Leadership is about setting the future direction of any organisation...
We must describe our shared vision and how colleagues ideas, creativity and innovation can contribute to that vision. We need to constantly question what we are doing and to ask ourselves where will Education Leeds be in five years time and what part will innovation play in refining and re-imagining the company?
We must communicate our vision and mission and then communicate it again. Colleagues must be committed , passionate and enthusiastic and we must all work to protect those people who are shaping the future for us; trying out new ideas, breaking the rules and pushing the boundaries. We must accept risk, search out things that work and create networks of innovation and excellence.
The future is already here we simply need to find it, nurture it and make it happen in all our learning places.
Chris
Monday, October 27, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
I was listening to Keane's new album 'Perfect Symmetry'...
There is a great message in one track...
"You can tell yourself you are doing your best,
but you can do so much better than this"So our message has to be:
BRILLIANT YEAR, FANTASTIC RESULTS...
we can tell ourselves that we are doing our best,
...BUT we can do EVEN better than this!
Chris
Monday, October 20, 2008
What happens to creativity within organisations...
When creativity disappears within organisations, schools and teams it is all about leadership or the lack of it! If it doesn't receive the ongoing and explicit backing of leaders creativity, innovation and ideas disappear. You can generate all the good ideas in the world but without leadership committed to creativity, innovation and imagination forget it. Research suggests that leadership for creativity is just an important as having creative and imaginative people in the first place. Like with everything else creativity and innovation starts and finishes with the leaders of an organisation who must model the way and develop and support ideas wherever they come from.
The sign on everyone's door must be 'just do it!'
Chris
When creativity disappears within organisations, schools and teams it is all about leadership or the lack of it! If it doesn't receive the ongoing and explicit backing of leaders creativity, innovation and ideas disappear. You can generate all the good ideas in the world but without leadership committed to creativity, innovation and imagination forget it. Research suggests that leadership for creativity is just an important as having creative and imaginative people in the first place. Like with everything else creativity and innovation starts and finishes with the leaders of an organisation who must model the way and develop and support ideas wherever they come from.
The sign on everyone's door must be 'just do it!'
Chris
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Communication is one of the keys to any organisations' success...
Leaders need to be great storytellers constructing powerful images of the future in which every colleague has a starring role. These leaders convince us that through our goal setting tomorrow can be better than today, communicating with each and every one of us and persuading us that we can make a real difference. How are you telling our strory?
Chris
Leaders need to be great storytellers constructing powerful images of the future in which every colleague has a starring role. These leaders convince us that through our goal setting tomorrow can be better than today, communicating with each and every one of us and persuading us that we can make a real difference. How are you telling our strory?
Chris
In his new book Malcolm Gladwell argues that it is practice that makes perfect...
Ability, according to Gladwell, is just one factor in success. Work ethic, luck, a strong support base and even being born in the right year play a far larger role. Gladwell argues that there is no such thing as a “self-made man”. Instead, the years spent intensively focused on their area of expertise place the world’s most successful people above their peers. In 'Outliers' he claims that the best way to achieve international stardom is to spend 10,000 hours honing your skills. The greatest athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians and scientists emerge only after spending at least three hours a day for a decade mastering their chosen field.
So the answer to building brilliant is practice, practice, practice.
Chris
Ability, according to Gladwell, is just one factor in success. Work ethic, luck, a strong support base and even being born in the right year play a far larger role. Gladwell argues that there is no such thing as a “self-made man”. Instead, the years spent intensively focused on their area of expertise place the world’s most successful people above their peers. In 'Outliers' he claims that the best way to achieve international stardom is to spend 10,000 hours honing your skills. The greatest athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians and scientists emerge only after spending at least three hours a day for a decade mastering their chosen field.
So the answer to building brilliant is practice, practice, practice.
Chris
Friday, October 17, 2008
I am not into change management any more...
The trouble with the term change management is that it implies that we are tearing things up and starting again; giving up on the last experiment, the last initiative, the last strategy and replacing it with the latest experiment, the latest initiative, the latest strategy . What we are actually about is growth and development... growing brilliant people and developing their amazing potential to help us change the world for our children and young people, their families and their communities.
Chris
The trouble with the term change management is that it implies that we are tearing things up and starting again; giving up on the last experiment, the last initiative, the last strategy and replacing it with the latest experiment, the latest initiative, the latest strategy . What we are actually about is growth and development... growing brilliant people and developing their amazing potential to help us change the world for our children and young people, their families and their communities.
Chris
Thursday, October 16, 2008
I was listening to the radio as I drove home this evening and Radio 5 Live was looking at how we win even more medals at the 2012 Olympics...
What was interesting for me was the focus on coaching as one of the keys to success and goal setting as a discipline. The message which we have certainly signed up to here at Education Leeds is decide what you need to achieve; your goals. Then work out how you do it!
It's exactly the same message we have to adopt here in Leeds. I have said it before but it is all about goal setting:
Chris
What was interesting for me was the focus on coaching as one of the keys to success and goal setting as a discipline. The message which we have certainly signed up to here at Education Leeds is decide what you need to achieve; your goals. Then work out how you do it!
It's exactly the same message we have to adopt here in Leeds. I have said it before but it is all about goal setting:
- set the goal and make it happen;
- set the goal and invent the way;
- set the goal and shape the future.
Chris
It's great to read the letters in the Yorkshire Evening Post last week especially when today the national results showed that on every measure we are closing the gap and producing fantastic results...
People constantly question what we have achieved over the last seven years; with their usual criticism of anything new, anything different and that perpetual cry from the unions and individuals that everything is OK and things should be left alone. They appear to hate Education Leeds, PfI and Academies with equal venom because we have challenged the boring and monotonous offer that these people cling to. We challenge the systems and structures that keep them where they are and undermine their position in these communities who surely deserve so much more from their schools. It's sad really that these people have so little expectation or aspiration or belief in our young people and I sometimes despair that they can't see what we have achieved so far by challenging the status quo, the routine, the ordinary, the irrelevant and the useless.
But of course the trouble is for our fiercest critics, they are the ordinary, the irrelevant and the useless.
Chris
People constantly question what we have achieved over the last seven years; with their usual criticism of anything new, anything different and that perpetual cry from the unions and individuals that everything is OK and things should be left alone. They appear to hate Education Leeds, PfI and Academies with equal venom because we have challenged the boring and monotonous offer that these people cling to. We challenge the systems and structures that keep them where they are and undermine their position in these communities who surely deserve so much more from their schools. It's sad really that these people have so little expectation or aspiration or belief in our young people and I sometimes despair that they can't see what we have achieved so far by challenging the status quo, the routine, the ordinary, the irrelevant and the useless.
But of course the trouble is for our fiercest critics, they are the ordinary, the irrelevant and the useless.
Chris
Perhaps it's me, but after another day and another National Strategies meeting I sometimes wonder if I am living on the same planet as everyone else...
We had a meeting this afternoon where nineteen Leeds colleagues and six National Strategies colleagues watched by Government Office spent three hours to reach the conclusion that we need to continue to address standards in the Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. Perhaps it's simply accountability. For me it's about trust and respect. Surely we can accept and understand that everyone in that room wanted to improve outcomes for all our children. Surely we can recognise the talent and the ability sitting in that room and the difference these colleagues are making... most of them are doing it day-in and day-out in some of the most challenging contexts and communities.
I can't believe that we have to constantly go over the issues with a group of people who don't really understand our context, our culture and our challenges. Perhaps it's me but I simply can't bear to work out what the meeting cost and I daren't ask myself what difference it made to provision in schools here in Leeds because I already know the answer!
Chris
We had a meeting this afternoon where nineteen Leeds colleagues and six National Strategies colleagues watched by Government Office spent three hours to reach the conclusion that we need to continue to address standards in the Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. Perhaps it's simply accountability. For me it's about trust and respect. Surely we can accept and understand that everyone in that room wanted to improve outcomes for all our children. Surely we can recognise the talent and the ability sitting in that room and the difference these colleagues are making... most of them are doing it day-in and day-out in some of the most challenging contexts and communities.
I can't believe that we have to constantly go over the issues with a group of people who don't really understand our context, our culture and our challenges. Perhaps it's me but I simply can't bear to work out what the meeting cost and I daren't ask myself what difference it made to provision in schools here in Leeds because I already know the answer!
Chris
Demonstrating, developing and sustaining leadership is one of the greatest challenges facing us here in Leeds...
Wherever you look we need to develop leadership and every issue we face requires strong, passionate and determined leadership; which sadly is in such short supply. It's easy to look inwards, to avoid risks, to blame others when things go wrong and simply think that we can focus on our own organisation and forget everyone else. However, everything we do connects us with others. locally, regionally, nationally and of course internationally as the credit crunch and crisis across the money markets of the world clearly demonstrates. Real leadership is about seeing the bigger picture and understanding your place and your responsibilities to build great learning places, great communities and a great Leeds. Every issue facing us is a team issue and requires us to work together to find solutions not for us as individuals or for our individual organisations but for Team Leeds.
If you are not playing for Team Leeds who are you playing for; perhaps you are not playing at all. If you are not playing for Team Leeds you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.
So get out there and start playing!
Chris
Wherever you look we need to develop leadership and every issue we face requires strong, passionate and determined leadership; which sadly is in such short supply. It's easy to look inwards, to avoid risks, to blame others when things go wrong and simply think that we can focus on our own organisation and forget everyone else. However, everything we do connects us with others. locally, regionally, nationally and of course internationally as the credit crunch and crisis across the money markets of the world clearly demonstrates. Real leadership is about seeing the bigger picture and understanding your place and your responsibilities to build great learning places, great communities and a great Leeds. Every issue facing us is a team issue and requires us to work together to find solutions not for us as individuals or for our individual organisations but for Team Leeds.
If you are not playing for Team Leeds who are you playing for; perhaps you are not playing at all. If you are not playing for Team Leeds you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.
So get out there and start playing!
Chris
Like you I expect, I was glued to the TV for the Olympics and the Paralympics...
It was staggering to watch medal after medal being won in cycling by Team GB. In all, 15 gold medals in what was an astonishing team performance! What message should we here at Education Leeds take from the performance of Team GB? Why do some of our teams achieve surprisingly high performance levels and other similarly equipped teams fail to do so? What does it take to become consistently brilliant these days?
The world is growing and changing faster than we can adapt. We are in many ways poorly prepared to deal with the rate of change we now face. Many of us have willingly embraced the need to constantly grow and develop but some of us are still in denial and some of us are simply confused. Do you have a brutally clear view of your current performance? Can you define the challenges and forces at work on you? Does everybody in your organisation know, understand, and care about the strategy to build brilliant as much as you do?
Gold medals and brilliant GCSE results certainly don't come without a struggle! Do you really love what you do at work? The tragedy for many organisations is that they have become places where managers apply pressure to performance levers rather than lead people to perform.
Chris
It was staggering to watch medal after medal being won in cycling by Team GB. In all, 15 gold medals in what was an astonishing team performance! What message should we here at Education Leeds take from the performance of Team GB? Why do some of our teams achieve surprisingly high performance levels and other similarly equipped teams fail to do so? What does it take to become consistently brilliant these days?
The world is growing and changing faster than we can adapt. We are in many ways poorly prepared to deal with the rate of change we now face. Many of us have willingly embraced the need to constantly grow and develop but some of us are still in denial and some of us are simply confused. Do you have a brutally clear view of your current performance? Can you define the challenges and forces at work on you? Does everybody in your organisation know, understand, and care about the strategy to build brilliant as much as you do?
Gold medals and brilliant GCSE results certainly don't come without a struggle! Do you really love what you do at work? The tragedy for many organisations is that they have become places where managers apply pressure to performance levers rather than lead people to perform.
Chris
Sunday, October 05, 2008
The Search for Brilliant!
How do we develop brilliant learning and brilliant learning places...
Why not recall an activity, event, experience, person, or object that you remember as brilliant.
- Describe it.
- What were its characteristics?
- What made it so wonderful?
Discuss your characteristic in a small group of colleagues. Come to consensus on the most important characteristics. Try to put these characteristics in a word or short phrase. Send your reflections to me.
Chris
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Don't let anyone tell you that you are not bright, not clever and not full of potential. The really good news is that you can learn whatever skills you need to be more productive, more effective and more successful...
You can become whatever you really, really want to become. You can do whatever you really, really want to do. You can become a touch typist. You can become an expert with a computer. You can become a terrific negotiator. You can become a super salesperson. You can learn to speak another language. You can learn to play a musical instrument. You can learn to write effectively. You can run a marathon. These are all skills and abilities you can acquire, as soon as you decide to and make them a priority in your busy life.
Just do it.
Chris
You can become whatever you really, really want to become. You can do whatever you really, really want to do. You can become a touch typist. You can become an expert with a computer. You can become a terrific negotiator. You can become a super salesperson. You can learn to speak another language. You can learn to play a musical instrument. You can learn to write effectively. You can run a marathon. These are all skills and abilities you can acquire, as soon as you decide to and make them a priority in your busy life.
Just do it.
Chris
Friday, September 19, 2008
This was the presentation I gave to Leadership Forum today...
Education Leeds…
releasing the potential and the magic
in a Children’s Services world.
releasing the potential and the magic
in a Children’s Services world.
“Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results.”
A brilliant year and more to come…
…what was your highlight?
What do we want EDUCATION LEEDS to be?
SimplyBRILLIANT!
It’s not rocket science and there is no magic ingredient!
It’s about passion and commitment.
It’s about creativity!
It’s about imagination!
It’s about listening!
It’s about working together!
It’s about partnership!
It’s about networking!
It’s about your unique contribution!
It’s about releasing the potential and the magic!
AND… we still need a revolution!
A learning revolution… led by us!
A learning revolution… modeled by us!
AND… it’s not about more of the same!
It’s about re-imagining learning!
It’s about re-imagining our learning places!
It’s about re-imagining our services!
It’s about a STEP CHANGE in outcomes!
It’s about reaching family and home.. the FIRST Learning Space!
It’s about re-imagining school.. the SECOND Learning Space!
It’s about connecting with communities.. the THIRD Learning Space!
The Challenge!
We must continue to re-invent and re-engineer our learning provision and our learning places… building on the real excellence to eradicate the irrelevant, the second rate and the obsolete.
AND REMEMBER…
It is as simple as this…those who believe they can, can; and those who believe they can’t, can’t. …and it is no longer open to question.
And Finally!
Leadership is about: Passion, Enthusiasm, Appetite for Life, Engagement, Commitment, Great Causes, A Determination to Make a Difference, Shared Adventures, Bizarre Failures, Growth, and an Insatiable Appetite for Change. Otherwise, why bother?
The future..
We best way to predict the future is to create it for yourself. So we must build the future we want and we must continue to believe in ourselves and… practice… practice… and build brilliant!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
The 'Good to Great' session yesterday at the Town Hall by Chris Moon highlighted some of the things I passionately believe help us build brilliant...
Chris Moon's 'Being Positive Pays' messages were:
Chris Moon's 'Being Positive Pays' messages were:
- Take personal responsibility;
- Never take things personally;
- Focus on the positives;
- Set goals and plan;
- Develop self-belief;
- Have positive personal pep talks;
- Don't do negative;
- Never give up.
Important messages for us all.
Chris
Saturday, September 13, 2008
I received this last night...
"Chris, As an ex-teacher from Leeds I have followed your blog for some time. Whether habits drive values and beliefs or values and beliefs drive habits is an interesting chicken and egg situation. The quickest way to change culture - and drive up performance - is to give managers a diferent way to manage people. To invest more time in relationships with staff to facilitate their personal and professional development as an ongoing priority, driven by the need to continually improve the service. Working to achieve a significant return on investment in relationships with employees makes it possible to create a step change in performance. Also have to make it a priority to rigourously manage underperformance and those that merely 'whelm'! Do get in touch if you would be intersted in a chat. I am already running a Progressive Managers' Network in Leeds and perhaps we can do something to help? www.progressivemanagersnetwork.co.uk"
I know that their are people and organisations out there who share my passion and belief in the critical importance of relationships in cultural change and the fact that people matter most in developing brilliant organisations.. Looks like I need to talk to the progressive managers network!
Chris
"Chris, As an ex-teacher from Leeds I have followed your blog for some time. Whether habits drive values and beliefs or values and beliefs drive habits is an interesting chicken and egg situation. The quickest way to change culture - and drive up performance - is to give managers a diferent way to manage people. To invest more time in relationships with staff to facilitate their personal and professional development as an ongoing priority, driven by the need to continually improve the service. Working to achieve a significant return on investment in relationships with employees makes it possible to create a step change in performance. Also have to make it a priority to rigourously manage underperformance and those that merely 'whelm'! Do get in touch if you would be intersted in a chat. I am already running a Progressive Managers' Network in Leeds and perhaps we can do something to help? www.progressivemanagersnetwork.co.uk"
I know that their are people and organisations out there who share my passion and belief in the critical importance of relationships in cultural change and the fact that people matter most in developing brilliant organisations.. Looks like I need to talk to the progressive managers network!
Chris
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
I passionately believe that anything you deeply and honestly believe you can achieve, you will achieve if you take persistent determined action to do it...
Whatever you dream for yourself, keep it at the front of your mind. Repeat it all day, every day and never, let go of it. Colleagues from the Pacific Institute tell us that when you concentrate all your mental and physical energy on a single purpose, forces that you never knew existed are sparked into action and magic happens.
This is the secret of that mythical thing called genius: you simply need to find what you love to do and then spend all your time doing it. It is also one of the keys to well-being and happiness. A wise person said: "once you find what you truly love doing, you will never have to work another day in your life".
Haven't you always wondered how people with far less talent, imagination, creativity and ability than you have achieved great things and changed the world. So go for it focus, concentrate, discipline yourself and make your dreams come true.
Chris
Whatever you dream for yourself, keep it at the front of your mind. Repeat it all day, every day and never, let go of it. Colleagues from the Pacific Institute tell us that when you concentrate all your mental and physical energy on a single purpose, forces that you never knew existed are sparked into action and magic happens.
This is the secret of that mythical thing called genius: you simply need to find what you love to do and then spend all your time doing it. It is also one of the keys to well-being and happiness. A wise person said: "once you find what you truly love doing, you will never have to work another day in your life".
Haven't you always wondered how people with far less talent, imagination, creativity and ability than you have achieved great things and changed the world. So go for it focus, concentrate, discipline yourself and make your dreams come true.
Chris
Monday, September 08, 2008
I've been thinking about how we might refresh the culture here at Education Leeds...
Our culture, our beliefs, attitudes, and values, determines our choices, our decisions, and our effectiveness. We know that beliefs, attitudes and values are the best predictors of individual behavior and that these things influence our perceptions, our judgements, and our behaviours. Research also indicates that beliefs, attitudes and values are powerful and highly resistant to change.
‘The way we do things round here’ is the culture and it is really important that we regularly check out what it is we all believe should be the beliefs, values and attitudes driving our work and shaping our behaviours.
Let me know what really, really matters to you. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?
Our culture, our beliefs, attitudes, and values, determines our choices, our decisions, and our effectiveness. We know that beliefs, attitudes and values are the best predictors of individual behavior and that these things influence our perceptions, our judgements, and our behaviours. Research also indicates that beliefs, attitudes and values are powerful and highly resistant to change.
‘The way we do things round here’ is the culture and it is really important that we regularly check out what it is we all believe should be the beliefs, values and attitudes driving our work and shaping our behaviours.
Let me know what really, really matters to you. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?
- what motivates or inspires you as a member of the team?
- what inhibits or demotivates you as a member of the team?
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Do you know what makes a great colleague, a great teacher or a great coach?
- Like your colleagues. Really, really, really like your colleagues!
- Respect and trust your colleagues and expect great things from them.
- Be creative and imaginative.
- Be passionate and enthusiastic.
- Be really well organised.
- Have fun and enjoy yourself.
- Never take yourself, or anyone else, too seriously.
Chris
Have you thought about what drains your energy and limits your actions and prevents you from being at your brilliant best and attaining all the things you want in life and at work...
The first step is to understand once and for all that you, and only you, can create magic in your life. The second step to successful living is to learn how to be a winner. The only limitations in your life are those that you set for yourself. We all know, because Lou Tice has told us so many times, that when you think without limits and have great dreams, wonderful things happen and powerful forces come into play. Anything you deeply believe you can achieve, you will achieve if you take persistent action in that direction. Keep your dreams at the front of your mind. Repeat them all day, every day and never, let go of them. When you concentrate all your mental and physical energy on a single purpose, forces that you never knew you had are sparked into action.
This is the secret of genius: finding what you love to do and then spending all your time doing it. As one wise person has said: once you find what you truly love doing, you will never have to work another day in your life. People with far less than you have achieved great things. So what's stopping you being remarkable?
Chris
The first step is to understand once and for all that you, and only you, can create magic in your life. The second step to successful living is to learn how to be a winner. The only limitations in your life are those that you set for yourself. We all know, because Lou Tice has told us so many times, that when you think without limits and have great dreams, wonderful things happen and powerful forces come into play. Anything you deeply believe you can achieve, you will achieve if you take persistent action in that direction. Keep your dreams at the front of your mind. Repeat them all day, every day and never, let go of them. When you concentrate all your mental and physical energy on a single purpose, forces that you never knew you had are sparked into action.
This is the secret of genius: finding what you love to do and then spending all your time doing it. As one wise person has said: once you find what you truly love doing, you will never have to work another day in your life. People with far less than you have achieved great things. So what's stopping you being remarkable?
Chris
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