Successful difficult conversations

Do you believe it’s possible to have an even better school AND great well-being?

‘Do you believe it’s possible to have an even better school AND great well-being?’ 

This is a question I ask on my Outstanding School Test. And what’s great is 94% of school leaders say yes.

Wow!

Isn’t that great?

Because sometimes it can feel like in order to create an even better school, we have to ask for sacrifices we don’t want our team to make.

It can feel like we have to be harder as leaders.

Demand more.

Ask for more hours from our teams.

More everything!

But we don’t.

The happiest schools I’ve seen are also the best schools I’ve seen, they are truly outstanding.

And it makes sense that the two go hand in hand, doesn’t it?

Because it would be hard to create a truly great school if the team weren’t happy.

But it’s the type of happiness that counts. It’s not all cake, free tea and yoga (which is nice). It’s the real sense of belonging and purpose, of doing work that matters. This is what creates the strongest sense of well-being:

  • A strong and powerful sense of purpose
  • Cultural clarity
  • Smart working practices, making what matters most work well

 These are the 3 parts of the cultural ecosystem:

  1. Vision – a strong sense of purpose
  2. Values – cultural clarity
  3. Strategy – smart working practices making what matters most work well

Which parts are your strongest? And which needs the most work? Because that will improve your school further, and help your team be happier 🙂

 

Spotlight Resource

Re-ignite yours and your team’s sense of purpose through your vision with my ‘Create a great school vision – Free e-course.

Learn how to make your vision more than a set of words and become a real driving force behind everything you do.

You’ll learn:

  • Is your vision working? A simple acid test to find out.
  • Why is a vision so important (why you can’t just ‘tick the box’ of having one)
  • Who should write your vision
  • The difference between a vision and mission
  • The most common mistakes made in visions

And all in bite size chunks (5 mins or less for each part) over the next 2 weeks because I know how busy school life is.