After the course, participants will have gained a better understanding of themselves as leaders, will understand the importance and impact of a good relationship between the leader and the team, and will be able to choose the most appropriate leadership style according to the context. The participants will thus have received fundamental training in the use of coaching as a leadership tool.

What is your purpose as a leader? What drives you as a leader? How do you find your purpose, and how do you communicate it to your school community?

Being a leader is both a rewarding and demanding profession. Motivating and unifying the school community is often a task that seems undoable. Dealing with school boards, students, and staff can be rewarding. Still, it can drain the energy out of any leader, no matter how enthusiastic and motivated the leaders are.

Three things are essential in leadership: Motive, followers and resources. Knowing what you want to achieve, knowing what your teachers and students want to achieve, communicating your goals to the school community, and communicating with the school community members create the essence of leadership.

This course will discuss the concept of leadership and how coaching can improve schools’ leadership. At the end of the course, participants have a clearer vision of their leadership and management styles, better understand their different roles as leaders, and use coaching as a leadership tool. Participants will get tasks related to each session between sessions to practice in real-life situations.

The course will be for four evenings, each session takes 2 hours and will address the following issues.

Day 1. Knowing your purpose: Looking at you as a leader.

• The elements of leadership and the elements of coaching (lecture and discussion)
• Leadership from an individual perspective (Lecture and discussion)
• Discovering your motive: What matters? (discussion and group work)
• Discovering your resources (discussion and group work)
• Analysing your base. (discussion and group work)
• Homework

Day 2. Leading collectively: Learning other people’s purpose and creating shared goals.

• The power of collective leadership: A Utopia or possibility? (lecture and discussion)
• How shared are your goals? (group work and discussion)
• Using coaching to create a shared understanding. (lecture and discussion)
• Powerful questions. (Practical training)
• Homework.

Day 3. Leading according to context: Is coaching always efficient?

• Different leadership styles: Leading according to context. (Lecture and discussion)
• Analysing your context. (discussion and group work)
• When is coaching applicable? (discussion and group work)
• Homework

Day 4. Sustaining the leadership: Coaching the system.

• Essence of sustainable leadership: Influencing the system (Lecture and discussion)
• How sustainable is leadership in your school? (discussion and group work)
• Coaching to create sustainability. (discussion and group work)
• What next?

The course will be in the form of lectures, group discussions, group work and practical training. All content created in the course will be available to participants after the course.

After the course, participants have acquired a better understanding of themselves and their purpose as leaders. Furthermore, participants will have greater insight into different leadership styles and understand how coaching can help identify common goals and increase leadership sustainability.

The instructors:

Helgi Þ. Svavarsson is an experienced educator and lecturer with a demonstrated history of working on all educational levels, informal and formal, from kindergarten to University. Skilled in E-Learning, Coaching, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Development. Strong professional with an M.Ed focused in Educational Management from the University of Iceland and now working on his PhD degree in educational management specialising in schools in diverse communities. The last five years, Helgi has been focusing on implementing democratic leadership practices in schools.

Kristín Björk Gunnarsdóttir’s primary skills are related to teaching, public speaking, motivation and communication. She has worked within the lifelong learning sector as a project manager, counsellor, teacher and lecturer. Kristín has developed, taught, managed and organised many seminars, courses and workshops and acquired skills regarding Customer Service, Coaching, Event Management, Public Speaking, and Team Building.