Leadership provocation

Distributed leadership: is it possible?

School Leadership Model A

Traditional hierarchy:

• SLT 4,6,8 (possibly slightly more) people

• HoD/middle leaders up to 16 if every subject represented

• Everyone else 30 + people in average size secondary school

Conversations in the staff room

‘It’s not my job’ …‘I didn’t know’ …

‘No-body told me’ …‘I’m not the HoD’ …

‘SLT say/want’ …

School Leadership Model B

• Tiered staff structure with differentiated levels of responsibility and accountability

• All teaching staff responsible for development of subject dependent on level

• Collegiate approach Admin and bureaucracy removed

Conversations in the staff room

‘I didn’t realise that was my job’ …‘I don’t see why I should be doing that’ …‘What do you mean I should have done

that?’‘We need a HoD’ …‘SLT say/want’ …

Conclusion

• That many staff don’t want to be empowered

• They don’t see leadership as part of the job

• They would rather depend on someone else telling them what to do so that the person can be blamed for when it goes wrong

Questions

• How do we get staff to see themselves, and behave, as leaders?

• How do we break the cycle of dependency?