VIEWS & OPINION Winning in a post-Covid world: the five questions all
school leaders must start answering now Comment by STEVE RADCLIFFE, leadership expert and author of the best-selling book, ‘Leadership Plain and Simple’
At the time of writing this article, primary school leaders are preparing for a safe return for their pupils in reception, year 1 and year 6, as well as addressing the safety and well-being of their staff. It is a worrying time for both the school and parents in what feels like an impossible situation; you’re damned if you send your child back to school or damned if you don’t. Plus, with government advice changing almost daily, school leaders need to handle the ‘new normal’ with sensitivity and adapt to whatever their current situation presents.
However, in times of great change and uncertainty I can honestly say in my 25 years of experience of coaching school leaders, it will be teams that will lead schools and school partnerships to future success. The two immediate priorities for any school leader at this unprecedented time will involve; making sure the staff and pupils are cared for and doing what’s needed to keep the school alive now.
Nevertheless, I want to help head teachers, principals and CEO’s of MATs work with their teams, to also spend focussed leadership time on exploring what success in the new post-Covid future will look like and how collaboration with their teams can best lead to that future. This is my suggestion on how you can best nudge your teams.
I believe this will involve you starting to answer five questions, and in a particular way. There’s never been a time when it has been more important to answer them.
My plain and simple view of leadership is that it involves just three parts; Future – Engage – Deliver (FED). Therefore, I want to help you actively carry out some outstanding work in the Future space in a way that helps you Engage deeply and set yourselves up to Deliver.
An essential question for any school leadership team at this challenging time is:
What is the school/school partnership/MAT you want to build together that will help you succeed in the new world?
At this stage we must resist the temptation to go straight to design mode and answer this question. First you need a deeper understanding of the new context you will be playing in. So there are two other questions you must first address. Here are the five questions in order:
Five questions to guide you to a successful post-Covid future
Question 1: What will be the key features of the future world you will aim to succeed in? To design a school structure that will have the best chance of succeeding in the future, you’ve first got to have a sense of what will be key aspects of that future. These can include policies, government goals and targets, partnerships, organisational frameworks and structures, best practice, technology etc.
June 2020
Question 2: What will be the key features of the industry you will be in? Similarly, you must have a feel for where the education sector will be in the new future to have the best chance of succeeding in it. Key aspects can include innovation, staff/student/government/parent expectations, threats of disruption, research, QA, curriculum, flexibility, T&L, wellness etc.
Question 3: What is the organisation you want to build together that will have your team succeed in the new world? Your thinking on this question will be much richer after you’ve explored the first two questions. Be prepared to think big and broad and take a fresh look at your purpose or vision or strategy etc.
Question 4: What is the size of the gap between where the organisation is now and where you want it to be? You need to be aligned not only on where you want to be but also in how much of a change
that is from what you have today. This will need an honest look at current capability, processes, activities, culture etc.
Question 5: What will your leadership look like that will powerfully lead you to the future you want? Your leadership has got you to where you are today but may not be exactly what’s needed to get you to where you want to be. How will you need to grow as leaders to be most effective individually and together in this new future?
These are the five questions we believe any school/school partnership/MAT should answer. You can maximise the impact by answering them with the following thoughts in mind.
First, don’t try to answer them by yourself. This constantly changing world is way too complicated and multi-faceted. We suggest you proactively seek different perspectives brought by a range of colleagues. By inviting colleagues to co-design the future with you, this will release untold creativity and start to build that energising sense of ‘we are up to something together'.
Second, please notice that we encourage you to ‘start to answer these questions’. I say this because we are in times of enormous change and you need to be regularly updating your answers to continually refresh your thinking on the focus, shape and feel of your future organisation.
Third, if you’re in a team responsible for a part of your organisation, you will not be able to develop full answers for your part without them first being answered by the senior leadership team in your school or MAT. So, if you want to do a great job in the teams you are in, please send these questions to the top team and request their answers to them. Finally, to summarise, you have the present to manage and a future to build. I hope these questions will help you support your teams to work together to build a successful and sustainable future.
You can receive a free copy of the audio version of the book at:
http://www.futureengagedeliver.com/www/downloads/LeadershipPlainand
Simple-mb4.zip
www.education-today.co.uk 25
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