Leadership Mindset

Sue EgersdorffDirector Early Years

March 2012

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The Big Picture

• Key drivers – autonomy, collaboration, freedom, diversity, self improvement, accountability

• The challenges – building capacity, confidence, trust, climate of austerity

• The goal – balance - autonomy but not isolation - diversity no barrier to

collaboration - accountability not tight

regulation

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• Reducing variability

• Narrowing the gap – increasing life chances

•Enhancing sustainability

Ongoing Leadership Challenges

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What matters most?

AmbitionFocusClarityUrgencyIrreversibility

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Professional continuum

Starting points Continuing professional Leadership System

development development development

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Setting to setting support

• Comes in many forms

• Differentiated and contextual support

• Driving quality improvement – a continuum

• Evidence and research

• Funding and focus

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Co-ordinated action

•Moving away from service silos

•Increasing democratic accountability

•Increasing engagement with parents, carers and families

•Seeing all leaders actively seeking more and new ways to work together – fostering “mutuality”

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Likelihood of Delivery “Deliverology”

Exercising judgement:

• Degree of challenge• Quality of planning, implementation and performance

management• Capacity to drive progress• Stage of delivery

Key to delivery = “Gentle pressure relentlessly applied”

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Working in partnership

• Who are your partners?

• Reciprocity?• Time for trust?• Adaptive and flexible?• New models and

partnerships?

“In this new wave of technology, you can't do it all yourself, you have to form alliances.”

Carlos Slim Helu

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Role of Teaching Schools

As well as offering training and support for their alliance themselves,

Teaching Schools will identify and co-ordinate expertise from their alliance,

using the best leaders and teachers to:

1 play a greater role in training new entrants to the profession 2 lead peer-to-peer learning3 spot and nurture leadership potential4 provide support for other schools5 designate and broker Specialist Leaders of Education (SLEs)6 engage in research and development

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The End Game

Grinding out increments is a noble cause ….. But where progress is slow, it’s even more important for people to understand the strategy.

Michael Barber 2007

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Call to action?

• Infuse, augment traditional offerings with new ideas

• Combine aspects and attributes that work

• Counteract negatives and reaffirm shared values

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Talking reality

Opposed Struggling to cope

Get it! Motoring!

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Adopt a growth mind set

Jim : When did you start?LL: At 2:5 yearsJim: How many hours a day did you

practise?LL: For the first 15years, 8 hours a

dayJim: And now?LL: 3 hours a dayJim: Everyday? LL: Yes

Lang Lang

World Concert Pianist

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.. and authentic leaders know they are unfinished and that leadership is a

lifetime’s practice