LEADERSHIP REALLY MATTERS!

It's interesting that Tony Blair spoke recently about the leadership deficit we face in so many crucial aspects from politics to banking and from the NHS to education. And Sir Michael Wilshaw has been stressing the importance of great leadership driving great teaching and learning.

The problem with education as in so many areas of our professional and personal lives we are faced with managers not leaders and the trouble is that we need leadership if we are serious about building a world class education and learning landscape. I know that leadership and management must go hand in hand but I also know that they are not the same thing. The manager’s job is to plan, organise and coordinate. The leader’s job is to inspire and motivate. In his 1989 book “On Becoming a Leader,” Warren Bennis composed a list of the differences:

– "The manager administers; the leader innovates.
– The manager is a copy; the leader is an original.
– The manager maintains; the leader develops.
– The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people.
– The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
– The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
– The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
– The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader’s eye is on the horizon.
– The manager imitates; the leader originates.
– The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
– The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person.
– The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing."

Peter Drucker was one of the first to see the emergence of the “knowledge worker,” and the profound difference that would cause in the way everything was organised. And with the rise of the knowledge worker, “one does not ‘manage’ people,” Mr. Drucker wrote. “The task is to lead people. And the goal is to make productive the specific strengths and knowledge of every individual.” In other words to release their magic!!