Assessing High-Performance Habits in Educational Leaders
How Do Educational Leaders Exemplify the Five High-Performance Habits Identified by The High-Performance Institute?
John is a school principal. He is dealing with an education sector that's going through a ton of change. He’s juggling multiple change projects at once and trying to get information to his team leaders and teachers as quickly as possible. The problem is, reviewing all this information and documentation takes up so much time, pulling him away from other important things that need his attention. He’s got a short turnaround time, and there’s a lot of new learning for his team leaders to lead and for his staff to implement. Sometimes, he’s even told change is coming without any clear information on what that change actually is.
Getting everyone on board is tough. Staff resistance shows up in different ways – procrastination, avoidance, or just doing the bare minimum without any real enthusiasm or engagement. In more extreme cases, there's vocal opposition, complaining, and gossiping, which can really hurt team culture. Emotionally, people are expressing stress and anxiety fueled by doubt, delay, and division, leading to a lot of uncertainty.
It’s hard. It’s frustrating, and it’s extremely exhausting.
Imagine if John had a model of change-making that activates self-generating focus, energy, and engagement in his team so that they can be at their best and give their best to the learners in their classrooms.
The problem is that traditional Leadership Professional Development doesn’t address this challenge particularly well. Traditional methods of supporting leaders of change are no longer sufficient. What we are facing today is more than a better skill set; it’s about a whole-person approach to supporting change with a better understanding and application of psychology, physiology, emotional intelligence, social intelligence, mindfulness, and neuroscience, enabling them to make decisions that support their mission of change.
The High-Performance Research
Over the past several years, research has zeroed in on what moves the needle most in helping people achieve long-term success. High performers do things differently from others, and their practices can be replicated across projects (and almost any situation) regardless of your personality, past, or preferences. In fact, it has been found that six deliberate habits made most of the difference in performance outcomes across domains.
If you want to reach higher levels of performance in anything you do, you must consistently do the following:
Seek Clarity
Generate Energy
Demonstrate Courage
Increase Productivity
Demonstrate Influence
Raise Necessity
The research results defined high performance as exceeding standard norms consistently over the long term while ensuring that well-being and a positive team culture remain intact.
I became curious about how alive and active this is for educational leaders. Based on common themes from clients as a high-performance coach, I hypothesised that high-performance habits are not embedded in educational leadership as much as is required for the impacts and amounts of change being addressed by the sector.
I interviewed over 20 Middle Leaders and surveyed over 100 educators and Leaders over a three-month period.
Here is what I found.
As you can see, there’s some work to do.
Assessing middle educational leaders' high-performance habits reveals the sector's strengths and challenges. Implementing these habits is often hindered by the constant changes and pressures of the educational environment.
Traditional leadership development methods fall short of addressing these multifaceted challenges. By integrating a whole-person approach that includes psychological, physiological, and emotional intelligence principles, educational leaders can be better equipped to navigate change, foster a positive team culture, and achieve sustained high performance.
Through dedicated coaching and adopting high-performance habits, educational leaders' effectiveness and well-being could be significantly enhanced, ultimately benefiting the entire educational community.
Do you consider yourself as a high performer? - You can complete the High-Performance Indicator here and see for yourself.
