ww

w.p

dst

.ie

Forbairt Positional Leaders

School Leadership Today

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

• To develop our understanding of Leadership and Management in the context of some of the challenges facing schools today

• The leadership qualities required to meet these challenges

• Importance of distributed or collaborative leadership

Aims of Session

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

• “Another Month Ends

• All Targets Met

• All Systems Working

• All Customers Satisfied

• All Staff Eager and Enthusiastic

• All Pigs Fed and Ready to Fly”

What are the challenges facing schools today?What are the specific challenges facing you as

members of the ALN team in your school?

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

What are the leadership qualities required to meet the challenges?

21st Century Leadership

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

Leadership Traits: Some thoughts….

21st Century Leadership

MUST WANT IT

CONSISTENT

STRENGTH

LISTEN

BORN OR

MADE? GIVE

DIRECTION

RESPECT

TEAM

FAIR AND

SEEN TO BE SO

PERSUASIVE

DECISIVE

ASSERTIVE

COMPASSIONATE

CARING

LEADERSHIPLEADERSHIP

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

1 Honest (88%)

2 Forward Looking (71%)

3 Competent (66%)

4 Inspiring (65%)

= =

CREDIBILITY VISION

The Top FourCharacteristics

( Kouzes and Posner, 2006)

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

• Leadership is like beauty: it’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it…

• At bottom becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself…that simple and also that difficult…

• We are our own raw material …

Bennis on Leadership…

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

Management involves the use of school resources to achieve aims. It involves planning, controlling, directing for the purpose of maintaining an effective school.

Management is about tending the path, about building and maintaining an organisational structure.

School Management

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

School Leadership

• Leadership is about giving direction, offering inspiration, building teamwork. It is derived from one’s fundamental values and personal style.

• Leadership is about finding and deciding which path to take, about building and maintaining an organisational culture

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

Managers V Leaders

• Concerned with maintenance

• Get jobs done because they have to be done

• Look at the WHAT, the HOW & the WHEN

• Follow the script

• Accept reality

• Direct & control

• Concerned with growth & development

• Get jobs done because people want to do them

• Look at the WHY

• Write the script

• Critique reality

• Inspire and motivate

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

Leadership Management Administration

Doing the right thing Doing things right Doing things

Path making Path following Path tidying

Complexity Clarity Consistency

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

2 Contrasting Models of Leadership

HIERARCHICAL

Emphasis upon the leadership of those at the apex of the organisation

Role or responsibility centred

Singular

FEDERAL

Redistribution of power and a re-alignment of authority

Giving authority to teachers and empowering them to lead

Possibility for all teachers to become leaders at various times

Shared and collective endeavour

21st Century Leadership

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

(Hall 1997)

Hall 1997

“Managing without leading is unethical and leading without

managing is irresponsible.”

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

Strategic

Two Aspects of Leadership

• Managing things that need to get done

• Formal

• Structured

• Logical

• IQ

Intimate

• Person oriented

• Concerned

• Focused on a greater connection with ourselves and others

• Empathic

• EQ

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

• To move seamlessly between strategic and intimate

• Treat people in terms of potential rather than performance

• Intimate leadership needs to be spontaneous, to engage people, to have a laugh, to let the guard down

• Vital importance of trust

Features of Authentic Leadership

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

• Developing staff

• Empowering others

• Supporting teachers & students in their work

• Having a vision & values

• Having a clear direction

• Preparing teachers, parents, students for change

• Keeping up to date with issues

• Communicating well

Understandings of Leadership

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

• The Hero?

• The Enabler?

The effective leader....

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

• “Charismatic leaders are a liability for sustained improvement” (Michael Fullan)

• “Some of the best heads I ever worked for, at the time I thought were lazy, but it’s only with knowledge and hindsight of headship that I realise how good they were at delegating and empowering others” (An English Headteacher)

Heroic Leaders?

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

“Aspirant leaders need authentic experiences to

come to terms with leadership” (Munby 2009)

Mention three ways in which leadership is

actually, or could be distributed throughout

your school.

Exercise

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

The clear message from the literature is that school improvement is more likely to occur when leadership is distributed and when teachers have a vested interest in the development of the school

Distributed Leadership

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

Individual reflection

Consider your current position as a teacher, post holder or positional leader:

In what ways, if any, do you exercise a leadership or management function?

What skills do you need to carry out your role?

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

Mrs.O Brien V Sean Nolan

Case Study

ww

w.p

dst

.ie

Good leaders must be acutely aware of their own ignorance, their incompetence, their growth areas and (that) they are deeply self confident.

This is paradoxical only to those who do not see the journey as the reward

The Paradox of Good Leadership