Transcript Ready to Lead - Shifting thinking about leadership of our

Ready to lead? Shifting thinking
about leadership of our schools
AIS Executive Conference
May 2007
Helen Wildy
Murdoch University
Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Shifts in thinking about leadership
Delegation
Leading or managing?
Standards-based reform
WA Leadership Framework
Summary
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1. Shifts in thinking about leadership
Trait theory 1900-1950
 Leadership style 1960s
 Situational theories 1970s
 Transformational leadership 1980s
 Distributed leadership 1990s
 Sustainable leadership 2000s

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Trait theory 1900-1950
Assumed leaders were born, not made
 Leaders were different from non leaders

 Physical
traits
 Abilities
 Personality

Challenge: find the person for the job
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Leadership style 1960s
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Background research: Hawthorne studies
Ohio State University studies
2 dimensions of leadership
 Consideration
(people)
 Structure (task)

Example: Blake and Mouton 1964 (authority,
team, country club, impoverished)
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Blake and Mouton 1964
High
Country
Club
Team
Impoverished
Authority
People
Low
Low
High
Task
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Hersey and Blanchard 1970s
Support
Coach
High
People
Direct
Delegate
Low
Low
High
Task
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2. Delegation
I delegate
what?
to whom?
how?
when?
with what
effect?
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Three big concepts behind effective
delegation
Authority
Responsibility
Accountability
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Authority

Give authority by ensuring sufficient
 Resources esp time, motivation
 Skill
 Knowledge of context and importance
 Understanding of rationale
 Discretion

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Involve delegatee in making these decisions
Giving appropriate authority shows you value
 the
 the

work and
person
Giving authority says I trust you
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Responsibility



Be clear about responsibilities: the buck stops
with the delegator but the delegatee has
responsibilities eg outcome, timeline, quality
Delegators are responsible for informing others
Delegatees are responsible for seeking
clarification
Sharing responsibility shows you value
 the
work and
 the person

Sharing responsibilityH Wildy
says
We’re professionals 11
2007
Accountability

Decide on accountability processes in advance
 meeting
targets
 being on time
 staying within budget
 achieving quality
 reporting achievement (when and how)

Accountability relationships show you value
 the
work and
 the person

Accountability says You, and your work, matter
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Transformational leadership 1980s
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In contrast with transactional leadership (power, position, politics
and perks), Transformational leadership assumes people are
motivated
by intrinsic factors: shared goals, sense of belonging, identity
by being part of a vision, mission, values
Highly popular today as the path to organisational change
Deeply embedded in the rhetoric of organisations


Based on the concept of heroic, charismatic, singular, visionary
leadership
But can one person do it all?
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Distributed leadership 1990s
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Terms also used

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Networked leadership
Collaborative leadership
Shared leadership
Team leadership
Assumes

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Flatter structures
Decentralised control
Increased ownership
Expanded responsibility
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Sustainable leadership 2000s
Leading for sustainability based on three
key concepts
Personal resilience
 Embedded organisational change
 Future orientation

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3. Leading or Managing

What is the relationship between leading
and managing?
 Is
one a subset of the other?
 Or are they different processes?
 Do they involve different skills?
Draw a diagram to represent the relationship
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Leading

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Establishing
direction
Aligning people
Motivating and
inspiring
Producing growth,
improvement,
change
Managing
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Planning, budgeting
Organising and
staffing
Controlling and
problem solving
Producing order,
predictability,
stability
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4. Standards-based reform
Argument
 Student performance improves when
outcomes of learning are made explicit
 Teachers’ performance improves when
practices of teaching are made explicit
 School performance improves when
practices of leaders are made explicit
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Standards for leaders: UK
NSH (National Standards for
Headteachers) developed for National
College for School Leadership
 6 categories, each with 4 subcategories,
each with between 3 and 13 subcategories
plus invitation to add your own to reflect
their contexts
 Total 159 elements (at least)
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UK - NSH: 6 main categories
Shaping the future
 Leading learning and teaching
 Developing self and working with others
 Managing the organisation
 Securing accountability
 Strengthening community
(compare with WADET Leadership Framework)

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UK - NSH : subcategories

Knowledge
 Knows

about
Professional qualities
 Is
committed to
 Is able to

Actions
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NSH example
Leading learning and teaching
Knowledge
Knows about:
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Strategies for raising achievement and achieving excellence
The development of a personalised learning culture within the school
Models of learning and teaching
The use of new and emerging technologies to support learning and teaching
Principles of effective teaching and assessment for learning
Models of behaviour and attendance management
Strategies for ensuring inclusion, diversity and access
Curriculum design and management
Tools for data collection and analysis
Using research evidence to inform teaching and learning
Monitoring and evaluating performance
School self evaluation
Strategies for developing effective teachers
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NSH example (Cont)
Leading learning and teaching
Professional qualities
Is committed to
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The raising of standards for all in the pursuit of excellence
The continuing learning of all members of the school community
The entitlement of all pupils to effective teaching and learning
Choice and flexibility in learning to meet the personalised learning needs of every
child
Is able to
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Demonstrate personal enthusiasm for and commitment to the learning process
Demonstrate the principles and practices of effective teaching and learning
Access, analyse and interpret information
Initiate and support research and debate about effective learning and teaching
and develop relevant strategies for performance improvement
 Acknowledge excellence and challenge poor performance across the school
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NSH example (Cont)
Leading learning and teaching
Actions
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Ensures a consistent and continuous school-wide focus on pupils’ achievement, using data
and benchmarks to monitor progress in every child’s learning
Ensures that learning is at the centre of strategic planning and resource management
Establishes creative, responsive and effective approaches to learning and teaching
Ensures a culture and ethos of challenge and support where all pupils can achieve success
and become engaged in their own learning
Demonstrates and articulates high expectations and sets stretching targets for the whole
school community
Implements strategies which secure high standards of behaviour and attendance
Determines, organises and implements a diverse, flexible curriculum and implements an
effective assessment framework
Takes a strategic role in the development of new and emerging technologies to enhance and
extend the learning experience of pupils
Monitors, evaluates and reviews classroom practice and promotes improvement strategies
Challenges underperformance at all levels and ensures effective corrective action and follow
up
Add your own context specific actions
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Standards and accountability

To what extent are such ‘standards’ helpful
to school leaders in rendering an account
to their line managers and the public at
large?
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What counts as evidence of meeting these
‘standards’?
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Problems with ‘standards as lists’
fragmented
 leads to checklist
 false dichotomies
 decontextualised
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A fulsome list of duties, but where are the
standards?
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Short shrift to long lists which only show
•Fragmentation, not interrelationships
•Reduction, not complexity
•Dichotomous, not variable
•Duties, not essential qualities
•Descriptions, not standards
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Alternative approach
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Research 1996-1997, 2003-2005 funding by
ARC and WA DET (Wildy, Louden, Andrich)
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Judgements about the quality of performance
depicted in 200 narrative accounts of school
leaders at work
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More than 2 000 ratings and 5 000 descriptions
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5. Leadership Framework (WA)
Developed over 9 years
 Grounded in leaders’ practice
 Based in rigorous research
 Funded by commonwealth and state
grants
 Developed collaboratively
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Rasch analysis
Narratives arrayed on continua
 Narratives clustered
 High, middle, low performance
 Three levels of performance i.e. standards
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Qualitative data

Attributes that distinguish quality of performance
of leaders
 Fair
 Decisive
 Collaborative
 Flexible
 Innovative
 Supportive
 Tactful
 Persistence
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Not what but how

Factors that differentiate performance
relate not to what leaders do but how they
do what they do
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Attributes of leaders

Attributes are how leaders do what they
do (competencies) in particular contexts

And we use attributes for
 reflection
 professional
development
 selection
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WA Leadership Framework
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/lc/standards.html
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6. Summary
Thinking about leadership has shifted dramatically over the past
century.
This approach to standards
 Based on a few easily remembered attributes
 Provides richly illustrated levels
 Takes account of variation in context
 Acknowledges complexity
 Recognises dilemmas
 Identifies balance between competing pressures
To what extent are you ready to lead and to develop others to lead
in your school?
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