Creating the conditions to become an emotionally intelligent school

The Situation

We were asked by a Comprehensive School to help them achieve their goal of becoming an emotionally intelligent school. This was an intriguing organisational change assignment and with a limited budget, a challenge.

The Intervention

I began by attending a meeting of the senior management team and interviewing the Head Teacher and the school counsellor, where I learned more about the issues they faced. They were convinced that increasing the emotional intelligence of the teachers and eventually the children and parents would make a positive impact on all areas of school performance. And they were ready to start with themselves. They knew they had to provide the lead and model the behaviours they were trying to instil in others. This positive attitude and willingness to work on themselves first was critical for me in deciding to carry on with the project.

We held a series of four Saturday away days, which the top team attended, in their own time. Throughout the year we worked toward the goal of becoming an emotionally intelligent top team, which meant that they became a team of people who were: 1) aware of their own emotions, 2) could control and manage those emotions appropriately, 3) were aware of the emotions of others and 4) had strategies for improving the emotional climates in which they operated.

As we were working with a limited budget, the plan was for the school counsellor to attend the top team sessions so that she could then run similar sessions for the rest of the staff. I would provide her with additional support and coaching. She proved to be an invaluable member of the group and offered a fresh and objective view of the senior team from the perspective of the staff and students. She also modelled a direct and honest communication style that helped to shift the communication pattern of the group from polite and compliant to challenging and authentic.

The result

By working together over the year, the team achieved a number of significant objectives:

they became a cohesive unit who could say what needed to be said
they were able to tackle the tough issues they had been avoiding by providing both support and challenge to one another
they developed assertive communication and influencing skills
they moved from a position of dependency on the Head to a ‘shared leadership model’
they developed and published a mission for the leadership team
they canvassed the teachers for feedback on the extent to which they were providing the leadership required and took action to address the issues raised. This was a bold step and one that proved to be a pivotal point in delivering the message that they were serious about making changes and being accountable to the staff
they made symbolic changes to register that they were now sharing leadership and responsibility
they developed their sensing skills and became aware of the little victories and small successes along the way.

After the top team sessions ended, I began work with the counsellor and head teacher as they developed their plans to roll out these ideas to the rest of the staff. The counsellor designed mini-sessions covering various aspects of emotional intelligence (although we decided not to use that label), to all the main school teams, beginning with a session for all staff in September and extending to year teams subsequently. There were also plans implemented to take in parents and governors. When we last checked with them, the programme was going well and gaining momentum.

I felt privileged to work with a team of such dedicated teachers and proud that I had been able to play a part in beginning the transformation process. This project demonstrates a number of key learning points about organisational change, namely:

organisations can achieve a great deal on their own
external expertise can be used effectively even within a limited budget
willingness of the top team to model the change they espouse is essential
asking for feedback and then responding to issues helps build credibility and co-operation
symbolic acts that dramatise the change help convince the sceptics that things are really happening
anticipate that the use of labels like ‘emotional intelligence’ might engender resistance
notice success and recognise achievement along the way
realise that the top team do not have to do it all – they just have to set the conditions, create the climate and work with what emerges
moving to a shared leadership model in the top team can encourage people throughout the organisation to take up their leadership roles and make a significant contribution to achieving the goal.

what they valued about the approach

Peter Norman, the Head Teacher wrote in a letter to Oxfordshire County Council, who funded to project, saying:

"We have just completed our workshops in becoming an "an emotionally intelligent top team", carried out by our facilitator, Sally Kleyn and I have to say it was excellent: clearly the best professional development that I have had for a long time, a view that I think my colleagues would share unequivocally.

We are convinced that if we are successful [referring to the roll out], the potential for further comprehensive school improvement is enormous. It goes without saying that I would recommend this to any school. …our facilitator was first-rate."