It seems like the obvious thing to do. The NQT is clearly struggling with the demands of preparing a unit of work for your whole-department planning. As her line manager, you want to alleviate that stress. So you do the most helpful thing you can think of: you offer to take over and finish the unit, freeing the NQT up to concentrate on her own work.

Whether you are a senior leader or a middle leader, it can be difficult to know how to deal with the problems that people you line-manage encounter. Often, simply taking the problem away seems like the best solution; even if it adds to your own workload, fixing something yourself can cause fewer headaches in the short term. But taking the problem away may ultimately cause more harm than good. Even with the best intentions, intervening and moving the issue to somebody else - or taking it on yourself - deskills the teacher in question and adds to other people’s workloads.

A good example is a situation in which a teacher is struggling with a class. The teacher is unhappy, the class is unhappy. What’s the quickest fix? Swapping the teacher.

But doing this doesn’t allow the teacher who is struggling to develop professionally. And that is a problem because if the same situation happens again, that teacher won’t have had an opportunity to overcome the issue and you will wind up dealing with it as a leader, over and over again.

While we might feel that people want a “hero” leader - someone they can look up to and rely on to swoop in and save the day when things get tough - it is often not the most effective and efficient way to lead. The “I’ll just do it myself” approach to leadership just isn’t sustainable. You will quickly be overwhelmed if you’re continually taking on other people’s problems.

So, what should you be doing instead? Here are some alternatives.

1. Provide coaching for all

Effective coaching is a good way to help individuals to build their confidence. We invest a lot of time into coaching when it comes to early career teachers, but we tend to reduce that support as a teacher progresses. However, it is important that we continue to make time for high-quality discussion and support, no matter what stage a teacher is at in their career.

Investing in high-quality CPD is another way to empower teachers to overcome issues they face in the classroom. Very few courses will hold all of the answers, but the opportunity to learn something new, network with others (albeit online at the moment) and engage with different approaches can reinvigorate a teacher. It doesn’t need to be an external CPD session - having a responsive department or whole-school CPD schedule will help to disseminate good practice and may even pre-empt problems before they arise.

2. Allow for ongoing support

Support isn’t something that should just be given in a crisis. If an individual is experiencing an issue with their teaching or workload, those issues won’t disappear with one coaching session. Support needs to be sustained, frequent and scheduled.

Reflection time must also be built into that support. The thought of looking at what you did and evaluating how it went can be daunting, but this process is often at the root of teachers’ understanding of the issues they face, as well as helping them to see how they can fix them themselves.

Setting time aside to reflect is of paramount importance in teaching. But so often, when we are at capacity, this is the first thing to go.

3. Make interventions less invasive

If you do need to step in and help out a colleague, you should always start with the least invasive tactics. Providing very public support in lessons or in front of students can create embarrassment for the teacher, as can offering to take a task away from them entirely.

Instead, start by offering to help with a small part of the issue: could you look in on that teacher with a particular class more often? Could you divide a task up between you?

Always be tentative and considerate, and make sure that you ask the member of staff what they feel would be the most helpful way for you to offer support.

4. Encourage collective efficacy

Education researcher John Hattie put forward the idea that the collective belief of teachers in their ability to positively affect their students (otherwise known as “collective teacher efficacy”) correlates strongly with student achievement. However, I would go even further and suggest that collective teacher efficacy is also a powerful tool in supporting members of staff to overcome the problems that they face.

Collective buy-in can be incredibly powerful in a school environment. It ensures that no teacher feels that they are in a situation alone. Instead, it instils a sense of inclusion and support from their peers. With that in mind, take the time to build your team as a team and don’t just let them plod along as a group of individuals.

5. Know your staff

There is a level of responsibility you have as a leader to inspire your team, but this doesn’t mean trying to be a hero. It starts with being able to empathise with each individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Some problems don’t require advice, just understanding.

Leaders must look for long-term solutions to managing teachers’ problems. These may be more time-consuming in the short term, but they will account for more sustainable leadership. That means leaders should prioritise building self-efficacy in staff when something isn’t going right.

Adam Riches is an assistant principal and senior leader for teaching and learning

This article originally appeared in the 4 December 2020 issue under the headline “Don’t be a hero - let the teachers save themselves”