Are you ready for school leadership?

Are you ready for

SCHOOL LEADERSHIP?

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So, you are thinking of a career in school leadership? Here are five questions to answer and think about before taking the leap.

Over the years as deputy principal and principal, I have worked closely with many aspirant leaders and have facilitated conferences and seminars designed to encourage teachers thinking about their leadership aspirations. During this time, there has been consistency in some of the questions. Below are the questions most often asked and need to be clarified for the aspirant before ‘making the leap’.

How do I know that I could be a good and effective leader?

Developing leadership is a personal journey about self-awareness and requires the ability to self-reflect and commit to self-improvement. It is not a professional journey, and many would-be leaders often forget about the personal dimension of leadership. Senior leaders need to understand their effect on others. We are familiar with the quote that says: ‘The people who follow you will not remember what you say or do, but they will remember how you make them feel.’ If, as a leader, you can facilitate well the work of others in the organisation, so they know what they have to do, have clarity about the purpose and the impact of their work, and feel safe in the relationship, then people are usually happy with their leadership. While it is important to study further and to be involved in building the school and seizing every opportunity to grow as an educator, it is also important to work on oneself. I have met many leaders and managers who have the best qualifications for the role, but their mindset and their interpersonal skills are not fully developed. They have no understanding of how both affect their colleagues and their productivity.

How should I be preparing for my next leadership role?

Peter Gronn (1999) describes four stages in career development in leadership as the following: • Formation

• Accession

• Incumbency • Divestiture

Aspirants are in the accession phase. Gronn (1999) refers to this as the ‘anticipation’ phase, where aspirants rehearse or test their personal capacity to lead by comparing with existing leaders or prospective ‘rivals for advancement’. What assists aspirants here is an unblemished career to date. For example, are they a credible teacher, willing to go the extra mile, outward looking, solution focused, and supportive of colleagues and management? This, however, is only one part of the equation. Other attributes are important—an open mindset, how well they work with others and how flexible they are. Patrick Lencioni, in his fable The Ideal Team Player (2016), believes great leaders and team members must pay attention to three virtues. He writes: ‘For organisations seriously committed to making team-work a cultural reality, I’m convinced that the "right people" are the ones who have those three virtues in common—humility, hunger and people smarts' (2016, p. 155). Hungry people are those who are motivated and hard working. They are always looking for more work, to learn more, and to take on more responsibility in order to learn more. Hungry is about demonstrating a commitment to the job and going above and beyond what is required. In the Lencioni model, Smart refers to having good relationships with

people, being attuned to the group dynamics, judging social and work situations correctly, listening to others, and responding appropriately. Lencioni likens it to having emotional intelligence but believes it ‘is probably a little simpler than that’ and that it ‘refers to a person’s common sense about people’ (2016, p. 160). Humble is not about being selfdeprecating and dismissing one’s talents and contributions to the team. It is about directing ambition to building something great, being generous in thought and behaviour, being inclusive, working with other people’s strengths, and giving credit to those in the team. It is defined by a lack of ego and interest in status and hierarchy. The best preparation for the senior leadership role is to practise and demonstrate these virtues in the incumbent’s current role, so that they earn the respect of colleagues and members of the team.

Reading widely is also important preparation. Leaders are readers. Reading books and articles on leadership assists with the self-reflection required for personal and professional growth. The sources in the reference list below are recommendations for leadership reading. For example, John Maxwell, a prolific writer on leadership, talks about people’s ‘blind spots’ (2016, p. 6). He is excellent at providing guidance for the personal growth that needs to occur for successful leadership. I recently read in the September 2020 Qantas magazine (p. 63) an interview with Rachael Robertson, who had just spent a year in Antarctica leading an expedition. She said for her ‘no triangles’ was a game changer. ‘It is so simple—I don’t speak to you about another person. If I have something to say, I go directly to that person and I don’t complain, whinge or moan to a third party. No triangles.’ It is so easy to slip up in this area as a leader because sometimes people behave inappropriately. SUNATA 19

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She went on to say in the interview she sought the commitment to ‘no triangles’ from everyone in her team. She did this ‘to build respect in the team because it meant that under intense pressure, in really difficult situations, we knew we had each other’s backs. The side benefit for me as the leader, which I didn’t anticipate, was it freed up so much of my energy. I didn’t realise how exhausting those conversations were and I also didn’t realise that by listening to them I was condoning them’ (2020, p. 63). ‘No triangles’ is something to aspire to every day (please note ‘aspire’—I am not always successful) as it helps build trust in relationships.

Is it true that it is ‘lonely’ in leadership?

This question comes in many forms. Teachers usually express a concern about missing the classroom or the giving up the collegiality of the staffroom. Many teachers have been concerned about letting go the familiar (and therefore, what currently gives them joy) and then being faced with the challenge of leadership. Of course, there is no gain without risk. However, senior leaders are a member of another team which over time can be as supportive and collegial as any other work relationship. Any foray into senior leadership requires a degree of courage; yet, it is important to remember that there is a tremendous amount of joy and satisfaction in the facilitating the work of the team and the staff.

It would be a shame to let fear and the comfort of the familiar keep someone from realising their leadership talent.

How do I deal with all the people management issues as I have no real experience in this area?

It is true that you might be more exposed to difficult conversations in senior leadership. You will also be more exposed to the graciousness and generosity of many people (staff, students and parents). Yet, many aspirant senior leaders do not focus on the positive interactions they may have. It is true that difficult conversations are uncomfortable; no matter how long one is in leadership that fact never changes. But like all things, the more of these conversations someone has the better they are at them, especially if they are using a framework to the discussion so that they remain on track. In The Motive (2020), another fable by Lencioni, there is a recognition that a most important role of a senior leader is to address less desirable behaviour and ensure everyone is accountable for positive relationships and communication. Those who don’t address poor behaviour are fundamentally forgetting their purpose as a leader, which is consistent with his work on humility and should be about paying attention to the reason they are leading in the first place, that is, building something better. Maxwell believes the ultimate purpose of leadership is ‘about adding value to people’ so that they can be productive and ‘get the job done’ (2016, p. 24). The worst difficult conversations occur when there is no relationship between the senior leader and the person they are speaking to – where relationships have come second to completing the workload of the senior role and there has been no attempt to be known and understood and to connect with others.

The Seven Heavenly Virtues of Leadership (2003) provides guidance as to what is important for a leader to demonstrate. In the words of Aristotle, ‘We become virtuous by practising virtue’ and Barker and Coy believe that attention to the following seven virtues assists in all relationships and reflects well the personal dimension of leadership: Humility Passion

Compassion Courage Wisdom

Humour

How do I ensure work-life balance?

This is always a popular question when one is seeking promotion. For me the answer is simple. If someone truly desires to be a senior leader, then it is their responsibility to ensure work-life integration. ‘Balance’ is a nonsensical notion, but effective integration will ensure that no one becomes resentful of the time taken. An effective senior leader should be focused on ‘being present’ and giving their full attention to the events they may be required to attend. If the leader is thinking of the report to be written, the lesson to prepare, and the emails to answer, they will miss out on the joy of involvement at this level across the school.

We are all adults and can make our own decisions about how and when to work outside the hours of the school day. There is a lot of work to do, just like what happens now as a teacher, and it is important that time is taken out for family and friends. That is something, that with a degree of self- awareness and understanding of working patterns, the senior leaders can organise themselves to control.

Taking the time to think about the answers to these five questions will assist any would-be leader in their quest for senior leadership.

References

Barker, C & Coy, R (ed.) 2003, The Heavenly Virtues of Leadership, McGraw Hill, Sydney. Gronn, P 1999, The Making of Educational Leaders, Cassell, London. Lencioni, P 2016, The Ideal Team Player, Jossey-Bass, Hobokan, New Jersey. Lencioni, P 2020, The Motive, John Wiley and Son, Hoboken, New Jersey. Maxwell, J 2016, What successful people know about leadership, Hatchett Books, New York. Galliott K 2020, Rachael Robertson, Qantas Magazine, viewed 7 April 2021, pp. 62-64 https://www.qantas.com/travelinsider/en/ qantas-magazine.html?c=september-2020edition&page=1