Three tips for talking to teachers when their pay is higher than performance Pay is always a hot, emotive topic, and in teaching it’s about to get a lot hotter; performance-related pay is going to mean some difficult conversations around pay every year. But in the first two years, 2013/14 and 2014/15, these conversations will […]
So often I see visions which are a sentence and, whilst in many instances less is more, in this case I believe less really is less. You see a vision is exactly that; a vision, a picture, and as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words (not a sentence). I’m not saying your […]
Please don’t feel like you need to get everyone’s input or agreement for your vision. I know we live in a time when we feel we must get consensus and more often than not I totally agree with this, but I believe that creating a vision is something best done by an individual or a […]
I know that sounds like it’s a beauty product, but it’s true! When we have a problem, something that is gnawing at us, weighing us down, we tend to look tired and older. So often I’ve sat down to coach someone and they have looked like they are carrying the world on their shoulders; the […]
Not enjoying what you do has a lot of downsides. Gallup have conducted a lot of research into this, far too much to cover here, but some juicy snippets are: People who use their strengths at work are six times more engaged in their job People have a better quality of life to the order […]
Alright, I admit, I don’t enjoy conflict any more than you do; my heart pumps harder, my palms get sweaty, I can feel my voice wobble and I worry terribly that I’m going to upset the other person and risk doing some irreparable damage. But I know that conflict is good, at least healthy conflict […]
Conflict is a daily part of life as a leader; sometimes it’s big, sometimes it’s small, usually it lands on us, but if you want be the best leader you can be, and create the best school culture you can, then you need to look for conflict. I don’t mean you go ‘spoiling for a […]
I get to work with a lot of great head teachers, ones with a real sense of moral purpose, who work hard and are willing to make tough decisions for the benefit of their pupils. But one thing keeps coming to me as an issue that these capable, purposeful heads face: managing adults. Not in […]
I’m working on my ability to procrastinate. I know what you’re thinking: why would you want to procrastinate? But this is no ordinary procrastination, this is positive procrastination. Positive procrastination is all about doing stuff other than what you should be doing. Procrastination on its own is about doing nothing or very little. Part of […]
I spent a great day with a head teacher and deputy head working on difficult conversations. These two were a great fun pair who, to their credit, never shied away from having those conversations so many of us avoid. However, they had reached a point where they both had some conversation classed as ‘top-level trickies’ […]
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