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12 Leadership Development
There have been too many books and articles written on leadership for those who wish to learn to be leaders. This chapter focuses on how you might characterize and develop your leadership by building on your strengths, and explores some models judged to be of value. The National College for School Leadership (NCSL) is now developing many programmes for leaders with a supporting website at which much information about educational leadership can be accessed (www.ncsl.org.uk). In this chapter the approach is to explore alternatives and different approaches to what might become an NCSL orthodoxy. The four leadership myths presented by two members of the London Business School (Goffee and Jones, 2002) can be considered in the education context. Their argument has been adapted for schools. 1) Everyone can be a leader. Not true. Many senior staff do not have the selfknowledge or authenticity for leadership. Many highly talented people are not interested in being leaders. There is more to life than work and more to work than being a leader. 2) Leaders deliver business results. Not always. Some well-led schools do not necessarily produce short-term results. Some schools with successful results are not necessarily well led. If results were always a matter of good leadership the best strategy would be to seek people from schools with the best results. Things are not that easy. 3) People who get to the top are leaders. Not necessarily. A persistent misconception is that those in leadership positions are leaders. They may have made it to the top because of political acumen. Real leaders are found throughout the school. 4) Leaders are great coaches. Rarely. There appears to be an assumption that good leaders ought to be good coaches. This relies on the assumption that a person can both inspire and impart technical skills. It is possible that great leaders may be great coaches but this is only occasionally the case. Effective leadership is about inspiring and winning commitment. Leadership is more about personal authenticity and at times recognizing personal fundamental flaws which limit leadership capacity. Leaders need energy, a strong sense of direction and clear vision, but there are four more unexpected characteristics. 118
