This was the first management forum on the TEFL Development Hub, it was a very successful event where honest opinions, tough experiences and some workable solutions were shared. The Hub aims to connect, share, develop were evident. Many thanks to those who came. In the group there were managers and owners from language schools big and small, as well as trainers from CELTA and Trinity CertTESOL courses. We all manage people, be it in the staffroom, the training room or the classroom and it became clear that there are many shared experiences.
We began by talking about our experiences, challenges and learning through the pandemic.
- Building team identity – it’s challenging to create identity through online weekly team meetings. For some it has meant more meetings, others have tried to have more 1:1 meetings where there is more space to talk about personal situations.
- Make time for the personal connections – Morning check-ins with staff have been extremely useful.
- “I can’t lead” – How can we lead when we feel unskilled, when we don’t know the answers or when we’re falling apart? Have we had points when we are at the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid, struggling with basic requirements like safety and security? Are we disappointing our teams? It has created friction between teachers and managers as everyone is used to us having the answers.
- “We’re flying a plane at the same time as we’re building it!” It feels scary and somehow freeing. Being honest with our teams is so important.
- Modelling behaviour – How should we behave? How honest can we be?
- Staff are so tired – We want to help but teaching hybrid is so hard, we feel bad and sad. One survey said that over 50% of teachers no longer enjoy their work. They can do it but they don’t like it. Start honest conversations, “How are you feeling?” We can’t solve problems necessarily but we can listen, accompany and empathise.
- Training in webinars – It’s always interesting but not always exactly relevant for our teams.
- Managing customers – Parents and students need us to help them too. Everybody is under stress and it shows in all sorts of ways. Be calm and confident. Customers are quick to anger, are these real complaints or are they exaggerated as expressions of frustration and a lack of control in their lives?
- High quality customers – should we focus more on those we have who trust us rather than those who have left and didn’t even try?
- Self-care – We also need to take care of ourselves.
What is a good leader?
- Different types of leadership – recognising and communicating that we don’t have the answers is so important. Humility can lead to magical conversations. Look for the bright spots, find out what’s going well and share it amongst the team. Then we all gain experience and know-how.
- Servant leadership vs controlling, directive and “heroic” leadership – share power, put the needs of staff first, be there for them instead.
- Transitions in leadership styles – Do we sometimes need to adopt a military style directive approach, especially during times of high anxiety? Is the important thing in communicating the move between different management styles?
- A directly relevant webinar can be found here, Andy Hockley, “Academic Leadership in the time of COVID”, many of the themes here are echoed and expanded upon within the webinar, there is also an extensive set of references at the end for deeper reading.
What might be the future effects on staffing from Brexit and COVID?
This came second in the list of most interesting topics from the poll in the Facebook group.
- Moving away from the “native speaker model” – Will teachers from other countries have a better chance of finding good work? Schools need to be strong and confident in saying that we guarantee good teachers, regardless of their nationality.
- Bi-lateral agreements between the UK and other countries – The legal wheels turn very slowly and while this may happen in the longer term, we shouldn’t hold our breath. The UK needs workers from the EU so the possibility is there.
- Online remote teaching from other countries – It’s very complex in terms of accounting. Some teachers who normally go back in the summer and work university pre-sessional work have been told that they cannot do so from outside the UK.
- Fewer teachers travelling to new destinations because of COVID – Is our competition local? Are we competing with our neighbour schools for staff? Do we need to increase salaries? If so, do prices need to go up? It’s had to put prices up in a recession. Do teachers understand what employers have to pay in terms of social security, etc.? How can we educate teachers in what a good, legal, socially responsible school looks like?
- Training and development – How can we make our training and development programmes more relevant? A shift from the formal to the informal, towards more personalised training and a more active role for teachers in directing their training. Do teachers know what they need to develop? How can we balance the teachers’ needs with the school’s needs? Use a combination of observation, conversation, appraisal to create a needs analysis for your staff. Tie in recruitment, where possible, to align with your school.