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EARCOS Weekend Workshops: Leading Effective Teams for
New Middle Leaders
New Middle Leaders
Saturday & Sunday, November 1-2, 2025
The American School In Japan
This workshop includes a PeerSphere membership with four 60-minute online Peer Learning Community sessions to reinforce learning, address challenges, and reflect on leadership growth.
This is a Certificate Program.
18 Hours of Professional Development will be Awarded.
This course is tailored for New Middle Leaders, addressing the unique challenges of team leadership for those new to the role.
Participants will learn how to move beyond compliance and task-based leadership to focus on building relationships, accountability and collaboration that can lead to transformative outcomes.
Essential Question
How can I shift from managing tasks to building a collaborative and accountable team?
Over-Arching Goal
By the end of the workshop, participants will understand and have confidence to develop and foster strong relationships with and amongst team members, so that they can identify and pursue shared team goals.
Workshop Outcomes
During this learning experience you will learn and practice how to excel in the following aspects:
- Understand and appreciate different leadership expectations (transactional vs transformational
- Practice effective communication skills that develop trust, empathy, and mutual respect
- Gain awareness of self and others and how to manage the disparity.
- Learn how to craft a clear and compelling team goal (outcomes vs outputs)
- Learn strategies to build buy-in and ensure your team works interdependently to achieve its goal.
- Learn to give feedback and utilise accountability measures relative to the team goal.
The speaker will facilitate the workshop, meaning learning will be activated and reinforced through discussion and team planning,
so participants must come prepared to talk about their teams and experience.
Workshop
Preparation
The facilitator will survey each participant to understand their expectations, assess their familiarity with the proposed content and identify case material for activities.
Every participant will be given a copy of Michael Iannini’s online self-guided book study: Hidden in Plain Sight: Realizing the Full Potential of Middle Leaders, from which they will be assigned at least 2 chapters of reading assignments for each module.
Program Agenda
This program is divided into four (4) modules, 2 modules will be covered on each day:
Module 1
Team Leadership
This module will help you define your role as a leader, establish a shared vision for your team (in alignment with school vision), and create effective team norms to ensure your team is clear about its purpose and buys into the processes that will govern the team.
Essential Question: How do I effectively define my leadership role and create a shared vision that engages my team?
Learning Objectives
- Define leadership roles: Clearly articulate your role and responsibilities as a leader, distinguishing between transactional and transformational aspects of leadership.
- Establish a shared vision: Learn how to craft a compelling vision for the team that respects individuals, their experience and preferences, whilst fostering shared commitment among team members.
- Articulate Expectations for Team Engagement: Identify and draft team norms that promote open communication, trust and accountability, allowing for a supportive environment and clear expectations.
consultative communication skills to ensure clarity and overcome misunderstandings in team meetings?
Module 2
Meeting Facilitation
To be an effective team leader, it’s essential to master meeting facilitation skills, particularly the ability to use consultative communication to ensure clarity and prevent misunderstandings. By fostering open, clear dialogue, team leaders can guide discussions, encourage participation, and maintain focus on the team’s objectives. This course will teach participants how to apply consultative communication techniques to manage group dynamics, clarify complex issues, and create an environment where every team member feels heard and valued.
Effective meeting management is also crucial for team leaders. Leaders must not only reinforce the purpose of the team and clarify individual roles, but also hold team members accountable to established norms to ensure productive and respectful discussions. This includes addressing five difficult personalities that often surface in meetings and using consultative communication to guide interactions and maintain focus. By skillfully managing these dynamics, team leaders can keep meetings on track, foster collaboration, and ensure that every team member remains engaged and accountable.
Learning Objectives
- Develop the skills to facilitate meetings that promote clear, effective communication.
- Learn how to apply consultative communication techniques to navigate complex discussions and reduce misunderstandings.
- Understand how to manage group dynamics to ensure all voices are heard and valued.
Module 3
Leading to Influence Student Learning
As educators first, our role is to improve student learning so that our students are confident problem solvers and critical thinkers prepared to meaningfully contribute to the world around them. As a middle leader, you have incredible potential to influence student learning and shift teachers’ practice. This module focuses on the different ways leaders engage their team members in critical conversations that lead to actionable and measurable change. Participants will be introduced to strategies to surface and challenge their own assumptions, communication prompts to help them facilitate conversations, and protocols for improving student learning.
Essential Question: How can I lead in a way that improves teachers’ effectiveness and student learning?
Learning Objectives
- Develop consultative communication skills;
- Understand how assumptions develop and when gone untested undermine collaboration; and
- Demonstrate the ability to test assumptions and facilitate professional dialog that broadens perspective.
Essential Question: How do I align individual, team and school objectives into a transformative team goal, that my department has the capacity to achieve, and will improve student learning?
Module 4
Workshop Reflection – Establishing Your Professional Inquiry
Each team in a school has a different capacity for transformative collaboration. In this module participants will learn to assess their team’s capacity for working interdependently to achieve a shared goal. Participants will learn how to establish an effective team goal, in the form of an inquiry, that addresses the needs of each team member, the team and the school.
In this final reflective session, participants will revisit key takeaways and define a professional inquiry based on a challenge or opportunity within their current team context. This inquiry will guide their continued learning in the PLC.
Learning Objectives
- Evaluate your team’s current capacity for interdependent collaboration, identifying specific strengths and areas for growth.
- Develop a clear and purposeful professional inquiry that integrates individual, team, and school objectives into one transformative leadership goal.
- Formulate actionable steps that leverage your team’s capacity, ensuring your inquiry meaningfully impacts student learning and aligns with school priorities.
Continued Support and Development:
Peer Learning Community
The workshop is only the beginning. To support sustainable application and reflection, all participants will continue their learning through a PeerSphere Peer Learning Community (PLC), designed to deepen the strategies explored during the weekend workshop.
PLCs connect educators and school leaders in collaborative groups to discuss timely challenges, exchange ideas, and support one another’s professional growth. These communities are designed to foster genuine conversations, practical problem-solving, and a spirit of reciprocity, enabling members to tap into collective insights and experiences.
Session 1
November 20, 2025
16:30-17:30 (GMT+8)
Explore your professional inquiry with peers. Share initial experiences and gain feedback to refine your approach.
Session 2
January 22, 2026
16:30-17:30 (GMT+8)
Reflect on progress, revisit team dynamics, and develop strategies to sustain interdependent collaboration and communication
Session 3
March 5, 2026
16:30-17:30 (GMT+8)
Consolidate insights, identify what’s working, and prepare to carry forward your leadership growth into the next academic year.
Venue
The American School in Japan
Japan, 〒182-0031 Tokyo, Chofu, Nomizu, 1 Chome−１−1
+81 422-34-5300
Suggested Hotels
Kichijoji Tokyu REI Hotel
It takes about 30-50 min by car.
*Haneda-Kichijoji Airport Bus operates between Haneda and Kichijoji. (60 to 85 minutes)
Kichijoji Excel Hotel Tokyu
It takes about 30-50 min by car.
*Haneda-Kichijoji Airport Bus operates between Haneda and Kichijoji. (60 to 85 minutes)
Hotel METS Musashisakai
It takes about 15-20 min by car.
Register Now
Please email [email protected] if you have any questions.
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