T1. Know Your Team toolkit
Toolkit
Strong teams are built on understanding, trust, and purposeful support. Effective leaders take time to know their people well enough to deploy, coach, and recognise them effectively. Understanding what drives each colleague, what they find challenging, and how they prefer to work enables leaders to delegate wisely, plan development meaningfully, and build a culture of appreciation. Each one-page profile captures who a person is at their best. It is not an appraisal document but a living record of insights that helps leaders make better decisions, from daily deployment to long-term professional growth.
| Capture Strengths and Motivators |
| List each person’s strengths and the drivers that energise them. Consider what they enjoy most about their work, where they add the most value, and what makes them feel successful. |
| Clarify Needs and Stretch Areas |
| Record any areas where they need support or development, and note their current stretch goal. This helps you align opportunities and feedback with genuine growth priorities. |
| Include Personality or Strengths Insights |
| Some leaders utilise personality or strengths assessments to enhance understanding of how colleagues work most effectively. Tools such as MBTI, StrengthsFinder, or DiSC can provide useful insight into communication styles and work preferences. Capture any relevant findings or informal observations here to support better collaboration. |
| Plan for Growth and Leadership Development |
| Include details of career aspirations and potential next opportunities for leadership experience. This supports succession planning and ensures development discussions are grounded in each person’s goals. |
| Plan How to Support and Recognise |
| Identify the best ways to coach, encourage, and recognise each individual. Consider how they prefer to receive feedback and what gestures or words make them feel valued. |
| Review and Update Regularly |
| Revisit these one-pagers each term and use them in discussions about deployment, professional development, and recognition. They evolve as people grow, so treat them as living documents. |
| Reflection Prompts |
| What does each person need from me to do their best work? Who in my team could be stretched further or recognised more often? Where might I be assuming understanding rather than seeking it? How well do I align people’s roles and responsibilities with their strengths, aspirations, and growth needs? |
T1. Know Your Team: example toolkit
Role: Assistant Headteacher
| Capture Strengths and Motivators |
| I will create a one-page profile for each member of the Year 10 to 11 team, highlighting their top strengths and what energises them. I will capture this through coaching conversations at the start of the term, asking what they enjoy, what gives them pride, and what a good day looks like. I will deploy people intentionally so that their strengths align with mentoring, intervention, or curriculum projects. |
| Clarify Needs and Stretch Areas |
| Each profile will include one development need and one stretch goal for the year, both linked to our priorities. I will support and coach so that growth contributes to whole-school improvement. |
| Include Personality or Strengths Insights |
| I will run a short working styles reflection to understand preferences for structure, collaboration, and feedback. I will use these insights to pair colleagues and improve communication. |
| Plan for Growth and Leadership Development |
| I will ask each colleague to note next-step aspirations. Those with leadership potential will shadow an SLT member during a meeting or project. I will map potential successors for future roles. |
| Plan How to Support and Recognise |
| I will note preferred feedback and recognition styles and build weekly recognition into team meetings so everyone feels seen in a way that matters to them. |
| Review and Update Regularly |
| I will revisit profiles termly, update achievements and needs, and use them to plan deployment and CPD. I will review progress on stretch goals and offer further opportunities. |
| Reflection Prompts |
| By the year’s end, everyone should feel recognised for strengths, aligned to high-impact work, and supported to grow. Trust, cohesion, and engagement will rise, and our leadership pipeline will be clearer. |