LEADERSHIP
Take your staff with you
As a school
leader, you
will already be
turning your
thoughts to the new school
year. Margaret Adams
explains how to take your
school staff with you as you
prepare to hit the ground
running in September
S A school leader you are probably
A
thinking about the term ahead in
September almost as much as you
are thinking about the approaching
holiday.
the tasks your school will need
to address in the autumn are, no
doubt, already on your personal agenda.
Getting the support of staff in school is, in part, to
do with the quality of your development plans and the
methods you use to implement them. It is also about
how you motivate your staff to ensure they want to
support you.
Motivating staff can encompass a whole range of management agenda, your staff will be more likely to
issues. Motivation can be focused on financial reward. recognise and value your commitment to help them.
It can be about recognition, and how valued and
Taking the lead: HTI
supported people in school feel. Offer everyone support on workload
It can be about how strong a sense of self-worth
people carry around with them. It can be about how
management
effective people think their school is at enabling them teachers face many challenges. one challenge that is
Actions speak louder than words
to succeed. always ready to pounce on teachers is the challenge of
Creating the type of working environment where workload management. Most teachers will need help
people are well motivated can be a challenge. After with this issue at some point in their careers.
Real understanding
I know through our work that some schools
and local authorities are really making progress in
all, many things in school are beyond your control to You will have set up a support structure for your
change and improve. NQts, but will you be revisiting the principles of time- and real
cracking this issue. these are the ones that are taking
a strategic approach. equally, I am aware that some
You cannot suddenly increase your budget. You management, prioritisation, and delegation in your schools and services are struggling to know where
cannot instantly refurbish your site, or house your INSet programme in the autumn?
partnerships are
to begin. It’s hardly surprising when you have a
school in new buildings. You cannot buy all the Do you have a peer support process ready to cocktail of people with different agendas, day-to-day
resources that you would like to have available to help people before they become swamped with the
support your school’s staff. volume of tasks they are expected to complete, and
made through doing and
priorities and pulls on time, even if they do all buy
into the philosophy behind eCM.
however, there is still a lot you can do to motivate overwrought because they are struggling to meet too
your staff effectively, even when resource is limited. many deadlines?
helping each other, says
I believe there is only so much understanding
you can achieve through talking. Real understanding
As you prepare for next year, are you planning to Since everyone in school has workload problems comes through doing. A fantastic starting point is to
use the approaches to motivation below to help you to from time to time, it is sensible to have a strategy in
Anne Evans
make helping one another a central part of daily life,
take your staff with you when September arrives? place to help everyone to deal with these issues. People not just by being co-operative in meetings or at the
will gain a sense of achievement if they feel they are end of a phone, but by putting yourself in the shoes
Tell the world how well your staff do
coping well with their work. helping people to keep So, the much-anticipated White Paper has been of one of your multi-agency peers and experiencing
Schools are usually good at telling the local community on top of the job is good for individuals and their announced, confirming much of what had already their agendas, priorities and pressures for yourself.
about their ofsted results and their students’ examination motivation. It is also good for your school. been leaked and amounting to not a great deal more We have been brokering stretch assignments for
successes. however, they are often less good at letting than tweaks to existing structures. teachers to work in business and non-educational
the world know about their staff members’ successes.
Send more people home
the “news” of the day was the teachers’ Mot settings for more than 20 years.
When staff win awards, when people in school Do you have staff members who arrive early and stay in to ensure they are up to the job, plus a handful of these assignments are not just a cosmetic exercise
take part in national projects, when they distinguish school late every day? Do you have staff who just never initiatives designed to support and strengthen the in observing leadership and management outside
themselves in local events, do you promote their seem to go home? delivery of every Child Matters (eCM) outcomes. education. teachers are there to actively contribute
achievements in your newsletters and on your Working long hours is sometimes necessary. Working the White Paper summary made passing reference and through the process of contribution the learning
website? long hours every day can be counter-productive. to the creation of multi-agency teams in schools and is embedded.
Do you produce press releases and notes for As a leader, you know it is achievements that count, expressed a commitment to removing barriers to We intend to adapt and use that model to support
governors about these successes? Do you let everyone not the number of hours that people spend on their partnership working. For me, it is these teams and deep relationship building and understanding across
in school know how much you value your staff work. helping your staff to understand this can assist how effectively they work together that is going to be agencies. Working alongside police officers, social
members’ contributions? them to focus their efforts on the most important tasks. increasingly crucial in helping every child to aspire workers or healthcare professionals, teachers would
Furthermore, do staff themselves recognise, and It can also help them to use their time at work more and succeed and, in particular, ensuring that the hard- be tasked with developing a community-focused
value, the praise they receive from school leaders? effectively. to-reach do not slip through the net. project specified by the host organisation.
It is a good idea to check with staff from time to time Making sure that people do not spend too long at It is clear that, without even touching on the We have already successfully applied this model
that they believe you celebrate their successes, and that work will also give them the opportunity to develop and looming issue of squeezed budgets, no single within the public sector. one teacher worked with
they feel valued as a result of this recognition. If they sustain the right balance for them between their working initiative is going to be a panacea to the challenges her Primary Care trust (PCt) to develop a strategy
do, it will help to boost morale and enhance motivation lives and their lives outside work. this is something that lie ahead. the way in which children’s services for improving the health of adolescents. Another
throughout school. that many teachers struggle to achieve alone. work together may well be though. honed her project management and networking skills
Working in a school where the leaders recognise that that one small word “partnership” is loaded with when she worked with a PCt on a project to tackle
Pay attention to staff welfare issues
people have lives beyond their jobs is something that implications and fraught with potential complications childhood obesity.
It is the time of year when you have been reviewing and most teachers will value. in the journey towards its realisation. It’s a warm, Working with the Neighbourhood Renewal
updating a lot of things. As part of this process, have It is a strong motivator to be recognised as a person cosy word that implies an inherent unity of purpose Unit, another teacher helped to forge links between
you looked at your staff wellbeing policy, your work/ as well as an employee. It is one of the best forms of and togetherness. the reality, as I know only too well extended services and neighbourhood management,
life balance policy, your stress management policy, and recognition that leaders can offer their staff. from our own work, is often very different. and in the process realised how these links could
the aspects of your health and safety policy that affect As is so often the case, it is not the “what” make the task of extended services delivery so much
your staff?
Conclusion
that is challenging, but the “how”. the same is easier.
Keeping the principles of staff welfare in people’s It is worth spending a little time before the summer true of the recommendations made by the National It was these direct experiences, this process of
minds, and re-iterating your commitment to look after finally arrives thinking about how you intend to Council for educational excellence for strengthening being a central part of the daily lives of peers in
the wellbeing of staff members, are important aspects implement your plans for September, as well as refining relations between education and business – an equally other agencies, that made partnership a living reality,
of your approach to people management. the detail of those plans. important focus for partnership working. rather than a cosy word. But – and it’s a big but – the
If you also update your guidance on these subjects, taking your staff with you in the autumn will be By the time you read this, I will have had focus has to be strategic, the goal must be an active
you will be demonstrating that you recognise their easier if you do this extra planning. It will also help you the privilege of hosting a dinner for 14 directors contribution and the outcome must be tangible. It’s
importance in school. to ensure that the new term will be a success before it of children’s services, together with representatives good to talk, but actions speak louder than words.
You will be demonstrating that you want to help begins. SecEd from a wide range of community organisations,
your staff to achieve, and you are taking steps to ensure agency services and local government. there is one • Anne Evans OBE is chief executive of HTI, an
there is a structure in place to help everyone in school • Margaret Adams is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute item on the agenda: what do we need to do to work independent social enterprise working to develop
to perform well. of Personnel and Development and also a former together more effectively? exceptional school leaders. Email a.evans@hti.org.uk
therefore, if you keep staff welfare issues on the teacher.
SecEd • July 9 2009 13
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