leadership study

TABS 2009

COURTENAY SHRIMPTONASSISTANT HEADMASTERST. ANDREW ’S COLLEGE

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Excellence in Independent School

Leadership

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Me

Growing upDean of Students (LCC)Assistant Headmaster (SAC)M.A. in Leadership from Royal Roads

UniversityAuthor: National Study of Head of School

Leadership in 2009

The Complex Landscape for Independent School Leadership

Primary = Educational Mission

Service Industry

Hospitality Industry

Business – Million dollar budgets – Not-for-Profit

Employer – Hundreds of employees

Charitable Organization

Marketing and Communications Firm

Community oriented organization

A School or a (Not-For-Profit) Business?

“An independent school is a business and the Head's of today are CEO's. Understanding how to effectively manage a business is not something academics come to naturally. The learning curve is big for new Heads.” (H2#25)

Leadership is not to be Feared!

Leadership means Influencing…

“Leadership is defined broadly as influencing task objectives and strategies, influencing commitment and compliance in task behaviour to achieve these objectives, influencing group maintenance and identification, and influencing the culture of an organization” (Yukl, 2002)

“influence…seems to be a necessary part of most conceptions of leadership” (Leithwood, 1999)

2009 National Study on Effective Head of School Practices and Characteristics

INVITATION SENT TO ALL CAIS SCHOOLS TO PARTICIPATE

140 PARTICIPANTS IN TOTALREPRESENTING MORE THAN 40 SCHOOLS

ACROSS CANADA

Research Question

“What personal and professional characteristics and practices are

indicators of effective leadership for Heads of Canadian independent

schools?”

FOUR INDIVIDUALS PER SCHOOL: HEAD OF SCHOOL

CHAIR OF THE B OARD TWO SENIOR ADMINISTRATORS

Survey Design

Informed Consent

Large Demographic Section

1 Opening Qualitative Question

33 Quantitative Questions

2 Open-ended Qualitative Questions

Study Results

1. Overall Qualitative Results2. Overall Quantitative Results3. Overall Study Results4. Results By Demographic Group

Chairs vs. Heads vs. Senior Admin. Men vs. Women Boys Schools vs. Girls Schools vs. Co-ed Schools Small Schools vs. Large Schools Day Schools vs Day-Boarding Schools

Qualitative Results

Opening Question:

Write down what you believe are 3-5 key elements of effective Head of School practice.

(Please answer before you proceed to other questions)

Over 600 responses

Quantitative Results

Think-Pair-Share

Most Important Professional Practices for a Head of School…

Most Important Personal Characteristics for a Head of School…

1. Visionary – Strategic Thinking2. Ethics, Trustworthiness, Integrity and

Judgement3. Excellent Communication Skills –

Speaking/Listening4. Effective Interpersonal Relationship Building and

Management5. Educational Specific Knowledge/Skills6. Empathy, Compassion and Patience7. Leadership, Leadership skills8. Tremendous Work Ethic and Energy9. Distributed Leadership or Delegation10. Management and Process Focussed

Coded Qualitative Results – Key Characteristics of an Effective Head of School

Overall Quantitative Results

Top Five Most Important Practices for a Head of School

#1. The Head of School actively promotes the mission of the school in all decisions. (Boarding = #2)

#2. The Head of School considers the long-term vision for the future of the school. (Boarding = #1)

#3. The Head of School considers the impact decisions have on the entire school community.

(Boarding = #3)

#4. The Head of School has an understanding of the significant financial issues of the school. (Boarding = #6)

#5. The Head of School works to develop a positive school spirit/climate. (Boarding = #5)


Top Five Least Important Practices for a Head of School

#1. The Head of School teaches in the classroom or coaches. (Boarding #1)

#2. The Head of School manages initiatives from conception to application.

(Boarding #4)

#3. The Head of School has detailed knowledge of technology and its use in the classroom.

(Boarding #2)

#4. The Head of School attends meetings at all levels of the organization.

(Boarding # 3)

#5. The Head of School focuses on the daily operation of the school. (Boarding #5)


Top Five Most Important Characteristics for a Head of

School

#1. Trustworthiness

#2. Ethical

#3. Strong Communicator

#4. Intelligent

#5. Distributes Leadership

Top Five Least Important Characteristics for a Head of

School

#1. Spontaneous

#2. Cautious

#3. Parent-Centred

#4. Process-Oriented

#5. Management Focussed

When you put Quantitative and Qualitative Data Together…

Eight Overall Findings1. Systems’ Thinking and Strategic Thinking

What do you see?

#1 is Systems Thinking

Systems Thinking is …

“a way of helping a person to view systems from a broad perspective that includes seeing overall structures, patterns and cycles in systems, rather than seeing only specific events in the system. This broad view can help you to quickly identify the real causes of issues in organizations and know just where to work to address them” (McNamara, 2008)

#1 is Systems Thinking -- Business

Jesse Stoner in her extensive study on the impact of vision on organizational performance.

Leaders who demonstrated strong visionary leadership had the highest performing teams.

Those with good management skills but limited vision had average teams.

Those without vision and weak in management had poor teams.

#1 is Systems Thinking

“The shared commitment to living the mission, vision, and value statements become

the moral purpose for the school.” (Fullan)

#1 is Systems Thinking in Practice

Davies, Ellison and Browning write that school leaders must have the organizational ability to…

Be strategically oriented;Translate strategy into action;Align people and organizations;Determine effective strategic intervention

points;Develop strategic capabilities

Systems Thinking

Those leaders who fail to attend to the systems at play within an organization, and who fail to focus on the future vision of a

company, do so at their organization’s peril.

Eight Overall Study Findings…

Quantitative and Qualitative Findings Combined

1. Systems’ Thinking and Strategic Thinking2. Ethics and Trustworthiness

#2 Ethics and Trust

“There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it”

Denis Diderot

Day, Harris and Hadfield (2001) studied twelve schools in England and Wales and found that the leader’s own ethics and values played a substantial and significant role in the overall ethical orientation of the school:

“Good leaders are informed by and communicate clear

sets of personal and educational values which represent their moral purposes for the school”



1. Systems’ Thinking and Strategic Thinking2. Ethics and Trustworthiness3. Communication

#3 is Effective Communication

“Transforming leaders clarify and illustrate the vision, values, and beliefs by using metaphors, analogies, stories, ceremonies, celebrations, rituals and traditions” (Pielstick, p.

20). It is through these relationships and the communication within these relationships, that conversation becomes a conduit for building the transformative capacity of both individuals within the organization and the organization itself.

#3 is Communication

“The alternative to effective communication models can result in schools where, comparatively few teachers were able to speak with any confidence about the elements of the vision. This would suggest that… the headteachers of these schools had not consciously and deliberately set out to communicate their vision to colleagues and to ensure that its influence permeated every aspect of organisational life.” (Bolam et al 1993).

Factors Affecting Group Communication Processes

Argyris – Ladders of InferenceTuckman – Developmental Communication

Sequence in Small Groups

Janis – Groupthink DeBono – Six Thinking Hats

The word “listen” contains the same letters as the word “silent”



1. Systems’ Thinking and Strategic Thinking2. Ethics and Trustworthiness3. Communication4. Emotional Intelligence

#4 is Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence refers the capacity to recognize your own feelings and those of others, for motivating yourself, and for

managing emotions well in yourself and in your relationships.

#4 Emotional Intelligence


“If leaders fail in this primal task of driving emotions in the right direction, nothing they do will work as well as it could or should".

Goleman and Kee (1996)

(1) Self Awareness (2) Self Management(3) Social Awareness(4) Relationship Management.

Goleman and Kee – Primal Leadership

Leadership Styles Leader Characteristics

Visionary (Resonance) Inspires, believes in own vision, empathetic, explains how and why people’s efforts contribute to the ‘dream’.

Coaching (Resonance) Listens, helps people identify their own strengths and weaknesses, counselor, encourages, delegates.

Affiliative (Resonance) Promotes harmony, nice, empathetic, boosts moral, solves conflict.

Democratic (Resonance) Superb listener, team worker, collaborator, influencer.

Pace-Setting (Dissonance)

Strong drive to achieve, high personal standards, initiative, low on empathy and collaboration, impatient, numbers-driven.

Commanding (Dissonance)

“Do it because”, tight control, studiously monitors, clear direction, good at emergency.



1. Systems’ Thinking and Strategic Thinking2. Ethics and Trustworthiness3. Communication4. Emotional Intelligence5. Transformative versus Charismatic6. Distributed Leadership

#5 is Transformative and #6 is Distributed

The Industrial Mindset:Reality as a Great Machine

The Emerging Mindset:Reality as a Living System

Separate Parts Wholeness/Relationship

Power and Control Co-create and Participate

Certainty/Predictability Uncertainty/Probability

Objective/Knowable Subjective/Mysterious

Singular events Continuous Process

External Causation Internal Causation

Scarcity Abundance

Transformative vs. Charismatic

Charismatic is an adjective that describes the attributes of a singular person.

Transformative is a verb that has no particular attachment to an individual, but is

an action word that can be applied to individuals, groups, organizations

Smile Factor or Action

#5 is Transformative Leader

“We judge leaders not only by the

effectiveness of their actions, but also by the meanings they create and teach.”

Nye, J. (2009)

Transformative to Distributed Leadership

Do we wait for a prophet, religious or charismatic, to appear on high? The related theory and research of the past fifty years, and best practice of the 1990’s indicates

otherwise, for it plainly tells us that no single person alone has the combined capacity to do

the job. (Telford, 1996)

#6 is Distributed Leadership

“Leaders will need to effectively involve others and elicit participation because tasks will be too complex and information too widely distributed for leaders to solve problems on their own” (Schien)

Sergiovanni makes the same point more forcefully for the world of education by suggesting it will require a collective of empowered interest to be successful.

#6 is Distributed Leadership

“The notion of leadership density, where teachers (and others) become empowered to take on the role of leaders, and jointly undertake the institutionalization of the school’s vision, is fundamental to the notion of collaboration”(Telford)

How “dense” and empowered is your school environment?

Distributed Leadership and Healthy Debate

Collins (2001), indicates that the most successful companies involved teams where vigorous debate was encouraged as part of the decision-making, but once the process was decided, unwavering commitment was

enforced.

Transformative and Distributed Leadership

Robert Starratt has gone so far as to develop a model of leadership known as the

communal institutionalizing of vision. Starratt contends, “if schools are to be successful,

leadership must be transforming, translating vision into the daily operation of educational activities through shared processes”. (1988)



1. Systems’ Thinking and Strategic Thinking2. Ethics and Trustworthiness3. Communication4. Emotional Intelligence5. Distributed Leadership versus

Management6. Transformative versus Charismatic7. Intelligence

#7 Intelligence

Surprise that is not nearer the top of the list?Not one mention of advanced degrees in

qualitative responsesDoes not require the all knowing leader, but

engages the collective intellectual capacity of all the “who” within an organization

First Who, Then What…

Collins and New Intelligence

Jim CollinsLevel 5 Leadership Level 4 Leadership

First “Who” First “What”

Get the right people on the bus. Build a superior team

Set a vision for where to drive the bus. Develop a road map for driving the bus.

Then “What” Then “Who”

Once you have the right people in place, figure out the best path to greatness

Enlist a crew of highly capable “helpers” to make the vision happen.


Quantitative and Qualitative Findings Combined1. Systems’ Thinking and Strategic Thinking2. Ethics and Trustworthiness3. Communication4. Emotional Intelligence5. Distributed Leadership versus Management6. Transformative versus Charismatic7. Intelligence8. Finances, Advancement and Governance not

as important

#8 Finances, Governance, Advancement not as important?

Much feared development of a CEO model….X

Advancement and Governance questions ranked #18, 24, 25, 27 out of 32 in the quantitative results

Few people commented on this as a priority in the qualitative

Research participants clearly felt that the financial side of a school, can be delegated to an effective business manager and sub-committee of the Board of Governors.

Eight Findings Come Together

“This power cannot be predicted by assessing the strength of individual forces or by

summing their combined power. It is the simultaneity of their convergence, that they

all come together in the moment, that creates their power” (Wheately and Frieze)

Eight Findings Come Together

“Someone who has a clear vision for the school, leads the Board to support it through an organic, inclusive process, inspires others to understand the vision's meaning and significance, and communicates it with all constituents of the school community. The Head needs to exercise excellent judgement and act in the best interest of the school's future. He or she must be determined and committed to the school and have a passion for the future of society and the betterment of the world through an unwavering belief in the possibility of youth” (H1#24).

Huge Differences in Some Areas

A comparison of different constituent groups:Heads vs. Chairs vs. Senior AdministratorsMen vs. WomenBoys Schools vs. Girls Schools vs. Co-ed

SchoolsLarge Schools vs. Small SchoolsDay Schools vs. Day-Boarding Schools

Constituent ResultsHeads vs. Chairs vs. Senior Admin.

Top Three Differences#1. Chairs of the Board believe it is a more

“Mandatory” for Heads to ensure that Upper Management are carrying out their daily operational functions effectively by 30.1% over those in Senior Administration and 15.6% over Heads of School.


Top Three Differences#2. Chairs of the Board and those in Senior

Administration believe a Head of School who teaches in the classroom or coaches is not an important element of Head of School leadership over Heads of School by 27.4% and 26.7% respectively.


Top Three Differences#3. Chairs of the Board believe it is more

“Mandatory” for Heads of School to facilitate the growth of faculty and staff culture by a difference of 25.8% over those in Senior Administration and 11.6% over Heads of School.

Constituent ResultsMen vs. Women *

Top Three Differences____more than ____ feel that it is a more

“Mandatory” part of Head of School practice to… 1. …maintain links with, and be a frequent

presence in, all parts of the school community by a difference of 23.8%.

2. …facilitate the growth of faculty and staff culture by a difference of 23.4%.

3. …to be available to people, accommodating and generous with their time by a difference of 22.9%.

Constituent ResultsBoys’ vs. Girls’ vs. Co-ed

Top Three Differences#1. Girls’ and Co-ed schools feel that it is a

more “Mandatory” to be involved in the hiring process for all faculty by a difference of 43.6% and 30.3% respectively over those in Boys’ schools.

Constituent Results Boys’ vs. Girls’ vs. Co-ed

Top Three Differences#2. Individuals who work within Girls’ and

Co-ed schools feel that it is a more “Mandatory” part of Head of School practice to manage conflict effectively by a difference of 41.7% and 35.2% respectively over those in boys’ schools.

Constituent Results Boys’ vs. Girls’ vs. Co-ed

Top Three Differences#3. Individuals who work within Co-ed

schools feel that it is more necessary to delegate teaching in the classroom or coaching as a part of Head of School practice by a difference of 34.4% over those in Boys’ schools and 21.3% over those in Girls’ schools.

Constituent ResultsLarge Schools vs. Small Schools

Top Three Differences#1. Individuals who work within Small

schools feel that it is more a mandatory part of Head of School practice to be involved in the hiring process for all faculty by a difference of 36.6% over those in Large schools.

Constituent Results Large Schools vs. Small Schools

Top Three Differences#2. Individuals who work within Small

schools feel that it is a more “Mandatory” part of Head of School practice to be available to people, accommodating and generous with their time by a difference of 28.6% over those in Large schools.

Constituent Results Large Schools vs. Small Schools

Top Three Differences#3. Individuals who work within Large

schools feel that it is a more “Mandatory” part of Head of School practice to consider the long-term vision for the future of the school by a difference of 22.9% over those in Small schools.

Constituent ResultsDay vs. Day-Boarding

Top Three Differences#1. Individuals who work within Day-

Boarding schools feel that it is more mandatory/significant a part of Head of School practice to be a charismatic individual by a difference of 17.2% over Day Schools.


Top Three Differences#2. Individuals who work within Day schools

feel that it is more mandatory a part of Head of School practice to have an understanding of the significant financial issues of the schools by a difference of 17% over Day-Boarding Schools.


Top Three Differences#3. Individuals who work within Day schools

feel that it is a more mandatory part of Head of School practice to be involved in the hiring process of all faculty by a difference of 16.8% over Day-Boarding.

Next Steps

ReflectionProfessional development – Individual and groupFocus group extension of resultsLeadership HandbookLeadership Institutes for New HeadsHead Evaluation and Compensation Committees

based on agreed Head developmentLeadership/Management Team and Board

development workshopsAccreditation AgenciesHead Search Firms

Thank you!

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