Leading for Learning Building leadership capability at the International Community School, Addis Ababa

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1 Leading for Learning Building leadership capability at the International Community School, Addis Ababa The International Community School of Addis Ababa (ICS), Ethiopia, is an independent, not-for-profit, coeducational school It offers an educational programme from early childhood to grade 12 for students of all nationalities There is a rising sense of optimism in Ethiopia. The second largest country in Africa with a population of 80 million people, and a wealth of untapped resources, now attracts a huge amount of foreign investment and with it, a growing number of expatriate workers and their families. The leadership team of the International Community School of Addis Ababa sees this as a great opportunity to be an employer of choice in a rapidly evolving market. The school was founded in 1964 and serves approximately 800 students from over 60 countries ICS is an International Baccalaureate World School ICS is still an employer of choice but we are competing with other international schools. Enrolments at ICS Addis Ababa have been growing at an average of 12 per cent for the last six years. With turnover and growth the school hires 20 to 30 new staff per year. Although economic growth is positive for the nation and the attractiveness of the ICS to both students and teachers, the school is facing challenges including turnover of teaching staff, global competition with other international schools and fighting perceptions of Ethiopia as a place to live and work. Head of School, Jim Laney says the school is becoming more attractive for a number of reasons and the school is in a position to capitalise upon that: Part of the appeal of ICS Addis is the growth and size of the school. We have also focused on doing a better job of positioning and articulating ourselves. We have a clear vision about providing 21st century education. For example, ICS is the first school in sub Saharan Africa with laptop classes. Our academic results are good and many of our students go on to highly selective universities in the UK, US and Canada. Jim believes the leadership development the school is investing in will help the school attract and retain world class staff: ICS is still an employer of choice but we are competing with other international schools. Teachers and administrators have choices and even if we can retain people for four years which is the average, we still have a 25 per cent average turnover rate.

2 If you re only successful with the good kids, how good an educator are you really? You have to be good with the difficult kids too. Same with my leadership. Educators as leaders Part of the solution for ICS is to make leaders out of educators, hence improving staff retention, helping to create a defined culture, providing self-development opportunities for staff and encouraging educators to think commercially. Whilst Jim says it is difficult to build a culture during a period of growth and change, through the improvements made in recent years, ICS Addis has begun to attract much higher quality staff. Strong leadership and the opportunity for staff to grow as leaders has contributed to the school s growing appeal: This year I was recruiting an elementary Principal and I received 25 applicants quickly, 16 of whom were already Principals, a lot of them at good international schools. Two years before we had almost no experienced principals apply for our high school position. The difference is really tremendous, we can now attract people who can bring a lot to the school and who see it as a place where they can grow and contribute. Using leadership competencies for assessment ICS Addis relationship with Hay Group began in late 2011 when Jim was offered the role as Head of School. One of the board members had previous experience with Hay Group in his corporate leadership role and he recommended that Hay Group be involved in the interview and selection process for ICS Addis new Head of School. During the selection process Jim went through the Inventory of Leadership Styles (ILS) assessment and Organisational Climate Survey (OCS). This assessment and interview process gave the school Board great confidence. Being objective and robust, it enabled the Board to pick the right person for the job, despite not having education backgrounds themselves. What are leadership styles? Long-term development of people Coaching Directive Command and control "Watch me... this is how you do it." Paceseeting Leadership styles Visionary "This is where we're going, this is why" "What do you think?" Participative A ffi liative People first, task second

3 What is organisational climate? Flexibility There are no unnecessary rules, procedures, policies or practices. New ideas are easily accepted Responsibility Employees are given authority to accomplish tasks without constantly checking for approval Standards Challenging but attainable goals are set for the organisation and its employees Rewards Employees are recognised and rewarded for good performance Clarity Everyone within the organisation knows what is expected of him or her Team commitment People are proud to belong to the organisation The senior leadership team has had to work hard to maintain standards and continuity through the constantly shifting situation. GERARD FITZSIMMONS LEADERSHIP COACH, HAY GROUP On the job leadership development Following Jim s appointment, Hay Group continued to work with Jim to help him become a better leader: After the ILS and OCS results, we worked together to create a personal leadership plan to help me systematically improve my leadership. I was happy to see that I did use a range of styles including visionary and affiliative and that I used the pacesetting style as a back-up. The surprise for me was the coaching style as I thought I was doing more of it than I actually was. Based on this, Jim set a goal for the next school year to make coaching one of his dominant styles: Now I can see I really had misunderstood coaching and confused it with pacesetting. I had thought I was coaching the team to a higher level of performance and had raised the standard, but it wasn t coaching, it was pacesetting and the data was clear in showing me that. Following this, for the last two years, Jim has managed to do more coaching and made it one of his back up styles. Jim says this was a challenge but one that resonated with him: It was clear I needed to make some changes even when it s hard to do so. If you re only successful with the good kids, how good an educator are you really? You have to be good with the difficult kids too. Same with my leadership. This is why I had to really try to coach team members even in difficult situations. Gerard Fitzsimmons, a Leadership Coach at Hay Group says there have been visible changes in Jim s style over the courses of the leadership development programme: Jim has taken time to grow into the School Director role. Having been a Principal in the past, he has had to become more strategic and engage more directly with the multiple stakeholders that are connected with the school. This has given him the opportunity to effectively engage with a wide range of diverse groups. Improving leadership as a team The following year, Jim and the Board took the decision to extend the leadership development programme to the whole of the senior leadership team which comprises of five of Jim s direct reports. Jim is committed to using the leadership development programme for selfdevelopment rather than evaluation, however, the response to the programme was mixed at the outset: It was easier for some of the team than others; the Business Manager, who is from a more commercial background, leapt at the opportunity; the ideas of performance and productivity are already in his language. From others there was some cynicism. However, looking back, the one person who has found most value in their feedback, took it to heart and accepted it, is one who was cynical at the beginning.

4 Leadership development for retention Jim believes that the leadership development programme has great potential for motivating and retaining a strong team. Whilst he has concerns about performance related pay in the education sector, he says that retention of high quality staff is one element of a high performing team: We are doing all we can to improve our educational programmes and wouldn t do things differently if we were paid more. But, I can use performance related pay for recruitment and retention. I can say as a Principal, if you as the top team can help us to retain the best teachers then this is where I can reward you. Using performance related pay in this way is not tied to the curriculum or directly to student learning. At ICS Addis, the team already does a good job of recognising and celebrating achievements but it s not always possible to do this financially in the education sector. By linking performance with retention, the school has created an area where financial reward can be given for performance. The ICS Addis Board is extremely supportive of this drive to develop the leadership capacity of the school. Leadership as professional development In terms of improvement in quality at ISC Addis it has been very important to bring the right people and try to retain them. Offering this kind of professional development is a key factor in keeping the leaders in the school. Jim believes that to have the opportunity to work with a consultant and understand leadership styles and what you need to do to improve is a rare opportunity: I could tell one of the school Principals what to do to improve, but I am a physics teacher, how do I know? It is good to have the instruments to measure and validate how we think we lead. We talk about assessment in the education world and we are all conscious of how important it is to have reliable ways of assessing. When you see your grading in terms of the styles you have and you see how other people perceive you in a concrete way, you need to be able to plan your next steps something the insight from Hay Group provides. That has been really powerful for us and I know the principals have taken it to heart. Beyond the individual coaching, ICS Addis has introduced coaching as a team to start out the school year and help the top team, which has new members, come together: I am proud to see the results for the team after one year, and next year we have more experienced and active members joining the team. I have a sense of real optimism about the way in which we are re-inventing ourselves. Gerard says that the leadership development programme has enabled the senior leadership team to overcome challenges together: International Schools are constantly changing environments students come and go and there is a continual turnover of staff. I could tell one of the school Principals what to do to improve, but I am a physics teacher, how do I know? It is good to have the instruments to measure and validate how we think we lead.

5 Creating a better organisational climate via the OCS Ideal - Actual = Gap There are two parts to the completion of the OCS. The first requires employees to describe the climate as it now exists (the actual climate); the second requires the individual to indicate what the climate should be (the ideal climate). The discrepancy between two parts (the climate gap ) is interpreted as a diagnostic index to identify problem areas within an organisation. Based on the significance of gaps across a work team, the OCS statistically categorises a leader s work environment into one of the four categories: High Performing A climate that makes optimal use of everyone s abilities. This climate suggests that employees are fully engaged and exerting the greatest amount of discretionary effort and organisational commitment. Energising This climate is one that facilitates a high degree of discretionary effort and organisational commitment from employees. Neutral This climate is characterised by several significant gaps or low climate dimensions. Employees experiencing Neutral climates are unlikely to be exerting their full degree of discretionary effort or commitment. Demotivating Characterised by significant gaps in many or all climate dimensions. Demotivating climates are likely to result in high turnover and frequent absences, and are likely to inhibit discretionary effort, leading to employees to perform significantly below their optimal levels. The future at ICS Addis As ICS Addis looks forward to the next school year, there is a lot of excitement about the future and the potential the team holds from both the leadership team and the Board. The Board has given a real vote of confidence in what the top team is doing, the direction in which they are going and the improvements that are being made to the leadership development programme. Going forward the top team will work their leadership skills into the classroom with the aim that the school can say "every student will grow every year. "As part of this ICS Addis will be measuring metrics such as whether students are at the expected level for their age group, and whether they made the expected level of progress over the last 6 months. The leadership development training will help to prepare the team for these conversations with teachers. Gerard believes that the strong leadership of the ICS senior team will enable them to take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead: This year the school has the opportunity to continue its journey towards its mission to be a pre-eminent school on the African continent, and Jim has the opportunity to leverage the great talent in his senior leadership team, who for the first time have all been appointed by him. From a personal point of view, Jim has some goals for next year too: I was creating a better work climate in the second year, but it got worse this year during the changes we are going through. But, that means next year I will make great improvements. We have the opportunity as a new team to have a great year together. Want to know more about using coaching to improve leadership capability in your organisation? Dubai, United Arab Emirates Suite No. 2301, 23rd Floor Festival Tower, Dubai Festival City P O Box Dubai United Arab Emirates t +971 (0) w haygroup.com/uae Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Kingdom Tower 28th floor, Office 1409 P. O. Box Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia t +966 (0) w haygroup.com/sa