Welcome back!
A shiny new school year!
I hope you had a great break, and have come back rested and recharged to work your magic, to give your communities’ children great education.
And at the start of the year I bet you’ve got some great new initiatives in mind.
Something that is going to improve an area.
It’s exciting.
The promise of improvement is alluring.
However, beware! Last year I asked school leaders whether their initiatives turn into consistently applied, well embedded practice.
30% said yes.
70% said no.
That’s a bit disappointing. But here’s what you can do.
This is about leadership and followership.
And we don’t talk about followership very much.
We talk about leadership, and taking responsibility a lot more.
So what is ‘followership’?
I think this is succinctly put in the phrase: lead, follow, or get out of the way.
Let’s break this down.
- Lead – you can be at the front, leading the way, helping the initiative work and getting people on board. You know this one well.
- Follow – you get on board. You do what is asked. You help improve it.
- Get out of the way – if you don’t like it, either do something to improve it or go along with it. But don’t just block.
So whether you’re launching a new initiative or embedding an old one, try to think about your team in this way, it can help you plan for long term success more effectively.
My view is, if you can, focus energy on embedding one thing really well – one that is really important to your children’s education.
I’ve seen in the recently outstanding schools I’ve visited that when you have everyone on board, initiatives don’t just embed, they can be powerfully fine tuned – which is impossible to do if everyone is not on board and not leading, following or getting out of the way.
Spotlight Resource
The insight I shared above comes from my Outstanding School Test.
- Discover how close you are to being outstanding
- Get specific tips to help you close the gap
- You’ll receive your results instantly
- It takes just 10 minutes
Take the test: https://outstandingschool.scoreapp.com