A Note from Nelson

Dear Friends,

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Independent Schools Tasmania for the first in a series of leadership discussions with leaders from across the state. Drawing from years of experience and wisdom, the Leadership Series attempts to demystify leadership and provide valuable insight to educators starting their leadership journey.

I'd like to share some of my responses with you.

In your time as a school prin­ci­pal, are there some piv­otal moments that have stood out for you? What might they be and why?

My family’s move from The Amer­i­can Inter­na­tion­al School of Mus­cat (Oman) to Hobart, Tas­ma­nia near­ly 10 years ago was one of them. I had nev­er been to Aus­tralia before, pri­or to the inter­view for the posi­tion, just as I had nev­er been to Oman before inter­view­ing for that posi­tion near­ly 20 years ago. Mov­ing Schools and coun­tries is always a risk as you are nev­er quite cer­tain what you will real­ly encounter on a day-to-day basis. I can unequiv­o­cal­ly say that both moves were invig­o­rat­ing, fas­ci­nat­ing and pro­fes­sion­al­ly enrich­ing experiences.

Since being at The Friends’ School, the pan­dem­ic pre­sent­ed its own chal­lenges, espe­cial­ly in the begin­ning when we were all strug­gling to under­stand what the best way for­ward was. The polit­i­cal lead­ers pre­sent­ed ​‘pol­i­cy by press con­fer­ence’ expect­ing near­ly instan­ta­neous imple­men­ta­tion of these decrees. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, at first, the ques­tion of whether to have schools remain open, or shift to dis­tance learn­ing, was politi­cised in Tas­ma­nia with polit­i­cal lead­ers offer­ing advice that dif­fered from the pub­lic health advice. Anoth­er addi­tion­al dif­fi­cul­ty was that each state’s pub­lic health advice dif­fered, lead­ing to our com­mu­ni­ty to ques­tion why Tas­ma­nia, at least ini­tial­ly, had dif­fer­ent direc­tives to oth­er states. 

What advice would you offer to aspir­ing lead­ers as they con­sid­er embark­ing upon a school lead­er­ship role?

Who you are as a per­son is not tied up in a posi­tion title, nor are the con­tri­bu­tions that you can make tied to where ever you may be. Be will­ing to take pro­fes­sion­al risks in order to grow as a per­son and an edu­ca­tor. Most impor­tant­ly, make cer­tain that the cul­ture you are work­ing in res­onates with your own val­ues so that you can come to work each day putting what you deeply believe in into practice.

What do you think will be the key chal­lenges for schools in the years ahead?

The posi­tion of a leader in an inde­pen­dent school has always been com­plex. I think we need to be increas­ing­ly aware of the social and emo­tion­al needs of our stu­dents, fam­i­lies and staff. This seems to be a key chal­lenge ahead of us all.

Are there any fur­ther words of advice that you would like to share?

Teach­ing and edu­cat­ing stu­dents is hard work. We poten­tial­ly could come into con­tact with hun­dreds of peo­ple (staff, stu­dents, par­ents, alum­ni, com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers) each day. We work with them, build rela­tion­ships, lis­ten, cajole, and nav­i­gate our way for­ward to assist the stu­dents to grow in a pos­i­tive set­ting. One is nev­er quite cer­tain what sit­u­a­tions will present each day because we are deal­ing with peo­ple. As lead­ers, I think we need to have a focused flexibility.

Tend­ing to the cul­ture of the school that you want to see is the most impor­tant task a leader should do each and every day. If one gets the cul­ture of the school right, then oth­er aspects of the role are more eas­i­ly tackled.

If you'd like to read more, you can view the full interview here.

All the best,

Nelson