S7E7: Tackling Self-Limiting Beliefs in Leadership with Shane Leaning

Organisational Coach Shane Leaning dispels common self-limiting beliefs that often deter educators from pursuing leadership roles.

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Key talking points

✅ Leadership Realities: Shane challenges the misconception that leadership is solely about charisma, highlighting its multifaceted nature.

✅ Strengths and Weaknesses: Shane shares experiences, emphasizing the importance of leveraging strengths and seeking support for weaknesses in leadership styles.

✅ Transitioning to Leadership: Addressing the belief that lack of formal leadership experience hinders progress, Shane highlights transferable skills from teaching to leadership.

✅ Skill Mapping: Shane suggests practical self-reflection and skill mapping to identify strengths, weaknesses, and the value of mentorship in leadership journeys.

To learn more about Shane's work, visit his website here.

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To watch this episode with closed captions, click on the video below or scroll down to view the transcript.

Transcript

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:22:21
Laura
Hi, it's Laura here from the TESOL Pop podcast. If you haven't heard, we've started a book club where Rebecca Eller-Molitas and I select several non-fiction books, read them together and share how we can apply what we learn to our work as educators and entrepreneurs in our monthly virtual book club. Now you can read along with us and join the live conversations that are happening on our YouTube and LinkedIn channels.

By simply going to the TESOL Pop website and clicking on the book club to find out what we're reading and when our next meetup is.

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Now let's move on to today's show. Talking about self-limiting beliefs and leadership is my guest, Shane Leaning. Shane has been involved in education for over 11 years. He's been a teacher, a senior leader and a regional head of teaching development for a large network of schools.

00:00:45:24 - 00:01:13:13
Laura
He's passionate about leadership and organisational development in international schools, and he provides tailored solutions that recognise the beauty and challenges inherent in education. As the host of Global Ed Leaders podcast. Shane engages with thought leaders to bring research, informed and relevant insights to international school leaders. Let's jump to where I asked Shane about why so many people hesitate in taking on roles in leadership.

00:01:13:15 - 00:01:41:01
Shane
This is a real specific but a real common belief that that comes up time and time again. And I think, you know, there's there's certain leaders in the world we maybe have to blame. I think a lot of people think leadership is about good public speaking of charisma. And I think it always comes to mind for me is like leaders like Barack Obama in the U.S. these kind of very charismatic public speakers.

00:01:41:02 - 00:02:05:18
Shane
It and it's understandable why people think, wow, that's leadership, because it's one of the most visible aspects of leadership, especially when we see good leaders out there or we see really good examples in the media. But it's it's a funny one because that is literally just the tip of the iceberg with with leadership. And I would say actually it's not it's not at the tip.

00:02:05:18 - 00:02:45:15
Shane
It's somewhere to the side and probably not the most important part. And I don't think confidence or charisma is the same thing as leadership. Actually, leadership is a lot more multifaceted in that it's a lot more than talking and just in front of people. So if we were to if we were to stick with the politician idea, let's where we were thinking of Barack Obama as this big charismatic leader, we may also think of the former chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, who was well known for her leadership, often really cited for a steadiness in her leadership, her listening skills.

00:02:45:19 - 00:03:18:12
Shane
She was very adept at building a consensus. These are all incredibly important parts of leadership and not she was not certainly not the leader who was known for public speaking, being her greatest strength. So I think while there might be people who are shouting the loudest, look at my leadership traits and and let's face it, they're often they're often men, then it's not necessarily the the be all and end all of of of leadership.

00:03:18:14 - 00:03:23:12
Laura
I think you've tackled number one really well We've knocked it out of the park. Shall we move on? Number two.

00:03:23:16 - 00:03:25:09
Shane
Let's go for it.

00:03:25:11 - 00:03:37:24
Laura
So for number two, people may say I have a weakness in a particular leadership style. For example, I'm unsure how to create and convey a vision for my team to follow. What would you say to that self-limiting belief?

00:03:38:01 - 00:04:12:18
Shane
So I understand. I understand that because, you know, I've very personally resonate that with my leadership. I've definitely got aspects of my style that that are strong and aspects of the style that are are still weak. And one thing I would say is no leader is a master of all all the skills needed to be a leader. And I, I sometimes sometimes when I hear it, people talk about, okay, well, you might be weak in an area, but you work on all those areas that you're weak, so you can become this mythical, perfect leader who's perfectly balanced.

00:04:12:20 - 00:04:46:08
Shane
Yet, funnily enough, I've not really met that leader who has this wonderful balance of all skills, because that's actually not not how it works in real life. And there's a good reason why it doesn't work real life is because when we're working as leaders, we don't work on our own. We're generally working in teams. So if I can maybe share an example, when I was in my early leadership journey, I was very lucky to go away and do a little bit of leadership training and I was middle leader at the time, just an aspiring middle leader.

00:04:46:10 - 00:05:11:10
Shane
And we did a lot of self-reflection on our leadership styles. And I soon came to realise that my style was very much as a a visionary leader. It's what I get giddy about. I like coming up with these big ideas, visions, like really researching something at the beginning. And I think, you know, I think I'm pretty good project starter, but I am not a very good doer.

00:05:11:10 - 00:05:37:02
Shane
When and when we get going the projects and I probably shouldn't be saying that in the job that I'm in, but I'm just not. And that was my belief at the time of ‘’gosh, I'm not a I'm not a great pace setter when these projects get going. Does that mean I'm not up for leadership?’’ When I was chatting with the chap who was who was presenting, he told me and this really stuck with me.

00:05:37:02 - 00:05:57:10
Shane
He said, Well, you know, if you identify that as your weakness, what, what can you do as a leader to get by? Not what can you do to get better at that area, but what can you do to get by? And what I've realised is actually, I've got this strength that I can lean on, that I am a good vision.

00:05:57:12 - 00:06:18:18
Shane
And what I need to do when I get down to the doing part is A, to create robust accountability systems around myself. So to do list. So my best friend that I must lean on, otherwise I just don't do things. And two, I need to work with my team members to, to say, Look, we've got this idea. Hopefully I've inspired you in this idea.

00:06:18:22 - 00:06:36:22
Shane
How are we going to achieve this together? And hopefully delegate some tasks that I'm not doing all that work because I know that that's an area that I need support in. And I think I think that's okay. I don't think the aim is always to to master every every leadership skill.

00:06:36:24 - 00:06:51:01
Laura
There's no such thing as a perfect leader. Basically, there's a perfect team maybe, or a great team, a strong team. But this whole idea that we have to be great, everything is yeah, it's false.

00:06:51:03 - 00:07:16:23
Shane
Absolutely. I think, you know, the person who did a lot of work in this on emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman, he looked at several leadership styles, which I think are incredibly useful. So you might have a visionary leadership style. You might have a coaching style, democratic style, pace setting, maybe an affiliative or maybe sometimes authoritative. And the idea is that you flex these different leadership muscles at different times.

00:07:16:23 - 00:07:51:09
Shane
But he also recognised that we all have a natural style that we lean on. And I think that it's good to do that work in terms of recognising where your areas that you’re best at are and you areas that you do that need support with, and then work with that. I think if you were to go to Angela Merkel, even though I'm sure she was well aware where her strength slide really played on those strengths to the testament of her long leadership, I'm sure if we were to look at the other side.

00:07:51:09 - 00:08:20:02
Shane
Obama better public speaker I'm sure there are that hides some areas where he gets carried in his leadership journey by the people around him too. And I think that's that's okay. I think self-awareness is really important. So identifying which areas and, you know, there's loads of online quizzes you can do to identify your leadership style. So maybe we can post a link of this, some in the show notes for this this episode.

00:08:20:04 - 00:08:49:15
Shane
Or if you don't do a quiz, maybe you've got a close mentor who can help you to understand the leadership style that they see you falling into and and, and how to, how to navigate that. but yeah, I guess the main message there would you have to be good at everything down for that utilise your strengths and I think as well for TESOL teachers, there may be strengths that have come from your practice already.

00:08:49:17 - 00:09:00:01
Shane
Like you might have been planning a lot of courses. That's kind of a common, a common area. So maybe you’re a visioner I like me you're a good front planner. Lean on that strength.

00:09:00:03 - 00:09:21:17
Laura
I think this lends really well to our next limiting belief. And because usually these two, you go hand in hand and I can see you nodding like, Yep, we're ready for this one. So when people say, I don't have the particular style of leadership, usually the thing that follows is I don't have any experience in leadership, so that's why I don't apply for that senior teacher role or the assistant director of studies, for example.

00:09:21:22 - 00:09:25:02
Laura
What do you have to respond to that?

00:09:25:04 - 00:09:47:14
Shane
So well, firstly, it's true you've never been in a formal leadership role if you are just applying for your first leadership role. Yeah, okay, whatever. We've all that's always the case, right? You know, there's, you know, everyone makes makes that next step. So goodness, don't use that as the reason not to go because gosh, if everyone did that, there would be no leaders.

00:09:47:16 - 00:10:10:01
Shane
So remember, every leader, even the great ones that, you know, was not a formal leader to start. But the thing that's great about teaching is that if you think about it, you're already a leader as a teacher, It's what we've been trained to do where leaders of learning in the classroom, I don't mean that in some kind of it sounds a little bit glib, doesn't it?

00:10:10:02 - 00:10:39:04
Shane
Leaders have learning, but we are actually leading in many different ways. For example, some concrete ways would be we every day have to translate complex ideas into really understandable ways for teaching our students. Gosh, that's no more true than in the field of TESOL teaching, especially now that's common. You know, that's a really critical skill in leadership.

00:10:39:06 - 00:11:10:02
Shane
We also are masters often of conflict resolution, for example, between students, between each other. You’re nodding at that. And and between not just between students, but sometimes we have to navigate that cultural conflict between the student and the curriculum we're teaching, especially of recent, where we're all thinking of equality, diversity, inclusion in our curriculum. We're constantly having to challenge ourselves and challenge that connection between the students and the curriculum we teach.

00:11:10:07 - 00:11:35:11
Shane
It's the exact same way as you might do when you're managing a team or managing that complex relationship that's involved when you've got any group of humans in front of you. You also have to do a lot of motivating, inspiring as part of being a teacher and of course, one of the biggest levers of great leadership is being able to give quality feedback.

00:11:35:11 - 00:12:00:04
Shane
And I hope as teachers, this is one thing that we've really developed expertise in. How do we give feedback that is that is safe for the students that that they can action and that is meaningful. And it's you know, these are leadership skills that I think are very transferable if used in the right way to leadership practice.

00:12:00:06 - 00:12:27:07
Laura
You're absolutely right. And I think as we kind of come to a close with this episode really taking time to reflect, talk to others, get feedback, or use those resources that you mentioned, like quizzes to assess where we have experience, what we can transfer, what type of leadership lends to our style and our strengths, playing to those strengths and remembering that leaders are made and not born.

00:12:27:09 - 00:12:30:07
Laura
And you do have to be on stage all the time.

00:12:30:09 - 00:12:51:13
Shane
Absolutely. I think, you know, my I would say a good a good activity to do would be to do exactly what you've just said on paper, get it down on paper, do a bit of skill mapping, which is what I do with leaders usually. So, you know, identify those leadership skills first, maybe do one of those quizzes. What where are those natural leadership styles that you're settling in?

00:12:51:18 - 00:13:10:23
Shane
Then maybe think about the leadership skills you use in your classroom and how do they translate. And this might give you an idea “oh actually this is where I think I might excel as a leader.” And ‘’wow this is an area where I wouldn't.’’ So, given those weakness areas, do I need to get some development in that area?

00:13:10:23 - 00:13:23:02
Shane
Do I need to get some mentoring or do I need to recognise that in my leadership journey I'm going to have to lean on other people for that, which is totally, totally okay in my opinion.

00:13:23:04 - 00:13:41:19
Laura
This has been really inspiring talking to you, Shane, and I really hope this inspires people who are listening, who may be hesitating, taking on that opportunity, or applying for that job to do so, to take the leap because like you say, leaders are not born, they're made and we all have to start somewhere.

00:13:41:21 - 00:14:00:06
Shane
Absolutely. And, you know, I think it's it's not for everyone leadership, but if it's it's it's your calling and you think that actually I could have an impact wider than my classroom then then don't let limiting beliefs be be the reason you don't you know take the leap.

00:14:00:08 - 00:14:08:22
Laura
Thank you so much, Shane, for busting these limiting beliefs out the park and for sharing your insight and expertise. I really appreciate your time today.

00:14:08:24 - 00:14:12:01
Shane
It's absolute pleasure, Laura. Thank you.

00:14:12:03 - 00:14:32:21
Laura
To learn more about Shane's work, including his podcast, go to his website Shane Learning com. The link is in the show notes for easy access. Finally, you can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by leaving a rating a review wherever you listen to the podcast sharing episodes with your community, or by even buying as a coffee at Ko-fi.com/tesolpop

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