School leadership is a complex landscape upon which we tread barefoot; whether you are a subject leader, senior leader, headteacher or executive headteacher. The myriad of challenges faced by school leaders in ensuring their school is strong, their staff are engaged and pupils progressing; draws on a wide range of highly tuned strategies. Many writers, such as Michael Fullan, Andy Hargreaves and John Westburnham explore the panacea of organisational change. I had the pleasure in reading a book co-authored by Andy Hargreaves, whose work has inspired me for some time.
Uplifting Leadership (by Andy Hargreaves, Alan Boyle and Alma Harris) is an easy read that explores the six key steps that lead to uplifting leadership. Like Fullan’s Six Secrets of Change, six seems to have a particular draw in organizational change theory.
Uplifting Leadership introduces the first step as ‘dreaming with determination’. This gives the leader the chance to explore their vision, values and core principles. As CEO, I have undertook this exercise with the trustees of my multi-academy trust. As a newly formed trust we had the privilege and challenge of setting our vision and ethos. After a very lengthy deliberation we turned a very complex statement into the simple vision of “Irresistible learning for all”. The process of ‘dreaming with determination’ empowers the leader to imagine a new future and plot a path to it.
The next step in Uplifting Leadership is to allow the creativity of your staff team to flow, this includes doing things differently and surprising yourself and others. The authors also allude to the feeling that Sir Ken Robinson calls ‘Being in your Element’ (another great read) This feeling of going against the grain is difficult in school but necessary if we are to truly take hold of our own destiny and create a school or trust that truly provides our pupils with the education that will feel irresistible for all and lead to powerful progress. It is so important to give our staff time to be in their element, time to innovate, time to explore the new, time to evaluate, time to breathe. When you are deeply immersed in what you love to do and your creativity takes over.
Once the creativity has formed new ideas leading to new practice, it is time to be brave and ‘collaborate with the competition’. The authors argue that the most successful organisations ensure they collaborate with others, leading to growth, trust and challenge for one another. Estelle Morris, Former Education Secretary and now Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Sunderland, challenged schools to work with schools in collaborations and academy trusts to work with academy trusts. Collaboration leads to shared practice, strong relationships and heightened challenge for all.
The authors then take the next step into the organisation with staff “pushing and pulling” each other. This includes staff believing in a shared vision while challenging one another to perform well. The push and pull metaphor for me implies the need for a leader to constantly question practice, be open to challenge and create a culture that welcomes questioning. Ultimately, the organisation that has these qualities is built on trust. The sense of trust and honesty was deeply important to our trustees as they were building the name and ethos statement for Veritas MAT, so much so that the very name is, in Roman mythology, the goddess of truth. With truth comes trust.
The next stage in Uplifting Leadership is “measuring with meaning” and refers to the importance of using data to inform practice while not being a slave to the data. The authors urge the reader to ensure they are not swamped by the data and use the data in the context of evidence-informed practice. A school with evidence-informed practice at its heart will grow the highest quality of staff from within as they question their own practice and its impact on their pupils. For my school in Kent, each member of staff engaged in evidence-informed practice and have at least one appraisal target that has a research focus. The research outcomes are shared during our annual Teach Meet and offer a humbling day where our staff team share in some of the most inspirational outcomes for staff and pupils.
The final step to uplifting leadership is ‘sustainable success’. It is a tough job getting there, it is even tougher staying there. I have the privilege of leading a fantastic primary school. I vividly recall the pleasure in reading the outcomes from our last Ofsted inspection to our staff, we had risen from a requires improvement judgement to outstanding in twenty four months. One of my staff team said “Great, now we can relax.”. I had to muster my reserve, I smiled the most compassionate smile I could form and responded by saying, “Getting to outstanding was a challenge, staying here is an even greater challenge.”. Too often we see great organisations at the pinnacle of their performance dramatically fall, so too our schools remain vulnerable if we overlook the importance of sustainable success. For my school and trust, we will continue to ‘dream with determination’ and endeavor to uphold the ideals of ‘uplifting leadership’.
I urge you to read Uplifting Leadership, it is a pleasant tonic in the complex educational landscape we all tread.
Irresistible Learning 