Leadership is where you find it
I have a number of personal contacts who are teachers and who happen to work in good schools here in the UK. What do I mean by good schools… not my definition but that of the inspectors who have rated at least two of them ” outstanding” in terms of the education they provide. What is interesting to me is that in both of these schools the teachers I know and it seems their peers find the leadership of the head master appallingly bad. In one where I have much more knowledge, the heads actions would not be tolerated in any other organization. Poor work ethic, poor technical skills in their subject, atrocious man management, blame culture and not backing staff against parents or the local authority in times of disagreement. So what is happening? In these two examples both schools in terms of performance of their task are really outstanding against an external standard and the experience of the kids.
My belief is in areas of vocation, rather than jobs, people rise to the challenge of doing good work regardless of the head of the organisation. More so than in a commercial organisation the drive and determination of the staff makes great things happen. The larger good, the clear worthwhile goal , the uniting interest , serves to somehow replace the leadership placed by authority. A good result can be gained by the leadership emerging from a second, third level line of the organisation. In these institutions people lead themselves where there is a vacuum of real direction and support – in some instances in spite of objections and interference from above.
So what can we learn from this? Well shared goals and uniting beliefs, which are hallmarks of a vocation, seem to have more drive than any vision or mission from a leader who you don’t believe adds any value. Can we as managers of people get more shared understanding and more of a core belief in what we are doing? I think we can.
What is really sad is how good could these schools be if the head teachers were good? that is such a waste !!
