Supporting Peer Continuous Professional Development as a Middle Leader

The most important role that any leader has is to develop the capacity and capabilities of their team members. When leaders invest time to support the professional development of team members, they will be rewarded with team members that are more confident and motivated to tackle transformative goals. When all team members are similarly motivated, they will collaborate much more effectively, working interdependently to achieve shared goals.  

To realize this outcome, team leaders must make clear at the start of the school year what is expected of the team collectively and how each member can align individual development interests with the team goal. It is then the responsibility of the team leader to periodically meet with team members to: (1) identify and reinforce Strengths that they bring to the team and their development objective; (2) reaffirm their Target, ensuring they stay on track throughout the year; (3) take time to understand the Reality of their working environment and it’s challenges; (4) Ideate with them to find ways forward; (5) hold them accountable to Decisions made; and (6) Evaluate the effectiveness of those decisions to inform future decision making.

In this 45-minute presentation I will introduce the STRIDE Mentoring Model and how middle leaders can use this model to support team member growth. I will evidence by way of case how mentoring has improved the wellbeing of team members, as well as fostered greater interdependency between team members.