Transforming School Culture and Leadership: The Leader in Me Approach with Amanda McGovern

Unlock the secrets to transforming educational environments with the Leader in Me system, inspired by the renowned seven habits of highly effective people. Join us for an enlightening conversation with Amanda McGovern, a seasoned educational leader and professional learning officer. She shares her incredible journey from classroom teaching to her impactful role as a coach and consultant for Franklin Covey in Australia and New Zealand. Amanda reveals how the Leader in Me seamlessly integrates with existing school processes to boost academic achievement, leadership skills, and school culture.

Discover how the Leader in Me framework shifts paradigms in education, fostering leadership, a high-trust culture, and self-directed learning among students and staff alike. Amanda provides compelling personal stories about embracing an abundance mindset and initiating change from within. She also shares insights from over 100 independent studies that validate the significant positive impacts of the Leader in Me on school communities, from improved school climates to better student behavior and increased attendance.

Curious about implementing these transformative principles in your school? We delve into the comprehensive support mechanisms available for schools adopting the Leader in Me program, including high-quality professional learning options and personalized coaching. With success stories from over 5,000 schools worldwide, Amanda offers valuable guidance for educational leaders eager to enhance their school culture and leadership development. Tune in to learn how the Leader in Me can create lasting benefits for your entire school community.
Further information about Leader in Me can be found via:
https://www.leaderinme.com/

To view our Professional Learning Offerings visit:
https://www.nswppa.org.au/professional-learning

Transcript

Drew: 0:00

Hello and welcome to Season 2 of the Principal Learnings Podcast. If you're a principal or educational leader looking to enhance your skills, this is the place for you, so let's get into it. Let's embark on this learning journey together. Welcome to today's episode. We're diving into the transformative power of the seven habits of highly effective people and how these principles are being embraced by thousands of schools worldwide. Partnering with us on this journey is Franklin Covey, a global leader in professional development. Through their Leader in Me program, they're building leadership in students, fostering high trust cultures and boosting academic achievement.

Amanda: 0:46

When you work in Leader in Me school, you work with a client partner and a coach to develop your action plan and a typical implementation cycle is up to three years. But schools again will work at their own pace.

Drew: 1:03

Today we're thrilled to have Amanda McGovern with us. Amanda brings a wealth of experience from the Australian education sector, having started as a teacher and moved into playing a pivotal role in professional learning and leadership strategy development as a professional learning officer for the Western Australian Primary Principals Association.

Amanda: 1:22

There's lots of support mechanisms in place for schools who choose to come on the Leader in Me journey. What's really important to recognise is that implementation is designed to fit each individual school. Leader in Me will already fit with any existing processes and practices and programs that are currently at your school level. So that's why, as a system, it's a system framework that supports you to achieve all the other things that you're already doing. It just makes them even stronger.

Drew: 1:53

Let's explore the incredible impact of Leader and Me and hear insights from Amanda McGovern. Amanda, welcome to our podcast. Thrilled to have you here.

Amanda: 2:04

Thanks, Drew. It's wonderful to be speaking with you today.

Drew: 2:08

Yeah, sure is. For those who don't know, Amanda, you work in the professional learning role, in educational leadership, but you're able to share for those listeners your background and your role as Franklin Covey's lead of Australia, New Zealand leader and coach and facilitator.

Amanda: 2:29

Sure, I've worked in a variety of education roles over the past 25 years and my journey's been a little bit different to many. I found myself in lots of different roles, a lot of diverse roles across my career, but I always seem to be drawn to the professional learning or coaching roles in any, I guess, context that I was working in. So that started way back in my third and fourth year of teaching, where I was asked to deliver some professional learning to other educators, which I guess terrified me at the time, but it has set me on this path of professional learning. So I worked in schools for a couple of decades and then the last five to six years of my career working at the Department of Education, wa. I worked in our Leadership Institute, which was the, I guess, the main professional learning centre of the WA branch of the Education Department. So in that role I worked as a coach, a facilitator, coordinator and researcher and a consultant across many both teaching and leadership development professional learning suites. And I learned so much during that time that I was able to trial my skills in another context.

Amanda: 3:45

And for the last couple of years, prior to coming into this role, I worked as the Manager of Professional Learning at the Western Australian Primary Principals Association, where I got to really broaden my network and work with people like you, Drew, over in New South Wales, but also connecting with colleagues in Queensland and Victoria and in Canada as well, which has been amazing, and through these connections I decided, after a little while of soul searching, what was next for me. I started to develop my own consulting business and to partner with some other great organisations who share similar values to me in education, and so when I was chatting to Michael from Franklin Covey about Leader in Me, it was a perfect fit for me to come in as their coach and professional learning consultant across the team here in Australia and New Zealand.

Drew: 4:38

Yeah, fantastic, Amanda, In terms of the leadership development. Was there a particular moment or influence in your career that sparked your passion in this field?

Amanda: 4:52

It's been a long journey but I've always had a drive, I guess, to make things better and really been, I guess, influenced by people who have this real ability to think big. I guess I really aspire to being that myself, so I'm always looking on the out for those types of people. And so when I was working in a system role, this idea of being able to make connections across multiple systems and organizations and schools and be able to bring that support to a larger level is what I've always been trying to achieve. This idea of working and increasing my sphere of influence has been something I guess that's driven me and it fits really well with the Leader in Me program.

Amanda: 5:36

But I guess one of the biggest things for me in working in the Leadership Institute was when we were working in a very small team with the director, peter Glenn Denning. At the time we had a team of about nine or 10 of us and we were really trying to cover and offer an amazing suite of programs for the entire WA context and during this time, with limited resources and limited people, we were delivering some amazing products. And so when you're working in a team like that, you get a ball of energy and you're able to achieve a lot of things together. So I think that ability to be able to achieve big when you have sometimes a small scale really makes a difference. So I'm hoping to be able to continue to do that in any way that I get to work in the future.

Drew: 6:24

Yeah, fantastic. So, Amanda, I'm really curious. You mentioned about Leader and Me, and in today's conversation we're really going to start focusing in on the Leader and Me discussion. Are you able to give us an overview of what the program is, as well as its core principles?

Amanda: 6:41

Yeah, absolutely. I guess we call it a program, but it's not really a program, it's a system. Leader in Me is a transformational system, and it brings together three big areas of academics, leadership and culture, and so, with this idea of a system in mind, it really has the ability to transform a school culture from the inside out, with leadership being at its core. Now, our definition of leadership is the ability to communicate people's worth and potential so clearly that they're inspired to see it in themselves, and so, with that as a foundation in place, you really see a shift at all levels of the community, from the students themselves, the teachers and families. And so, working within this system of Leader and Me, each school is able to work at their own pace and really implement the key focus areas of leadership, culture and academics, and using a wealth of online teaching resources and coaching support to enable them to achieve their own goals. But it's really a system of voice and agency at its core, with some incredible resources to help each school map its own journey.

Drew: 7:54

Yeah, so that sounds fascinating. Let's go into that further. Amanda, how does the Leader and Me system specifically benefit students and school communities?

Amanda: 8:07

Yeah, thanks, Drew, Leader and Me is based on a solid theory of change and our theory of change is called the see-do-get cycle. Rather than basing whole school changes on just trying to shift behaviors alone, this model supports a shift in paradigms. So paradigms are the way we see and make sense and interpret the world, and the Leader in Me supports a shift at a paradigm level across five core areas of leadership potential change, motivation and education. And as we support these shifts in the way people see and think they're able to implement some key practices across those three areas of leadership, culture and academics to support transformation. And so in our See Do Get cycle we support the see, we provide some resources for what to do in that behaviour change. But what we're looking for, the results we're hoping to get, are highly effective students and adults who are leaders in their school and their communities. We're wanting to get a high trust culture where everyone's voice is heard and the potential is affirmed, and we also want to get in the academic space engaged students who are equipped to achieve and entrusted to lead their own learning. So that's really what we're looking for across the see do get cycle and with the paradigm change, behavior change, and those are the results that we're hoping to achieve.

Amanda: 9:34

It's got a lot of frameworks to support that shift even further. So another wonderful framework that we have in Leader and Me is the maturity continuum, and people who are familiar with the seven habits of highly effective people will be familiar with this. But we utilize this framework to help students and also staff, and also parents and communities, to be able to lead self and then to lead others. So this idea of interpersonal growth and then being able to work with others and really collaborate in a truly effective way is another great framework that we utilise in the program to support that shift across. So we talk a lot about wanting to engage student voice and agency in schools, voice and agency in schools, and it's really difficult to do that without changing the way we all think and see and what the possibilities of education are. So this quite holistic approach really supports and gives all levels of school communities the tools to really support that change.

Drew: 10:42

Yeah, I mean. There's so much there, Amanda, to unpack. You mentioned paradigms. You also mentioned seven habits You've implemented Leader and Me. From a personal experience, how has this framework Leader and Me influenced your own leadership style and your professional growth?

Amanda: 11:07

Yeah, thank you. That's a great question, Drew. Within the framework itself and based on the maturity continuum and I did mention earlier that it does have the seven habits of highly effective people at its core. I guess, personally and professionally, some of those key attributes and those key practices within the seven habits has had a significant effect on me both personally and professionally. A couple that really I guess spring to mind in my own journey is one of the ones. That's one of my favorite in.

Amanda: 11:47

Habit four is the abundance mindset and so being able to curate for yourself an abundance mindset rather than thinking in a scarcity mindset. So I often work with leaders across many schools and this fundamental change from a paradigm, from going from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset, really makes a difference about what we can achieve together. So, rather than thinking in competition, we're thinking of how do we work together and what are the possibilities that are open to me. And that one mindset has had a massive change in my own career professionally. This idea that change starts with me is also a really key one. Rather than waiting for change to happen out there, I have the ability, within my own sphere of influence, to change what I'd like to see out there in the world. So it's quite an empowering paradigm to work from within. That change starts with me, so that's another one that's had a significant impact on me.

Amanda: 12:48

And then, finally, this idea of being able to synergize with others. We talk about collaboration a lot in education, but we often don't have the tools and the key understandings of what it really means to truly collaborate, and in Leader, in Me, we call that synergize. When one person's idea plus another person's idea is more than just one plus one equals two. It could be one plus one equals five or 10 or 100. This is the idea of really unleashing potential in people when we have the abilities and the mindsets to be able to work together effectively. So, yes, those ones there and many more have had a really significant impact on how I am able to work with others, both personally and professionally.

Drew: 13:34

You could see that passion coming through with that abundance mindset, those paradigms, and you must have so many positive experiences from that and I can really tell through that synergy and synergy we're having here in terms of what is possible with Leader and Me. If we move into now the research and impact for people listening really curious further about Leader and Me, the research indicates significant benefits from the Leader in Me program. Are you able to delve into some of the findings from recent studies on the program's impact?

Amanda: 14:16

Oh, absolutely. Thanks, Drew. And this one is there's an extensive amount of research in Leader in Me. When I'm looking through some of the resources that we have available on this, we've had over 100 independent studies conducted on Leader and Me over the course of the past decade. Most of those have been peer-reviewed, and a mix of qualitative and quantitative, I guess, research has been conducted.

Amanda: 14:47

There's a couple that I might just draw your attention to and there's definitely many out there, but this one that was recently conducted in 2023 is a meta-analysis was really able to identify statistically significant improvements in both school climate and student behaviour as a result of schools implementing Leader in Me, and what it has seen is that at a whole school community level, there's been quite a significant shift in school climate and school culture and a reduction in high-level student behaviour incidences. What I find really interesting about this particular analysis is that teacher perceptions of school climate were the highest, and that's really significant when we think about the challenges that teachers and principals are currently going through and how challenging a lot of our schools are to work within. To see that the teachers themselves rated that the school climate has had a significant change really goes to show that they're going to be able to have a greater impact in everything they do because the way they've seen the changes at their school level is going to enable them to do their work really well. So that one, I think, is really significant. Lots of other ones, particularly this other one recently. In the last couple of years a study on attendance Leader in Me has led to significant increases in attendance across schools.

Amanda: 16:27

Again, because it goes to that school climate, school culture piece and it gives people the tools to be able to work together but also really understand themselves and to, I guess, becoming a culture where it's a great place to be. People want to go to those schools, great place to be. People want to go to those schools. And when I think about this idea of social-emotional realms, casel is the world's, I guess, leading foundation on this, the Collaborative and Academic Social and Emotional Learning Group. They're the leading authority in, I guess, social-emotional learning. And when you look at what CASEL requires of schools to really effectively attend to social and emotional learning, leader in Me is one of the very few systems that actually address all of the aspects of social and emotional learning. So there's a variety of research out there that supports that we're making a difference.

Drew: 17:25

So there's a variety of research out there that supports that we're making a difference. Yeah, it's in terms of going back to it's changing the paradigm, changing that shift, changing that mindset with that as we went back to earlier in the conversation really changing that abundance mindset. Hence why attendance rates are up because students want to go to school. Teachers are enjoying the change again, changing their paradigm. They're really enjoying being a teacher and seeing the success of the program. It's really coming through.

Amanda: 18:04

Yeah, Drew, I think with that teacher piece that teachers always want to go to work and do amazing things. That's what they all go into the job for, so it really allows them to teach kids and that's really a significant impact that we see. They get to really work with students at that social and emotional level and they can see the difference they are making to the lives of their students. So that really, again, this has that really empowering effect.

Drew: 18:33

Yeah sure, sure does Amanda behaviours, as we've said. Can you describe some of the long-term results you've seen or witnessed in those who have fully embraced this leadership philosophy?

Amanda: 18:53

Yeah, thank you. It's really based on the foundation of Leader in Me. It is based on the seven habits of highly effective people and its principles and its practices when implemented with fidelity, it can be life-changing. It's a lifelong journey and it has the ability to really impact a life short-term, but definitely we're looking for long term.

Amanda: 19:19

Leader in Me is much more than a school program and the greatest impacts that I've seen from principals and staff themselves as they embrace the principles and practices into their own life. I hear from school leaders regularly and overwhelmingly they see the changes in their students, but they really often reflect on how those principles have transformed their own lives. They're better parents, they're better partners and they're better at communicating. Their leadership skills has really developed to that next level. They're better listeners and this flows into their professional practices. They get much deeper satisfaction from their work. So the system itself is an inside out model where, when you embrace it, you actually do see improvements across all aspects of your life, and so it's difficult to really pin down one particular person that I've seen change the most, but I've generally seen many, many people report this back to me anecdotally over time.

Drew: 20:23

Yeah, how powerful is that in terms of? It's a professional learning piece, obviously aimed at school students, but to hear that, coming through the seven habits of highly effective people transition from into the school context into people's personal life and the impact that that is having, how powerful is that? Amazing to hear In terms of moving, shifting into the resources side of the program, what ongoing support does Leader in Me provide? Amanda?

Amanda: 21:01

Yeah, thanks, Drew. There's lots of support mechanisms in place for schools who choose to come on the Leader in Me journey. What's really important to recognise is that implementation is designed to fit each individual school. Leader in Me will already fit with any existing processes and practices and programs that are currently at your school level. So that's why, as a system, it's a system framework that supports you to achieve all the other things that you're already doing. It just makes them even stronger. When you work in Leader in Me school, you work in a Leader in Me school, you work with a client partner and a coach to develop your action plan, and a typical implementation cycle is up to three years.

Amanda: 21:46

But schools, again, will work at their own pace. Each school will have access to high-quality professional learning. I think Franklin Covey Professional Learning is probably the highest quality professional learning out there in the world currently, and you will have the opportunity to attend professional learning, whether you want that face-to-face, online or self-directed online. And again, we all love face-to-face, but we know that we have a challenging timetable sometimes in schools. But what I do also like to say here is that there has been some pretty bad self-directed online professional learning over the years, but this stuff is not that. It's really professionally curated and designed, so it's quality, whatever direction the school takes. Each school will also have an opportunity to work with someone like me, and most of the time it is me currently to be able to set some coaching conversations throughout the year. And again, it's up to the school how many times they'd like to work with their coach, but there are some minimum settings that we will achieve together across a school year. So you get lots of coaching support. You've got your own professional client support in Clare. You also have an opportunity to work with the Leader of Me website.

Amanda: 23:12

So when I first go into the Leader of Me website and I think maybe you've seen it, drew there are thousands upon thousands of amazing resources within that.

Amanda: 23:23

It's just. If you let the teachers go in there, they will just have an incredible feast of lessons and research and I guess scope and sequences available to them. I guess scope and sequences available to them, and so we help guide schools through the resources that are available. But their online website resources are just incredible. You can press, play and stop on social and emotional lessons across any category for any year level, from early childhood all the way through to high school, and so the actual resources themselves are just incredible on the website and the lesson space. But also schools can, if they want to, access Global Direct, which also allows them to connect with schools across the globe, because there are thousands of schools who are implementing Leader in Me across many continents, and so there's an opportunity there to connect with other schools outside of Australia as well. So lots of different ways and lots of different resources are available, but we map your journey and you are able to implement as much or as little and as quickly or as slowly as your school needs to.

Drew: 24:35

Yeah, fantastic, I heard that three years, as well as the word, obviously, Franklin Covey. Behind the extensive amount of research and Franklin Covey is just such a world-class organization for professional learning. In your opinion, Amanda, what sets the Leader in Me program apart from other leadership development programs?

Amanda: 25:02

Oh yeah, that's a great question. Apart from all the resources available that I talked about in my previous answer, I guess what it does is it teaches you, step by step, how to lead yourself, how to become a better leader of self, to lead yourself how to become a better leader of self and then also then how to lead others and become very much more skilled in this interpersonal management. So I think I previously talked about the importance of student voice and agency and how that is a real key area of interest in many of our schools. This is one of the only systems that I've seen Leader in. This is one of the only systems that I've seen. Leader in Me is one of the only systems that I've seen that actually helps support that shift required to become a school that agency and voice are a priority, and allows changes at a whole community level to allow that voice and agency to thrive.

Drew: 25:57

Yeah, there's a lot of research around student voice and agency and the fact that there's a the Leader In Me. What I'm hearing, Amanda, is the how, the how of how that actually works, how student voice and agency can literally transform the culture. And, going back to the paradigms, shifting the paradigm within the school setting yeah, so in the context for our New South Wales PPA members, listening, educational leaders, principals who are leading they're leading all of these different, diverse communities. How could the principles of the Leader in Me be applied to their context? Amanda?

Amanda: 26:43

Yeah, absolutely, leader in Me works from that human-centered paradigm, so it's relevant across any community. It currently, as I've mentioned previously, it's operating in over 5,000 schools worldwide. I work with schools in Australia and New Zealand, but we have many, many schools in the US and across Asia, south America, europe and Africa, and so we know that it works in a range of diverse cultures and communities, cultures and communities. Another great feature of being able to be able to say that we work worldwide is that our resources have already been translated into multiple languages, and so diversity is really at its core and embraced and celebrated in Leader in Me.

Drew: 27:32

Wow, that's so many schools and it shows the the success of the program and how it speaks across continents into different dialects. So again going back to that universal shift of paradigm from the center out. Amanda, for those listening, do you have any advice for listeners who are interested in implementing the Leader in Me program into their own schools?

Amanda: 27:58

Oh, absolutely, we'd love to have a chat. We'd love you to either call Claire and have a chat with the team or come along to any upcoming information session that we have going. We've also got a range of schools in New South Wales and also Victoria who have implemented Leader in Me and will be very willing to share their journey with you. So please get in contact with either Claire or anyone else across the team. You don't have anything to lose by starting. You're giving yourself the gift. It's an inside-out model, so it starts with you, the leader school staff and then across the community. So the interpersonal training that you receive in your first part of the Leader in Me system will change you and your school community. We've also got a great group of school leaders, both in New South Wales and Victoria, who have implemented Leader in Me and they'd be willing to have a chat with anyone who's interested in moving forward. So get in contact and have a chat with us and we're happy to support any direction you'd like to go in.

Drew: 29:07

Yeah, absolutely Fantastic, Amanda. It's a privilege to have time with you today. Thanks for joining us and sharing valuable insights on the Letter and Meet program. It's clear that this framework has the potential to make a significant positive impact on your school community. Thanks for being with us today.

Amanda: 29:30

Thank you, Drew. It's been wonderful to chat.

Drew: 29:33

A special thanks to Amanda McGovern for sharing her expertise and experiences from the Australian education sector. Her insights have truly highlighted the powerful changes happening in schools through the Leader in Me paradigm shift, as she explained. If you're inspired by what you've heard today and want to learn more about the Leader and Me paradigm shift and how that can benefit your school or organization, visit the Franklin Covey website for more information and resources, and the New South Wales Primary Principal Association is proud to be partnering with Franklin Covey on this mission. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast for more episodes on educational leadership and professional development and if you found this episode valuable, please share it with your colleagues and network. Thank you for listening. Until next time, keep striving for excellence in education.