LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE: GETTING IT DONE How can middle leaders close the gap between big thinking and successful doing? - Getting it Done White ...
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JANUARY 2023 LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE: GETTING IT DONE How can middle leaders close the gap between big thinking and successful doing?
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: FROM MIDDLE MANAGEMENT TO MIDDLE LEADERSHIP Edinburgh January, 2023 We’ve seen what’s possible with the incredible but "I have developed skills in often neglected cadre of department heads, coordinators, year group leaders and technology leading "from behind". I am coaches in schools. Since we started our Leading learning how to coach and from the Middle course in the height of the mentor individuals and my pandemic, we’ve worked with over 300 of them, and team through strategic and their senior leaders, to reinvent middle authentic methods. Many of management as Middle Leadership. the ideas shared in this We’ve seen every participant record signi cant programme have helped me increases in their con dence to lead and to enable others. And they prove they’ve the skills to do so. develop those strategies and methods.” One part of the course stood out as immediately useful and popular. And it was sorely lacking in any 2021 Graduate other training they’d had. Participants were most engaged by the skills, structures and attitudes it takes to make ideas happen, on the ground. You see, there’s an implementation gap in most schools and school systems. The gap is between what senior leaders and Boards decide and envision, and what action ends up happening in classrooms and in the broader community. For decades, Middle Leadership has been poorly understood and poorly used in most schools. Research shows it’s seen as a thankless stepping stone to senior leadership, a necessary administrative function to keep a small team organised, and conduit for senior leadership’s missives (Forbes 2017). And nearly half of middle and senior leaders don’t take up any opportunities to develop their leadership skills, knowledge and mindset (Victoria State Government, 2021). fi fi
LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE 2023 So it follows that much of the training and support "Following this program my offered to middle leaders, if there's any support at all, takes the form of in-service sessions that focus on the leadership style changed. I tools of facilitating meeting time with peers and became more open and perfunctory management tasks. Or it’s related to the encompassing. I listened, I subject or curriculum they teach. became more supportive. Much of the job remains managerial, rather than Most importantly, I realised leadership-based. If we assume that “the cost of that with opportunities for learning has its payoff in future performance” middle leadership to lead, (Edmondson, 2008) then it is no small wonder we’re not getting the most out of our talent. their con dence will grow and change will happen.” From managing to relationship-building 2021 Graduate Relational leadership offers an ambitious starting point for the development of a different type of Middle Leader in schools, who informs and inspires the kind of agile, “This program really helped whole-school, interdisciplinary work that is needed to me re ne my ideas and start create the exceptional learning experience our young conversations I used to people deserve. Getting good at the skills of relationship think there was not enough building, idea creation, and sharing the load takes time time for. It gave me the and expertise. con dence and tools to help Implementation of ideas is one of the most di cult me think through the things to get right. Even if you’ve got a great strategy and the planning looks solid, there are still many situation on my own.” hurdles to overcome when it comes to executing 2022 Graduate those plans successfully. If you’re looking to roll out a successful pilot to something more visible across a whole community, then some of the approaches we’ve developed for the Leading from the Middle course are essential. We hope this white paper serves as a provocation, and a reminder of what the exciting job of educational leadership is all about, whatever level you’re operating at today. Ewan McIntosh, Edinburgh Jeremy Weinstein, Melbourne Founder, NoTosh Senior Consultant fi fi fi ffi
2020: MIND THE GAP 2023: BRIDGE THE GAP There is a vast cadre of middle managers Remind and re ne the longer term strategy and aspiring leaders who want to take on Reframing the vision so there’s always greater responsibility for school something to reach for; deciding on bold improvement. But the pathway from the moves and the resources to realise them. idea of change to making that change happen isn’t clear. Seek and retain talent Engaging with the team and seeking the Schools are cluttered with busy work, best talent budget allows; making sure that placing demands on time (perceived or the value of that talent is re ected in the actual) that force more managerialism than outcomes of students. curriculum or learning leadership. Add to this an observation: senior leaders Make sure teams work as a team sometimes underestimate what their Defending the shared vision of the school middle leadership is capable of achieving against individual bias and agendas. for whole-school improvement, or they might be nervous about asking any more of Empower the senior leadership team a hard-worked group. Taking the leadership team’s vision beyond immediate urgency or meeting agenda; It’s a fatal cocktail for any organisation balancing and matching up capabilities to wanting to make change happen. achieve more together than an individual Each leader needs to know what is within department can on its own. their eld of control, and what is not. By focussing on their eld of control, the Engage the community leader is able to create more in uence Revisiting and reinforcing the long-term across the system, to get ideas moving on purpose, or ‘why’, of the organisation; the ground (Covey, 1989). There are six building up resilience ahead of any future elements of work in a school that are in the crisis. eld of control of only the most senior leaders - concentrating on these six Act as the example elements, every day, leaves little room to Managing their own time and energy, be doing the work of Middle Leaders as becoming the model for others; planning well. These elements are: beyond themselves, for the good of the community. fi fi fi fi fl fl
LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE 2023 What do excellent Middle leaders do? Most middle leaders know what they’re expected to achieve: the best possible learning outcomes for every student. But less clear is what excellent middle leaders do to help achieve that: 1. They clear the decks: they’re e ective individuals Middle leaders organise themselves in a way that places the improvement of teaching and learning at the heart of every action and job they have to undertake. 2. They understand what matters Understanding what you really stand for, and the dif cult discussions and negotiations you’re prepared to have, helps remove unnecessary hurdles to a school system trying to achieve a collective goal. 3. They build relationships Relationships are the fundamental quality of any successful team, and are not de ned by the department or organisational unit in which you nd yourself. In fact, as Jaser writes in her 2021 HBR article, middle managers play a vital role as leaders that connect senior leaders to junior employees saying, “It is time to … recognize middle managers as connecting leaders.” 4. They understand strategy and their role in it Middle leaders need to sit at the same table as senior leaders when it comes to understanding how strategy works, and what their role is in shaping their team’s goals towards a shared outcome. 5. They learn how to create a shared impact Schools generate hundreds of stories every day that can inform what we do tomorrow, and middle leaders are the key to unlocking every one of those learning moments. 6. They develop a prototyping culture for the long term Design a simple process that helps people know they’re on the right track, doesn’t let effort go untested for too long, and provides support for ideas that are runaway successes. This requires consistent, regular re ection. fi fl fi ff fi
LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE 2023 From knowing what to do, to how to do it. So we know we need to do these things. But how do you do them? That’s what our Leading from the Middle participants wanted to explore the most. Overcoming the implementation gap involves spinning a few plates at once. That’s why it’s hard. The key aspects that make up a successful implementation process include: • Gathering information • Igniting passions • Sharpening the focus • Identifying what you need • Identifying the most suitable talent • Co-designing concrete goals • Over-communicating • Tracking progress • Evaluating your impact. GATHER INFORMATION Successful plans start by identifying a problem that people acutally experience. Too many plans set about solving problems that don’t matter or don’t exist. Traditionally, managers are taught that this is all about framing the key deliverables for a project, the milestones and a deadline. Most organisations then communicate their plan after they have developed it. That’s a huge mistake. None of that work requires leaving your desk. And none of it really gathers information. It doesn’t get a community engaged with it. Instead, we want to source the rationale behind a project in the rst place. That means listening to your community from day one. We want to gather the type of information that tells us their real needs and desires right now. • What type of teaching and learning do you want to see? • What do you think you need to succeed? • What opportunities do you want to explore or which problems do you want to solve? The answers to these questions will act as a rudder to help steer your project. fi
LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE 2023 IGNITE YOUR PASSION Passion creates a sense of connectedness. It builds a connection between teammates, a connection to our human need for meaningful work and a connection to each individual’s sense of value and contribution. It also provides the engine to keep going when the going gets tough. So it’s worth re ecting on whether there’s anything in the information you’ve gathered that gets you excited. Once you’re sure of the exciting things that all that data points to, don’t assume others will get excited in the same way from the start. Paint the picture for your team by connecting each job in the project to a broader purpose that everyone can buy into. SHARPEN YOUR FOCUS Ensure you have a sharp focus on what you’re trying to achieve. Keep it simple. There’s a reason jokes and political speeches talk about things in groups of three. By using this ‘Rule of 3’ you can simplify strategies, metrics, and actions. But that also means you’ve got to strip things away and really focus. Go one step further than that, and identify just one big thing you want people to focus on. Decide what is most important, the one activity that most directly helps you execute your plan even if nothing else is achieved. And know when to say ‘no’ to activities, tasks, reports, meetings, and projects that do not directly support your plan. Do it quickly, delegate it, defer it until later if it doesn’t need done now, or dump it if it doesn’t seem relevant. IDENTIFY WHAT YOU NEED Once you have established the scope of the project, consider what key resources you need to complete it. These resources vary from project to project, but often include raw materials, equipment and staff. You can create a list to help you keep track of these resources or use a project management software tool to help you stay organised. fl
LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE 2023 TALENT TO TASK By de ning what role each team member is ideally suited to perform throughout the project, you can increase ef ciency and better predict your timeline. Before assigning tasks, consider which team members have availability and what their strengths are. Then pair them with responsibilities that match their availability and skill set to increase the overall quality of your nished project. Two important ways of giving your staff the best chance of success are to: • Treasure your talent by treating employee development as a perpetual priority and coaching them with four steps: explain, ask, involve, and appreciate. • Get systematic by creating repeatable work systems and collaborating with clear roles. Who’s going to lead the team, do the work, share their expertise, or get informed? CO-DESIGN CONCRETE GOALS The temptation is for a middle leader to map out all the goals and milestones ahead of time, then launch. But goals owned by the individuals in the team create more momentum to move your plan towards fruition. So co-design your goals with the people doing the work. Link your team’s activities directly to the plan. Clearly connecting the day to day actions of the team to a couple of goals that they’ve co-designed with you brings much-needed structure and routine. It will also highlight the areas that might have been overlooked and apply an additional element of pragmatism. Setting goals with, not for, your team helps draw out things like: • Whether the plan is realistic given resource constraints; • If you have the right people and skills to execute every aspect of the plan; • How well people have understood your overarching objectives. fi fi fi
LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE 2023 OVER-COMMUNICATE Don’t fall into the trap of doing a great job of communicating at the start, only to see efforts fall away as people go back to business-as-usual. Expose your plan to your people, keep it alive and up-to-date, and have people engage with it regularly. Determine what method of communication your team may be using and how frequently you expect status updates. The channels of communication you use can help your team relay important information more effectively, encourage collaboration and build trust between team members. Share your plans with the whole community. Use town halls, video conferencing, newsletters, whatever works best in your situation. But communicate the plan to get everyone behind it and share the progress that’s being made. Communication needs to be two-way. You want to avoid the ‘silence spiral’, where a lack of information is lled with rumour and uncertainty. Be proactive about your communication. You may also consider scheduling a recurring communication checkpoint, such as a biweekly meeting or a termly status report. This can help you hold your team accountable and ensure consistent communication throughout the project. Celebrate your success. Do this throughout the project every time a goal is accomplished to motivate and engage everyone in your team. TRACK AND CAPTURE Ensure everyone regularly updates the progress of their own tasks and goals. Updates should include concrete measurements of progress against the goal, as well as a short line or two of commentary to add colour. That’s it. It takes two minutes, as long as you’ve actually done something to report on. It’s a given that sometimes you’ll need to edit the deadline of a goal or even rewrite it entirely as your project evolves. Just make sure you communicate those changes. fi
LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE 2023 EVALUATE YOUR IMPACT At the end of a term-long sprint of work, or at the end of a project, have a discussion to see what impact you’ve made - it’ll help work out what you do next: • Did you keep to schedule? • Did it need more money? • Was the quality what you expected? • Are people happy with the impact so far? • Does the project still t with the guiding principles of the school? It’s also important to gather stories of those ‘meaningful moments’. Find the stories of impact that show something interesting about student engagement, students taking on more responsibility or improvements in academic results. What are the tangible, concrete, lived moments that indicate the desired change has been made and the intended outcomes reached? Make sense of the ideas, and apply them quickly Reading about what you can do doesn’t make it “So much of what was happen. That’s why NoTosh created the online shared over this course programme Leading from the Middle, where you resonated with me, both learn the ideas and apply them, on the job, as you go. The course helps participants from a theoretical/research perspective and from my • Understand their leadership strengths; own personal perspective • See how to be a more effective leader with their own team; and based on years of experience.” • In uence change across the system. It’s a three-part course, offering 16 hours of live Lisa Lyle, Director, Zurich sessions, over three months, with bonus sessions, International School 2021 events and a learning platform that will bring any Graduate middle leadership team into their own. Short-term challenges, however pressing, monumental, and all-consuming, can’t become long-term managerial challenges for a senior leadership team. Their communities expect leadership, not fl fi
LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE 2023 management, and an eye on the next phase of transition from where we are today, to a brighter place tomorrow. That leadership comes not just from the top, but by Leading from the Middle, too. Relentlessly successful The Leading from the Middle course is particularly successful in empowering leaders to ‘enable others’. This is a vital skill for all leaders as, ultimately, they cannot do it all on their own — and nor should they. The other key success of the programme has been in increasing leaders’ ability to create a more effective vision: in the busyness of schools, leaders have often deprioritised this in the past. With the capacity to co-design a vision with their teams, middle and senior leaders have found it easier to bring colleagues on-side with challenging projects. Finally, we see that leaders’ con dence has risen, whether they are senior leaders or aspiring leaders. We provide easy-to- remember tips, immediately useful tools, and the opportunity to dig deeper into more complex ideas. But we also couple the learning with an expectation to put them to work in a concrete project during the programme. This helps leaders return to their schools with a renewed sense of purpose to lead and enact meaningful change. 10.00% 9.09% 7.50% 7.55% 6.75% 5.00% 5.81% 4.83% 2.50% 3.03% 2.57% 1.30% 0.00% ce gt g ng s ve y ve er t in ili tm ti ti n i on ak h de ra va Ag ot m ec si bo fi no g Vi on oj on in la In Pr C ol l i ab is C ec En D Average % skills increase pre and post programme NoTosh Ltd NoTosh Australasia Let’s start talking. 27 Lauriston Street Edinburgh PO Box 47 Collins Street West hello@notosh.com EH3 9DQ Victoria 8007 United Kingdom Australia fi
DIG DEEPER Our Research Angheloiu, C (2020). Facilitating communities of practice: from individual to ecosystem learning outcomes. Retrieved January 2021: https://medium.com/the-shape-of-things-to-come/ facilitating-communities-of-practice-from-individual-to-ecosystem- learning-outcomes-bf7b54660b08 Anicich, E.; Foulk, T.; Osborne, M.; Gale, J.; Schaerer, M. (2020). ‘Restore Your Sense of Control — Despite the Pandemic’, Harvard Business Review, September 10, 2020. Retrieved September 2020: https://hbr.org/2020/09/restore-your-sense-of-control- despite-the-pandemic Covey, S. R. (1989). The seven habits of highly effective people: restoring the character ethic. New York, Simon and Schuster. Dewar, C.,. Hirt, M., Keller, S. (2019) The mindsets and practices of excellent CEOs, McKinsey Insights. Accessed November 2020: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and- corporate- nance/our-insights/the-mindsets-and-practices-of- excellent-ceos Edmondson, A (2008). 'The Competitive Imperative of Learning’, Harvard Business Review. Accessed January 2021: https:// hbr.org/2008/07/the-competitive-imperative-of-learning Forbes Coaching Council (2017) The Most Common Ways You’re Neglecting Your Middle Manager and What To Do About It. Accessed November 2020: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ forbescoachescouncil/2017/10/11/most-common-ways-youre- neglecting-your-middle-manager-and-what-to-do-about-it/ Fullan, M (2019). Nuance: Why Some Leaders Succeed and Others Fail. Thousand Oaks, CA; Corwin Press. Gino, F (2019). ‘Cracking the Code of Sustained Collaboration’, Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 20 April 2020, from https:// hbr.org/2019/11/cracking-the-code-of-sustained-collaboration Elliot, B. (2021) ‘It’s Time to Free up the Middle Manager’, Harvard Business Review, May 21, 2021. Retrieved December fi
LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE 2023 2021: https://hbr.org/2021/05/its-time-to-free-the-middle- manager Harris, A.; Jones, M. (2020) COVID 19 – school leadership in disruptive times, School Leadership & Management, September 11, 2020. Retrieved September 2020: https:// www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/ 10.1080/13632434.2020.1811479 Harris, M.; Tayler, B. (2019) ‘Don’t let metrics undermine your business’, Harvard Business Review. September 2019. Retrieved July 2019: https://hbr.org/2019/09/dont-let-metrics-undermine- your-business Hu Chan, M (2017). Is Your Company's Teamwork Out of Whack? Listen to Alan Mullaly, Inc.com. Retrieved January 2021: https:// www.inc.com/maya-hu-chan/is-your-companys-teamwork-out-of- whack-listen-to-alan-mullaly.html Irwin, T. (2019) Designing for Systems-Level Change and Transitions Toward More Sustainable Futures. Retrieved September 18, 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=fDmBXxRqsW8 Jaser, Z. (2021) ‘The Real Value of Middle Managers’, Harvard Business Review, June 07, 2021. Retrieved December 2021: https://hbr.org/2021/06/the-real-value-of-middle-managers McNulty, E. and Marcus, L. (2020) ‘Are You Leading Through the Crisis … or Managing the Response?’, Harvard Business Review. Retrieved September 2020: https://hbr.org/2020/03/are-you- leading-through-the-crisis-or-managing-the-response National College for Teaching and Leadership: Strategies used by Effective Middle Leaders. Retrieved November 2020: http:// www.inspiringleaderstoday.com/ILTMaterials/LEVEL1_SML- v4.0-2014_08_22-11_51/succeeding-in-middle-leadership/sml- s2/sml-s2-t5.html Ramalingam, B.; Nabarro, D.; Oqubuy, A.; Carnall, R.; Wild, L. (2020), ‘5 Principles to Guide Adaptive Leadership’. Harvard Business Review. September 11, 2020. Retrieved September 2020: https://hbr.org/2020/09/5-principles-to-guide-adaptive- leadership Reeves, M.; Whitaker, K.; Nanda, S. (2020) Responding to COVID-19 on Multiple Timescales. Retrieved July 2020: https://
TAKE IT FURTHER www.bcg.com/publications/2020/responding-to-covid-19-on- multiple-timescales Toop, J. (2017) Middle leadership can unlock your school’s success, NAHT. Retrieved November 2020: https:// www.naht.org.uk/news-and-opinion/thought-leadership/middle- leadership-can-unlock-your-schools-success/ Victoria State Government (2021) Department of Education and Training Annual Report. Melbourne: Department of Education and Training. Waller, D (2020) ’10 Steps To Creating a Data-Driven Culture’, Harvard Business Review. Retrieved January 2021: https:// hbr.org/2020/02/10-steps-to-creating-a-data-driven-culture West-Burnham, J and Otero, G (2012). Leading Together to Build Social Capital. Networked Learning Communities, UK. Wilder, J (2019). Why You’re Struggling to Lead. And How to Improve. Retrieved 13 July 2020, from https://medium.com/ swlh/why-youre-struggling-to-lead-and-how-to- improve-7dac0b810ff6 NoTosh Ltd NoTosh Australasia Let’s start talking. 27 Lauriston Street Edinburgh PO Box 47 Collins Street West hello@notosh.com EH3 9DQ Victoria 8007 United Kingdom Australia
Join us February-May Read more on NoTosh’s Leading from the Middle course: https://learn.notosh.com/leading_from_the_middle Part 1: Learning what it takes to become a con dent leader Find your cause and create your vision. Gather insight from those around you to work out your starting point. Learn the productivity skills that will win you back an hour a week. Part 2: Learn what it takes to put your leadership into action with a team Make your ideas better through a Pre Mortem. Co-design Objectives and Key Results with your team. Recruit the right people to your idea. Act agile and build momentum. Part 3: Learn what it takes to in uence the system and grow your ideas to some scale Act more collaboratively: how to work together and enjoy it. Learn the communication habits that generate trust and build relationships. Learn key negotiation tactics and how to engage in hard conversations. Celebrate your successes and trade your learning. Ask us for a discount for groups of ve or more, and members of certain education associations: hello@notosh.com fl fi fi
Join Leading from the Middle each year, February-May. www.notosh.com
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