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Professor Alma Harris

Institute of Educational Leadership

University of Malaya

Uplifting Leadership: Your Performance, Your People and Yourself

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.

Michelangelo

The paradox of organizational success

What got you there won’t keep you there.

Leading for High Performance

It is no longer enough to respond to change –organisations must design change or be left behind

High Performance

Will not occur without some change in leadership or leadership practice

Organizational Improvement &

Sustainability

Leadership a key lever of high organisational performance.

Successful organisations have widely and carefully distributed leadership (Leithwood et al, 2009; Hargreaves, Boyle and Harris, 2014)

Effective leaders grow and manage other leaders

Leadership: What we Know

We need to know what type of leadership will transform and sustain organisational learning?

Peter Senge, (2006)

In a world of global networks, we face issues for which top down leadership is inherently inadequate

So Leadership Matters

What type of leadership transforms organisational performance and sustains outcomes?

But

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Action v Interaction

Level 1 Capable individual

Level 2 Team manager

Level 3 Competent manager

Level 4 Effective Leader

Level 5 Executive

Channel ego needs away from themselves

Focus on larger goals

Are ambitious for their institution and not themselves

Widely distribute leadership

Level 5 Leaders

An organisation cannot flourish – at least, not for long – on the actions of the top leader alone. ……. many leaders are needed at many levels. (Fullan, 2002)

Leadership Capacity

Implication

A shift away from vertical, hierarchical, role based leadership to a lateral, capacity building model.

What does leadership look like in different sectors?

What lessons can we learn from high performing organizations and the way they are led?

But

3 Sectors: Business, Sport and Education

(Hargreaves and Harris, 2010)

School Heads, Asst HeadsTeachers, TA's

StudentsAdministrative Staff

9 SitesPrimary & Secondary

LEA's

EducationUK

CEOsVP's, DirectorsMid-managersFront line staff

5 SitesMedium to large companies

BusinessUK, USA, & Italy

Directors, ManagersCoaches

Consultants

4 SitesProfessional & amateur

sports teams

SportUK, Australia, & Ireland

“My job as CEO is not to make

business decisions - It’s to push

managers to be leaders.”

Fiat

Cricket Australia

SHOEbuy.com

Findings

More Similarities than Differences

Context Shaped but did not define Leadership practice

High Performance Leadership has certain common features

Creativity and Counter-flow

Measuring with Meaning

Measure

What you value

Share your targets

Be transparent

Interpret Evidence Intelligently

Make your metrics meaningful

Sustainable Growth

Collaborating And Competing

Leadership in High Performing Organisations (Hargreaves, Boyle and Harris, 2014)

Competition AND Collaboration

1: The Fallacy of Speed

2: The Fallacy of Replacement

3: The Fallacy of Numbers

4: The Fallacy of Prescription

5: The Fallacy of Competition

5 Myths about Change

Uplifting Your People

Uplift Your People

Know your people

Draw best out of them

Build Trust

Convert Weakness into Strength

How?

Distributed leadership (Harris 2008)

Leadership shared and extended within and between and across organizational boundaries:

Distributed leadership is exercised by a range of people within an organization, extending to those with no formal leadership status in the hierarchy.

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What is distributed leadership?

Distributed Leadership Matters

(Harris, 2014)

Expertise not position

Distributed accountability

Distribution is non permanent

Changing roles and responsibilities

Leadership as practice

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So does DL make a difference?

(Harris 2008)

Improved organizational outcomes

Improved organizational learning

Improved staff morale and self efficacy

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“Without stones, there is no arch.” – Marco Polo

What Does High Performance Leadership Look Like in Different Countries?

New Leadership Study

7 System Leadership

Contact

Website

Terima TerKasih

TERIMAH KASIH

Professor Alma Harris (Director Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Malaya)

Q and A