Steve Francis
Education Leadership Specialist & Keynote Speaker
High-energy, practical and refreshingly straight-talking, Steve empowers school leaders to simplify leadership, strengthen wellbeing, and build schools where both people and performance thrive.
Quick Contact
Steve Francis is an expert in the complexities of school leadership and the creator of OPTIMAL Leadership.
He understands the challenges and demands of being a school leader. As well as having been the Principal of a number of Queensland schools from a one-teacher school through to a large metropolitan school, he was Principal of an international school in Hong Kong.
For the past five years Steve has been recognised by Educator magazine as one of the top 50 most influential educators in Australia.
He completed his Masters in School Leadership focusing on stress in schools. This led him to develop the Happy School program. Almost 800 schools subscribe to receive Steve’s weekly articles and use them to improve staff well-being.
Steve recently launched School Leadership Sprints to support busy school leadership teams to get clear and aligned.
Steve works with leading educators across Australia and New Zealand to help them reach their potential and optimise their schools.
He brings passion, energy and practical insight to his professional development programs. Steve is passionate about keeping things simple and helping leaders get work – life satisfaction.
Topics
Optimal Leadership?
The key role of leaders in schools is to optimise their school by using all available resources. However, we don’t start with a clean slate, you have to work with what they’ve got.
As a leader, there are always competing demands on your time, and you often feel pulled in different directions. Where do you need to spend your time?
- Leading OR Managing
- Operational OR Strategic
- Student OR Staff centred
- Warm OR Demanding
- Consistency OR Creativity
Optimal leadership requires the ‘Goldilocks’ approach! – It’s NOT a matter of either/or but doing BOTH and getting it “Just right!”
This keynote is highly relevant in the following contexts and will deliver these key points.
Concerned About Staff Morale, Disengaged Staff and Rediscovering Your Mojo
- Have staff withdrawn the discretionary effort we rely on so much in schools?
- Is there a divide between some leaders and the staff?
- Do your leaders feel like there is too much TO DO and not enough time?
- Are leaders spending all of their time on operational ‘stuff’ and not having impact on what really matters?
- Are you frustrated that you are always fighting fires and getting limited satisfaction from your work?
- Do you feel that your efforts are wasted and not appreciated?
Key Points:
- A toxic culture thrives when staff don’t trust the leaders in their school.
- The #1 factor in staff morale is leadership.
- Communicating the intent behind what we are doing is essential.
- Getting the balance right between leading and managing is essential.
- Attitudes are contagious – especially the leader’s.
- Get clear about your leadership approach and the style of leader you want to be.
