ENTREPRENEUR
breaths if you start to feel anxious. These are simple approaches but popular for a reason they can work. Listen Your pupil or your employee might not know the answer to an equation or a business conundrum, but they have the right to their opinion - and by taking the time to listen to it and discuss it, you are giving them respect. We all need to know our thoughts are worthy, even if they are not 100% the right answer to the problem at hand: only by being able to voice them and discuss them, will we have the confidence to have more ideas - and next time, the idea could be the right one at the right time. Enthuse This doesn’t mean we need to be all singing all dancing cheerleaders to others. But we need to enthuse and give credit for getting things right. It’s the old carrot and stick analogy: everyone performs better with a carrot, and the best carrot in my opinion, is praise. Public praise. Telling someone they have done well is great - telling others they have done well is even better. What a way to lift each other. Be consistent All of the above needs to be consistent. While this year has thrown more pressure upon all of us, it’s imperative that we don’t let that pressure impact on our work. That’s not to say we shouldn’t talk about pressure or take time to recognise its impact: quite the opposite. We should talk about it, and deal with it, so that it doesn’t affect the way we deal with each other. Being consistently calm, listening and praising can still be done. Having started with just an idea eight years ago, I’ve now grown my tutor organisation to place hundreds of tutors in primary and secondary schools for full year placements, meaning almost 1m younger learners have benefitted
from individual attention, additional support, raised grades and renewed confidence. A good teacher believes in their students’ abilities and is able to recognise and draw out a young person’s strengths. Good managers will do the same for their team - someone else demonstrating confidence in you is the biggest confidence boost you can have, after all.
About the Author: Anne Morris is a former Maths teacher. She founded Yipiyap which provides peer tutors to schools all over the UK. Created in the northwest in 2012, the organisation harnesses the talent of high-achieving school leavers and following a thorough interview process, places them with schools for their gap year.