Week one - Workplace activity
Leadership foundations
Putting leadership into practice
The most valuable leadership learning happens when you take an idea, apply it in your workplace and reflect on what happened.
The workplace activities for Module 1: Leadership Foundations are designed to help you apply the concepts explored in the eLearning module.
You do not need to complete every activity.
What you need to do
Choose at least one workplace activity that is most relevant to your current role, strengths or development priorities.
You may choose to complete a second activity if there is another area you would particularly like to explore.
There is no advantage in completing every activity. The purpose is to engage meaningfully with one or two areas of your practice, rather than simply completing a series of tasks.
When selecting your activity, consider:
- What aspect of my leadership would I most like to understand or strengthen?
- What issue or situation am I currently experiencing in my coordinator role?
- Which activity connects most closely with my Professional Development Plan?
- Where could a small change in my practice have the greatest impact?
Most activities take approximately 30–60 minutes, although some involve observing or experimenting with your practice over several working days.
| Activity | What you will do | Tool | Approx. workplace time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. My Coordinator Leadership Map | Maps your role, key relationships, areas of influence, accountabilities, boundaries and connections to service priorities. | 30–45 min | |
| 2. Leadership Shadow Observation | Observes your own leadership behaviours over a week and considers what your actions communicate to educators. | Leadership Shadow Challenge | 15 min/day + reflection |
| 3. Emotional Intelligence in Practice | Select one challenging interaction and apply Pause–Notice–Question–Choose before critically reflecting afterwards. | Emotional Intelligence in Practice | 20–30 min |
| 4. Bias Check Challenge | Reviews a real decision or judgement about an educator and test it against evidence, assumptions and alternative perspectives. | Bias Check Challenge | 20–30 min |
| 5. Support vs Rescue Audit | Reviews three recent educator support situations and identifies whether they built educator capability or created dependency. | Support vs Rescue Audit | 30 min |
| 6. Leadership Style Experiment | Deliberately uses a different leadership approach—directing, coaching, collaborating or empowering—and evaluate the impact. | Leadership Style Experiment | 30–45 min |
| 7. Educator Autonomy Check | Examine how well current your practice enables educator autonomy while maintaining clear expectations and accountability. | Educator Autonomy Check | 30–45 min |
| 8. From Issue to Pattern | Review recent work to identify a recurring issue that may actually require a service-level response. | From Issue to Pattern | 30–60 min |
| 9. RITS Priority Challenge | Applies the Risk–Impact–Time–Strategic Alignment framework to one working week. | RITS Working Week | 15 min planning + review |
