Doing the right things, and doing things right

Steps to Being a More Effective Leader

Andy Hockley

EAQUALS Conference

Firenze, 18th October 2016

Ingredients•Leadership & Management – a brief definition

•Some research findings into academic management

•A summary of what this leads to

•So… how can we be more effective leaders

•5 things you can do

•Wrap up

Leaders and ManagersWhat is leadership? What is management?

Where do they differ?

“Management works in the system; Leadership works on the system.”Stephen Covey

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

Peter Drucker

We need…

..to do the right things but also to do things right

Do we have the opportunity to lead?

Questions What are the biggest professional challenges facing you today?

What aspects of the job have got easier?

What do you wish you could spend more time doing?

What do you wish you could spend less time doing?

Biggest challenges today?•Balancing business/academic - quantity vs quality

•Recruiting/holding onto good teachers

•Dealing with pressure from above, institutional expectations

•Changing needs of customers. Especially online learning

•Competitive /uncertain market

•Motivating staff/ meeting teacher expectations

•Customer service/keeping clients happy

What’s got easier? •Communication tools

•Technology for admin tasks eg timetabling/record keeping/student tracking

•Experience

What responsibilities would you like to remove?•bureaucracy/admin tasks/form-filling

•marketing and sales

•operational tasks

•business planning

If you could rewrite your job description what would be your new priorities?• developing teachers

•more time with teachers

•more time with students

•strategic planning

•hire more people / reduce workload

•monitoring student progress

•curriculum development

•keeping up to date with ELT developments

In summary•A feeling of lack of control (sometimes responded to by being overcontrolling)

•No time to plan or look forward

•No time to work with teachers and talk to students. No time to be an educator.

•Too much focus on the numbers, not enough focus on quality

“The politics and business of the industry has grown enormously! I thought we were teaching English!”

So what? How can “leadership” be made less vague and more accessible?

How can we become better leaders, while still managing successfully?

Becoming a more effective leader

1. Make time

2. Get to know your team

3. Look forward

4. Make sure things are being done

5. Trust the staff

1. Make time As managers in LTOs much of our time (all of it?) is spent fire fighting. Dealing with issues as they arise, resolving conflicts.

In short – reacting In order to be more proactive and to have the chance to step back and take a look at the bigger picture, we must make time.

What are the big rocks? Prioritise Think about “Quadrant 2”

Working inside Quadrant Two

Examples of Quadrant 2 activities1. Improving communication with people

2. Better preparation

3. Better planning and organisation

4. Taking better care of self

5. Seizing new opportunities

6. Personal development

Take care of urgent things before they become urgent

Write down all the Quadrant 1 and 3 activities you routinely do (all the Urgent stuff)

Write down how you can prevent these things from reoccurring or from becoming emergencies in the first place: These are your new Quadrant 2 activities.

Free up time for Quadrant 2 activities

Look at all the things in Quadrant 4 and STOP DOING THEM! Look at all the things in Quadrant 3 and stop doing them too. This is more difficult as it involves saying NO to people.

You should now have time to spend on Quadrant 2

Schedule time for Quadrant 2

Schedule time to do Quadrant 2 activities. (Put them in your calendar just like a meeting).

DO THE THINGS YOU SCHEDULED!

Reduce Quadrant 1 The beauty with spending more time in Quadrant 2 is that it should slowly chip away at all your Quadrant 1 activities.

As you reduce your Quadrant 1 activities you have more time for Quadrant 2

2. Know your team•What do the individuals in your team need?

•What do they want?

•Why do they teach English?

•Why do they teach English at your school? (Why do they work for you?)

•What are their plans?

•What are their strengths?

•What are they worried about?

Building the team•understand the team members as individuals - personality, skills, strengths, needs, aims and fears•assist and support individuals - plans, problems, challenges, highs and lows•identify and agree appropriate individual responsibilities and objectives

3. Look forward Shared Vision Not some corporate branding idea A statement generated by your team which outlines what kind of workplace you want to have, what the purpose of the work is, and so on

An example This language school is dedicated to learning and we, as a team, are working to develop our students’ learning. In order to do that we are a supportive team who work well together, who help each other, and who keep at the cutting edge of new ideas in our profession. We want this to be the best place to work in this city.

The vision Keep it in mind, and revisit it from time to time

4. Make sure things are being done

Pay attention to the means, pace and quality of progress towards the aim If things are not being done well, or effectively, or in a reasonable time, then ask why.

As a leader - it’s OK to manage Check in, establish standards, monitor, offer support, MBWA

Focusing on the task•identify resources, people, processes, systems and tools. Create the plan to achieve the task - deliverables, measures, timescales, strategy and tactics•establish responsibilities, objectives, accountabilities and measures, by agreement and delegation•set standards

Embrace KPIs1. Were the lessons challenging and interesting?

2. Did the teacher make me work hard?

3. Did the teacher give me enough homework?

4. Was the teacher well prepared?

5. Did the teacher have clear objectives for every lesson?

Agree strongly – Agree – Not sure – Disagree – Disagree strongly

Compare with previous years whole school averages

More feedback1. What’s good?

2. What’s bad?

3. What’s annoyed you at work recently?

4. What do you need to be happier at work?

Post responses.

What has been done

What will be done

What teachers could do themselves

Why this won’t change

Trust your staff

You hired adults. Treat them like adults.

Zen management You need to know what’s going on, but do you really need to be in control of all of it?

Traditional communication: Manager -> Teacher

Better communication: Teacher -> Manager

Remember the major issues•A feeling of lack of control (sometimes responded to by being overcontrolling)

•No time to plan or look forward

•No time to work with teachers and talk to students. No time to be an educator.

•Too much focus on the numbers, not enough focus on quality

And how to deal with them1. Make time

2. Get to know your team

3. Look forward

4. Make sure things are being done

5. Trust the staff

Motivating Purpose Task, Progress, Results

Upholding Group Unity Attention to Individuals

4 dimensions of leadership"Leadership is a process that involves:

• setting a purpose and direction which inspires people to combine and work towards willingly;

• paying attention to the means, pace and quality of progress towards the aim

• upholding group unity• attending to individual

effectiveness throughout."

3 levels of leadership (3P)Public: In group setting, or in wider organisation

Private: One-to-one interactions

Personal: Self (development, growth, understanding, reflection, self-mastery)

Focus on key leadership behaviours, but also goes further – looking at skills and knowledge underlying the behaviour, and how to learn them

Also looks at psychology of leaders and has strong focus on self-mastery

What leaders do

Grazie! Giles, S. (2016) The most important leadership Competencies, according to leaders around the world. Available at: https://hbr.org/2016/03/the-most-

important-leadership-competencies-according-to-leaders-around-the-world (Accessed: 16 March 2016).

Goleman, D. (2000) ‘Leadership that Gets Results’, Harvard Business Review, March-April.

Goleman, D. (2004) ‘What Makes a Leader?’, Harvard Business Review, January.

Hockley, A. (2016) ‘Six Steps to Leadership’ IATEFL Leadership and Management Newsletter, (47), pp. 6-8.

Pickering, G. (2010) ‘Developmental Opportunities for Leaders’,IATEFL Leadership and Management Newsletter, (41), pp. 7–13.

Scouller, J. (2011) The three levels of leadership: How to develop your leadership presence, knowhow, and skill. United Kingdom: Management Books 2000.

Semler, R. (1989) Managing without managers. Available at: https://hbr.org/1989/09/managing-without-managers (Accessed: 21 March 2016).

MindTools (no date) Management by wandering around (MBWA): Staying in touch with your team. Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_72.htm (Accessed: 16 March 2016).

White, R., Hockley, A., Laughner, M.S. and Jansen, J.V.D.H. (2008)From teacher to manager: Managing language teaching organizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.