Working with your Head to build an effective Leadership team

Aims of the session Make the case for being the best leadership team you can be Explore what it takes to be an effective leadership team and notice when its not working Enable you to take away practical ideas for your own team

Teams in practice?

Why an effective SLT is so important Successful leadership practices, influence pupil outcomes through their proximal effects on such key school conditions as, for example, school culture, academic focus in the school, the school’s behavioural climate Effective leadership relies upon an increasingly close and collaborative relationship between head teachers and the SLT The four key leadership practices that make the difference 1. Building vision and setting direction 2. Understanding and developing people 3. Designing the organisation 4. Managing and supporting the teaching and learning programme

The overwhelming case The Same “Basic” Leadership Values And Practices Are Enacted In Contextually Sensitive Ways. E.g. Disadvantaged school and community contexts both required and received more intense leadership effort by heads and others providing leadership in schools. School Leaders Improve Teaching And Learning Indirectly And Most Powerfully Through Their Influence On Staff Ability, Motivation And The Conditions of Teachers’ Work. E.g. Head teachers’ perceived involvement in the promotion of CPD activities and the encouragement of teachers to think innovatively about their practice. School Leadership Has A Greater Influence On Schools And Students When It Is Widely Distributed. Distributed leadership cultivated a sense of ownership and agency on the part of staff, helped develop a vision for the school shared by most staff, increased staff understanding and sense of responsibility for whole-school matters, buffered teachers from non-teaching responsibilities, and developed the leadership potential of other staff.

The overwhelming case Some Patterns Of Distribution Are More Effective Than Others E.g. Variation in staff readiness could provide justification for quite different patterns, a consultative pattern for staff with less leadership capacity and a pattern providing for more decisional authority for staff with relatively well-developed leadership capacities. A Small Handful Of Personal Traits Explain A High Proportion Of The Variation In Leadership Effectiveness. In particular, the extent to which leaders feel self-efficacious (self confident) about their work. Self efficacy is linked to persistence in the face of sometimes daunting challenges and initial failure. Department of children, schools and families research report 2007

Building Blocks for Effective Teams Roles match members abilities Balanced roles Goals are clear and agreed with. Team norms encourage high performance, quality, success and innovation Clear objectives and agreed goals The team gets, gives and uses feedback about its effectiveness and productivity Openness and confrontation Members are tolerant of and embrace differences in the team Support and trust The team is cohesive. Conflict is frequent but brief and the team utilise effective conflict management strategies Co-operation & conflict The leadership style matches the teams development level Appropriate leadership The team evaluates its decisions and regularly reviews its effectiveness Regular review Individuals are encouraged and enabled in their development Individual development The team cultivates constructive working relationships with other teams Sound inter-group relations An open communication structure allows all members to participate. Good communications and Sound procedures Based on the work of Wheelen, S. Creating Effective teams

Create the conditions Build and maintain the team Coach & Support the team The 3 central leadership tasks of a team Shared values A clear task Resources.... Through: Developing skills Appropriate processes -decision making -problem solving -conflict managing... Give them direction & support Be sensitive to climate Encourage information exchange

Watch out for Calling the SLT a team but managing members as individuals Leadership imbalance Giving too much autonomy or exercising too much authority Skimping on the support available to the team Assuming the team will develop and become effective as if by magic

What do teams need? Storming Start up Norming Performing

Norming What do teams need? Start up Eagerness, Anxiety Why are we here? What’s my role? What are we supposed to be doing? Collaborative Working, Task success, Confidence, Ambition & Energy I’m proud to be part of this team. The sum of the whole is greater than the individual parts How can we do better? Sharing responsibility, Developing trust, Establishing a positive team culture Lets get down to business. What can I do to help? Storming Testing boundaries, Competing, Clashing Expressing dissatisfaction, Surfacing Differences, Who has control here? Are my needs being met? It’s not working

Start up Phase Start up What most needs attention at this stage? What is likely to happen if these needs are not met? How can these needs best be met?

Storming Phase Storming What most needs attention at this stage? What is likely to happen if these needs are not met? How can these needs best be met?

Norming Phase Norming What most needs attention at this stage? What is likely to happen if these needs are not met? How can these needs best be met?

Performing phase Performing What most needs attention at this stage? What is likely to happen if these needs are not met? How can these needs best be met?

References Gold, N Teamwork: Multi disciplinary perspectives University of Nottingham interim report on behalf of Department of children, schools and families in conjunction with National college for School Leadership The Impact of School Leadership on Pupil Outcomes. Research Report DCSF-RR018 West, M Effective Team work: Practical lessons from Organisational research West, M & Markiewicz,L Building team based working: A practical guide to organisational transformation Wheelen, S Creating effective teams. A guide for members and leaders