Developing early leaders and gaining ‘accelerated’ experience

I went into John Muir House yesterday to meet with Don Ledingham to discuss how as a school / authority we could develop early leadership. Don had blogged about this recently and I have come across a number of examples in the last couple of months at Musselburgh. Members of staff, who are excellent classroom practitioners, contribute a huge amount to the life of the school but are unable to get a promotion. Some even unable to get an interview. One of the reasons for this is good competitons and only a limited amount of jobs but I do believe that as a school we should be able to offer enthusiastic future leaders some sort of ‘accelerated’ experience.

In my own career. I was lucky to be able to fill an acting Principal Teacher role at the start of my third year of teaching. This eventually led to an acting a faculty head position before it was made permanent. I then sidestepped back to a PT subject before carrying out my current acting depute head role. When you think about it I have spent a lot of my career ‘acting up’ and I have been very lucky to be ‘in the right place at the right time’.

However combined with this luck I was also very fortunate to work under a number of supportive Principal Teachers, Depute Head Teachers and Head Teachers who really mentored me and encouraged me to be involved in whole school and national projects. I was also encouraged by my university tutor to remain involved in ITE and keep an active research interest.

It is because of these experiences (and some fairly long hours!) that I have been able to gain what I describe as some ‘accelerated’ education experience.

The challenge for me now is how can I replicate some of the experiences that I have had to allow enthusiastic teachers who are perhaps prepared to give up some of their time to gain some of this ‘accelerated experience’?

Initially I had an idea in my head that we could offer teachers some sort of leadership development programme. Perhaps over a number of years which may eventually lead to some sort of formal or at least internal qualification. I still think we should still look to do this but this is going to need a lot more thought and consideration. We would also need to consider how we might fund such a programme.

Over the course of my conversation with Don we discussed a number of ideas and possibilities. Ranging from work experience, funding, formal reviews, SDR’s, coaching, the leaders of learning network and the role of mentors.

One thing that we are going to do at the start of next session is put out an open invite to teachers who are currently in non-promoted positions and ask anyone to attend who might be interested in developing leadership / early leadership skills. We will then hold six open meetings on a cluster-by-cluster basis to get an idea of the sort of support that people might be interested in.

Then I guess we will take it from there, but hopfully this may lead to the start of the leaders for learning network.

Comments

[Ian Stuart]

Surely for some form of distributive Leadership to work then the individuals within the organisation must realise that they can have an idea and then have the lead in developing that idea/project?
Rather than a Leadership role being given from above the concept of 'Leadership' becomes about ownership within the community. The strategic direction and Management for the community comes from above but the drive comes from grassroots. At least if it wants to be truly effective.
Therefore we need to see a difference between Leadership and Management. To quote my Headie, 'Headship is fixed, Leadership is fluid'

I would challenge the idea that Leadership is given from above. Classroom Leadership, by Staff or Pupils, is a vital part of a dynamic community.
Have you read the 'Leadership for Learning' Report from HMIe?
http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/lflcltc.pdf

[Victoria]

I am very interested in following your progress with this one Ollie. Do you envisage being able to open this out beyond East Lothian?

I would be keen to take part and I am sure there are many more young, talented and hard-working individuals trying to get on the management ladder.

Here is a quote that may interest you:
"Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right thing"

[Jackie Cameron]

The Columba 1400 Leadership centre in Skye's code of leadership is - awareness, focus, creativity, integrity, perseverance and service.I like the idea of understanding your own leadership skills and then focusing on their development ( with a group of like minded colleagues). It will be interesting to follow your progress! In addition this looks like an ideal opportunity to use your coaching skills, Ollie.

[Don ledingham]

Ian

I'm sorry if we've given the impression that this is to be a top down - gifting of leadership concept. Nothing could be further from our minds. It's just that we want to create an environment in all of our schools where leadership is shared and where people have a real opportunity to take on such roles - both within and beyond the school.

The reality for many teachers is that it very much depends on the management culture which exists in their school - you seem to be blessed with an outstanding leader - but what might you be saying to this idea if this were not the case?

[Ian Stuart]

I appreciate that the culture you are developing is of an inclusive nature.
Its a personal bee in my bonnet (and I really don't suit bonnets) that Leadership is mixed up with Management. They are different things.
Most of what Ollie described as Leadership development was, in fact, Management experience.
I have come to this conclusion long before my present leader or even long before entering teaching. I was a director of an SME in the industrial sector. I was based in London. I have seen all sort of Leaders and Managers. Some of the best Leaders were amongst those with no management power but who mentored and supportted those around them to perform to their best. The potential of this model, which I know you are developing, has few boundries in Education.
I am sorry if you felt my words came across as harsh. They were not meant to be but I do feel it is important to clarify a distinction

[Bill Stephen]

Ollie, interesting post and also comments. Leadership and management are often hard to separate from a job description or role and I feel we often expect managers to naturally have good leadership skills – clearly this isn’t the case i.e. the Peter Principle is one example.
I do agree that much leadership in working groups (as opposed to teams, there is a huge difference between the two- see Katzenbach and Smith, The Wisdom of Teams) often comes from the subordinates who have to motivate and create on a daily basis with the manager overseeing this. I think it easy to confuse the roles. So I guess my question is are you talking about developing leaders or managers?

Charles Handy noted that” leadership is an innate characteristic” (Understanding Organisations 4th ed.(1999) . You also may have to be careful that we are not encouraging “Bipod” as opposed to”Tripod” (Mant 1984) leaders to emerge. i.e. those chasing leadership roles for personal survival or acclaim and success as opposed to those who are building and prepared to take risks to achieve a vision. A lot of purposeful leadership can be done within any organisation without having the role of leader in the spotlight and I guess how we set up systems and working practice needs to take this into account. I think that Don’s Blog mentioned something on inner leadership on a previous post?