Developing Sustainable Leadership

Citation

Roberts, B. (2007), "Developing Sustainable Leadership", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 21 No. 7, pp. 643-644. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem.2007.21.7.643.1

I am very pleased to be able to review this book for Brent Davies as I had the pleasure of providing the report on his previous book Leading the Strategically Focused School. As with that book this offers a clarity to complex problems that enables both the academic and general reader to identify with the issues dealt with. Here we have a series of essays on the subject introduced by Brent, who then leads on the first essay. Other authors are well known in the field‐Brian Caldwell, Dean Fink,Christopher Day,Michele Schmidt,Terry Deal,Kenneth Leithwood,Scott Bauer,Brian Reidlinger, Michael Fullon,Lyn Sharratt, Guilbert Hentschke, David Hopkins and Geoff Southworth.

The subject is a key area, for having reached a position of leadership and perhaps had the skills and good fortune to run a “strategically focused school” (or the equivalent in other walks of education), what happens then? The legacy of a leader is not just what occurred during their working period of influence but what they were able to leave to others to take on the mantle of leadership after they had departed. The legacy of not just standards but of personal and moral influence comes through in the essays.

Prof Davies pulls together the themes of the text in his introduction with his usual ability to clarify complex issues. In his chapter he defines sustainable leadership as being “ … made up of key factors that underpin the longer‐term development of the school. It builds a leadership culture based on moral purpose which provides success that is accessible to all.” Brent states that the challenge for leaders is the combining of the immediate running of the school whilst building long term capacity (the latter comprising nine key factors one of which is passion). Prof Caldwell's paper is on sustaining exhilarating leadership and he examines the factors that make work exhilarating or dispiriting, and then looks to shift the balance towards exhilarating leadership where it does not exist.

Hargreaves and Fink develop previous work on sustainable leadership by using three new concepts of energy restraint, renewal and release. Improved achievement should renew the energy of those who secured it “through high‐trust, confidence‐building change principles that are undertaken by schools with schools in transparent processes of committed improvement, that connect short‐term success as immediate action to long‐term transformations in teaching and learning.”

Day and Schmidt link with Fullan's research by their stance that you cannot sustain leadership without a widely shared moral purpose. The authors outline five major categories in building resilient leaders driven by moral purpose.

Terry Deal feels that most externally imposed reform is ineffective because it fails to make use of the talent and skills of staff in organisations.The real lesson is “how to encourage local talent to draw upon lessons they have learned and harnessing it to renew and revitalize education.”

Keith Leithland, working with Scott Bauer and Brian Riedlinger have worked on research in the USA on the development and sustenance of school principals. They draw together ten lessons on how to develop a framework for this. The first is that “dramatic individual change is possible” and the last is “use inspiring leadership models to recruit new leaders”. In between, “a little bit of money goes a long way”. They also suggest that you practice what you preach – the morality issue again.

Michael Fullan and Lyn Sharratt ask how we build sustainability and take a major initiative i.e. literacy and build from propositions that drive sustainable success. It is only possible where all leadership works on the same agenda‐singing from the same hymn sheet. But they recognise in the last proposition the uncertainty where district/state leadership changes or changes direction. Stability is important for success.

Guilbert Hentschke recognises the impact of market forces in education and suggests that leadership and organizational behaviour is a feature of the environment. Sustainability may be lessened as education gravitates into a market environment. The business environment model may not be entirely suitable to the education environment and the author uses the term “creative destruction” as most businesses have been unable to sustain themselves. Nevertheless educators will increasingly have to face the realities of the market place world.

David Hopkins' paper suggests that you cannot sustain individual schools at the expense of others, nor can you be a successful leader if the school next door is failing as area responsibility is necessary for success. This is directly contrary to governmental policy in most cases as the weak go to the wall where they cannot sustain successful results. Hopkins was a key DFES (department for education and skills) adviser so it is encouraging that he demonstrates a cohesive view on education in the community. In his opinion leadership has four dimensions and he sees “systems leadership as the catalyst for systemic change”,which is about improving deployment and development of the best leadership in terms of greater productivity and social justice.

Geoff Southworth in the last chapter talks of sustaining leadership through a process not of individual development as much as succession planning. His position at the NCSL (national college of school leadership) puts him in a good position to know what is required nationally. There is a need to increase the supply of prospective headteachers, faced with a national shortage in the UK. There is also a need to view headship in a different way – not just executive leadership but collegiate/shared leadership. More support for the role is also required through mentoring or other strategies.

All in all the book is an enjoyable insight into several leaders' views on leadership, which Brent Davies has pulled together well and which will be of use to headteachers, aspiring leaders and academics alike.