After a while away from this blog, I am coming back to it with some further thoughts. I am reading a book called "The Leaders We Deserved (and a few we didn't)". It's a fascinating rating of American presidents judging them on character, vision, competence, economic policy, preserving and extending liberty and foreign policy. The author's top four are Lincoln, Washington, Teddy Roosevelt and Reagan.

It got me thinking what criteria we could use for leaders in education. I would certainly include character, competence and vision. Economic policy becomes use of resources, preserving and extending liberty perhaps becomes enhancing children's life chances and foreign policy becomes developing and maintaining partnerships. 

I would be interested in any thoughts on this. 

One of the issues for leaders is how to make a difference for the better.

What does this involve? To start with there are issues to do with knowing where you want to get to and understanding what is happening at present and how this compares. This type of gap analysis is important.

Sometimes people refer to vision. Having a clear picture of where you want to get to is important as is being able to communicate this and build support for it. 

But somewhere along the line, practical, routine and sometimes mundane actions are needed if the vision is to be realised. The best leaders of change are good at ensuring that routine systems are in place that will enable change to happen.

In other words, having the big picture has to be balanced by attention to detail, not only a detailed understanding and analysis of what you are starting with but also the ability to ensure strategy is underpinned by operationally sound systems and procedures.

The best leaders are prepared to be different. They are brave enough and clear enough about what matters to go against what is expected or what is the norm.

Is this true do you think? Or is it just true of leaders who need to change things? On the other hand, don't all leaders need to make changes? After all, an organisation that does not grow or change or develop will most likely sooner or later go into a downward spiral of decline.

I work with a number of teachers and school leaders based in different parts of the world. One issue they raise is how far Western ideas about leadership apply in their place of work. For example, where there is a strong emphasis on power distance, distributed leadership and collegiality take on a different significance.

It's also the case that often ideas on leadership that arise in one type of organisation are applied uncritically to others. Many ideas on leadership in education appear to have come from the world of business.

It seems to me therefore that we should always regard leadership theories as hypotheses to be tested out in a particular context rather than accept them at face value.

I also wonder if there are any leadership theories developed in business that have been adopted in the world of education that just do not make any sense at all.

Comments welcome.

As we start 2008 and make all kinds of New Year resolutions, how about one or two relating to leadership?

1) to accentuate the positive and minimise the negative

2) to listen to people more and give them the means and opportunity to succeed in realisng their ideas and ambitions

3) to recognise that leadership has to be by example and to make sure this happens

4) to lift encourage, motivate, inspire and praise MORE

What are your resolutions?

I am beginning to wish I hadn't started this theme of leadership and sport after seeing the England Croatia game.

 It's interesting though when things go wrong in sport, who takes the blame. It always seems to be the manager who is the first to go.

In a company, it would be the CEO. In a school, the head. Maybe a new manager or CEO or head will sort things out. But what about the team?

Somehow in sport, it's very final. A defeat and you are out. With a company or school, it's usually not that qucik although I guess the result of an inspection could be like a defeat in a game for a manager under pressure.

But will a different type of leader do the trick. There's something about the right approach for the circumstances I suppose. But there's also something about getting the team achieving its full potential. How far is that down to the leader or down to the team?

The Rugby World Cup final has gone and the general opinion seems to be that England tried hard and gave it everything but were second best to the South African team. It was a lot better than 36 - 0, of course, but still the dream has ended.

I don't want to over work the links between sport and leadership but would like to note a few of the possible lessons.

1) Success in leadership and success in sport both require meticulous preparation

2) Success in leadership and success in sport both require a winning mentality

3) Success in leadership and success in sport both require the right mix of skills and capabilities

4) Coming second never feels quite right!

My recent entries about the Twenty 20 competition made links between leadership at work and leadership on the playing field. That theme is still very much to the fore with the exciting final stages of the Rugby World Cup. It promisies to be a great final.

I don't want to force the parallels too much but what a turnaround for England from the defeat 36 - 0 in the early stages to being in the final.

Somewhere in eveything we are taught or learn for ourselves about leadership is the ability to move on from setbacks, to retain a sense of optimism and to keep going for something you believe in. It's not about putting the record straight or getting your own back; it's about keeping going and carrying on trying to achieve what is important. It might also be about making one or two changes in the team that will strengthen it or improve the balance.

Here's to a great final!!

The Twenty20 World Cup is sadly over. What a fantastic competition!

The final like the rest of the games was exciting and great viewing. And what about M.S.Dhoni's leadership? He got his team playing with spirit and enthusiasm and self-belief. The enjoyment was there to see; a really good demonstration of how "express yourself and enjoy yourself" can work.

As the Twenty 20 cricket world cup gets underway - and it's got off to a fantastic start - I started to think about teams.

There was something compelling in the first game about the determination and desire to win of the South African team. It seemed as if there was a team spirit and ethos that were pretty contagious - a few calculated risks, a bit of luck, a surge of morale as things went well, a focus on what needed to be done and a determination not to let any setback get in the way. Complementary skills, mutual support and someone as well as the team captain who was prepared to take the lead were very apparent.

Clive Woodward who spoke at our launch event talked about the need to have that obsessive desire to win if you are to be a champion. He showed a short film about winning with the theme that inches make the difference.

Taking all this together, there are some very powerful messages for work teams and for leadership. Focus, attention to detail as well as the big picture, collective endavour and determination are equally as important as they were to the South Africans.

And the man of the match - Chris Gayle - played an amazing innings with superb and devastatingly effective batting. He was a real super star. But his team lost basically because collectively as a unit, they lacked some of the team attributes the opposition showed on the night.