Description

Effective leadership is critical for schools to thrive, develop, learn and survive, especially in pressurised educational environments of high stress, conflict and high rates of change. It is particularly challenging for school leaders working in communities of high poverty, where they often function within educational systems that do not necessarily support leadership development. A lack of role clarity with self-awareness undermines the development and growth of leaders.
Leadership development programmes attempt to provide opportunities for learning; however, research pertaining to the process of learning that would be supportive and ultimately result in improved school performance, is scarce. Individual and team coaching are viewed as systemically appropriate leadership development modes to support complex relational leadership contexts. Many researchers suggest what educational leaders should do in South African schools within high-poverty communities. There are many proposals about how leaders in education should lead or what leadership should do in order to improve learner performance. There is little direction on how these behaviours may be learnt with an understanding of the interior condition from which all of their leadership actions originate (C.O Scharmer, 2009). This study explored how school leaders with different behaviour preferences learnt and developed during coaching in a leadership programme in South Africa.
Data was gathered from post-programme module evaluations and coaching feedback notes, and was analysed using a qualitative method of thematic data analysis. The findings indicate that both leaders and their teams believed that they changed significantly in leadership behaviour over the 14-month leadership development programme. The data was grouped according to a self-reported behaviour preference assessment, adding another layer to the exploration of learning. Specific relational changes in building leadership capacity were in understanding one’s patterns of behaviour, thinking, feeling and believing at levels of self and the team. Understanding of learning and barriers to learning led to self-confidence, open leadership styles and the creation of positive teamwork. The combination of both individual and team coaching within a leadership development programme had an influence on increased awareness, sharing and support.
This study deepened and broadened the understanding of how both personalised and group learning in individual and team coaching could contribute to building leadership capacity. It added further awareness of the extent to which internal work is the hard work that unlocks potential. The study also added awareness of both the value and risk of coaching school leaders in under-resourced communities. Finally, it added insight into the benefits of a combination of coaching and facilitated experiences to leadership development in the social sector. Findings from this study will help to inform the practice of developing leadership development programmes in organisations, particularly for school leaders.