Middle Leadership for 21st Century Schools

From Compliance to Commitment

Bill Lowe

• Publisher: Crown House Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781785834745
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

p>In Middle Leadership for 21st Century Schools: From compliance to commitment, Bill Lowe sets out for middle leaders the essential elements of a contemporary leadership approach that will help them successfully navigate a rapidly changing educational landscape.

The position of middle leader is one of the most challenging in any workplace. But knowing how to lead a team effectively will ensure that you, as a middle leader, have the greatest possible impact both on your team and on school improvement.

In Middle Leadership for 21st Century Schools, Bill expertly combines the latest educational leadership research with anecdotal reports about a wide range of real-life school experiences, giving you the insights to help you establish yourself and strengthen your influence in the role. He shares impactful advice on boosting productivity both your own and your team's and offers guidance on how to succeed through people-focused leadership, rather than by using data as a weapon.

Covering a range of issues from dealing with conflict and difficult conversations to building and maintaining your professional image this book reveals the how of leadership when applied to the day-to-day demands of the school setting.

Well-established leadership and management ideas are identified, alongside a wealth of powerful strategies that work in the modern education world but this book also goes beyond that. Importantly, it uses your own experiences of being a leader and being led to illustrate key points so that the theories can be seen in practice.

Furthermore, the act of reflecting on practice and experience is built into this book, providing honest reflection and current experience reflection activities that invite you to consider things that you have seen, been subjected to and experienced first-hand during your time in education. You will also have opportunities to think about how you might have done things differently and how you will approach things in the future.

Suitable for both established and aspiring middle leaders in primary and secondary schools.

Chapter 1

Leadership and Management: Some Definitions

People want to know what accounts for good leadership and how to become good leaders. Despite this strong interest in leadership, there are very few books that clearly describe the complexities of practicing leadership.

Peter Northouse (2015)

By the end of this chapter, you will have a clear idea of the general differences between leadership and management, as well as an appreciation of why you need to have both sets of skills. There are many books and training courses on leadership styles in existence. Here is not the place to spend too much time on these theories, but I hope this chapter will encourage you to find out more.

Some schools have SLTs whilst others have senior management teams (SMTs). Is there any difference? Probably not. In school, we are not as likely to have managers and leaders in two distinct groups, as they might be in the corporate world. Yes, we have business managers and timetable managers but, in general, middle leaders need to be both leader and manager at the same time. Think of leadership and management as two different sets of skills. Whether you are called a middle leader or a middle manager, you will need to have both leadership skills and management skills.

The differences between leadership and management

It is very common for individuals to be better at one skill set than the other. As we look at the characteristics of both, perhaps you will be able to identify yourself as having stronger elements in one area. Are you more of a leader or more of a manager? Perhaps you have a good balance of each.

In general terms:

Leadership is about having an idea of what you want and how to get it. You know what you want to achieve and come up with new ideas about how to get there.

Good leaders are often innovators. You need people like this in order to move the school forward.

Management is about the processes, structures and procedures that are needed to make things happen.

Those of us who are more management-oriented tend to like a process that is stable and will produce quick results. Strong managers will put monitoring and evaluation timetables in place with meetings and feedback sessions arranged at suitable intervals.

It is clear to see that if you are fortunate enough to have both sets of skills, you will be a very effective head of department or key stage.

Although this is only a brief introduction to the differences, how do you see yourself?

Current experience reflection activity
	Examples of why
I am a more natural leader.
I am a more natural manager.

What do they look like?

It is important to have a clear understanding of whether you need to be in leadership mode or management mode for a particular task. From the outset, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and ask to have these added to your performance management development plan. A common criticism of new leaders is their lack of self-awareness. I recognise this. As a new head of department, I was keen to publish timetables and provide clear structures, rules and regulations relating to my subject area. All I was doing was managing what was already in place. There was no vision or plan for developing my area. In fact, no leadership. Avoid my early mistakes.

Leadership fundamentals

Tell colleagues where they are heading:

Identify the vision – decide what you want to achieve.

Example: We need to show more obvious use of maths across the curriculum.

Create the strategies – work out how you are going to get there.

Example: Identify a school where they have addressed this successfully and analyse their processes.

Get colleagues onside:

Make sure you invite them to join the team.

Example: Include everyone who has any level of input into this project.

Tell people what your vision is and seek their support.

Example: Get the evidence (for example, national statistics/examples of good practice). Make it clear to everyone involved.

Encourage everyone to believe in what you are going to do:

Example: Lay...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise
• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Leadership and Management: Some Definitions
• Chapter 2: Leadership Dispositions: How Successful Leaders Behave
• Chapter 3: Building Your Professional Image: Looking Like a Leader
• Chapter 4: Leading Your Team: The Essence of Middle Leadership
• Chapter 5: Leading Change: Where Your Leadership Ability Is Judged
• Chapter 6: System Leadership from the Middle: A 21st Century Development
• Chapter 7: Dealing with Conflict and Difficult Conversations: Overcoming Awkward Situations
• Chapter 8: Productivity: At the Heart of Leader-Teacher Workload
• Chapter 9: The Next Steps: What to Consider When Moving Up the Ladder
• Closing Comments
• References
• Copyright
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