Stepping up to Executive Headship

Transcription

1 Stepping up to Executive Headship Inspiring Leadership 2017 Birmingham James Toop Chief Executive

2 About us Merger of Teaching Leaders and The Future Leaders Trust Mission is to transform the lives of children in disadvantaged areas by growing exceptional school leaders at all levels Develop leaders through our three flagship programmes: o Teaching Leaders (for middle leaders) o Future Leaders (for aspiring heads) o Executive Educators (for exec heads and CEOs) 2

3 Background Research project with NFER and NGA Relatively new and evolving role o with no legal definition, multiple sector-led interpretations o a range of accountability arrangements, role and responsibilities Role requiring a new and different mix of skills and experience (White Paper) o as yet no comprehensive guidance on the skill-set they need o limited and largely outdated research 3

4 School leadership journey 2017 CEO Executive head Headteacher Senior leader 4

5 Starter 1. Who are you? 2. What is your role? 3. Why are you here? 5

6 Agenda Role and identity Skills and behaviours Preparation and transition 6

7 Start with why Why do you want to step up to executive headship? Why How What How will you do it? What will you do differently in the new role? Simon Sinek, Start With Why 7

8 What is an Executive Headteacher? Improvement: HT asked to support another school to rapidly improve. HT becomes EHT with formal accountability across more than one school Expansion: EHT provides additional management capacity for growth for example, EHT / regional director below MAT CEO to manage school performance or provide extra oversight across different sites or phases Partnership growth: More outward-facing, build new collaborations or partnerships to create strategic responsibility beyond a single school, such as Teaching School Alliance, but without formal accountability for the other schools in their collaboration 8

9 Core EHT roles 9

10 Leadership identity What is my professional identity? Who do I belong to? What am I accountable for? 10

11 Core EHT skills 11

12 Vertical development 12

13 Vertical leadership mindsets Conceptual manage complexity and ability to create new models of thinking Personal ability to respond to and cope with pressure, developed sense of self Interpersonal capacity to hold different, and contradictory, perspectives and navigate them 13

14 Spotting talent: a common language 14

15 Agenda Role and identity Skills and behaviours Preparation and transition 15

16 Breaking linearity 1. Intense stretch experiences (the what) 2. New ways of thinking (the how) 3. Strong development networks (the who) 16

17 Types of development activity 17

18 Stretch development The fact is that giving people bigger jobs with fancier titles and larger salaries won t make them better. More complex assignments will. Claudio Fernandez-Araoz (Egon Zehnder), HBR,

19 Example stretch assignments 1. What are your development challenges stepping up from headship to executive headship? 2. What would a stretch assignment need to entail to learn those new skills? 19

20 Transition management Why do nearly half of all new appointments fail in the first year? Politics Culture Complexities Lack of clarity on performance objectives Solution = transition management vs. induction 20

21 Case study: Mark Thompson Transition: BBC to New York Times Company, 2012 Context: Three-month gap, two-weeks agenda meetings Key lessons: o Successful transition starts during the interviews o Demeanour during on-boarding is critical o Good EA is cultural translator o Participate in early decisions o Get out of the office o Eat, meet and greet o Find the balance between impulsive and slow-moving 21

22 How can you increase the chances of success? 1. Overlapping roles new leader in place during last three months of outgoing leader 2. Shadowing/co-working six month joint working period 3. Phased transition gradual handover of responsibilities over month period Approach to new role is critical listen, observe, question 22

23 Executive Educators New Executive Headship cohort starts September 2017 Two x three-day residentials with new programme design Benefits: Bespoke, evidence-informed training delivered by experts from across the sector and beyond Identifying strengths and areas for development through a review at the beginning of the programme Sharing insight and learning within a close-knit cohort of current or aspiring executive headteachers Access to our network (4,000 leaders,1,500 schools) 23

24 Contact details James Toop

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