I've never been one for pop-culture personality tests but "Love Language" resonates with me.
How do you like to show and receive love/care/appreciation -
In your personal life? At work? On your team?
Since it's ❤️ Day week,
I'm connecting “Love Languages” to 3 team leadership moves that
strengthen community and communicate you care.
1. WORDS OF AFFIRMATION
People appreciate a public shout-out for the good work they are doing, but take it a step further than words with Intentional Move 10.6 "Publicly celebrate impact". I learned long ago from a skillful team leader, Lisa Lineweaver when 🎉 celebrating your team's student progress:
Go beyond verbal accolades like, "Great teamwork!"
Go beyond numbers-based praise like, "Scores went up by 40%!" Instead, use words that affirm the good work your team is doing together and helps others see it as well.
⭐ Here's an example Lisa shared with me ⭐
📙 "WOW. Look what we did. This third grade student came to us reading Pete the Cat books and now is reading Junie B. Jones."
2. ACTS OF SERVICE
Full disclosure: This is my 💗 Love Language. And while you don't need to take your colleague's 🚗 car in for an oil change to show them you care, team leaders can make small moves to show "love".
⭐ Here's an idea ⭐
📓 Photocopy a teacher's student work that the team will analyze together, so that the presenting teacher has one less thing to do to prepare for the team meeting. (Intentional Move 4.7 "Look at Three Levels of Student Work.")
3. QUALITY TIME
In "Love Language" this means carving out valuable time for someone. For team leaders this means ⏰ ensuring the time your team spends together is worthwhile to their learning.
Intentional Moves 6.4- 6.6 "Focus on a specific student-centered challenge."
⭐ Here's a great question to ask your team ⭐
"What student-centered challenge stirs up questions for us that we don't yet know how to resolve, but feel compelled to try? Let's make this the focus of our team learning together."
And in the spirit of my Love Language, "Acts of Service"
I'm offering complimentary 30 minute slots to chat about the challenges you are seeing in your team leadership work. Let's problem solve together!
Ready to delve into key concepts & find the team leadership moves you need?
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