Up to the challenge

Reduced resources are a challenge – but it’s also a time laden with opportunity. Angela Spencer looks at some of the leadership qualities that will help bring organisations through challenging times ahead.

Leading public sector organisations in an age of austerity is the less than sunny title of a recent research paper by international business consultants Deloitte.

It strikes at the reality, that growing public expectations for quality services combined with financial imperatives will make the next few years testing ones for public sector service leaders.

Deloitte believes however that leaders can win through to deliver highly productive organisations not by recruiting or developing more leaders but by “exercising more leadership at all levels.”

“Senior leaders will need to demonstrate leadership in four dimensions,” says the report, “developing the insights necessary for successful change within complex systems, building the cognitive skills to manage effectively in demanding environments, demonstrating the emotional intelligence to motivate their people, actively building leadership at all levels.”

"Leaders have to stay optimistic, listen to the good ideas of their staff and work together to do things better"

Catherine Fitt, the National College’s Strategic Director for Children’s Services, would add that leaders of children’s services, which include education, should also concentrate on “keeping their nerve” for themselves and their organisations.

“In times of challenge you have to keep remembering why you are there and what you are trying to achieve,” she said. “Leaders have to stay optimistic, listen to the good ideas of their staff and work together to do things better.”

Collaboration across services, already fundamental to integrating provision and improving the lives of children and their families, will also become a financial imperative, she says.

“Organisations that turn inwards and are just concerned with feeding themselves are potentially more at risk of losing funding than those that face outwards and work with others to share their facilities and people. By pooling resources for the greater good they are more likely to be able to safeguard overall budgets for their communities.

“My advice to leaders and managers is to be honest, give people the facts and remember this isn’t new – budgets have always been difficult, even in a time of relative plenty, so we have got a lot of learning and experience to build upon.”

One school leader well versed in leading in times of challenge is Newark headteacher David Dixon. Now ensconced in a new eco building at Bowbridge Primary School, he started his headship with a very limited budget and community involvement and a school in an old army barracks that was the worst he’d ever seen. Since 1995 he has led the reinvigoration of teaching and learning to improve wellbeing and raise achievement through education for sustainable development (ESD) linked to a very creative curriculum and enhanced learning environment.

Asked to list the key characteristics that got him through, he refers to a model of a “green leader” developed as part of his recently completed doctorate in education leadership.

David said: “Green leaders, perhaps because of their joined up approach, share characteristics that aren’t just to do with ESD and which are very relevant to leadership in times of challenge. They are distinctive in their desire to promote sustainability in its widest economic, social and environmental sense because they see it as central to the aims of education and the greater good.

“They are driven by a strong sense of vocation and a vision of what they really want, and they share it to get people motivated and change mindsets. I remember having a vision for Bowbridge to be a flagship eco school and the anger I felt at the poor state of the facilities I inherited helped fuel my fortitude.

“They empower others to try things out and they network with other organisations within and outside education to get different perspectives and ideas. They also have resilience. There were lots of moments when I felt despair, not least when a deficit budget was staring me in the face, but while you can cry in your beer at home, your face to others has to be optimistic. You keep everyone going in the dark times by reminding them how far they’ve come.”

According to a report soon to be published by the National College and the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) the characteristics David outlines – of constantly sharing a strong vision, empowering others and collaborating, and having a dogged determination borne out of a sense of vocation – are all common qualities in leaders that secure exceptional and often surprising levels of performance in their organisations.

Authors Andy Hargreaves and Alma Harris examine “leadership” in 18 organisations across three sectors – business, sport and education, identifying the key features and behaviours at play. Interestingly, in the context of the forecast reduction in resources, these include the ability to “capitalise on crises or even contrive them to galvanise the attention and motivation of people in the organisation.”

But the authors are keen to point out that these leaders are more than relabelled charismatic hero heads: “This leadership is much more than simply being magnetic or enigmatic. It is about having the ability to maximise leadership potential at all levels in the organisation through the power of persuasion, personality and passion. These leaders often exude enthusiasm, but this is enthusiasm for others’ accomplishments; not for their own.”

The idea of working towards a vision rather than a set of targets is highlighted again by Judy Wright, manager of a cluster of three children’s centres in South Lowestoft.

The Sure Start programme was in its infancy when she became manager in 2006, tasked with bringing together professionals from across children’s services who were not on her payroll and didn’t have to work with her if they didn’t want to.

“I knew I had to get them on board so I shared with them my vision for good parental bonding that helps children go on to achieve at school – a vision I know everyone could buy into. That vision is the strength base on which all our relationships are built and I’m convinced it will enable us to continue to support each other though any new challenges that come our way.”

"Many schools are now working together to create efficiencies and more local authorities are going to have to do the same"

The challenges facing a director of children’s services (DCS) are wider and more varied than those of a headteacher or children’s centre manager. Andrew Christie, DCS for London, Hammersmith and Fulham, has, for example, been responsible over the last four years for establishing and developing a children’s department that now consists of 3,000 staff serving 37,000 children and young people in 54 primary, secondary and special schools and 13 children’s centres, with approximately 260 children in care and more than 200 the subject of a child protection plan. Even so, he too talks about the same key leadership characteristics.

“You have to have a clear vision and be skilled at getting people to work together and you have to focus on making best use of diminishing resources – in our case by commissioning and procuring services as effectively as we can – which can necessitate making tough choices,” he said.

“You also have to be prepared to give up control and not be the boss all the time in order to collaborate. Many schools are now working in partnership to create efficiencies and more local authorities are going to have to do the same by joining together across boundaries to share resources.”

Finally, Andrew said self evaluation and continuing professional development (CPD) had an important part to play in preparing public sector leaders for the challenges and opportunities yet to come.

“I was in the first cohort of the National College’s DCS leadership programme and it made me more aware of my strengths and where I need to shift my focus. You have got to be prepared to adapt and learn, otherwise you can’t go forward.”