This is the second post in a series of posts from David Maddison Head Teacher at East Bridgford St Peter’s C. of E. Primary School. To read his first post click here. In this post David talks about why he uses FED and how it has encouraged him and other leaders in the school to have different conversations.

David Maddison

Why I am a FED Champion

The reason I am a FED champion is because FED is an uncomplicated and unambiguous approach to leadership.   FED is readily accessible with the potential to be as profound or as complex as desired.  The book is easy to follow, easy to understand, easy to remember and most importantly really easy to match against experience.  As a result of reading the book I have been encouraged to talk with leaders about the importance of always having ‘one eye on the future’ and ‘being up to something’ and them telling me something about the ‘future that they most desire’.

Then, and perhaps best of all, there are the discussions we have around the challenges of engagement which we can then easily follow up with real experiences of what happened!  It doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to overcome reluctance, misunderstanding, disinterest or lack of co-operation. What it does bring is perspective, understanding and detachment, which means as leaders we can share our experience and get feedback from others on their experience of what happened.  Together we are being encouraged to learn from experience and to go back to planning other strategies to solve the puzzle of engagement leading to delivery – all with an eye to the future.

Moreover the FED approach has given me and other senior leaders who are coaches or mentors more confidence to open up the conversation with those we are working alongside as to the nature of people and what strategies we might try.  In this way we are all engaged in developing our understanding of not only ourselves but also of each other. In addition we are practising and stretching our leadership muscles, in particular those of empathy, emotional intelligence, motive, trust, honesty, commitment, responsibility and accountability.

Leadership nudge: What different conversations would be possible if you were to keep an eye on the future? Who could you have these conversations with? Who else? How well do you know what future your colleagues most desire? Do they know what it is that you are up to?

By David Maddison, Head teacher

Learn more about the author of this article, David Maddison