power and love in leadership

Power and Love in Leadership

Steve Munby, CEO, CfBT Education Trust

CfBT’s Mission

To provide outstanding, sustainable education solutions that transform the learning in schools and settings for millions of children and young people worldwide.

Power: the drive to achieve one’s purpose, to get the job done, to push things to a conclusion

Love: the drive to connect things, to bring people together, to unify

Power & Love

“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anaemic”.

Martin Luther King

Power v Love Leading with confidence v Leading with humility Being challenging v Being open to challenge Transformational leadership v Respecting the context Being competitive v Being collaborative

i. Leading with confidence v Leading with humility

ii. Being challenging v Being open to challenge

iii. Being transformational v Respecting the context

“.....we have been witness to countless uncomfortable examples of executives who feel that the art of leadership is to give unfettered expression to their true selves in bold, take it or leave it fashion. They typically find that others choose to leave it. Leadership is not achieved by riding into town – cowboy fashion – and shooting it up. Skilful leaders, to continue the analogy, need to get a sense of the town and to conform enough so that they are seen to be acting in the best interests of the townspeople, so they can lead change without being shot early in the proceedings.”

"Why should anyone be led by you" - Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones

“strategies that travel well, travel with nuance.”

Michael Fullan

iv. Competition v Collaboration

“Competition and Collaboration are not contraries. They are complementary. In every aspect of life we do both....The Olympic Games combine immense co-operation in structure and rules with intense competition in events. Only in a harmonious oscillating dance of both competition and co-operation can the extremes of control and chaos be avoided and peaceful permanent order be found”

(Dee Hock 1999)

“ If you want to walk fast, walk alone. If you want to walk far, walk together”

African proverb

• A profession that sets high standards, taking seriously the evidence of what works,

• Enthusiasm for excellence, even when it is achieved by other local schools,

• Accountability that starts with those we serve: children, young people and their parents,

• A commitment to continuous improvement, for others as well as ourselves.

Towards a ‘self-improving’ system

“When the wind of change blows, some build walls others build windmills”

Chinese proverb