Fear and School Leadership - What Scares you🎃👻?

Fear can sometimes be centre stage in the coaching space. Sometimes it's quite obvious – like the fear of speaking up in meetings or the fear of taking a chance on a new job. Other times, it's more subtle showing as procrastination or a desire to build confidence.

I found out through studying positive psychology that I tend towards defensive pessimism (this shouldn’t have come as a surprise as I have sometimes been called worse-case-scenario Swift!).

Of course, thinking of all the things that can go wrong brings with it fear. But if we view this from the lens of second-wave positive psychology, then these negative emotions positively impact me too.

The discomfort I've grown accustomed to sitting with, in sometimes commonplace situations, equips me to sit with discomfort when I face more significant challenges, like navigating school leadership interviews or hurtling down a mountain on a bike in Andorra. Strangely, they have their similarities! This fear or worry about situations also helps me prepare more thoroughly - anticipate what could go wrong and have a series of plan B’s (see the full range of body armour!)

Setting up Light Up Edu-Leadership has been further practice of stepping forward with fear but I also know fear still holds me back, and I am working on taking some bolder steps - watch this space.

Sometimes the school leaders I work with are looking to build confidence before taking a step forward with their goals. What we often do is tap into what is most important and use this to motivate a move forward, making space for the fear but with less of an attachment to it.

“Actions of confidence come first, feelings of confidence come later” Russ Harris

So what important and meaningful thing is fear stopping you from taking action towards?

How does this fear serve you in some way?

What would it look like for you to take a step forward with the fear?

Fear can also be a barrier to school improvement, fear of making mistakes, fear of being judged. This can be tackled on an individual level by how we interact with staff and students but it is also worth looking at from a systems level as well.

What school policies or systems are there that may reinforce the fear of making mistakes or being judged for students and staff?

If you would like support taking positive action towards something important then send me a message.