Understanding Effective Leadership

Development

John West-Burnham

Components of Effective Leadership

• Strategic direction and ethos• Teaching and learning• Developing and managing people• Networking and collaboration• Operational matters• Accountability

(PricewaterhouseCooper 2007)

Why leadership?• As far as we are aware, there is not a single

documented case of a school successfully turning around its pupil achievement trajectory in the absence of talented leadership.

• Total leadership accounted for a quite significant 27 per cent of the variation in student achievement across the school. This is a much higher proportion of explained (two to three times higher) than is typically reported in studies of individual headteacher effects.

(Leithwood 2007)

Barriers to Effective Leadership

1. Operational dominates strategic

2. Problems with holding to account and developing

3. Difficulty in modifying/changing behaviours

PricewaterhouseCooper (2007)

Developing Leadership

Authority derived from:

• Status and position

• Knowledge and experience

• Relationships and qualities.

Outcomes of leadership development programmes

• Social interaction• Access to information• Motivation – inspiration• Skills development• Behavioural – attitudinal change• Building confidence• Personal growth

Impact of Learning Strategies

Training components and combinations

Impact on job performance

Knowledge

Skill Transfer

Theory Low Low Nil

Theory and demonstration Medium Medium Nil

Theory, demonstration and

Practice High Medium Nil

Theory, demonstration,

practice and feedback High Medium Low

Theory, demonstration,

Practice, feedback and

Coaching High High High

Joyce and Showers

Development Methods and Impact on Pupil

Performance• Theory, demonstration and practice

have negligible impact on performance.• The addition of feedback moves the

mean of pupil attainment to the 66th percentile. (0.39 effect size)

• The addition of coaching moves the mean to the 95th percentile. (1.7 effect size)

(Joyce – Student Achievement Through Staff Development)

Experience Knowledge Creation

AcademicTraining

Practice

Relating theory and Practice

Theory

West-Burnham 2005

Non-directive

Directive

Generic

Personal

Training

Teaching

Facilitation

Mentoring

Action Learning

Development Strategies

West-Burnham

Leadership Learning (1)

Shallow Deep Profound

• Means Memorisation Reflection Intuition

• Outcomes Information Knowledge Wisdom

• Evidence Replication Understanding Meaning

• Motivation Extrinsic Intrinsic Moral

(West-Burnham 2005)

Leadership Learning (2)

• Challenge• Cognitive development• Social interaction• Theory <> practice• Context based• Review and reflection

Effective Leadership Development

• Shared language• Explicit criteria• Non-chronological• Personalized• Cumulative• Outcomes focused

Principles

• Leadership as collective capacity

• Process not event

• ‘Predict and Prevent’ not ‘Find and Fix’

• Targeted