Everyone remembers his or her last day of
school. The freedom, excitement and celebration of finally finishing.
Mine, however, was not as anticipated. It turned
out to be a day of sadness, tears and disbelief. I found myself having to execute adaptive
leadership skills.
It had been a tradition for years to share an
early morning breakfast, and move to a final whole school assembly dedicated to
the Year 12s. It was considered a highlight for the school year. I had two speeches ready; one I had looked
forward to delivering all year, the speech to my fellow School Co-Captain,
Bridie.
However, instead of our celebratory 7:15am
breakfast, we were ushered in complete silence to the hall. We had no idea what
was going on. Over a long four hours of “interrogation” (as some later
described it) we were told that during the evening before some girls had taken
“muck up day” activities too far. In a school that has a zero tolerance on muck
up celebrations, consequences would follow for the whole cohort.
The verdict: Everything cancelled, everyone
sent home.
What our whole year had come to, the final
pinpoint in the straw had now been taken away from us.
I will never forget the look of devastation,
anger and shock painted on every girls face. The 75 girls I had led all year
with Bridie were being punished for the actions of a few. It had
been the perfect year, but we did not receive the perfect ending.
The effects of the decision were far-reaching
for both students and teachers. It is difficult to explain how much this day
meant to everyone, but for a while the decision broke the school community
apart.
In such an important time (one week until
VCE exams), I could not let the girls loose sight of what was “essential and
what [was] expendable” (Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky 2010). We were in a
period of disequilibrium. The 2014 cohort were imbalanced and lost, girls
weren’t focused; many wasting time writing letters to the school instead of studying.
They needed to be reminded of the bigger picture.
I wanted to “help people navigate through a
period of disturbance.” As a School Co-Captain, my loyalties lay with my cohort. I knew these girls, I knew how
hard they had worked all year, and I was not willing to let them forget
that.
To deal with the swirling emotions
surrounding me I did two things; Firstly, I managed myself in the environment.
I mentally chose to push aside the negative and distracting thoughts by putting
them into a tiny box in my brain and locking it away.
Secondly, this then allowed me to “help
people tolerate the discomfort they [were] experiencing.” I believed that my
scope of authority permitted me to remind them whom they truly were, something
I deemed important. My goal was to keep the temperature of emotions within the
“productive zone of disequilibrium (PZD).” Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky (2010) classify
this as a zone where people are “mobilized to focus and engage with the
problem.” To me this would be a zone where all girls would focus on their
studies.
My relationship with the girls allowed me to
utilized the notion - “solutions are offered based on trust and a mutual
understanding.” I decided the following day to “counteract tactics” via posting
the Year 12 reflection video I had been making all year. In a Facebook post
targeting both the Year 12s as well as the rest of the School, I acknowledged
the loss in a quote
“Unless you have bad times, you can't appreciate the good times” – Joe Torre,”and stressed to the cohort the importance of returning to a safe PZD temperature.
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| The Facebook Post the day after with the video. |
Persistence and patience
was needed, however I believed, not only as an elected leader and authority
figure, but also as a person, that it was important to restore the “purpose and
values” that were “at the center of [the girls} being” (D’Souza & Renner
2014). They needed a place of balance
and equilibrium. Every girl deserved the chance to achieve her best, and I
wanted to ensure that happened.
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| Girls reactions and comments left on the post. |
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| Girls reactions and comments left on the post |
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| Girls reactions and comments left on the post. |
Side note: As the post was viewed, it seemed
to have a calming effect on the cohort “makes me remember all the awesome times”
one girl commented. We have since received a sorry letter from the Leadership
team regarding their decision. I am still in contact with teachers and the
school. I miss it very much.
References
Alex Hopkins 2014, Vale to Sacre
Coeur Class of 2014, online video, viewed 1 May 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXm7DPgh1K4
D’Souza, S & Renner, D 2014, Not Knowing, LID Publishing Ltd, United
Kingdom.
Skankman, M.L, Allen, S.J &
Haber-Curran, P 2009, Emotionally
Intelligent Leadership, Joessy-Bass, San Francisco.
*Pictures are screen shots of my own
Facebook post, with names omitted for privacy*
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