10: Shaping Tomorrow's Leaders with Kelvin Bennetts - Part 1

Imagine a world where every workplace equips people to thrive. 

When I first met Kelvin I thought " if every school did this, my dream of eliminating workplace toxicity would be a reality".

This is part 1 of a 2 part conversation, where we dive into what it takes to create leaders who believe in themselves, are resilient, adaptable and have the courage to stand up for what they believe in, without waiting for permission.

Kelvin Bennetts, a transformative leader in education, shares his remarkable journey of over four decades, bringing community, connection, resilience and engagement to the forefront of the classroom experience. Discover how his personal experiences of disengagement fueled his passion for nurturing learning environments that prioritise students' needs. As someone who has committed to shaping the leaders of tomorrow, the insights shared extend beyond education, highlighting the importance of authentic leadership and the significance of fostering supportive spaces for growth in any organisation or group that we lead.

Want to connect with Kelvin? Send him an email kelvinbennetts52@gmail.com

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I am a Confidence and Success Coach for leaders, Organisational Development Consultant and independent Leadership Circle Profile® Certified Practitioner. Information shared about this tool is courtesy of Leadership Circle®, all rights reserved. www.leadershipcircle.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Thriving Workplaces With Kelvin Bennett
• 13:25 Empowering Future Leaders Through Education
• 27:12 Key Elements of Effective Leadership

Transcript

Jolynne Rydz: 0:36

Imagine a world where every workplace equips people to thrive. Why I do what I do is because I truly believe that every person deserves, at work, as a bare minimum, to be treated like a human, with respect, not a number, not a commodity. And the best workplaces that I've come across are places that are free from toxicity and they're places where you can come in as you and thrive. And this is why I work to equip leaders in organizations with the awareness and tools to make this happen and also to build resilience and healing for times when it doesn't. And when I first met this guest, I actually thought to myself if every organisation did what they do, my dream of eliminating workplace toxicity could become a reality. Just a quick note before we dive into today's episode. The insights shared by our next guest reflect their own views and are not connected to the Department of Education. Like all of our amazing guests, they're here simply because they share our passion for helping leaders amplify their impact authentically, and they're not receiving any payments, so just bringing their expertise and insights to support you on this journey as a leader.

Jolynne Rydz: 1:59

Today, I'm thrilled to introduce a guest who has dedicated over 40 years to shaping minds and communities in Victoria's education system, Kelvin Bennetts. Beginning in special education and moving through various roles, kelvin spent the last 25 years at Yarrambat Primary School, where he served as assistant principal and then as principal for 18 years. His vision for nurturing a dynamic school culture has empowered students, teachers and also the broader community to thrive. From enhancing facilities to creating vibrant playgrounds and embedding wellbeing initiatives, kelvin has truly left his mark Outside of education. Kelvin's passion for community really shines through in his years of coaching football and basketball, from youth leagues to senior teams. And when he's not coaching, you'll also find him gardening or working with his Sidchrome tool collection or enjoying time with his wife, christine.

Jolynne Rydz: 3:07

So I invited Kelvin Bennetts onto this podcast because he is more than an educator. He's a builder of both people and places, deeply committed to his community and the people around him, and that's so important in leadership. His journey is a wonderful example of magnetic authenticity. Leadership His journey is a wonderful example of magnetic authenticity just living and leading with a genuine passion that draws others in and inspires them to be a part of it, and inspires them to grow. So Kelvin's work has not only shaped the lives of students, but has also created a ripple effect throughout the community and it shows us the true power of leading with authenticity and purpose. So let's dive in to today's episode. Hi Kelvin, welcome into the podcast. So happy to have you here.

Kelvin Bennetts: 3:53

Thanks, Jolynne, it's grouse to be here, lovely to talk to you.

Jolynne Rydz: 3:58

I know I'll just share with our listeners that we're laughing because this is our third attempt to record this podcast and the technology universe is, I think, on our side today, so we'll fingers crossed and see how we go.

Kelvin Bennetts: 4:12

Hopefully.

Jolynne Rydz: 4:14

So firstly, I would like to start by saying a big congratulations on your retirement, because it's a big life transition and I know for a lot of the clients that I see. People are often going through life transitions, whether that's a returning to paid work after having a child, or whether that's getting to a plateau in their career and wanting to take things to the next level or, in your case, retiring after a really fulfilling career. I'm curious to know how does it feel? What's going on for you right now?

Kelvin Bennetts: 4:49

Well, it's really different, I've got to say, because you go from being the centre of attention to not being the centre of attention, and I don't mean that in a smug way. When you're a principal of a school or a leader in business or something anything like that, you're involved in so many decisions across a day and so many things that you have to be over and you micromanage some things and macromanage others and literally every decision is running through you and you suddenly stop and that all stopped on that first Monday and I thought to myself wow, this is really quiet and it's a little while to adjust to that. But no, my family has kept me busy and Mabel's kept me busy, but the reality is that I'd reached a stage where I'd had enough of it. The great times that it was didn't counterbalance the things that were starting to get under my skin or starting to be really drawing and wearing on you, and that just happens. There comes a time when enough's enough, and I guess I'd reach that.

Jolynne Rydz: 6:02

Yeah and. I admire your ability to recognise that and then step away, because I think there's a lot of people that get stuck in jobs which isn't fulfilling and where the negatives are outweighing the positives and maybe feeling like they can't take whatever that next step might be. So, yeah, well done.

Kelvin Bennetts: 6:19

Both Christine and I had thought about that for a long time. It wasn't something that we just decided, and we'd worked towards being able to have that ability to say well, I'm at that stage now and, to be honest, I said Christine my wife, when I was first appointed I could do this job for 10 years and I did it for 18. Yes, so I figured that close enough to 10 years.

Jolynne Rydz: 6:46

Yeah, that's incredible. So I am curious to know what kept you so engaged in the education field for that long.

Kelvin Bennetts: 6:55

Look, it was driven out of myself being relatively bored and disengaged at school and trying to make sure that kids didn't feel the same way. While I had the opportunity to lead and it gave me I had the opportunity to follow some passions. It's really important that you have a passion, and one of those was really constructing an environment where children came first and you were just trying to get all the structural things in place, and I guess that in an, in essence, we'd sort of managed to get to that stage. We were then just doing some fine tuning really towards the end of it, but you know, we'd looked at the way we were teaching the, the facilities within the rooms, the facilities outside the rooms, the quality of your staff, the mentoring and guiding of your staff all of those things that take time, and they weren't something that they were achieved overnight.

Kelvin Bennetts: 7:56

Some of the, the lofty ambitions we had, took seven years to even implement. So you, you're driven by that passion, but you've got to have that vision of why we're doing it, because there's no point if you're the only person that believes in what you're doing, and I actually learned that at another school that I was the only person that really drove that vision and when I left it fell apart. So my determination was that at Yarrambat that wouldn't be the case. We'd have a group of people who'd bought into that vision, who believed in that vision, who'd helped formulate and implement that vision, and once you do that in your team, it'll be more long-lasting and implement that vision, and once you do that in your team, it'll be more long.

Jolynne Rydz: 8:44

Lasting. Yeah, and I love that, because there's so many organizations and leaders that want to bring their vision in, and either they might be struggling to bring people along with them, and what I've seen you do really well is actually, yeah, inspire people to come on that journey with you. Are you able to unpack what it is? You do?

Kelvin Bennetts: 9:01

that that helps people to buy into that vision to be honest, I guess it really just revolved around the the tour. Uh, for a start, because people and rightly so parents were shopping around for where they felt that they could be. They would feel comfortable to leave their children for seven years, but for families that might have two or three children it might be a 15-year decision. You have to be strong in your feelings about being comfortable and trusting where you're putting a child for that time, and I did the same as a parent, so those sort of things. Looking at it as a dad drove what I would say or show on a tour. So really, what we'd be talking about was just what we were trying to do. We'd be talking about, you know, not only do we want kids to be academically strong, but we also wanted them to be socially and emotionally strong. And one of the key things I think that was shown on a tour or two of the key things were the pit and also the importance of having that passion. Because when you follow a passion, whatever it is, if you're four years old, that'll chop and change a lot. If you're my age, you're probably more stuck to it when you're following it, that's when you're at impassioned about let's get into it, and I think one of the things I used to just use it as an example was that four or five year old or uh, about that age that loved dinosaurs. And how dare you? If you mispronounced the dinosaur's name, you were the it's not how you say it um, and you'd be told off. But really that's passion. It's not rudeness or anything like that. It's just somebody's passion about that, that thing that they love talking about. And so they were the, the key things that we talk about, and how we were incremental in what we did.

Kelvin Bennetts: 11:01

We we wanted to bring our children in in preps, but really what we're trying to do was build some big picture things for them. So we'd be talking about making them as smart as possible. We'd be talking about giving them an ability to make safe choices. We'd be giving them the ability to be able to work in a variety of ways by themselves, all the way into a group of 100. We would teach them how to lead. We would teach them how to use technology but not rely on it. We're a good example of that at the minute. We're 100% relying on this technology right now, even though it's failed us a couple of times already. And then we're also teaching kids how to understand other people, that there are people in this world that you will not like, and that's okay. That's the real world. But if you don't like somebody, you just have to acknowledge that and then try to be respectful. Moving on from that.

Jolynne Rydz: 12:05

And there's so much in there that you're so passionate about that you've built over these years. I really want to come back to that community, because in organizations often we're trying to foster engagement and we're trying to tap into people's passions so they can thrive at work. And you mentioned a situation where you were the only one sort of leading it and it fell apart when you left. When, when was a situation where you really went, wow, okay, that's the power of the community and bringing everyone along? Was there a situation that really kind of hammered that home for you?

Kelvin Bennetts: 12:44

I think that it really started to show itself quite strongly when I first came to Yarrambat and the difference that really, when I first arrived at Yarrambat, civilisation ended at Ironbark Road, lorimer and all the places out there just didn't exist. They only had cows out there on paddocks and really it was like a small country school and I thought, well, this feels really different, because people were actually immersed into their school and the school was a central hub, almost like a smaller township and the. The thing that really showed me about that community buying and care was something that we did for a little while and that was celebrate the school's birthday and everybody get a cake. We'd often ask our parents to just bake some cakes that had brown or gold on the top. They're the school colours. I didn't choose those, I inherited those. At one stage, a dad came up to me and he said look, kelvin, I don't get a chance to do much for the school, but I'd like to because I think we're doing some really good things. And he said instead of asking the community to bake the cakes, he said I'll just buy the cakes. And I said to him are you sure about that? And he said yeah, look, just tell me how many I need. And sure enough, all these cakes arrived for the school's birthday party and I started to realise then that that's something a little bit different and a little bit special about bringing your community into the school and recognising that people do want to help, often don't know how to, but if you open the doors and give that opportunity, they often will.

Kelvin Bennetts: 14:37

And I guess that continued to evolve the longer we went there and it evolved to that kind of family support program that we ran at the school. We did a lot of work with our local community during um COVID and supporting families, but the reality was that there were a whole string of families behind that who were supporting providing food and and shopping vouchers and things like that that you. They didn't want acknowledgement, but felt that they were doing something that would be valued and actually helpful to their whole community, and that was something that we'd been trying to bring home to our children about that. You don't wait to help. If you see something, step up and do it now. If there's paper on the ground, pick it up. Don't wait to be asked. If someone looks lost in the yard, ask them. Can you help them? That sort of thing and that started to then generate that whole front foot idea about being there to help and not being afraid to ask an offer and it's okay if someone says no, I'm all good and you think, okay, that's fine, but you've made the. You've made that first effort.

Kelvin Bennetts: 15:56

And often we found with kids that it was really that first time. If they would try something, they realized that it wasn't so scary to try and it was kind of building off that that we started to really push our kids to be more ambitious. That went through to things like the Grade 6 Leadership Program, where we stopped giving badges and things like that to wear and started giving them something more innate and we'd always say to them that we're giving you two things, you two things. You just can't see them, and that's trust and respect.

Kelvin Bennetts: 16:33

And it was really surprising when kids got that level of trust to be able to do things and and you'd say, well, you don't need me to hold your hand to do that, I trust you to do it. And you could see them sort of huffay at the chest a bit and say, hey, finally somebody believes in me. And that was something that was missing, I guess, for me in primary school that you didn't do anything without ever asking or being told. You were very subservient, you were very don't be a lateral thinker. Think within the group, think in the same way, and what we were producing were a whole lot of people who were thinking the same and doing the same, whereas we wanted to produce children who were individualised in their thinking, understood their own abilities and were prepared to set and chase some lofty goals.

Jolynne Rydz: 17:32

Basically, yeah, and there's again so much in that that I really appreciate, because there's a lot of research out there, isn't there? About people having that external reward being less motivating than that intrinsic reward of oh wow, I've you know, someone trusts me and they believe in me and I've done a great job and I can decide that for myself, and that's so empowering and inspiring to see that being done in schools. And where do you think this sense of being able to think laterally, being able to just jump in and do things without permission and having that trust and respect, how do you think that can impact, I guess, our future? So these are going to be our future leaders. How do you think this is going to impact our society?

Kelvin Bennetts: 18:21

What I would hope is that we're building kids who are resilient, able to cope with disappointment, able to cope with disappointment, able to cope with challenge, able to cope with the changing circumstances, whatever they might be. And that's what we're going to need, because we need people who are going to be actually lateral thinkers and forward thinkers rather than not just thinking in the past. I mean, I'm not sure how to that, but we want to pay respect to history and learn from it and not make the same mistakes. But we want to be better as we go forward, and the only way we're going to do that is if we're building our kids who can be more resilient, who just don't fold under the first moment of pressure. I've got a sport coaching background as well and surprisingly and I say this a little tongue-in-cheek those people that work harder and work on their skills more might not be as talented as the natural gifted person player, but in the end, will be better because they'll work for the team and they'll understand their strengths and skills.

Kelvin Bennetts: 19:38

It's important to be able to, I think, as a leader, understand that you're not perfect. You have a lot to learn. I mean, even on my last day, I was still learning things and still continue to learn. I mean, even on my last day I was still learning things and still continue to learn things. I was never one to say that, oh well, I know it all. Just listen to me, because that's not my personality, but it's also not my belief. You can't fake some things and say, well, I know it all, stay cool, it'll all be fine. When it's not, you have to sometimes roll with the punches a little bit and understand that things will go awry and you have to be able to cope with those those things.

Kelvin Bennetts: 20:18

And one of the things I'd work with the grades six leaders particularly was about having a plan a, b and c so that you knew that you know things might just go perfectly and you don't have to do anything. But what is more likely is that something just go perfectly and you don't have to do anything. But what is more likely is that something will come along and you need to be ready for it. It would be the same when I was mentoring teachers. If you were going to go into conversations with people, you need a plan A and a B. A is where everybody just nods yes and say that's perfect, let's go, and B is where somebody says, hang on, that doesn't suit me, that's let's go. And B is where somebody says, hang on, that doesn't suit me, that's not okay. Here's why, and you need to be able to work through that sort of stuff.

Kelvin Bennetts: 20:58

So there's an awful lot in there and it's yet to be seen whether we're successful with that. And we're unlikely to know that because we don't track that with any sort of data. The only data we've got is that we see a lot of our kids that end up as leaders in secondary school. And so, through that point of pressure where there's a lot of peer pressure on you to dumb down and to fit in and not stand out, if you've got the guts to be putting your hand up to lead, I'm saying and thinking to myself that we've had success there because you're saying, hey, I'm not going to be beaten down by the crowd and I'm not going to dumb myself down and I'm not going to shush myself up. I'm going to speak my mind, I've got my reasons why, I'm prepared to put them out there and I'm prepared to endure a little bit of peer pressure on me about that. So that's what we'd see. Yeah, I've had to see.

Jolynne Rydz: 21:55

And I've actually got tingles as you're speaking, because if these young maybe young adults almost stepping out there into these leadership roles are doing so from a place of service, from a place of, I've got an idea and I think we can do things better. Rather than I want the badge on my T-shirt that says I'm the leader. I think that's so powerful and it's so needed. So thank you for all the work you've done in that space.

Kelvin Bennetts: 22:23

Hopefully it builds some people who take leadership roles in our community and they might be major roles, they might be minor roles, but they're all important because the more people you've got with that attitude, the better your community is going to be. That service to community, that idea that as a team we can always be better, Surely that's got to be a better place to live.

Jolynne Rydz: 22:50

Definitely and with your team. So you obviously led a team of incredible educators who still are incredible. Team. So you obviously led a team of incredible educators who still are incredible. And how did you get them to also focus on the concept of putting the child first and that environment of them coming first? How do you bring people along on that journey and make sure that it stays that way even when you you leave?

Kelvin Bennetts: 23:16

well, that's. That's a really interesting point, because we were doing some work in that field before we let it loose on the rest of the school, and it starts with finding the right people. To me, a brilliant teacher, a brilliant musician, a brilliant doctor, it doesn't matter what it's, it's one of their passions and that's they're doing it because they want to do it rather than they're doing it because, well, I'll get paid tomorrow and there's a holiday at Christmas. That's the first step. And then we started to look at as a team are we open to having others look at what we do? And that was an important step for us because we needed to get past that insular. I closed my classroom door feeling and no one's going to know what I really do to being an open team member and open to feedback, open to mentoring, open to sharing, and so we were working in that field quite a lot, and once I was appointed to Yarram Bat, we actually started to experience some really rapid growth, and what that allowed me to do was to build the team because I could start employing more people. There were some people that needed to be moved on and that might sound harsh, but that's a reality that there are truly some people in every field who shouldn't be teaching, who shouldn't be a doctor, who shouldn't be a bricklayer, and so we dealt with that as well. And now they were very hard and tough yards, but needed to be. That needed to happen.

Kelvin Bennetts: 24:54

Then we started to build our team and then, because you're bringing in a whole lot of new people who are open to that belief, who are open to learning, who are open to coaching, we were able to tackle some of the really tough things that needed to be done at the school, and one was engagement and boys education and getting our teaching right so that kids weren't bored or kids weren't misbehaving. More often than not, kids misbehaving class because they're absolutely disengaged by whatever's being presented up the front. And if that's the way you're teaching you're presenting up the front with a worksheet I can guarantee you now that kids will be disengaged really quickly. And so we tackled all of that sort of stuff. And so we tackled all of that sort of stuff.

Kelvin Bennetts: 25:39

And then, the moment I was actually appointed as the principal because I acted for six months before being appointed, so that was during that six months a lot of that work was being done. Once I was appointed, I said, we are also going to become experts and the two fields that I think are critical for us to become experts in our literacy and what we called inquiry learning, which really evolved into that passion project work and so we spent a lot of time bringing in people and coaching and employing the right staff and getting the right programs in place. We made a lot of significant structural decisions about having smaller prep classes and setting our kids up with different things to make sure that they had a strong future, rather than they get into grade six and they're still two years behind. And now what do you do and what's their future really look like?

Jolynne Rydz: 26:36

Yeah, and I love the forethought that went into. You know, let's address it now, when it's easier to address, rather than waiting for it to later. And so how does that contrast with your concept of the pit? So you talked already about resilience and adaptability and how you actually help kids through that. Could you explain a little bit more about that concept? Are you a little bit like me, trying to multitask while you do this podcast? I know sometimes we fit these things into our day, so I thought I'd split this into two episodes for you.

Jolynne Rydz: 27:13

And wow, so far, there's so much in this that is applicable to any workplace. So far, there's so much in this that is applicable to any workplace that importance of recruitment and getting the right people on board that are going to back your vision, that are going to still be open and contributing to that and also be coachable, and how critical that is to getting that vision implemented across the board. Another thing that I loved about the conversation so far is how, when you bring trust and respect, people lift. Yeah, that doesn't just apply to kids, it applies to any human being. If they feel trusted and respected, they are going to be so much more equipped and enabled to do their job well, because they're not dealing with self-doubt and wondering where they stand or wondering if they're doing the right job. They can just go do it and know that they'll be valued for that.

Jolynne Rydz: 28:06

And then the third thing I would love to reflect on is the importance of passion and that when you can tap into people's passion, it just becomes easy and people get excited and people come along with you and it's such. I think an underrated key in leadership is how to tap into people's passion. So I'm so glad that that came out in the conversation so far and hopefully I've had a little fun and left a little cliffhanger for you. So let's dive into part two, which is up, already available for you. So if you want to keep listening, head on over to part two now.