WEEK 12Building and leading teams (part 1) Leadership in pract.docx

WEEK 12
Building and leading teams (part 1)
Leadership in practice
12.1 Aims this week
The focus this week is on: ‘Building and Leading Teams’ This
is outlined below:
· Develop an understanding of the practice of leadership in
early childhood settings/centres
· Consider leadership of self and others within the team
· Reflect on the specific aspects of leadership likely to be most
effective in supporting learning and personal development
within teams
· Engage with relevant theory and reflect on leadership practice
We begin the week by considering the following quote in
relation to building and leading teams:
‘Effective leadership and teamwork are considered to be factors
which contribute to increased self-esteem, high job satisfaction
and staff morale, reduced stress and a decreased likelihood of
staff burnout’ (Schiller, 1987 cited in Rodd 2006:p.147).
In order to achieve effective leadership and team work it is
important to consider how we lead, guide and support
individuals as well as teams.
.

12.2 Follow my leader
.
.
A fairly standard definition of leadership is one such as
behaviour that enables and assists others to achieve personal
and organisational ambitions and goals.
.
This suggests that leadership might have as much to do with
making helpful suggestions as issuing strategic directives (to
the team), as much about listening to other people’s ideas as
expounding your own, and as much about gentleness as about
toughness.
.
Effective leadership is about helping people and teams to be as
effective as they have the potential to be. Leadership which
flows from this idea, has some important features:
.
· Leadership needs to be seen as a function of a group rather
than the role of an individual
.
· Leadership can be behaviour which gives power away
.
.
· The aims of leadership should be the increase of self-
directedness and the release of energy, imagination and
creativity in all those who form the organisation
.
· Leadership behaviour also needs to be designed by the
followers. Leaders need to seek information from their

colleagues about the sort of leadership that suits them best as a
team
.
· One of the key functions of leadership is to help in the
creating of conditions in which people feel motivated to work to
the optimum levels of their capacity, energy, interest and
commitment
.
In striving for more life enhancing forms of leadership, we need
to question our very assumptions about people and personal
power. This new concept of leadership adopts an approach,
which recognises that, the potential and power to work
effectively lies within the person as well as the team rather than
the leader. We still cling on to assumptions that people cannot
be trusted to direct their own work and that they must be
instructed, guided, monitored, controlled, rewarded and
punished – the theory X position discussed in week 3. Life
centred leaders believe in the basic dignity and worth of people
and in their capacity for commitment, self-direction and
achievement. The effectiveness of a leader is not always in what
they give to us but what they refuse to take away: our self-
respect, our integrity and our potential to make a significant
contribution.
12.3 Reflective task
.
.
Think about leaders you have worked with. What have been the
similarities and differences between them in terms of leading

the team effectively?
.
What was it they did that gained the teams respect and loyalty?
.
Use your journals to reflect and record your responses.
.
12.4 Communicating within the team
.
Human communication is a hazardous business and the capacity
for misunderstanding between people is enormous. It is a tribute
to our natural and intuitive capacities that we manage
communication without even more disagreements and conflicts.
.
In the process of observing others – listening to what they say
and watching what they do – we can begin to sense the nature of
their experience. But we all have the capacity to dissemble – to
say things and do things, which are not congruent with what we
are experiencing and feeling. This can lead to confusion,
ambiguity, mixed messages and misunderstanding. To be more
effective in our team relationships, we need to be aware of and
sensitive to the complex nature of the interpersonal landscape
between others and ourselves. It is important to note the range
of intra-personal factors that combine to make us what we are
and how we behave in different communications situations.
.
We have all been shaped and moulded by our experience. In any
early childhood setting each person has:
· Grown up with family members who have provided powerful
influences and presented models of behaviour
.
· Acquired a personal history of communications and developed
a unique profile of relationships

.
· Developed a repertoire of strategies for interacting within our
complex social world
.
· Evolved a code of conduct to guide our actions in the world
.
· Established a personal and distinctive set of habits and
patterns
.
Early childhood settings are complex organisations in which a
rich network of differentiated experience and belief is in a state
of constant interaction. As well as the purely individual and
personal elements, communication behaviour in an organisation
is affected by a variety of social and institutional structures:
.
· Status
· Authority
· Power
· Age
· Race
· Gender
· Disability

Each factor will further affect the ways in which individuals
within teams experience organisational life and how pecking
orders, chains of command, informal networks and strategic
alliances are established.
.
Over the past twenty years there have been concerted efforts to
change oppressive communication cultures particularly those
built on prejudices about age, race, class, gender and ability.
Many organisations are careful to develop policies, which
protect individual groups from exploitation and oppression.
Central to these policies are issues of interpersonal
communication: the assumptions we make and the language we
use.
.
In most settings communication is conducted in a climate of
increasing challenge and complexity, as old assumptions are
rejected and new ones developed. It is important not to set
standards so high that people are discouraged from
communicating through a fear of making mistakes. An effective
communication culture encourages development and expects a
certain clumsiness as people struggle to find new patterns and
processes.
.
Building and developing relationships within teams is a process
of matching the elements of our own unique world with that of
others. The greater the similarities, the greater the likelihood of
an open and satisfying relationship. Most of the time our
behaviour is purposeful, designed to meet needs and satisfy
aspirations. In comfortable relationships and teams where we
feel a positive sense of connection within the interpersonal
landscape, we tend to strive for harmony between our inner
world and our behavior. We become more open and trusting to
the other person.
.

In difficult and uncomfortable relationships we experience a
sense of tension and dissonance in the interpersonal landscape.
This can create feelings of anxiety which can result in
behaviour designed to protect our inner world from attack and
judgment. We become more closed and defensive.
.
Clearly the process of communicating within teams is
immensely complex and there is a great deal to try and do in
such a short time. We cannot plan every communication
incident in advance since we do not know when the majority of
them are likely to arise or exactly how individuals will react
and respond. But with those that we know we are going to
initiate, we can try and take some of these important factors
into consideration.
.
Communication is the key vehicle for management and
leadership work. Without this encounter there is no
management. Interpersonal communication is the main
curriculum for management development. Sadly it is the one
that is most neglected.
.
12.5 Reading Task
To begin, read: Basic Needs, Conflict, and Dynamics in Groups
by Karen John. This is available as a journal article from the
Library. Clickhere to access the Library now and look for: The
Journal of individual Psychology, Vol56, No.4, Winter 2000.
Please read the article then in your learning journal reflect and
evaluate your thoughts, ideas and responses.
The journal looks at the following:
.
· Conflict
· The group mind
· Fundamental Psychological Needs

· Group Dynamics and the Crucial C’s
· Group as Container
· Constructive Potential of Within-Group Conflict
· Sources and Modifiers of Intergroup Conflict
· Work, Work Groups, and Power Relations
· Contradictions in New Management
· Cooperation in the Workplace
.
.
.
What do leaders/managers need to do to create a working
environment in which communication within the team flows
freely and everyone feels informed?
.
What strategies have you found effective in your centre/setting?
.
.
12.7 Leadership as giving
.

The old maxim that it is more blessed to give than to receive is
seldom quoted in the literature of leadership and management
yet it is one of the most profound ideas behind transformative
leadership.
.
Toxic and tyrannical leadership is all about trying to force
things out of people and teams – better performances, more time
and increased effort – through behaviours that are cajoling,
demanding, critical and impatient. Since such behaviours do not
seem to produce more effectiveness and commitment in our
colleagues, we might assume that it is because we are not doing
it well enough. It may not occur to us that the idea is bad, not
the implementation of it.
.
A key question for all those involved in early years leadership
is: ‘what do I have to give?’ As well as a range of technical and
professional offerings, there are some fundamental human
attributes, which can make the world of difference to our
colleagues in building and leading teams more effectively:
.
· Presence – being there for them
· Attentiveness – listening to their experience
· Understanding – sharing their concerns
· Interest – in what they do, hope for and worry about
· Concern – showing that we care about them and the work they
do

· Sensitivity – recognising vulnerabilities and handling them
with respect
· Responsiveness – telling them how we think and feel
Sadly such an approach to leadership has not featured in much
of leadership and management training. There are many who do
practise their leadership in a giving way but some have been led
to see it as a soft option and feel that they should be tougher,
more demanding and requiring, and less understanding and
concerned.
As well as considering leadership from the leaders own
perspective, it is important to have regard for the needs that we
have of our leaders. Good leaders seem to have an infinite
capacity not only to satisfy vital needs but also to anticipate
them. Such capacity grows out of four key qualities:
· Genuine interpersonal behaviour
· Warmth, care and respect
· Empathy
· Belief in the potential of others to grow and develop
All of us are needy. Failure to get some very specific needs
satisfied – particularly those that contribute to our pattern of
motivation – can result in loss of confidence and enthusiasm, a
sense of not being involved, a feeling of being unappreciated
and undervalued, and a reduction of job commitment and
energy. These are expensive losses, which few organisations can
afford. Good leadership is the delicate process of anticipating

these needs in others and striving to satisfy them. This is as true
for learners in classrooms as it is for practitioners.
.
Effective carers and practitioners are those whose who are able
to reach out to children, to appreciate and understand their
needs and seek specific and individual ways of satisfying them.
Diana Whitmore (1886: p.78) asserts that,
‘If children were to experience adults as welcoming, guiding
and supportive, they would discover the wonder of life, the joy
of exploring, the beauty of understanding’.
So too as leaders and managers we can help to create these felt
experiences in our colleagues and teams if we seize
opportunities to respond to some basic needs:
.
· Feeling trusted: conveying to colleagues a belief in their
abilities; resisting temptation to increase control when things
are difficult; expressing delight at successes and achievements
.
· Feeling heard and listened to: constantly seeking opportunities
to listen to colleagues experiences, asking questions, seeking
information, eliciting opinions, delving into details and showing
genuine interest and concern
.
· Feeling noticed and appreciated: taking note of contributions
and providing regular positive feedback on successes and
achievements
.
· Feeling encouraged: empathising with the demands and

challenges of the work colleagues do, providing support for
problem solving and action planning
.
· Feeling appropriately challenged: building a climate of
systematic and continuous improvement, constantly helping
others to seek new angles, new possibilities and new ideas
.
· Feeling valued: providing detailed and specific feedback so
that all colleagues feel a deep sense that their contributions and
efforts are valued
.
· Feeling informed: keeping information flowing freely through
the centre, checking that colleagues know what is going on
.
· Feeling supported: offering practical help as well as moral
support, getting alongside colleagues as often as possible,
providing a helping hand and a listening ear
.
.
.
Where do you stand on this issue of leadership as giving?
.
In your experience do teams tend to work more effectively when
they are supported and trusted rather than directed and
controlled?
.

12.9 Eyeball to eyeball
.
It is how we behave in the many face to face situations of
setting/centre life that determines whether we influence and
support children, families and colleagues effectively. David
Howe (1993) also suggests that much depends on our capacity
to be more aware of and respond to the basic needs of
individuals and teams. He singles out three particular needs:
· Feeling accepted: Leaders can help us to feel part of the past,
present and future of the centre. They can help us to believe that
we have an important part to play in the scheme of things and
that our contribution is significant and special
· Feeling acknowledged: leaders can notice us. They can draw
attention to those parts of our work, which interest and delight
them. They can provide encouraging feedback and also draw our
achievements to the attention of others
· Feeling entitled: leaders can help us feel ok to be who we are,
to have the feelings we experience, and to hold the beliefs that
are important to us
The effect of these leadership behaviours is to affirm our self-
esteem and to help us feel worthwhile both about ourselves and
about our contribution to the development of the centre/setting.
Central to this is the capacity of leaders to understand their
teams (and individuals) to engage with them in the struggle to
achieve what is important to them in their lives. Perhaps it is
the very process of having an interest taken in what is important
to us that has such a powerful effect on our professional energy
and commitment.
.

Leaders can really make an impact by doing the following:
.
· Helping others to figure out what they would be proudest of
doing in their role and then helping them to do it
· Helping others to satisfy important personal goals through
their professional role
· Helping others to search for and discover, meaning in the
daily grind
· Helping others to activate and honour the small voice deep
inside them which seeks expression and understanding
· Helping others to become who they really want to be
We are discovering more and more about those behaviours
which seem to make a significant difference in enabling others
to release and express more of their potential. The more we do
this, the more we see leadership as a process of human
nourishment and less a matter of keeping people to their
contracts. Development also involves the process of unfolding:
encouraging others to allow what is deep within themselves to
come to the surface of their being rather than to lay hidden and
concealed.
The influential psychologist Abraham Maslow (1978) observed
that at every moment in our lives we have a choice between the
joys of safety and the joys of growth. Far too often in the
troubled and conflictual cultures of many settings/centres we
choose the safety option, thereby denying ourselves the
possibility of development and growth but also preventing our
skills and qualities from having a greater impact on the
centre/setting itself. Perhaps the very heart of leadership is

helping people do justice to their own potential.
.
.
Consider the three basic needs referred to above: feeling
accepted, feeling acknowledged and feeling entitled.
.
What ways have leaders/managers you have worked with helped
you and the team to satisfy these needs?
.
What happens when leaders/managers ignore them?
12.11 Interruptions
.
Most leadership and management interactions in settings/centres
are very brief, the majority lasting less than a minute. Most of
these interactions are activated by interruptions by someone
who has a need or someone who may be able to satisfy it. This
means that a great deal of our leadership work is incidental
arising out of the moment. While it is clearly not possible to
plan for what is unpredictable, it is possible to be prepared for
interruptions when they occur.
This preparedness is mostly to do with our communication
capability and the sorts of signals and messages we convey to
our children, families and colleagues when they interrupt us and
when we interrupt them.
Our impact on those we interact with is directly related to the
look on our face, the words we choose, the tone of voice we use
to utter them and the quality of attentiveness we provide when

the colleague replies.
.
Below are some of the crucial elements that are present in any
leadership encounter:
.
· The messages we convey before we utter the first word
· The opening gambit, and its impact on the other person
· Showing our feelings about the other person
· Disclosing our own thoughts and feelings about the business
we are discussing
· Encouraging the other to disclose their own thoughts and
feelings
· Getting to the point clearly
· Asking for what we want
· Responding to the other’s concerns, worries, enthusiasms and
needs
· Conveying understanding of their position
· Clarifying the details of agreements made
It is our capacity to keep aware of these factors that is vital in
leadership encounters where the success of the communication
is much more dependent on the leader than it is on the other.

Leadership by interruptions is at the heart of what we do. Every
interruption offers us a specific and unique opportunity to make
a positive difference. It is through interruptions that we are
given the chance to do some of our very best work.
.
How do interruptions feature in your work and that of your
leader/manager?
.
Do you experience interruptions as an irritant or use them as an
opportunity?
.
Use your journals to record your responses.
12.13 Summary of session
.
This week’s session began by looking at how leadership
behaviour can enable and assist individuals and teams to
achieve their personal and organizational ambitions and goals.
We also began to explore communication within teams. You
then engaged in reading an article by Karen John (Basic Needs,
Conflict and Dynamics in Groups). The idea of leadership as
giving was discussed and the possibility of using interruptions
as a way of making a positive difference to individuals and the
team.
.
12.14 Weekly task
.
.
Read the Journal of Workplace Learning Emerald Article: The

two faces of leadership: considering the dark side of
leader-follower dynamicsbyChristine Clements and John B.
Washbush. Click here to access now.
Abstract
.A number of years ago, David McClelland, in his studies of
managerial motivation, identified two types of power: egoistic
(using others for personal gain) and social (facilitating group
cooperation and effort for the achievement of the general good).
Clearly, the power motive is intimately related to the concept of
leadership. However, over the last several decades, a school of
thought has arisen which equates leadership with “doing the
right thing''. Defining leadership in such an ethical light is both
misleading and dangerous. At the same time, little has been
done to address the role of followers in the influence process,
and transformational models of leadership have exacerbated this
problem. Failure to acknowledge the role of followers and to
examine the “dark side'' of leader-follower dynamics can distort
effort to understand influence processes in an authentic way.
This paper provides balance to this discussion and identifies a
number of critical implications for leadership education.
Use your journals to reflect on the article and record your
responses.
References
Clements, C. and Washbush, J. (1999) The two faces of
leadership: considering the dark side of leader-follower
dynamics", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 11 Iss: 5 pp.
170 - 176
Howe, D. (1993) On Being a Client: Understanding the Process
of Counselling and Psychotherapy London: Sage

Karen, J. (2000) Basic Needs, Conflict, and Dynamics in
Groups: The Journal of Individual Psychology, Vol. 56, NO. 4,
Winter 2000
University of Texas Press
Maslow, A. (1978) The Farther Reaches of Human Nature
London: Penguin
Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity
Press
Whitmore, D. (1986) Psychosynthesis in Education
Wellingborough: Turnstone Press
.
This week’s session began by looking at how leadership
behaviour can enable and assist individuals and teams to
achieve their personal and organizational ambitions and goals.
We also began to explore communication within teams. You
then engaged in reading an article by Karen John (Basic Needs,
Conflict and Dynamics in Groups). The idea of leadership as
giving was discussed and the possibility of using interruptions
as a way of making a positive difference to individuals and the
team.
.
Week 13: Building and Leading teams (part 2)
13.1 Aims this week
.
Last week we began to:
.

· Develop an understanding of the practice of leadership in
early childhood settings/centres
· Consider leadership of self and others within the team
· Reflect on the specific aspects of leadership likely to be most
effective in supporting learning and personal within teams
.
.
The focus this week continues with: ‘Building and Leading
Teams’ This is outlined below:
.
· Further develop an understanding of effective leadership in
practice
· Be aware of nutrients and toxins and the impact they can have
on individuals as well as the team
· Explore effective leadership and team building
· Consider group dynamics and team development
· Look at building and leading multi-disciplinary teams
· Continue to reflect on practice
13.2 Valuing staff prior experiences
.
The importance of individual’s life histories and biographies
Each of us brings to our work in the early years a unique life
history. Your own life history may have some features that are
similar to those of colleagues but no one will have experienced
life events in the same way or drawn from them the same
insights and understanding that have given meaning to your life.

Our progress through life will have been helped or hindered by
the impact that various people have had on us.
.
In the struggle to understand the complexities of leadership
work in a multi-professional setting, we believe it is vital that
the leader allows and facilitates the to staff team to share and
explore the life events that have shaped their lives and from
which their core professional values, visions, and beliefs have
come from.
.
In her study of women leaders, Valerie Hall (1996) writes about
what she calls ‘leadership antecedents’ and how these have
combined to develop leaders with powerful visions and effective
skills.
.
Margy Whalley (1999) in her study of successful early years
leaders, demonstrated how leadership awareness is significantly
increased when, as part of a leadership learning community,
leaders are invited to depict in graphic form the life incidents
and events they believe helped them to develop their leadership
attributes.
.
In any staff team, it is important for colleagues to identify and
recognise different professional perspectives and practices and
to understand how and why these have developed. In an
integrated centre, staff will have come from different
professional traditions such as early education and children’s
social work, community services, health or adult educators. The
diverse traditions espouse different bodies of knowledge,
professional practice and sometimes significantly different
value positions. The members of a multi-professional team may
have followed circuitous career routes and all will have
influenced the role that different team members assume within
the centre.
.
Often we can know a colleague for years and not discover some

of the skills and expertise they have gathered in their lives.
.
.
.
.Rodd (2006:p.145) believes that, ‘Good leaders build teams by
making everyone feel that their contribution matters’.
.
Do you feel that your contribution matters in your
setting/centre? If yes, how? If not, why not? Journal your
response.
.
13.4 Effective leadership and team building
.
..
In the early childhood field a high importance is put on
effective leadership. Sylva and Siraj-Blatchford (2003) affirms
that high quality provision is achieved through the quality and
qualifications of the leader (Rodd, 2006), as this supports the
raising of standards and sets the standard for other staff to
follow. One of the basic principles of effective leadership is to
enable the rest of the team to be as effective as them (NPQICL
booklet 9). This can be achieved by supporting staff
encouraging positive attitudes and behaviours.
.
Rodd (2006:p.61) states that, an effective leader:
.
· Uses personality to lead by example, thereby stimulating a
particular team culture
· Is innovative and is perceived to be making things better by
improving team morale and productivity

· Ensures that constructive relationships are established and
maintained with the staff and peers (particularly multi-agency
teams).
· Focuses attention on behaviour or the situation, not on the
person
· Fosters the self-esteem and confidence of team members
· Coaches team members (including multi-professional staff) to
improve their performance
The following attributes can support the demands of team
leadership:
.
· Adaptable (the capacity to be responsive and innovative)
· Energetic (action-oriented and committed to work)
· People-orientated (values people and communicates openly)
· Quality-conscious (pays attention to standards of excellence
and consumer needs and expectations)
· Uniting (clarifies the common purpose and promotes the value
of cooperation)
· Entrepreneurial (autonomous and able to articulate the
uniqueness of the service)
· Focused (self-disciplined and predictable)
· Informal (a relaxed, straightforward approach to people and
situations)

.
When building and leading teams it is vital that the leader is
aware of the positive contribution or impact that they bring to
that team.
.
Neugebauer and Neugebauer (1998) cited in Rodd
(2006:p.163/164) highlights a five-step framework for team
building:
.
1. Set achievable goalswhich have been mutually agreed by
members of the team. Ensure that the more assertive staff
members do not dominate the process, especially during
discussion at team meetings
.
2. Clarify roles.Team members work most effectively when
their roles are clear to all and free of conflict. Each staff
member should be aware of who is responsible for what. While
it will be easier to clarify the formal roles that need to be
fulfilled, the informal roles that relate to the internal
functioning of the group should not be forgotten (Johnson and
Johnson, 2003). The leader needs to analyse the group to make
sure that someone is taking responsibility for the team task
roles (initiating, information-gathering, opinion-seeking and
giving, clarifying, elaborating, energising, summarising and
consensus-testing) and team maintenance roles (encouraging,
harmonising, compromising, gatekeeping, observing and
standard setting)
.
3. Build supportive relationships.Build in opportunities for
feedback, develop trust and provide resources to stimulate a

cooperative team spirit. Teams where members feel supported
are more likely to deal (rather than ignore) common team
difficulties such as role ambiguity, role conflict and group
conflict
.
4. Encourage active participation in order to capitalise on the
knowledge and skills of individual team members. In an
atmosphere of acceptance, team members will be encouraged to
contribute their ideas, opinions and energies. Being part of a
cooperative venture can be extremely motivating for team
members, and this will increase productivity.
.
5. Monitoring team effectiveness. There is little point in
putting time and energy into team leadership and the team-
building process if the team is not achieving the goals
effectively or if the team is unhappy with the process. Regular
opportunities need to be provided by the leader to assess the
extent of goal achievement and how well members are working
together as a team. This review process can help identify any
problems and establish their cause, as well as assisting with
future planning.
.
.
..
Reflect on your current team in relation to the five-step
framework and teambuilding.
.
In your journal make a list of the positive ways in which your
leader builds and leads the team. Them make a list of the areas

that you believe could be developed further and why.
.
13.6 Leadership nutrients and toxins
.
Leadership nutrients work to build and develop, a positive,
friendly, enriching and ambitious organisational culture and is
one way of creating job satisfaction this can be achieved in the
following ways, through:
.
· Commitment
· Energy
· Enthusiasm
· Enterprise
· Responsibility
· Collaboration
· Initiative
· Confidence
Not all leaders will achieve consistency of success in this, but
many will be able to create conditions for positive growth and
development and work constantly to avoid the consequences of
a downward spiral.
.
Our capacity to work effectively towards centre goals is
determined by a variety of factors:
.
· We want to feel a sense of satisfaction, both about the work

we do and about its contribution to the organisation itself
.
· We want to feel able to exercise preferences, both about the
conduct of our own roles and responsibilities, but also in
decisions about organisational direction and practice
.
· We want to feel interested in, and concerned about, our work
so that our efforts and contributions are in tune with our
purposes in life
.
· We want to feel challenged to use our best abilities to achieve
worthwhile goals
.
· We want to enjoy the process of work and to experience
pleasure in being part of the organisational enterprise
.
Leadership toxins can inhibit our potential and are those verbal
and non-verbal behaviours that trigger certain emotions such as
fear, anger, resentment and jealousy. These are often painful
feelings that are activated when we are on the receiving end of
particular types of communication behaviour:
.
· Having our ideas rejected or stolen
· Being over directed

· Facing constant, criticism
· Not being listened to
· Being ignored
· Being misunderstood
· Being judged
Effective leadership is about helping individuals and the team to
be as effective as them. This involves supporting the team to
use their talents, skills and abilities free from restriction and
encouraging them through positive attitudes and behaviours.
.
If the above behaviours (toxins) are employed consistently and
systematically they can undermine self-esteem, confidence,
commitment and professional ambition, (Whitaker, 1998). They
can also create an environment of:
.
· Compliance
· Apathy
· Lethargy
· Caution
· Cynicism
· Mistrust
· Fear

13.7 Group dynamics and team development
.
Iceberg Theory
.
.This theory has been around for over 60 years. Sigumnd Freud
(original 1938; republished by Penguin in 2004) said ‘The mind
is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above
water’. In the leadership context the theory liken the staff of an
organisation to icebergs ina. Above the water line we can
observe individuals behaviour, however below the waterline
which is unobservable lay people’s hopes, interests, intentions,
feelings, fears, needs, assumptions, psychological wounds,
expectations, experiences, belief.
.
Freud (1938) believes that just as seven-tenths of an iceberg is
below the surface of the water, so it is suggested, is seven-
tenths of each person. Only the heads stick out above the water
line, however, the icebergs collide and bump into each other,
sometimes with quite damaging consequences. For many of the
staff in most organisations, the real business of relationships is
below the surface. Dislikes, fear, resentment, mistrust, envy,
jealousy and anger and frustration remain submerged. What is
needed for the water level to be lowered so that these
interpersonal issues can be exposed, explored and resolved. The
superficial veneer of niceness, which characterises the human
culture in many organisations, is counterproductive and
damaging to effective teamwork, inhibiting to the development
of staff and counter to the purposes that most organisations are
intent on pursuing.
.
The iceberg theory can be useful particularly for practitioners
who work in children centres as they often find it difficult to
challenge and they avoid conflict. There is this veneer of

‘niceness’ amongst staff. However there is often an underlying
current of resentment between individuals and teams. Using the
iceberg theory in supervision for example can help to break
down barriers and encourage challenge and development in a
respectful way.
.
Understanding something about group dynamics – or collective
interactions and behaviour patterns that can be observed in
groups – as well as the individual needs of group members, can
help leaders limit their potential destructiveness in the
workplace.
.
Our fundamental social need to feel we belong or connect is
extensively studied in research underpinned by attachment
theory. When we feel disconnected from the team, we become
overly dependent on others and seek undue attention from the
leader and team members. Our need to feel capable is the
subject of research on competence motivation or its absence
among school-aged children. When we feel we do not count,
are insignificant or overlooked by others, we feel hurt and apply
ourselves to hurting back.
.
The most effective leaders are those who appreciate and devote
time to addressing group dynamics and team development and
do what they can to help each team member meet their
individual needs to belong, to feel competent and significant
and to feel able to feel able to handle difficult situations.
(NPQICL booklet 9:p.12-24)
.
.
..
Think of your setting, an organisation you know well or have
worked in. Use the iceberg theory to generate descriptions and

explanations of how the cultures of these organisations
operate/operated?
.
In your journal record your responses.
.
13.9 Building and leading a multi-disciplinary team
.
Experience tells us that one of the best ways of establishing a
strong multi-agency team is to give practitioners and
professionals time together. The Co-location of some services,
for example health visitors, midwives, family support workers,
outreach workers and volunteers sharing office space or a staff
room, fosters a better understanding of the aims and priorities
for each agency and helps to identify common ground. Leaders
have a responsibility to ensure issues of confidentiality need to
be addressed specially with information sharing protocols and
particular care must be taken if there is any possibility of
volunteer workers having access to information about local
families.
.
A strong, skilled leader with enthusiasm must articulate the
settings/centre vision that has been agreed. The vision should
then be translated into realistic goals and common targets so
that all team members are clear that they share the same goals.
These should be simply expressed, written down, understood by
all. The roles and responsibilities of each partner agency need
to be defined and incorporated into a centre agreement that sets
out ground rules.
.
Joint training by practitioners and professionals are crucial to
the success of building effective teams and multi-professional
working. It provides opportunities for staff to get to know one
another, cooperate, discuss and make joint decisions.

.
It is also particularly important to be clear about the line
management structure where this is shared between a line
manager in the multi-agency service and a member of the
practitioner’s own professional based elsewhere.
.
In multi-agency teams it is helpful if there is a common line
management system that applies to all members of the team,
including those who are supervised externally. It is essential
that practitioners retain a link with colleagues in their home
agency who can give professional support and oversight.
.
Regular opportunities for the whole team to meet together to
review progress, share experiences and discuss closer working
are advisable to really establish a sense of team identity. It
sounds simple but with heavy caseloads it can be difficult for
everyone to keep in touch. Leaders of settings/centres must
ensure that time is made for this important activity.
.
Appropriate referral systems and procedures should be
developed, and mutually agreed, by all agencies involved.
Agreement should be reached on the exchange between agencies
of information about individual cases. Agreement should be
reached on using the Common Assessment Framework to
undertake needs assessment.
(DfES 2006:p16 &17)
.
The features, values and approaches discussed when leading
teams are important to any early childhood manager/leader
when trying to make things happen and by ensuring that staff
are involved and participate in the numerous activities and
services at the centre/setting.
.
13.10 Key reading
.

This week’s reading by Valerie Wilson and Anne Pirrie
Multidisciplinary Teamworking Beyond the Barriers? A Review
of Issues
.
Click here to access it as a PDF file now. Please read in
particular chapter 3 What encourages multidisciplinary team
working? And chapter 4 What inhibits multidisciplinary team
working?
.
In light of this week’s session and the above reading how can
leaders and managers support, build and lead multidisciplinary
teams more effectively? Use your journal to reflect and record
your responses.
.
.
During part 2 of building and leading teams we looked at the
importance of valuing staff prior experience, their individual
life histories and biographies. You explored what it means to be
an effective leader and the importance of supporting and
building teams. You also reflected on Neugebauer and
Neugebauer (1998) five-step framework for teambuilding in
relation to your experience of teambuilding. We briefly
discussed leadership nutrients and toxins and the impact on
organisational culture. You explored the iceberg theory in terms
of group dynamics and team development. Finally we looked at
building and leading multi-disciplinary teams.
.
13.13 Weekly task
.
.
This week’s task is a reading by Bruce Tuckman –

Developmental Sequence In Small Groups. Click here to access
it as a PDF file now.
What does Tuckman say about the process of team/group
development?
.
How do these relate to your current team?
.
Journal your responses
.
References
.
DfES, (2006) Sure Start Children’s Centre Practice Guidance
.
Freud, S (2004) An outline of Psychoanalysis, London, Penguin
Books
.
Hall, V. (1996) Dancing on the Ceiling: A study of women
managers in education, London, Paul Chapman
.
Johnson, D. W and Johnson, F. P (2003) Joining Together:
Group Theory and Process, international edn, Allyn & Bacon,
Needham Heights
.
Neugebauer, B and Neugebauer. Eds (1998) The Art of
Leadership: Managing Early Childhood Organisations, vol.
2, Child Care Information Exchange, Perth.
.
NPQICL booklet 9 (2011) Leadership concepts and analytical
tools. National College for Leadership of Schools and
Children’s Services.
.
Press

.
Sylva, K. and Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2003) Effective Provision of
Pre-school Education, Department for Education and Skills,
London
.
Tuckman, B (1965) Developmental Sequence In Small
Groups Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
http://aneesha.ceit.uq.edu.au/drupal/sites/default/files/Tuckman
%201965.pdf Accessed 20/1/13
.
Valerie, W. and Anne, P. (2000) Multidisciplinary
Teamworking Beyond the Barriers? A Review of Issues The
Scottish Council for Research in Education
.
Whalley, M. (1999) Women Leaders in Early Childhood
Settings: A dialogue in the 1990s, PhD thesis, University of
Wolverhampton
.
Whitaker, P. (1998) Managing schools, Oxford, Butterworth
Heinemann
.
Week 14
Professionalism/professional identity and the role of the leader
in supporting continuous professional development
14.1 Aims this week
The focus this week is to consider ‘Professionalism and
professional identity’. The session is outlined below:
· To identify what professionalism means?
· To explore what professional identity is within the changing
early childhood field

· Consider the role of the leader in identifying developmental
needs and supporting professional development
14.2 What does professionalism mean and who is a
professional?
.
...
Professionalism can mean different things to different people
and coming to an agreed definition within the Early Childhood
community can be complicated (Stacey 2009). Friedland (2007)
describes professionalism in the Early years as a ‘ball of
knotted string’. She describes the ‘knots’, which need untying
in order to untangle the ball and reach a clear definition.
..
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines professionalism
as ‘The competence or skill expected of a professional’. Bolam
et al (2005:p.vi) cited in Stacey (2009:p.74) acknowledges the
complications in defining professionalism and suggests that all
staff members ‘with qualifications or not, are members of
professional learning communities. They distinguish between
being ‘professional’ and ‘being a professional’. They highlight
the difference between how people perform their jobs and the
qualifications they hold. In their study on effective professional
learning communities they raise the importance of all
professionals adopting professional standards, which should be
consistent, whatever the nature of their jobs.
..
Frost (2005:p.11) cites a definition of professionalism by
Simms et al. (1993) as:
..
· A systematic body of knowledge and monopoly of powers over
its applications

· A self-regulating code of ethics, emphasizing values such as
respect for the confidentiality of the client
· The sanction of the community at large
· Control over the profession’s own qualification and entry
procedures
· An altruistic orientation
I believe that professionalism includes and involves the way one
conducts themselves, their accountability and integrity,
someone that wishes to achieve the highest standards within
their profession e.g. as an early years practitioner, health
visitor, social worker, teacher. Moyles (2001) believes that a
passion for the work they do is a vital attribute of
professionalism and that professionals what ever their field
must be able to articulate these (what they do) clearly.
.
In her article ‘The Personal is Professional: professionalism and
the birth to three practitioner’ Manning-Morton (2006:p.42)
contends that ‘professionalism’ in the early years must also be
understood in terms of the day-to-day detail of practitioners’
relationship with children, parents and colleagues; relationships
that demand high levels of physical, emotional and personal
knowledge and skill’.
.
Osgood (2006:p.9) suggests that professionalism within the
Early Years community can sometimes become denigrated and
is not always valued in the wider society where professionalism
is still defined through masculinised attributes (such as
rationality, competiveness, individualism). It is therefore vital
that practitioners justify and promote their work with children

and families to increase their professional status. This can be
achieved if they reflect on their work with children and families
stating what they are doing and why?
.
14.3 Key Reading
.This week’s reading Reconstructing Professionalism in ECEC:
the case for the ‘critically reflective emotional professional’ is
by Jayne Osgood and is a challenging read. To read it now as a
pdf file, please click here
.
The paper draws on a study with a group of early childhood
practitioners and offers a critical reappraisal of the notion of
professionalism.
.
Once you have read the article use your journal to evaluate your
practice, reflect and record your responses.
.
14.4 Professionalism, multi-professional working, a case study
and reflective task..
...
The move towards multi-professional collaboration, and
approaches such as the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge
(HM Government, 2005) for all those working with children and
families, will necessitate a much more fluid and broader
definition of professionalism (Whalley 2008).
..
Case Study
Anne is deputy head of a nursery school and children’s centre.
She began as a nursery nurse and has now completed the
National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre
Leadership (NPQICL). Her passion for her work comes over
when she describes what she does and as she says, the

qualifications she has attained have, in some ways enhanced
this. She feels confident in her role, but perhaps most
important, happy to think outside the box. She uses her position
to fight tooth and nail for what she believes is right and with
others, can make sure things on offer benefit the children. She
is developing her own role as she works across services.
Demanding good practice, she is prepared to argue for resources
and, having always developed good relationships with others
outside, makes demands on them, placing the child at the centre
of her actions. For example, she felt perfectly justified in
insisting that a social worker, who had wanted a mother and
child to come to her office, came to meet them at the centre
because there was a possibility that the child would be taken
into care. Anne argued that the child needed to be in an
environment where she felt secure, not in an unfamiliar office.
.
What is your definition of professionalism? Do you consider
yourself as being a professional? What does it mean to be a
professional?
.
What attributes of professionalism would you look for when
colleagues are interacting with:
.
· Children;
· Parents and carers;
· Other professional colleagues?
Use your journal to reflect and record your thoughts and
responses.
.
14.5 Professional Identity – Who am I?

.
Anning et al (2006:p.7) suggests that professional identity can
best be described by ‘a particular knowledge base set of values,
training and standing in the community’. Bligh (in Patrioni
1994) described each profession as behaving like a tribe, with
individual members being nurtured in distinctive ways.
Professional tribes generally choose their own leaders and
establish their own pecking orders. They impose sanctions on
any member of the tribe who does not conform. They expel
members who begin to demonstrate the characteristics of
another tribe.Anning et al (2010:p.71) believes that ‘in
demanding that professionals work in multi-professional teams,
we are expecting them to confront, articulate and lay to one side
the distinctiveness of their long-established ‘tribal’ beliefs and
behaviours’.
.
Gasper (2011:p.74) refers to identity in terms of professional
heritage, which he suggests is ‘embedded practices, language
and ethos of individual professions which individuals who join
become familiar with as they gain experience and progress
within the parameters of the profession’. In partnership working
it is essential to acknowledge the way that professional heritage
affects points of view, language and perceptions of situations.
.
Hudson (2002) argues that there are three potential barriers to
multi-professional working:
. .
1. Professional identity: How professionals understand
themselves and their roles
.
2. Professional status: How professional hierarchies and
different distribution of powers are generated
3. Professional discretion and accountability: How
professionals exercise discretion on a day-to-day basis.

.
Below is a case study, which highlights Bertham et al
(2002:p.53) view that ‘there can be a tension when ‘child-
centred’ and ‘parent-centred’ goals are in competition’.
.
Case study
Janice, an outreach worker, had a serious fall-out with a
practitioner working in the children’s room. They were both
committed to good practice and held similar values about what
they were offering. But it was their views on working with
parents that differed. Janice saw her priority as supporting the
parent, visiting her regularly and encouraging her to come to the
groups at the children’s centre and to sign up for vocational
training. Barbara felt that Janice was spending too much time
with the mother and not enough on the child who was attending
very irregularly.
.
A number of themes about the implications of working with
other professionals particularly in multi-professional teams for
‘who I am’ may emerge and are highlighted below:
.
· Professionals need to be confident enough about the
professional identity they bring to multi-professional teams to
feel safe about transforming it
· In the period of adjusting to their new roles and assuming
different identities in multi-professional teamwork,
professionals may feel anxious, destabilized and vulnerable
· Those who are peripheral to core team membership, or feel
isolated as lone representatives of a profession in a team are
likely to feel less well supported in transitions to new identities

· Professionals believed that the labels assumed by or imposed
on them had an impact on how they were perceived both within
and outside the team
· The perceived status of professions in the world beyond the
team did impact on team functions, but these barriers could be
broken down over time
· Professionals who struggled through the pain of
transformation to the gains of a new professional identity
reported an enhanced sense of ‘who I am’.
(Anning et al 2010:p75)
.
.
...
.How would you describe your professional identity?
.
Has it changed in recent years?
.
If you work in a multi-disciplinary setting/centre, is there a
shared identity? Or do people hold on to their original
professional identity? What impact does this have on the way
you work?
.
Use your journal to reflect and record your thoughts and
responses.
.
....
Now go to the Discussion Board (left hand menu) and record
your ideas and debate your ideas about professionalism with
other students.

.
14.7 Supporting professional development
..
Aubrey (2011:p.139) highlights that ‘the continuing need to
update and reinforce specific professional knowledge and skills
in a fast-changing world remains clear’.Bertram and Pascal
(2002:p.ii) suggest that research carried out internationally
supports the idea of investment in professional staff as a
preferable strategy for raising quality.
.
Apart from going on individual external training to develop new
skills, knowledge and understanding Siraj-Blatchford and Manni
(2006:p.9) found that effective settings used both ‘informal-
formal’ approaches to staff development. These include
observations, formal meetings, reflection of ones work and
individual feedback from managers/leaders and colleagues.
.
The political context in supporting professional development
.
The government’s vision set out in the 2020 Children and
Young Peoples Workforce Strategy (DCSF, 2008a:p.6) is that
everyone (particular professionals) working with children and
young people will be:
.
· Ambitious for every child and young person
· Excellent in their practice
· Committed to partnership and integrated working
· Respected and valued as professionals
The Effective Provision of Preschool Education (EPPE) report
(Sylva et al, 2004) concluded that qualifies teachers,

specifically pedagogical leaders, had the most impact on the
quality of children’s experiences, particularly in relation to
outcomes in pre-reading and social development. The EYFS
practice guidance, taking note of this, stresses the need for
well-qualified and experienced staff who understand and engage
in informed reflective practice-both individually and in groups
and work collaboratively within the setting to share knowledge,
question practice and test new ideas – with high aspirations for
every child (DCSF, 2008c:p.9).
.
Training for practitioners and leaders to meet the changing
demands of recent childcare and education agendas, linked with
social change, has been a significant focus in government
policy, under the remit of the Children’s Workforce
Development Council (CWDC). The National College for
School Leadership are responsible for the form, content and
delivery of the training programme for leaders and managers in
Early Years Childcare and Education. The National Professional
Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) is a
qualification that provides an experimental, developmental
programme centred on reflective practice, which aims to
encourage leaders/managers to explore value, based practice and
extends their knowledge and understanding of leadership and
multi-agency working. This qualification aims to raise quality
and standards.
.
...
The role of the leader in identifying need and supporting
professional development
.
Commitment to support of staff and continuous professional
development (CPD) is considered a key factor to effective
leadership (Aubrey, 2011).
.
It is the responsibility of the leader particularly in Children’s

Centres to encourage and support staff development and multi-
professional working.
.
Studies on multi-professional working have found that some
professionals feel that they lack the knowledge and skills
needed for integrated working. Davis and Smith (2012:p.9)
believe that there are ‘benefits to be gained from working with a
range of people with different types of experience …it suggests
professionals that hide their feelings, errors or uncertainties (in
an effort to keep up an apparently professional appearance) are
actually unprofessional’.
.
They suggest it is important for professional to examine their
preconceptions and those of their colleagues in order to create
collaborative and interrelational approached to learning and
professional development.
.
Regular supervision is primarily the responsibility of the centre
leader/manager. During supervision the leader/manager helps
staff to use their knowledge and skills effectively in carrying
out their daily duties and to enhance and deepen their
understanding of professional values. Whalley (2001) believes
that the ranges of supervisory responsibilities are complex for
managers/leaders to address. It is therefore important to
consider, personal and self-development as well as team-
building issues.
.
Rodd (2006:166) suggests that the ‘professional support
provided through effective supervision helps staff to listen to
and accept constructive feedback and learn to reflect upon and
critically evaluate their own performance’. Whalley
(2001:p.139) observes that supervision ‘becomes a mechanism
of quality control because it involves target-setting, goals and
reviews’. When carried out effectively supervision allows for a
forum where difficult issues can be discussed openly and in
confidence – for example underperformance, sickness level.

These days supervision is viewed as a form of continuous staff
development where staff competence is the main objective. It is
also seen as a way of communicating to staff that they are
important to the organisation and that their contribution is
valued (Rodd 2006).
.
Capability learning cycle – A tool for supporting development
(Michael Schartz and Rob Walker (1995:p.106)
The value of using the Capability learning cycle lies in the
distinction that it makes between our conscious operations and
our unconscious ones – in other words, between the actions we
take with full self-awareness and those we take without
consciously having to think about them. This model refers to
ideas of continuous growth ad development and all round
achievement.
.
The theory suggests that in learning, particularly in relation to
the application of skills and knowledge, we move through a
series of stages as discussed below:
.
Unconscious incapability
I am not aware of what I do not know or cannot do until I
become aware of a need or a deficiency; then I move to:
Conscious incapability
I am now aware of something I do not know or cannot do. I can
now choose whether I want to gain new knowledge or develop a
new skill, or not.
If I do, then as I undertake new learning I am aware of being in
a state of:
Conscious capability
I need to concentrate and think in order to understand new
knowledge or to perform the new skill. As I absorb new
knowledge and I become skilful I move into a state of:

Unconscious capability
New knowledge takes place alongside other acquired knowledge
and I am able to apply the new skill without deliberate attention
to the techniques involved. Some capabilities I can undertake on
automatic pilot.
(NPQICL Booklet 9, 2011:p.6)
.
The above model is particularly useful to leaders/managers in
relation to professional development work. Development and
growth requires individuals to move through the stages. This
can be achieved more successfully when learning is supported
and encouraged. The key for leaders is being able to intervene
to activate capability awakening, rather than incompetence
panic, with the damage associated with feelings of anger, guilt,
shame and a sense of not being good enough.
..
It is the conscious capability stage that sensitive encouragement
and support are most crucial. Developing new professional
capability involves taking risks, and when those tentative first
steps are judged negatively, then development is jeopardised
and growth inhibited.
..
.
..
Think of a recent time when you decided to learn something
new – skill, or taking up a new interest. Use the learning
capability model to identify your experiences at each of the
stages.
.
..

During this session you looked at the definition of
professionalism and professional identity. You explored the role
of the leader in identifying and supporting professional
development. You briefly considered the political context
around supporting professional development, particularly for
the leader/manager. Finally you looked at the Capability
Learning Cycle which is a tool leaders can use to support
development and learning.
..
14.10 Weekly task
..
The second key reading is by Malcolm Knowles – The Modern
Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy
Revised and updated. Click here to access it as a pdf file now.
...
Malcolm Knowles' attempts to develop a distinctive conceptual
basis for adult education and learning via the notion of
andragogy became very widely discussed and used. He also
wrote popular works on self-direction and on group work (with
his wife Hulda). His work was a significant factor in reorienting
adult educators from 'educating people' to 'helping them learn'
(Knowles 1950: 6).
...
Use your journal to reflect on your own learning and
development and record your thoughts and responses.
...
References and further reading
Anning, A. Cottrell, D. Frost, N. Green, J. Robinson, M. (2006)
Developing Multi-Professional Teamwork For Integrated
Children’s Services: research policy and practice Maidenhead.
Open University Press.
...
Anning, A. Cottrell, D. Frost, N. Green, J. Robinson, M. (2010)
Developing Multi-Professional Teamwork For Integrated
Children’s Services,Open University Press McGraw Hill

Education
...
Aubrey, C. (2011) Leading and Managing in Early Years
(Second Addition)
SAGE Publications Ltd
...
Bertram, T. Pascal, C. Bokhari, S. Gasper, M. Holtermann, S
(2002) Early excellence centre pilot programme. Second
evaluation report 2000-2001. Research report 361. Nottingham:
DfES.
...
Bertram, T. Pascal, C. (2002) Early Years Education: an
international perspective. London: Qualifications and
Curriculum Authority.
www.inca.org.uk(Accessed 1/2/13)
...
Bolam, R., McMahon, A. Stoll, L et al (2005) Creating and
sustaining effective professional learning communities.
Research report 637 Bristol: University of Bristol
...
Davis, M. and Smith, M. (2012) Working in Multi-professional
Contexts
A Practical Guide for Professionals in Children’s Services
...
DCSF (2008a) 2020 Children and Young People’s workforce
strategy. Nottingham: DCSF.
...
Friedland, R. (2007) Professionalism in the early years. In Wild,
M. and Mitchell, H. (eds) Early Childhood Studies: Reflective
Reader, Exeter: Learning Matters
...
Frost, N. (2005) Professionalism, Partnership and joined Up
Thinking. Dartington: Research in Practice
...
Gasper, M. (2011) Multi-agency Working in the Early Years
Challenges and Opportunities Sage Publications

...
HM Government (2005) Common Core of Skills and Knowledge
for the Children’s Workforce. Nottingham:DfES
...
Hudson, B. (2002) Interprofessionality in health and social care:
the Achilles’ heel of partnership, Journal of Interprofessional
Care, 16(1).
...
Knowles, S. (1970) The Modern Practice of Adult Education:
From Pedagogy to Andragogy Revised and
Updatedhttp://www.hospitalist.cumc.columbia.edu/downloads/c
c4_articles/Education%20Theory/Andragogy.pdf Accessed
2/2/13
...
Manning-Morton, J. (2006) The Personal is Professional:
professionalism and the birth to threes practitioner London
Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
...
Moyles, J. (2001) Passion, paradox and professionalism in Early
Years education. Early Years, 21 (2): 81-95.
...
tools. National College for Leadership of Schools and
...
Osgood, J. (2006) Deconstructing professionalism in early
childhood education: resisting the regulatory gaze.
Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7 (1): 5-14.
...
Petrioni, P. (1994) Inter-professional teamwork: its history and
development in hospitals, general practice and community care
(UK), in A. Leathard (ed.)
...
Going Inter-professional: Working together for Health and

Welfare. London: Routledge.
...
Press
...
Schratz, M. and Walker, R. (1995) Research as Social Change,
London, Routledge
...
Sylva, K. Melhuish, EC, Sammons, P. Siraj-Blatchford, I.
Taggart, B. (2004)The effective provision of pre-school
education (EPPE) project: London: DfEE/Institute od
Education, University of London.
...
Siraj-Blatchford, I. Manni, L. (2006) Effective leadership in the
early years sector: the ELEYS study. London Institute of
Education, University of London
www.gtce.org.uk/shared/contentlibs/126795/93128/120213/eley
s_study.pdf
...
Stacey, M. (2009) Teamwork and collaboration in Early Years
Settings, Learning Matters Ltd
...
Trodd, L. and Chivers, L. (2011) Interprofessional Working in
Practice
...
Whalley, M. (2008) Leading Practice in Early Years
Settings, Learning Matters Ltd
...
Whalley, M. (2001) ‘Working as a team’, in Contemporary
Issues in the Early Years. Working collaboratively for Children,
3rdedn, ed. G. Pugh, Paul Chapman, London

support you at this time?
.
If you were planning the agenda for your first mentoring
session, what three key items would be on the agenda and why?
.
How do you believe mentoring sessions could support you in
leading a multi-professional team?
.
Use your journal to reflect and record your responses..
.
WEEK 15
15.8 Journaling as a way of supporting CPD
.
During week one I introduced journaling to you as a way of
reflecting on your practice, their thoughts and responses for the
module. Today we look at journaling in terms of supporting
CPD.
.
Journaling brings together both personal and professional
development. The aim is to use your journal to express your
thoughts and feelings, to review and learn from them and to
record what you think should do next. One way to think about
journaling is teaching yourself through your professional
practice. You think about your initial learning in order to make
improvements for yourself and your setting/centre. Anything
that could improve your job for you could also improve your
settings/centres outcomes for the children and families using
services or activities.
.
Journaling is a conscious way of making sure that you help
yourself. You have many ways of helping others to solve
problems. Being a participant in your own problem-solving
strategies and making sure that you move yourself on can be
strengthened by journaling.

.
.
.
This week’s session continued the theme of professional
development and you began by exploring reflective supervision
through two journal articles, examining its role in CPD. You
also looked at appraisals the appraisal process and its links to
identifying and supporting development. We then considered
mentoring and the mentoring experience and finally you
reflected on the role of journaling as a way of supporting CPD.
.
.
15.10 Weekly task
.
.
This week’s task involves reading the following article:
.
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal
Leading a learning organisation: Australian early years centres
as learning networks. Kaye Colmer.
Vol.16, No. 1, March 2008, 107-115
.
The article discusses the following:
.
· Leading a dynamic learning organisation
· Managing as well as leading change
· Motivating and inspiring staff through shared leadership and
reflectivity
· Creating devolved leadership structures and engaging with
complexity

· Developing an early years centre as an effective learning
networks
· Key strategies in developing early years centres as learning
networks
Use your journal to reflect on the article your own
setting/centre. Record your thoughts and responses.
Barden, N, 2002, Supervision and the new ethical framework,
Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal, 13, 6, 28-29
British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy,
(2002), Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling
and Psychotherapy, Rugby, BACP
Colmer, K. (2008) Leading a learning organisation: Australian
early years centres as learning networks Lady Gowrie Child
Centre, Adelaide, Australia
Cullan, S. (2006) What is mentoring? In Robbins, A. (ed)
Mentoring in the Early Years. London: Paul Chapman.
NPQICL booklet 2 (2011) Journaling for integrated centre
leadership National College for Leadership of Schools and

NPQICL booklet 3 (2011) Leadership mentoring
support National College for Leadership of Schools and
Parsloe, E. (1992) Coaching, Mentoring and Assessing: A
Practical Guide to Developing Competence. London Kogan
Page.
Press
Trodd, L. and Chivers, L. (2011) Interprofessional Working in
Practice
Learning and working together for children and families
Weigand, R. and Weatherston (2007) The issue and why it
matters
Journal of ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants,
Toddlers, and Families
ZERO TO THREE, November 2007 Volume 28 No.2,
Week 16: Managing Change with multi-
professional/disciplinary teams
16.1 Aims this week
This week we look at ‘Managing Change with multi-
professional/disciplinary teams)’. The session is outlined below:
· To gain an enhanced understanding of the implications of
change for staff, management and leadership
· To consider the importance of change in relation to providing

quality services and provision
· To look at Kotter’s (1995) change model as an analytical tool
in supporting change management in multi-agency environments
· To explore the role of the leader in managing change
· To consider what is involved in the change process
· To examine ways of managing conflict and stress (weekly
task)
16.2 Change is everybody’s concern
.
..
‘Change is one of the few certainties in life. It is a phenomenon
in all aspects of our lives. Given that human beings experience
so much change in their day-to-day lives, it can be difficult to
understand why the process of change presents such threat to
some people’ (Rodd 2006:p.181). We will explore this further
during this week’s session.
.
Change is one of the fundamental features of life and work in
early years services. Those who work with children and
families are concerned with growth and development and get
worried when services, processes, or standards stay the same.
One of the main principles of early years work is consistent and
continuous change. Duffy (2010:p.1) makes it clear, ‘high
quality early education leads to improve outcomes for children,
especially those who are disadvantaged’. There is therefore a
duty to ensure that standards do not stay the same but develops
and improves in order to meet the needs of children and
families.
..

The Irony is often that those whose role focuses on change and
managing the change process in others or teams are not always
as keen to bring about change in their own professional
behaviours and working practices.
..
Since the working practices of early years practitioners and
other professionals are themselves varied, complex and only
arrived at through training and experience, it can be a cause of
some concern and insecurity to change working practices that
have become familiar through experience. Gasper (2011:p.35)
highlights that ‘fear of change and resistance to change’ is one
of the challenges and barriers to working with multi-
professional teams.
Leaders and managers of multi-professional teams, are
responsible for providing the best quality service that they can.
This often requires change and development.
..
Alvarado et al., (1999) cited in Rodd (2006) states that,
‘leadership has been, and will continue to be, defined in terms
of improving program quality’.
..
In this fast changing world this can involve staff being
introduced to new methodologies, extend existing skills and
develop new ones.
..
..
One of the responses or impact to an environment characterized
by fast and accelerating change is to put settings/centres and
their team under more pressure. One way to exert this pressure
is to place increased emphasis on the way we plan and evaluate
services. By tightening up on the way we plan and evaluate can
help us become more efficient.
..
It is not plans, which change and improve outcomes, nor
evaluation, which raises standards it is the people who do the

work – the team. In the end it is the capacity of leaders to bring
about change in how professional practice is conducted that will
enable an early years setting/centre to develop and improve.
This involves working with individuals as well as teams who
will have ideas and suggestions about how things should be
managed. It is never going to be easy persuading staff to stop
using skills s/he has taken all his/her life to develop and hone
nor to ask someone to leave a role they have striven to learn
about and become familiar with.
..
It is in the management of change and development that
leadership capability is most challenged. Rodd (2006:p.182)
believes that, ‘The role of the leader has become instrumental in
managing change’ as well as orchestrating change.
..
..
..
..
.What changes to your professional practice have you
experienced in the past few years?..
..
How were these changes managed? How did the changes affect
you?
..
Use your journal to record your responses.
..
..
16.4 Resistance to change
..
..
Aubrey (2011:p.140) highlights that ‘Anything that threatens a

core value is likely to be met with a whole gamut of responses
that range from active and passive opposition through to
apparent acceptance and support’
..
In her work on how organisations will need to develop in the
future, Caroline Palmer (1994) suggested that two assumptions
are so deep-rooted in the organisations that they have taken on
the strength of incontrovertible truths. The first is the belief
that you cannot change human nature; the second that you
cannot run organisations by trying to do that. Her emphatic
response is ‘Oh yes you can’. If these assumptions were actually
true, she argues we would still have slavery in this country.
..
Leaders in the early years settings/centres may not be
unfamiliar with the cries: ‘if it isn’t broke don’t fix it’ and ‘that
wouldn’t work here. Perhaps what such attitudes reveal is a fear
of change, of moving out of our comfort zones into the
unknown. Goleman (1999:p.98) believes that ‘People who lack
adaptability are ruled by fear, anxiety and deep personal
discomfort with change’. Until we learn to see change as a
journey of discovery rather than as a threat to our wellbeing,
these fears will continue.
..
Given the inhibiting influences of our upbringing, education and
experiences, we should not be surprised that we have developed
considerable aptitude in resisting change in various forms and
guises. As leaders/managers we should realize that resisting
change is very purposeful behavior: it is a strategy to protect
ourselves in face of threats to self-esteem and psychological
survival.
..
In our roles and work we invest a great deal of physical,
intellectual, emotional and psychological energy in constructing
our role images and comfortably occupying the organizational
niches we have created for ourselves. When change is proposed
or enforced, the role image upon which we have based our

behavior is declared null and void and we have as yet no
alternative with which to replace it. We may feel deprived of
the psychological props upon which much of our personal and
professional credibility is built. So we fight to remain intact by
seeking to preserve the status quo. One of the ways of doing
this is to attack the proposition and find as much fault as
possible.
..
The following phrases will have a familiar ring to them and
some we will identify as part of our own resistance strategy
during some events in our lives:
..
· ‘We tried that once before and it didn’t work’
· ‘We don’t have the time’
· ‘Let’s get back to reality’
· ‘We don’t have the resources’
· ‘You can’t teach an old dog new trick’s’
· ‘Not that again’
· ‘We’ve managed so far without it’
· ‘Lets form a working party’
· ‘Let’s wait until things settle down’
· ‘We’ve always done it this way; no one has complained’
Away from the personal level, there is a range of reasons for
resistance to change (Plant 1987):

..
· Fear of the unknown
· Lack of information
· Unwilling to share information
· Misinformation
· Historical factors
· Threat to core skills and competence
· Threat to status
· Threat to power base
· No perceived benefits
· Low trust organisational culture
· Poor relationships
· Fear of failure
· Fear of looking stupid
· Reluctance to experiment
· Custom bound
· Reluctance to let go
· Strong peer group norms

Plant (1987) believes that resistance to change comes in two
forms: systemic and behavioural. Systematic resistance tends to
occur when there is a lack of knowledge, information, skill and
managerial capacity. It is almost as if the organisation is crying
out: We can’t do this’! Behavioural resistance is more
emotionally centred and derives from the reactions, perceptions
and assumptions of individuals and groups in the organisation.
Lack of trust, for example, is much more difficult to manage
than lack of information or the absence of resources.
..
The challenge for leaders/managers are often compounded by
paranoia – the feeling that the resistance is directed at them
personally. Coulson (1985) has provided a valuable insight into
the psychology of change, which offers guidance to
leaders/managers as they contemplate the way forward. This can
be summarised as four key points:
..
1. Initiators of the management of change need to be aware
that, when change is suggested, those involved in it want to
protect what they see themselves to be
..
2. The way that individuals and teams operate in their
particular work situations has come about through a long
process of establishing an identity in relation to the demands
and expectations raised. They strive to satisfy their own work
needs and the expectations of others with the minimum of
uncertainty and anxiety. Pressure to alter this way of being
tends to be received as threats to the comfortable continuity of
living and working
..
3. Suggestions that individuals change their way of doing

things and their approaches to the professional tasks for which
they have responsibility imply a level of inadequacy in their
performance. This threatens the identity they have striven to
develop. The natural inclination is to become aroused in the
defense of the familiar and established
..
4. Far too often leaders/managers and senior staff experience
this defensive tendency as opposition to new ideas and see their
task as one of overcoming the perceived resistance. A battle of
wills can ensure which is counter productive to the
developments themselves and to the professional relationships
which are vital to their success
..
Much of this polarisation can be avoided if the following six
factors are remembered:
..
1. When people resist change they are not usually working in
active opposition to it as such but demonstrating that a threat to
their personal and professional security has been experienced
..
2. Leaders/managers need to accept this response as natural
and inevitable
..
3. A key task for leaders/managers is to listen to the
experience of those involved in change and seek to understand
what is felt to be threatened
..

4. Leaders/managers need to be deeply caring and concerned
about what it is that staff feel they are having to give up and be
seen as ally in this process, not as an opponent
..
5. Leaders/managers also need to help staff protect what they
perceive to be under threat while moving them towards new
methods and strategies
..
6. In the process of change it is vital to try and avoid
undermining individuals’ sense of competence and professional
wellbeing by appearing to reject or devalue their established
practices.
..
Much pain and discomfort can be avoided if some of these key
ideas are incorporated in the values and assumptions, which
underpin approaches to management and leadership. A great
deal of stress within settings/centres with staff can often be
linked back to insensitive and clumsy handling of innovation
and change.
..
..
..
..
..Recall a time when you were required to make a significant
change to the way you did things.

..
How did you feel when the changes were proposed? How did
you respond? How do you now view the changes that you then
had to make?..
..
Use your journal to record your responses.
..
..
16.6 Dynamics of change
..
What the resistance statements quoted above conceal is the
considerable confusion, anger and uncertainty that change often
stirs up inside organisations. A further insight into the process
of change and the individual is supplied by the concept of
‘zones of uncertainty’ (Schon 1971). This suggests that change
involves risks in moving from the familiar to the unfamiliar
(Whitaker 1998).
Zones of discomfort
Safe haven
Danger zones
Unknown
Where we are now
Uncertainty
Difficult
Discomfort
Fear
Awkwardness
Confusion
Incompetence
Where we want/have to be
..
The table above shows the first step out of the comfort of the

familiar can be most hazardous involving a range of risks and
difficulties. It is important to be sensitive to three particular
clusters of feelings:
..
1. Loss
2. Anxiety
3. Struggle
Of firmly held beliefs and ideas
About required levels of understanding
To survive intact
Of established patterns of behaviours
About new skills
To acquire new competence
Of comfortable habits
About what the future will be like
To gain respect and recognition
Of confidence and self-esteem
About being able to cope
About being seen as different

..
Among the most valuable of managerial qualities are those that
convey an informed and sensitive understanding of the impact
of change and of the difficulties that have to be faced to
accomplish it. But change must never be regarded as something
that has to be feared, resisted and avoided. Change can present
us with new opportunities and exciting prospects. It can focus
our thinking and concentrate our ambitions. It is through change
that we can realise our wilder dreams.
..
While it is vital to be sensitive to apparent difficulties, it is also
important to recognize the powerful range of human resources
that can be activated within each person. People will tend to
underperform if expectations of them are too low. Within
settings/centres staff will inhibit the full expression of their
skills and abilities if they feel oppressed and underestimated.
Over recent years organisational development theory has placed
increasing emphasis on the importance of assumptions about
staff and their work. Successful leaders/managers have been
found to be those who are able to activate the inner resources of
their team by building a positive and enhanced climate of
assumptions.
..
..
..
..
Reflect on your own zones off uncertainty.
..
What things have you had to give up in the course of your life
in order to move on?
..
How did you feel about these losses?
..
What sorts of anxiety do you experience when you have to do

something you haven’t done before?
..
What sorts of struggles have you engaged in as you have
developed and changed?
..
Use your journal to reflect and record your responses
..
..
16.8 Kotter’s (1995) Change Model
..
..
Developing a model of leadership in multi-agency environments
A key focus of multi-agency leadership is upon the process of
change management. Although there are a number of different
change management models Kotter’s is one of the most popular
(DfES 2005d:p.9).
..
In his work Kotter highlights eight steps to organisation
transformation
..
Kotter’s change model (Kotter, 1995:p.9)
1. Establishing a sense of urgency
2. Forming a powerful guiding coalition
3. Creating a vision
Creating a climate of change
4. Communicating the vision

5. Empowering others to act on the vision
6. Planning and creating short-term wins
Engaging and enabling the whole organisation
7. Consolidating improvements and producing still more
change
8. Institutionalising new approaches
Implementing and sustaining change
..
The first three steps are concerned with creating the
environment for change to happen, and include increasing the
urgency for change, building the right team and establishing the
vision. Steps four to six look at increasing buy-in to the change
model process and creating the drive for change. This involves
achieving commitment to the vision, the belief that people are
empowered to act, and securing short-term wins. The final step
looks at the importance of ensuring that change becomes
institutionalised. The different demands of multi-agency
working means that often building leadership capacity and
extensive distribution of leadership particularly within
children’s centres are important strategies for the long-term
viability of collaborative working.
(NPQICL Booklet 9:p.33)
..
..
16.9 The change process
..
.Most of the changes that we are concerned with when leading
and managing teams involve us moving away from known
positions out to the unknown (such as integrated or multi-
agency ways of working). This often means that we have to give

up things we are familiar with and adopt practices or ways of
working that we have never tried before often with a short lead
in time and with insufficient opportunity for reflection and
preparation. Mostly we can take the changes in our stride and
modify our professional practice to new needs and
requirements. Sometimes we do not like what we are expected
to do but realise that adjustments have to be made.
..
.Traditional approaches to change management fail to take
sufficient account of the impact that change makes on our lives
and how it affects our capacity to function effectively.
..
If we are to manage change well, we need to be sensitive to the
change process and how it operates in each team member.
Below are four particular dimensions of this process, which are
significant:
..
1. Conceptual change:changes to the way we think about our
work, conceive our roles and responsibilities, how we assess our
effectiveness, how we see the nature of change in our lives and
our attitudes to the specific issue of the change under
consideration.
2. Emotional change:how we feel about the changes proposed,
the sorts of challenges and demands it will make on us, the
emotions that will be aroused as we begin to struggle with new
ideas and fresh expectations, our hopes of success and our fears
of failure.
3. Aspirational change:our hopes and ambitions for our work,
our professional journey, our commitment to the early years and
its vision for the future, our career aspirations and our hopes for
the sort of contribution we want to make.

4. Practical change:how we stop doing things we have always
done and start doing things in a different way or doing other
things we have never done before, how we adapt to new
practices and approaches, how we acquire new skills and how
we adopt new behaviours.
When we consider going on a journey, it is useful to have a map
of the route. It is not enough to be told where we should go and
that we have a certain amount of time to get there. We need
help with three vital questions:
..
1. What is the purpose of the journey?
2. What will the journey be like?
3. What will we do when we get there?
Below we will look at another use for the four-link development
chain. This can help us to focus on different aspects of a
proposed change and help those who will be involved to make
the journey in ways which reduce confusion and distress and
which provide stepping stones into the future:
..
1. Why is change necessary?
..
2. What will it involve?
..
3. The challenges to face?
..
4. What will it be or look like?
..
In considering these key issues we need to appreciate that
change is as much an inner process of adjustment as a practical
task. How we feel about what we are expected to do
significantly affects how we do it. Leaders/managers need to

realise that resistance to do something significantly affects how
we do it. They need to realise that resistance to change is one
way that individuals and teams register – without actually
saying so directly – that they are uncomfortable and perhaps
even afraid of what is proposed. Effective leaders/managers
never assume that anyone finds change easy or even acceptable.
Expressing our concerns about changes, which profoundly affect
us, is natural and should be expected. Time needs to be
allocated for these concerns so that they can be dealt with
sensitively and openly.
..
Traditionally we have approached change in a somewhat
awkward manner defining the tasks that need to be achieved and
driving people on. There are more effective ways, ones that
respect natural human concerns and misgivings.
..
The behaviour of leaders/managers in the change process is
crucial. Impatience to get things moving tends to indicate an
undue preoccupation with the task and a lack of concern with
those who will be responsible for implementing it. Proper
attention to the process itself will tend to take their worries and
concerns seriously as well as to provide the proper and
appropriate levels of support.
..
It is the role of leaders/mangers to create the nourishing and
conducive conditions for change so that the choices that
individuals and the team as a whole makes will be for better
outcomes for children and families, growth, challenge,
achievement and not a retreat into the familiar and comfortable.
..
We can no longer afford the desperate and somewhat blind drive
through the danger zones that we have traditionally taken; we
need a diversion, which spends appropriate time in preparation
zones where appropriate attention can be given to the
conceptual, emotional, aspirational and practical changes
involved. We like to have control over our journeys in life and

we also like to choose our own method of transport but
generally we all get there in the end.
..
Effective leadership is the process of helping the team to
manage change in in ways that acknowledge the challenges and
complexities involved, whilst providing the support required
and which do justice to their own potential.
..
..
..
...
When you have to change your professional practice, what sort
of support do you need?
..
How do you get this support: do you have to ask for it or is it
offered?
..
In what specific ways can leaders/managers support staff
effectively through times of change?
..
Use your journal to reflect and record your responses.
..
..
..
During this week’s session you looked at the implications of
change for staff, management and leadership. You considered
the importance of change in relation to providing quality
services and provision. You examinedKotter’s (1995) change
model as an analytical tool in supporting change management in
multi-agency environments. You alsoexplored the role of the
leader in managing change and consideredwhat is involved in
the change process.

..
The weekly task will allow you to examine ways of managing
conflict and stress.
..
16.12 Weekly task
..
..
– Reading Managing Staff in Early Years Settings by Adrian
Smith and Ann Langston an E-book - Chapter 11
..
Click here to access in the Library now.
.
Often with change comes resistance to change conflict and
stress. Read Chapter 11, then write a couple of paragraphs on
the following:
..
1. Causes of conflict
..
2. Approaches to conflict management
..
3. Understanding and management of stress in the workplace
..
Aubrey, C. (2011) Leading and Managing in the Early Years
(2ndEd)
London: SAGE Publications Ltd
Coulson, A. (1985) The Fear of change Unpublished paper
Gasper, M. (2011) Multi-agency Working in the Early Years
Challenges and Opportunities London: SAGE Publications Ltd

Goleman, D. (1999) Working with Emotional
Intelligence. London: Bloomsbury
Kotter, J. P. (1995) Leading Change: Why Transformation
Efforts Fail Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review. March–
April, 1995.
tools National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s
Services.
Plant, R. (1987) Managing Change and Making it Stick London:
Fontana
Pugh, G. and Duffy, B. (2010) Contemporary Issues In The
Early Years (5thEd)SAGE Publishers Ltd
Press
Schon, D. (1971) The Reflective Practitioner: How
Professionals Think in Action London: Temple Smith.
Smith, A. and Langston, A (1999) Managing Staff in Early
Years Settings London: Routledge.
Whitaker, P. (1997) Primary Schools and the
Future Buckingham Open University Press
Week 17: Communication and leadership
17.1 Aims this week
This week we look at ‘Communication and leadership.
· Identifying what communication is

· Examine the importance of effective communication
· Look at the political context surrounding effective
communication and multi-professional working
· Consider communication and the interpersonal world
· Through reflection explore the role of the leader in supporting
a culture of effective communication within teams, particularly
multi-professional teams
· Explore some of the challenges and barriers to effective
communication and group dynamics
17.2 What is communication?
...
Jorde-Bloom (1997:p.13) defines communication as the ability
to ‘synthesise complex information and communicate that
information cogently and succinctly to a variety of different
audiences’. Steiner (1999) suggests that communication is our
‘link to others’.
.
Rodd (2006:p.65) believes that management is distinguished by
effective communication and states that ‘successful leadership
in the early childhood field is a matter of communication more
than anything’. Our work with children, parents and
professionals revolve around the need to and the ability to
communicate effectively.
.
.
.
.What is your definition of communication?

.
What does effective communication look like in practice?
.
When have you experienced effective communication within
your setting/centre?
.
What role does your leader/manager play in communicating
effectively?
.
Journal your reflection and responses
.
.
17.4 The Political Context
.
Anning et al (2010:p.107) sums up the history and political
context around effective communication well by highlighting
how, ‘Information-sharing lies at the heart of the government
view of multi-professional teams. The government is clearly
responding to the Laming Report (2003), finding that failure to
share information contributed to the death of Victoria Climbie’.
The Children Act 2004 and the Childcare Act 2006 are clear
about the importance of working closely with multi-
professionals to share information and communicate effectively
to improve outcomes for children and families
.
.
17.5 Communication and the Interpersonal world
.
.
‘Effective communication skills are the tools that underpin the
ability to act in an emotionally intelligent and competent
manner’ (Rodd 2006:p.70). Wong and Law (2002) believe that
emotional intelligence enhances our job performance and
general satisfaction.

.
Early years work is intensely interactive. Despite grand visions,
clear policies and specific plans, the essential business of an
early years centre/setting is conducted through an endless
sequence of interactions and encounters. Some of these are
planned and intentional but perhaps most are incidental. They
are created in the spontaneity of the moment out of need,
circumstances or location.
.
Frequently these incidental encounters are interruptions to other
interactions or activities and we temporarily disengage to give
them attention. It is often in these unexpected encounters that
we do our best work – dealing with difficulties, supporting
people, making agreements, resolving problems, clarifying
action and keeping things moving. We are operating in a
process world which straddles on moving through an intricate
web of highly charged and dynamic signs, signals, messages,
comments, questions, initiatives, demands, requests and
responses.
.
Interpersonal skill is therefore crucial to effective leadership
and communication (Rodd 2006, Whalley 2008). Effective
communication and interpersonal relationships are key elements
to providing successful provision and improving practice.
.
There is enormous potential in our encounters for
disagreements, misunderstandings, disputes, tensions, hurt
feelings, misplaced trust, betrayal and conflict. Much will
depend upon our skills as communicators and how we behave in
these snatched moments that so characterize a typical day at
work. With increased turbulence, pressure and stress, the
quality of these interactions will become ever more important.
Success will very much depend upon how we manage ourselves
in the interpersonal world. Some of the key factors, which will
determine our capability, are:
.

· Self-awareness:a striving to keep in accurate touch with our
own patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and the
effects these have on others
.
· Authenticity:a deep concern to communicate what we are
thinking and feeling without deceit, dissembling and
concealment
.
· Care:a genuine desire to reach out to others and to be of help
sharing ourselves in a gentle ‘non do-gooding’ way
.
· Receptivity:being open to approaches from others, however
trivial and insignificant they may seem from an objective point
of view
.
· Understanding:seeking first to understand others before we
ourselves seek to be understood by them
.
· Empathy:listening with deep interest and sensitivity to the
experiences of others and conveying our acceptance and sensing
of that experience back to them
.
· Trust: striving to build relationships of openness, warmth and
mutual trust in which there are no lies and hidden agendas

.
How can the leader communicate effectively to put their point
across?
.
The leader needs to send clear, accurate and unambiguous
messages to the whole team (including multi-professionals who
are not based or co-located at the centre/setting). Asking
yourself the following questions beforehand can be useful:
.
· Why am I communicating? What is the purpose or objective?
.
· Who do I need to tell? It is easy to avoid talking to the right
people or person if we are fearful of the outcomes
.
· What do I hope to achieve by this communication?What does
the receiver already know? What do they, he or she need to
know from me?
.
· Where is the best place to communicate? The context will
make a big difference to how the message is received. Telling
someone what you think after a meeting, where it should have
been discussed is too late. Talking to someone in front of others
so that they are embarrassed is unprofessional, damaging for
your ongoing relationships and will not get results
.

WEEK 12Building and leading teams (part 1) Leadership in pract.docx

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