Empowering Future Leaders: Guest Speaking for the IES Leadership Course

Melissa Nilsson

Jan 5

2 min read

Updated: May 16

Recently, I was invited by the Head Office for our schools to be a guest speaker for their internal leadership course for Assistant Principal and Principal candidates from across all of our schools in Sweden.

Having never been an assistant principal or principal myself, I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the invitation. I was asked to speak on my journey in academic leadership throughout the years as I've worn many leadership "hats" including Head of Department for English and Academic Manager for my school, and Subject Facilitator for English and Bilingualism for the company as a whole.

Having had the pleasure of running professional development before, I felt that even though I had never been a principal, I knew what my audience of professionals wanted to know: what I learned through my experience that would be applicable to them as leaders, and also what initiatives and routines our school has developed during my time as a leader which made us so successful on our recent evaluations by the Swedish School Inspectorate.

Of course, what they don't always tell you about professional development is that you as the presenter also get so much back! Especially after my lecture portion was done, I had the opportunity to not only answer questions but pass ideas back and forth with a group of very knowledgeable and experienced teachers and leaders. I left with my own notes of where I might be able to further streamline our routines, and other ways to think about different challenges that we face at our school. Most of all though, I was really struck by how fortunate I've been to be fostered and given opportunities from my school. All of the knowledge and experience I have gained has only been possible through the support of countless mentors during my time at IES Borås, and I am so grateful.