In Part I of this blog, I discussed what it takes to build confidence in a staff. Check it out here:
Now onto the linking confidence to capacity…
Capacity is the ability to receive or contain. In the case of literacy implementation, building capacity in a staff means building their ability to withstand the pressure and still perform and make decisions at a high level. A staff with the capacity to get the job done are convicted by the work and are committed to getting it done – they feel like it’s their job and responsibility.
So what does confidence have to do with capacity? It has been my experience that without staff confidence, a leader cannot build capacity in his staff because they lack the conviction, strength of skill and decision-making ability that it takes. We start with confidence building and then along the way, we TEACH people how to do the work of the literacy system while they’re doing the work and we thoughtfully hand over responsibility to those outside of leadership to take control and make decisions. Before you know it, the staff is coming to your office saying, “Hey, we had a really good idea on how to make our after-school program even more effective” or “Can we have 10 minutes of our staff meeting time to share a strategy that we tried?”
You know you’ve arrived when that happens!