My journey from failed school kid to dyslexia and inclusion specialist and now social entrepreneur with my social enterprise Dyslexia Pathways CIC has a long and often difficult one. I think the negative experiences many dyslexics go through can leave us with a very negative impression of ourselves. It can make finding the positives within us very difficult to do and actually believe in.
An important and integral part of this journey was my development in a leadership role. Its a role I never felt comfortable with. Here is an essay I did for a leader ship course I did that explored this.
I hope this is helpful for all you potential leaders in the dyslexic and neuro diverse communities.
Review of Prevailing
Leadership Style
As I run a small
social enterprise where I am the only employee I will be using my experiences
as Team Leader / teacher for Dyslexia Support at the last college I was
employed with.
Levels of motivation and commitment to the
organisation values and goals
When I was first
employed as Co-ordinator for Dyslexia Support there was not a dedicated
Dyslexia Support Department. I was the only full-time dedicated dyslexia
teacher. I managed a small team of two part time qualified dyslexia support
teachers and a varying number of unqualified dyslexia support teachers.
I found there was a deep dissatisfaction
amongst members in my team with the leadership style of the principal and
senior management team, (SMT), at the college. I think to begin with even I was
eyed with suspicion. This
dissatisfaction expressed itself during team meetings. There were, for example,
a lot of complaints about lack of work space, recognition for what they were
doing and there was no support from management.
Members of the
team were committed to meeting the needs of dyslexic students but believed the
college did little to enable them to achieve this.
Factors shaping levels of commitment:
About a year before
I took up post there had been a long period of industrial action between teachers
and management. It went on for over ten months and did not end amicably. Teaching staff were basically forced to end
the action because they just couldn’t afford to carry on with it.
The action was
called when the principal and SMT introduced new contracts without any
consultation. This included having to re-apply for posts, the introduction on
longer teaching contact hours and the possibility of redundancies. I know from
discussions with my team there was a belief this would all impact on their
ability to do the best job they could for their students.
My team also felt
undervalued there also no dedicated teaching or work space to work with
dyslexic students. For example staff had
to hot desk which basically meant they had to find a workspace to do any
preparation and marking work. When meeting a student they had to then find a
quiet place to work with them on a one to one basis.
The main
leadership style was quite coercive and authoritarian. Goalman’s 6 Leadership
Styles indicate this coercive style has a negative effect on the climate an
organisation. This was certainly true within
the college. Dr Douglas McGreggor’s XY Theory indicates this authoritarian
style has an adverse affect on levels of motivation amongst staff.
Within learning support this lead to a high
turnover of staff and low morale was prevalent within the team. There was very
much us against them atmosphere between staff and management.
Own ability to communicate organisation’s
values and goals:
To be honest I
don’t remember making any conscious effort into communicating the values and
goals of the organisation to others in my team. But what I do remember was that
tackling discrimination and promoting equality and diversity was at the heart
of their mission statement. That was what I tried to do amongst my team and the
students we supported.
To a large extent
I was lucky in that dyslexia had become fashionable within further education. The
Disability Discrimination Act had placed a duty on the college to meet the
needs of all students with a disability. Hence, the college felt the need to
set up a dedicated dyslexia support department. I also believe the fact that I
am dyslexic myself as well qualified and experienced dyslexia and inclusive
education experience gave me some degree of credibility amongst my new team.
Part or my
interview involved delivering a plan for setting up this new department. This
plan, I suppose I would call this a vision now, included setting up dedicated
teaching and working space for dyslexia support teachers and students. The
setting up of assistive technology support for staff and students and
organisation of regular dyslexia support team meetings.
In my very first
team meeting I went in with my plan / vision and asked the team what they
thought of it. What they felt were the positives, the negatives, what needed to
be developed, how were we going to get where we were going and how we would
know if we had got there?
Edwin Locke’s motivational theory that goal setting can
prove to be a strong motivator and I believe the vision I had and developed
with my team gave us a series of specific goals related to dyslexia support and
not just learning support in general.
Ability to Motivate Others:
I hold my hands up
here, when I took on this post I had not management training at all. I was just
there at the right time at the right place. To some extent I have to give the
college some kudos for basically giving me a blank canvas to work with. Then again
I could just have easily have crashed and burned as succeeded as I was just
left to get on with it.
I know staff in my team could see that there
was a clear vision, which they had involvement in the development of. They
could see it would enable the team and me to meet the needs of dyslexic
students more effectively. I think I
communicated through my enthusiasm and belief being dyslexic, far from being a
disability, was a very positive.
Before I took up
post there was no dyslexia support team in any sense of the word. They were
individuals working across four different college sites across the borough of
Southwark. After one year in post we were a team, working together, meeting
regularly all working towards the same goals.
Team meetings
became more and more about planning, reviewing and developing dyslexia support
and less an opportunity to moan about the college as a whole. We doubled the
number of dyslexic students supported by my team in the first year. Staff
turnover also decreased quite significantly
Vroom’s expectancy
theory talks about the relationship between effort and performance and rewards
that can be gained from this. My team could see pretty quickly they were better
able to meet the needs of dyslexic students and enable them to succeed to a
higher degree. After all teaching is a vocation and if teachers feel they are
able to do a good job they get job satisfaction. At least I know I did and
still do.
Hezberg’s
motivation theory indicates that true motivation can be gained through,
achievement, recognition, work itself etc. I believe my team and I all achieved
these and through this and were far better motivate because of it.
many thanks for reading #PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all
Steve McCue
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