Expectations of SLT
Key Behaviours to be an effective Leader
- Dedicated time to Think
- Make time for yourself that has priority
- Have a list of topics that you need to think about
- Dedicated time to Network
- Inside your new organization, across org, and in your user community
- Build strong alliances with your stakeholders
- Communicate to your team
- Ensure that messages are carried down through your teams effectively
- Strive to be Paperless.
Personal Behaviours
Personal skills
- Time management is key at this level
- Proficient calendar management is a must
- Review and adjust your management routine if there are any shortcomings
- Be punctual/dependable in attendance to meetings – not always 5 minutes late
- Prioritise time with children
- Dedicated time to Think
- Make time for yourself that has priority
- Have a list of topics that you need to think about
- Communicate to your team
- It is expected that messages are carried down through your teams effectively
- Strive to be Paperless (I do, so don’t be upset if I throw things out)
Assuming responsibility for your new team
- Produce a 30-60-90 day view of what you intend to get done
- It’s not written in stone, but set expectations, and demonstrate progress
- Identify the key talent in your teams
- Natural leaders, tipping point people, technical talent
- I will get out and meet some of these people – use this to your advantage
- Establish a list of successors – It won’t be perfect, but something to work wit
- Our common purpose is children’s progress – focus your team around this
- Need to create common objective to meet this goal
- May be an enhanced definition for the group, or a set of common goals
- Ask a lot of questions. I will.
- You should not be limited to “that’s how it’s been done
- ”Which doesn’t mean you can fix it right away
- But develop an approach to fixing the issues longer term
Group Behaviours (As an SLT)
Prayer
- Everything we do is rooted in prayer
- Pray for wisdom!
Attend
- If you don’t, then we will learn to manage without you.
- It is expected that you let us know ahead of time you can’t make it
- You should have learned to manage your calendar a long time ago
Contribute
- Do not be a wallflower, or a chatterbox.
- Be clear and concise
- Learn how to communicate with the members of this new team.
- Make your peers smarter than they were when they entered the room.
Decision
- This is what an SLT does
- First decision – what type of culture do we want.
How the SLT should operate
Be open and honest
- Is key to our who we are
- You can be direct, and respectful at the same time
- Challenge each other on ideas/concepts
- Zero tolerance for passive aggressive behavior
- If you have an opinion, state it, constructively. Healthy tension.
- Don’t come to me afterwards with a dissenting opinion. Say it up front.
- You won’t agree with every decision. I don’t, but often learn in the process.
Defining terms
- Many times we use terms that are vague and undefined.
- This is a cause of status quo we hear what we want and what is comfortable.
- Be explicit about what you are talking about.
Paperwork
- critical thinking should be presented in 1 page, regardless of who is presenting
- 1 additional page of facts to support is acceptable
- This doesn’t mean people won’t have large presentations, but they should cover multiple topics
Debrief and Redo
- Very effective ways to evaluate our own performance and improve it.
- As we finish work items, we should critique our performance
- We will not be afraid to go back and re-evaluate processes and decisions
- That doesn’t mean we second guess them
- Need to be outcomes based
- Need to hold ourselves accountable for our performance
