Managing to lead? Alma Harris and Michelle Jones

Transcription

1 Inspiring leaders to improve children s lives Schools and academies Managing to lead? Alma Harris and Michelle Jones Opinion piece Resource

2 Managing to lead? Alma Harris, Director of the Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Malaya, and Michelle Jones, Deputy Director (Development and International), Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Malaya 1 Without question, middle leaders play a pivotal role in securing better learning outcomes for young people. Other than at the teacher level, most variation in school performance occurs at the subject, key stage or department level (Sammons et al, 1997). In summary, there are bigger differences within schools than between schools and a significant part of this within-school variation can be located in the middle. Why can one subject team motivate, enthuse and engage young people while another team fails to inspire the same group? Can it be explained by the quality or the disposition of individual teachers in the team? Can it be explained by the subject itself? Well certainly, the quality, experience and disposition of the individuals in any team matter. So as a middle leader you will be very lucky indeed if all your team members are outstanding teachers. More usually, teams have a mixed ability group, creating their own unique set of dynamics and challenges for those charged with leading them. But ultimately, it s not the composition of the team that is most important; it is how the team is led that crucially determines its performance (Busher & Harris, 2000). So does the subject matter? Evidence shows no consistent high or low trajectory of performance in one subject over another. There is nothing intrinsically more complex, difficult or challenging in teaching maths, science or drama, providing you are a good teacher and you are part of a well-functioning team. Effective teachers and indeed less effective teachers tend to be widely dispersed across subject or key stages. But good or bad performance is not a given. Every teacher, including the best teachers can improve given the right opportunities, the right encouragement and the right leadership. Even if your headteacher is a good or outstanding leader, their leadership will still have an indirect rather than a direct impact upon the quality of teaching. This is because the leadership of the headteacher is inevitably mediated through others and relies upon how well they influence teachers to be the best they can be in the classroom (Day et al, 2010). Conversely, middle leaders have a direct impact on the quality of teaching as their daily work is located primarily and centrally in classrooms. They influence the quality of teaching through their daily interactions with other teachers and, as we know, it is the quality of teaching that characterises the most effective schools (Fullan, 2010). Middle leadership is therefore critical to overall school performance, as it is here that good teaching is modelled, reinforced and supported or where poor teaching goes unchallenged, is ignored or blamed upon the bad behaviour of the students. Think about this question: if you never see really effective teaching how do you become an effective teacher and how do you know that your own teaching is up to par? Interestingly, a study of less effective subject teams (Harris, 1999) showed that a central reason for their underperformance resided in the fact that there was no leading professional within their team. In other words, there was no one modelling exemplary teaching, including the team leader. It wasn t the case that the team didn t want to improve but rather that it had no clear view of what effective practice looked like. Another characteristic of the less effective teams was the fact that the middle leaders displayed two very different approaches to leadership first, laissez-faire, which meant they delegated everything and on the whole very little was done, second, authoritarian, which meant they controlled everything so everyone else felt disempowered. The key message is that neither of these extremes is effective but that effective leadership in the middle will determine whether teachers aspire to be better or conspire to be average. Even though great attention has been paid to headteachers in much of the research and writing, it is the middle leader who continually and significantly influences the quality of teaching. As leaders, they demonstrate and reinforce effective subject and key stage teaching and ensure that meetings do not just focus on routine administration, but concentrate largely on teaching and learning issues. So not only does the middle leader need to be a good teacher; he or she also needs to be able to build strong professional learning communities where teachers can enquire and develop together (Harris & Jones, 2010). The leadership challenges for the middle leader can be divided into three main components: act, acquire and apply, as shown in Figure 1.

3 2 Figure 1: Act, acquire and apply Act Leadership challenges Apply Acquire Actions undoubtedly speak louder than words and for the middle leader the following actions and behaviours are important in signalling not just the nature of leadership but what is valued. Figure 2: Act Show integrity Build confidence Be invitational Act Be confident Listen actively Inspire

4 3 If you value your team then your actions will signal and reinforce that you do. All effective leaders invest in their people; not only are they your most important asset, they are your only asset! At the heart of any effective leadership is the ability to develop others through distributing leadership (Harris, 2008). So, ask yourself, how far are you actively developing others in your team, how far are you distributing leadership, and how far are you modelling what you value? Inevitably the role of the middle leader will require the acquisition of new knowledge and skills. Good leaders never stop learning. There will be a wide range of information they will need to acquire as part of their role and some of the aspects of the role will be repetitive and routine, requiring basic management rather than leadership skills. Figure 3: Acquire Understanding of data Knowledge of legal responsibilities Policy awareness Acquire Teambuilding skills Deeper subject and phase knowledge Follow organisational norms The key challenge is not to let the administrative or management responsibilities dominate and swamp the available time. While it may be reassuring and far easier to deal with routine administrative matters rather than working with individual members of your team, the job of the middle leader is primarily one of supporting and developing others. Essentially, management is about maintenance keeping things running efficiently, effectively and well. Every organisation needs managers to keep things on track, to ensure that everything and everyone is in the right place at the right time. But balancing management and leadership responsibilities is what sets apart the best middle leaders. Interestingly, Martin Luther King did not say I have a strategic plan. His dream set him apart as an inspirational leader someone who moved others to action. To move people and organisations forward, you need leadership. Leadership is primarily concerned with change and improvement. There is no single example of organisational improvement in any sector without some change in leadership or leadership practice. Similarly, there is no improvement without change. Good leaders know how to select and implement the changes that will result in improvement; they also know the changes to resist at all costs. Good leaders know that their leadership is most visible in its application. What leaders do has the greatest impact on others. If there is a disconnection between the sound-track (what leaders say) and the action (what leaders do) then trust in the leader will be lost. This will affect how the team behaves, reacts and performs.

5 4 Figure 4: Apply Create partnerships Build relationships Encourage collaboration Apply Distribute leadership Communicate effectively Motivate others Effective middle leaders encourage collaboration, not just within their team or within their school but between and across other schools (Harris & Jones, 2012). They are outward facing and recognise that great ideas are generated through partnerships at many different levels. Without question the demands on the middle leader are many. A great deal is expected of them and indeed required of them. The main challenge therefore is finding the time to lead. In Marks & Spencer, it would be ludicrous to expect middle leaders to fulfil their leadership responsibilities while working on the shop floor. How would they find the time to lead? Yet in schools this is the expectation; middle leaders are also teachers. Even with some additional time allocated for this role, they still have a busy timetable, classes to teach, books to mark, parents to see. The tension in this leadership role, probably more than any other, is simply finding the time to lead. So, is the main challenge for middle leaders one of balancing competing priorities, demands and responsibilities? While there are no easy answers, these tensions won t go away; there are some approaches that middle leaders could consider. First, prioritise the important over the urgent as a routine way of working. While urgent matters need to be dealt with, constantly dealing with the urgent and pressing means that other more important work gets sidelined. Can another member of your team deal with this? How urgent is the issue in reality? Are you dealing with someone else s urgent priorities rather than your own? Second, think about the nature of your decisions and reflect upon how they will impact on teaching and learning? If the middle leader s role is about enhancing learner outcomes, then this has to be at the heart of any decision-making. Use this as the prime test of whether any proposed development is a good use of time or not.

6 5 Third, think about the maintenance and development side of your role. How much time, effort and energy are you giving to maintenance? How much time are you spending keeping the team where it is rather than moving the team forward? What proportion of your team meetings are devoted to maintenance rather than development? In the current climate, the challenges facing school leaders at all levels are complex, relentless and intense. At certain times, those in key leadership positions will feel frustrated, demoralised and overloaded. At such times, it is important to remember that middle leaders make a great difference to the performance of their team and to the quality of teaching, every day, every week, every month and every school year. While the demands upon middle leaders are many, the rewards come in the form of higher achievement and better life chances for many young people. It is this moral purpose that drives and inspires the best middle leaders to excel, to build a high-performing team and to manage to lead. References Busher, H & Harris, A, 2000, Leading subject areas improving schools, London, Paul Chapman Day, C, Sammons, P, Hopkins, D & Harris, A 2010, Ten strong claims about successful school leadership, Nottingham, National College for School Leadership Fullan, M, 2010, All systems go: the change imperative for whole-system reform, Thousands Oaks, CA, Corwin Press Harris, A, 2008, Distributed leadership: Developing tomorrow s leaders, London, Routledge Harris, A, 1999, Effective departments, effective schools, Professional development today, 2(2), Harris, A & Jones, M, 2012, Connecting professional learning: Leading effective collaborative enquiry across teaching alliances, Nottingham, National College for School Leadership Harris, A & Jones, M, 2010, Professional learning communities in action, London, Leannta Press Sammons, P, Thomas, S & Mortimore, P, 1997, Forging links: Effective schools and effective departments, London, Sage

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