably in one of our many holiday-focused establishments. They didn’t actually say as much, but their 'city ways' certainly screamed this to all the locals present. The parents were obviously keen to pay for their purchases, but the children had not finished looking at sweets, so they did not follow them towards the till. As a result, the clearly annoyed mum turned and yelled to the children to get a move, using that old trick of using first and middle names as an indication of how serious they are about what they are asking. I don’t remember the name of the boy, but the girl was definitely called ‘...
Post a Comment
Read more

How did I get here?

After 30 years in education, first as a class teacher, then as a deputy head and finally as a head, I am now an ex-head teacher.  Why is that? I hear you ask. Well, the answer can be summed up in two words, burn out (or is it one word, 'burnout'). I will have to check that. Having lead a small village primary school for over a decade, through covid and through the proceeding collapse in society, I realised that needed a serious break for my own mental health. Initially I thought it might be a permanent break from the profession, but I soon realised that this was not going to be the case, although I think it will be a permanent break from the classroom. So, over the last few months I have been sat in my home office writing my book (as yet unpublished), currently called 'How to be a Head Teacher', which I hope will become a bible for the modern school leader, one which might just prolong a few careers! I have described it in the introduction as the book I wish I had acces...
Post a Comment
Read more