SQH Course Five: 360 Degree Review

As many of you will know I am currently undertaking my Scottish Qualification for Headship (School Principle). I am now one the final ‘home run’ of the course. In Course One I had to conduct a 360 degree feedback exercise on how I met the some aspects of the Standard for Headship.

As I believe in sharing. I posted some of the detail of my Course One 360 analysis on-line back in June 2007. I’ll reflect back on this below.

As part of Course five, I have had to complete the same analysis – where possible I tried to use the same group of people (although this wasn’t completely possible – the majority were the same).

The maximum score you can get is 4 for any category. Here are my Course Five results:

• Is self aware and manages self effectively – 3
• Inspires and motivates other – 4
• Displays confidence and courage – 3.7
• Creates and maintains a positive atmosphere – 4
• Empathises and listens to others – 3.5
• Judges wisely and decides appropriately – 3.5
• Identifies and solves problems – 3.7
• Seeks and uses evidence and information – 3.7
• Thinks strategically, planning for the longer term – 3.5
• Communicates effectively in a range of settings – 3.8
• Builds effective relationships across the school community – 4
• Shows political insight in relation to the school, Local Authority and national context – 3.5

I am very pleased with the scores. However, the real value of this type of exercise is the comments that are left by the respondents. There are some fantastic re-assuring comments and some sound bits of advice.

Before I go on to compare the Course One feedback and the Course Five feedback. Let me first reflect on the Course Five feedback. By looking at the comments and the above scores my strengths are in ‘Inspiring and Motivating Others’, ‘Creating and Maintaining a Positive Atmosphere’ and ‘Building Effective Relationships Across the School Community’.

My main weakness is ‘self awareness and managing self effectively’. This is an interesting one. I think I am extremely self aware – I do take on a lot, I do a lot of other people’s jobs, I leave some (most) things until the last minute and stretch myself to thinly. I juggle far too many balls as a compromise to maximise progress within an education system that does not (and will not) meet the needs of 21^st Century Learners unless we take action. Some of these balls ‘I drop’ but most, I am very proud to say, I catch ‘just before’ they hit the ground. The children in my care (and trying to build their future) remain the most important thing to me – often at detriment to my personal life and family. I do have some priorities wrong, but I belive my heart and mind are in the right place.

Other sound bits of advice from my Course Five 360 that I will take on board include:

Listening – need to develop eye contact. This is fantastic point. My mind is always occupied with 101 things and I sometimes feel myself ‘drifting’ in and out of conversation. Don’t get me wrong – I think this is a good thing. Where staff are concerned, I am always ‘drifting’ to find solutions or looking for answers.

Innovation – Although I welcome new ideas. I must always listen to other peoples views.

Short term planning – must be less laid back!

 

Now let’s compare Course One to Course Five. I have displayed this information in the table below and colour coded if the score have gone up (green), stayed the same (amber) or gone down (red)

It’s interesting and heartening to look at the scores that have gone up or stayed the same. There is obviously still room for improvement (and continued reflection), even with the ‘4’ scores.

But what about the scores that have gone down? Well, the biggest drop is in, ‘self awareness and manages self effectively’. Interestingly, I brought this very issue up in my Staff Development and Review with my Headteacher in June 2008. I predicted I would go down in this category (how’s that for self- awareness!) but, joking aside, I also recognised some of my time management issues. Hopefully I have reflected on these above.

The other area I have gone down is ‘shows political insight in relation to school, local authority and national issues’. I really will reflect on this. I think I have an exceptional knowledge and have influenced both local authority and school contexts in relation to education?

 

One final point

The 360 review is the most powerful and most useful tool any teacher, manager or leader could use to reflect on their own performance. I would really encourage others to conduct their own exercise and also to share their results in a constructive way, as I hope I have done here?

Now I have no excuse but to get on with the final assignment!

Comments

[Bertie..]

Ollie, you might want to check out GTD, a personal productivity approach which helps you focus on getting things done, clearing your mind, and generally become more effective. I believe there are also iPhone GTD apps to play with too. There's also a GTD approach for schoolchildren that might appeal.

[Ollie Bray]

Hi Bertie - I use GTD already. Its just that the lists are very long! Hope you are well. OB

[jim mcdougall]

Ollie,

Given no one is perfect, your 360 reads pretty well. I'm not doing SQH, but I can identify with many of your comments. I think there is a bit of trade off between enthusiasm and efficiency and I wish I had more of the latter. But, I have been working hard at the GTD model, as referred to in previous post, and I do find the "43 Folders" approach to organising tasks a very helpful one. Just also remember, as one Head told me, "your family comes first" Good advice from one of the most effective school leaders I worked for. Have a good Christmas!

[Donald]

Hi Ollie, the first time I asked others to complete a 360 for me was when I was involved with SQH. I have to say I was quite anxious about the feedback but, in hindsight, it was one of the most useful exercises I have ever completed. I found out a lot about myself and what I needed to do to prepare for Headship. After a year as Head at Liberton I repeated the exercise and again got really constructive feedback from staff. I am very impressed and inspired by your transparency and courage in sharing your thoughts on your 360 analysis with others!