David Maddison

Along with some of the work of Jim Collins author of ‘Good to Great’ and co author of ‘Built to Last’ it is the Future Engage Deliver approach to leadership that has had the biggest impact on my thinking about what effective leadership is and how to develop it.

At the time of being introduced to Future Engage Deliver I was re-structuring my teaching staff into three leadership teams – each representing a key area of the school’s work. And I knew that if I was to place this strong emphasis on leadership then it was important to give teachers and teaching assistants insight into what effective leadership might look like, what might be involved and what might be the challenges involved and experienced. I also believe that sometimes within education, whilst we are good at putting people in leadership positions, we neglect the importance of providing opportunities for teachers to learn about what it means to be an effective leader and to lead.

All too often teachers are invited to meetings, say by the Local Authority, where they are given information in their leadership area that needs to be communicated, with impact, to others at school, but without first being helped to understand what might be involved in achieving this. Moreover, we have nationally accredited schemes to develop our emerging leaders e.g. Leading from the Middle and Leadership Pathways and, whilst these look at such aspects as leadership styles, I do not believe they spend enough time on exploring what is involved in achieving effective leadership and team building in general. In inexperienced leaders particularly, this can often lead to frustration, despondency, under achievement and inaction when, without understanding, they meet the challenges of engagement through to delivery. And so it was that I decided to use the Future Engage Deliver approach to leadership to help teachers and teaching assistants to learn about their leadership plain and simple!

Leadership nudge: How do you demonstrate that leadership matters to you through the developing of others as leaders? What opportunities do you give to people in your organisation to grow and develop their leadership? How can you ensure that your leaders understand what truly effective leadership looks like?

By David Maddison, Head Teacher East Bridgford St Peter’s C. Of E. Primary School
Email: david.maddison@st-peters.notts.sch.uk
www.eastbridgfordstpeters.co.uk