1. An introduction to middle leadership
Starting to Lead
An introduction to middle leadership
WELCOME
STARTING TO LEAD – is the first in a series of Bite Sized training resources designed to develop the skills and knowledge of those new to middle leadership in schools, colleges and academies.
Other training in the LEARNING TO LEAD series include:
Leading your team
Turning vision into practice
Performance management and appraisal
Dealing with difficult and challenging people
In order to facilitate today’s training, you will need:
Copies of the PowerPoint slides printed three to a page with space for notes for each participant
Copies of the accompanying ‘Starting to lead’ handout for each participant
Flip chart paper and marker pens
All resources for this training are available to download from the SecEd website (add link) or by from
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2. Outcomes from today
By the end of this Bite Sized Training you will be able to:
Describe what middle leaders and managers DO
Explain the main skills and behaviours of a good middle leader
Identify your own personal strengths and potential weaknesses in terms of leading and managing people
INTRODUCTION
Starting to lead will focus on the three key pieces of learning that those new to middle leadership need to know:
Understanding what leaders and managers in school actually DO
Exploring the main skills and behaviours of a good middle leader
Be able to identify your own middle leadership strengths and those areas that need development.
So, before we address the first question - ‘what do middle leaders and managers actually do? – let’s reflect on what we mean by middle leadership and management.
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3. Leadership or Management
The diagram clearly shows the difference between leadership and management – leadership is about turning your vision into an action plan (strategy), whilst management is about taking strategy and delivering what needs to be done (Execution).
ACTIVITY
Think about your own middle leadership role (you might want to choose just one aspect of area that you lead on:
What is your vision for the area you lead – try to condense this into one or two sentences.
Now think about HOW – How will you and your team turn this vision into a reality.
Finally, think about WHAT and WHO – What will you and your team do to deliver your strategy? Who will do what?
Share your ideas with the group:
Are there similarities that mean middle leaders could work together and share work and responsibility for these?
Are there areas you will need support with?
How does your plan fit with your school’s priorities?
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4. What do Middle Leaders DO?
ACTIVITY: WHAT DO MIDDLE LEADERS DO?
Working alone, think about the question ‘What do middle leaders do?’
Work in pairs to share your ideas and come up with an agreement on your top five tasks for middle leaders
Share your top five tasks with the whole group
Record the groups response on flip chart paper – you will come back to this later in today’s training.
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5. Action Centred Leadership (Adair)
Task
Team
Individual
ACTION CENTRED LEADERSHIP
Adair - a key writer and theorist on leadership theory and practice – came up with the concept of ‘action centred leadership’: The idea that our leadership should focus on what we as individuals and our teams aim to achieve. Without this focus on ‘action’, there is little point in leading since nothing will change, improve or be delivered.
Adair goes on to say that effective leadership is about maintaining a balance between the task to be accomplished, the individuals who contribute to the task and the team that the individuals form in their shared responsibility to complete the task.
Let’s look at Adair’s ideas in a little more detail.
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6. Action Centred Leadership (Adair)
Put simply, managing the TASK is about making sure that we produce the right things, in the right way, at the right time, to the right standards.
Managing individuals is about getting the best out of people: Setting clear standards, giving them support and tackling underperformance so that AS A SCHOOL we achieve the TASK.
This is about managing fairly and openly to motivate an engage people so that they are willing (as well as able) to achieve the TASK. This is what builds our future.
ACTIVITY: Action centred leadership (Adair)
Work in small focus groups to discuss the three key areas of Adair’s action centred leadership model – Task, Individuals and Team.
Reflecting on one area of your middle leadership that you choose, discuss:
Task – What is the task? How do you make sure your leadership produces the right things, in the right way, at the right time and to the right standards?
Individual – What strategies do you have to get the best out of people? How do you set clear standards, provide them with the right support and tackle underperformance?
Team – How do you know that you lead your team fairly and openly? What strategies do you have to motivate and engage your team? How do you keep your team looking forward to the future?
Share your ideas with the group and add them to the key leadership skills sheet you produced earlier in the session.
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7. The Dangers of working too much in…
TASK
INDIVIDUAL
TEAM
Only focus on ‘here and how’
Little planning
No development
Crisis management
People feel neglected
Team morale suffers
People get stressed
People leave
No common goal or approach
Rumours start
Danger of ‘favouritism’
Standards slip
Manager finds it hard to detach and be impartial
People become ‘victims’ with the manager the ‘saviour’
Having a good time is more important than achieving results
Hard to make ‘tough’ decisions
Individuals ‘carried’ or overlooked
People stop taking personal responsibility
Team becomes isolated
THE DANGER ZONE
Some middle leaders focus their leadership on one of the three key leadership areas – task, individual or team. This can impair the quality of good middle leadership.
ACTIVITY: DANGER ZONE
Thinking about your own middle leadership and the area for which you are accountable, what would your leadership look like if you focused too much on one of the key areas above?
Taking each area in turn – Task, Individual and team – identify what your danger signs would be?
What steps could you take to ensure that your middle leadership remains balanced across all three areas?
Share your ideas with the group and add the key points to your action sheet.
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8. Make it Work at Work
What are you going to DO as a result of this Bite Sized Training session?
MAKING IT WORK AT WORK
ACTIVITY: What will you do as a result of this Bite Sized Training?
Working in groups, look at the action sheet you have produced during today’s training.
What are the three key learning points for you?
What will you change tomorrow to improve your middle leadership?
How will you know when your change has been successful?
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9. Where next?
STARTING TO LEAD – is the first in a series of Bite Sized training resources designed to develop the skills and knowledge of those new to middle leadership in schools, colleges and academies.
Other training in the LEARNING TO LEAD series include:
Leading your team
Turning vision into practice
Performance management and appraisal
Dealing with difficult and challenging people
Bite Sized Training offers a wide range of school based CPD sessions designed to be used as sharply focused yet active training sessions of no more than 45 minutes in length. Bite Sized Training materials are produced by Steve Burnage through Steve is an experienced author, trainer and education consultant with over 25 years experience of working in UK schools.
For details of other CPD offered through Bite Sized Training, or call
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