Author: Andy Buck
Reasons to read:
- This book is appropriate for aspiring, and current, educational leaders
- To gain insight into the dynamics of educational leadership
- To reflect on your own practice
Key notes:
- It is important for leaders to understand their predispositions and also take time to understand the context of situations before deciding on an action.
- Discretionary effort is the result of the culture and climate you create. The more positive the culture and climate, the more likely your team will be to go the extra mile to drive results.
- Line manager characteristics are one of the most significant factors that affect the motivation of staff.
- Understanding what tends to cause you to feel stressed can help you manage and react to stress inducing situations.
- Data such as lesson observations should be conducted regularly enough to understand the context of your team but not so regularly that colleagues feel constantly under scrutiny to the detriment of their well being and performance.
- People enjoy doing things they are good at. Try to delegate tasks amongst the team to the people who will be good at them and therefore enjoy them. Play to your team’s strengths by understanding the individuals’ strengths and limitations.
- Great schools revolve around clear aims and the idea of a shared journey towards a destination understood by pupils, teachers and parents.
- It is important for pupils to be aware of opportunities and see ‘people like them’ doing jobs that interest them. Extra curricular planning is vital for this.
- Decision making bias is likely to kick in when 1. there is lots of information. 2. There isn’t much information. 3. We need to act fast.