stepping up to executive headship · case study: mark thompson 21 • transition: bbc to new york...
TRANSCRIPT
Stepping up to Executive Headship
Inspiring Leadership 2017
Birmingham
James Toop
Chief Executive
About us
2
• 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)
• 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
Background
3
• Role requiring ‘a new and different mix of skills and experience’ (White Paper)o as yet no comprehensive guidance on the skill-set
they needo limited and largely outdated research
School leadership journey 2017
4
Senior leader
Headteacher
Executive head
CEO
• Role and identity• Skills and behaviours • Preparation and transition
Agenda
6
Start with why
7
How
What
Simon Sinek, ‘Start With Why’
Why
• Why do you want to step up to executive headship?
• How will you do it?
• What will you do differently in the new role?
What is an Executive Headteacher?
8
• 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
Core EHT roles
9
Leadership identity
10
• What is my professional identity?
• Who do I belong to?
• What am I accountable for?
Core EHT skills
11
Vertical development
12
• 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
Vertical leadership mindsets
13
Spotting talent: a common language
14
• Role and identity
• Skills and behaviours
• Preparation and transition
Agenda
15
1. Intense stretch experiences (the what)
2. New ways of thinking (the how)
3. Strong development networks (the who)
Breaking linearity
16
Types of development activity
17
“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, 2016
Stretch development
18
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?
Example stretch assignments
19
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
Transition management
20
Case study: Mark Thompson
21
• Transition: BBC to New York Times Company, 2012
• Context: Three-month gap, two-weeks agenda meetings
• Key lessons:o Successful transition starts
during the interviewso Demeanour during on-boarding
is criticalo Good EA is cultural translatoro Participate in early decisionso Get out of the officeo Eat, meet and greeto Find the balance between impulsive and slow-moving
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 12-18 month period
Approach to new role is critical – listen, observe, question
How can you increase the chances of success?
22
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)
Executive Educators
23
25