The journey to leadership is never easy. Many years working towards a position, only to find there are are so many other elements to the role that you never expected or, indeed, were warned about.
Primary leadership, of course, is all encompassing. From developing school improvement plans, financial accountability, HR matters, to sorting out playground squabbles.
No two days are ever the same, but that is what makes the role both challenging and hugely rewarding. The diversity of tasks a head has to fulfil daily, allows the job to be anything but repetitive.
My own journey to leadership didn’t follow the usual path; I came into teaching late. After training as a secondary Drama and English teacher in 2005, through the now rebranded Graduate Teacher Programme, and was focused purely on a career in secondary education.
School leadership
I spent my time snuggled cosily in the corner of a typical drama studio of a large secondary school, whiling away the hours teaching the whys and wherefores of Stanislavski, and the finer theatrical points of Bertolt Brecht. But after five years of teaching a gamut of expressive qualifications, I realised that I was, in fact, very bored.
So, I transitioned to primary. And after five further cutting my teeth in the primary classroom and progressing through senior leadership, I was given the opportunity to lead a school.
Leadership styles
It took me a long time to feel comfortable in the position. As a new headteacher, I was always looking for the correct way to do things. I was desperate to present myself as the archetypal school leader every minute of the day.
When moving into any new leadership position, we immediately try to find our default. A characterisation that allows us to protect ourselves from vulnerability.
The old tropes around career advancement were centred around keeping your staff at arm’s length, reducing any real presentation of emotion and, importantly, never showing any kind of weakness. You were supposed to maintain your employees’ utmost confidence in your unwavering ability to lead on all levels, all week, all term.
Of course, these fallacies of leadership, regardless of their origin, are continually passed down time and time again and, unfortunately, serve to do no more than reduce leadership recruitment by the thousands. If not passed down, picked up by bizarre educational osmosis as we find ourselves, somehow, believing that these qualities are the essential characteristics that will keep us protected in our role as leaders. Masquerading our imposter syndrome by adding a superficial layer of leadership and in turn, removing the personal in order to become the persona.
How to be a good leader
That said, with the high-stakes accountability and the need to show rapid improvement, in sometimes the most difficult circumstances, the ability to work behind a persona can appear to be the first action of the embattled leader and rather preferable to say the least.
Sadly, looking at the projection for headteacher retention, the unwavering reality of school leaders leaving their posts is something that we are all becoming too familiar with and, given the current circumstances, coupled with the ever changing roles within our schools, there is an ever growing amount of empathy for those that do decide to move away from the profession.
Moving forward, however, it is important that we focus on a conversation of leading in the now and making sure, as leaders, we reflect on the current challenges within our role in order to be the best we can be for the pupils, parents, carers and staff members that require us to be there, day in day out, ensuring the highest quality education we can offer. In essence, navigating the challenges together in order for us to remain standing up.
The key to all of this is honesty; be yourself, a mentor once told me. The ability to lead with authenticity and genuine humanity. This may sound glib but it’s possibly the best piece of advice I was ever given. Acknowledging ourselves as individuals, sharing our fallibility, presenting always as human and ensuring we connect on a personal level to our staff and wider stakeholders, enabling us to lower our shoulders and, furthermore, reduce the much wasted energy we spend by trying to be someone else.
Of course, for some of us, this is easier said than done. However, this isn’t about blurring the lines of professionalism, nor shifting accountability from the roles we hold, but merely a consideration to explore leadership through a different lens.
3 steps to transparent leadership
- Know that you don’t know
Feeling the need to answer every question on demand may look like that you are highly efficient but, failing to give the correct answer or the wrong advice, will only serve as a negative. Have the confidence to say I don’t know…yet! - No journey is the same
Never compare yourself with others. There will always be younger leaders, more effective leaders, leaders who are trailblazers of education, leaders who are adorned with accolades and the educational equivalent of the Midas touch. Remember, it’s all about the journey, we get there in the end. - Go to where the information is
When making changes to school culture, strategic or operational, consult. There will always be someone in your school who has been there longer than you. Who will have witnessed what has gone before, what worked and what didn’t. Don’t be afraid to go to where the information is.
Dan Edwards is a former principal of Woodstock Primary Academy, Leicester.
