Page 16 - Sponsor Booklet

Sponsor as Principal Coach — Case Study

Barry Man-lo is principal of an established primary
school. He is in his early 50s and has been at the
school for a little under a year. Through the blue skies programme
bi-monthly Inspirational Series, he approached his blue skies
Sponsor, Suzanne Yeow for support to work through some issues
that he is keen to address (largely identified through an internal
appraisal process) which relate to his lack of solid people skills.
Man-lo and Ms. Yeow identified a number of key issues arising from
the school’s appraisal where he wanted help. These were:
● a growing concern at the emphasis on negatives throughout the
school, including insufficient recognition for achievement and
successes and a lack of encouragement for open self-reflection.
These issues seemed to cause considerable worry and
resentment and were becoming unnecessarily counter-
productive;
● a number of issues from the appraisal which clearly needed
addressing by Man-lo personally, including his style of
communication, his level of ‘presence’ and his perceived lack of
diplomacy.
Suzanne recognized the depth of Man-lo’s problem and recalled
that Mr. Wong, an experienced principal from another school
experienced and overcame similar problems when he took over a
new school several years ago. After talking Man-lo through how
she would approach the problems from her perspective, Suzanne
set up a dinner for Man-lo and herself with Mr. Wong to introduce
them and get Mr. Wong’s help in working through the problems.

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