The Lessons of Leadership

A comparison of headteachers in UK schools and senior executives in private enterprise

The financial rewards are worlds apart, yet the social responsibilities of both roles are immense. So, how does leadership in our schools compare to that found in private businesses? Learning is replacing command and control as the glue which binds successful organisations together. Our study suggests that headteachers could teach chief executives a lesson or two in creating the right climate for growth.

Ricky Forde Russell Hobby Anna Lees December 2000 Hay McBer

2000 Hay Management Consultants Ltd

Executive Summary
1. This report compares a group of 200 headteachers against a group of 200 senior executives. The aim is to discover the strengths and weaknesses of the leadership in schools in the UK. 2. The inputs of leadership are the characteristics and styles the individual brings to the role their drive, problem solving and influencing skills. The outputs of leadership the measures of success are the motivation, engagement and effort inspired in those who are led. 3. The report reveals that, as a group, headteachers exert strong and versatile leadership, adapted to the needs of their people. Their strengths lie in raising capability and promoting individual clarity. 4. The report has also confirmed that the role of headteacher is stretching by comparison to business. Even highly successful executives would struggle to exert outstanding leadership in schools. 5. We have also found a number of areas for improvement. Headteachers rely too heavily telling people what to do. They need think more about how the influence of leadership can raise standards and they need to explore ways to link reward to performance more strongly. 6. Headteachers think of leadership in terms of developing people. Business leaders tend to think of leadership in terms of strategy. Headteachers see their staff as individuals, show them where they fit into the scheme of things and support their long term growth. Business leaders, by comparison, create a sense of mission, drive standards and communicate their vision well. 7. Schools need strategic leadership to raise standards. But, equally, businesses need to adopt more of the headteachers style if they are to increase their peoples long term capability to implement strategy. 8. It is possible for individuals to improve the leadership they provide. The first step is accurate and specific feedback on the impact they make upon their organisations. See www.transforminglearning.co.uk for more information.

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Contents

Introduction Summing Up: A Model of Excellence Findings: - Characteristics - Leadership Styles - Climate What Education could learn from Business What Business could learn from Education Conclusions: - Personal Implications - Policy Implications

4 5 6 11 14 19 20 21 21

Appendix 1: Glossary of Terms Appendix 2: Methodology and Sample Appendix 3: Hay Management Consultants

22 25 27

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Introduction
Weve always known that the quality of leadership has a major impact on pupils attainment in our schools. We were curious to see just how the leadership provided by headteachers measures up against that of their counterparts in other walks of life. We also wanted to see how much of the nature of leadership was determined by the working environment. Education seemed, initially, to be a very different endeavour to private enterprise. Did this bring out a noticeable difference in the styles used? The results surprised us and signalled important changes to come, in both education and business. To answer these questions, we took two groups of leaders and asked their staff to rate their style and the climate they created for their teams. We also interviewed a smaller group of the highest performing leaders directly, to find out what made them tick. Our measure of successful leadership is the motivation, engagement and effort inspired in the people who are led. Our sample comprised 200 headteachers and 200 senior line managers and directors in multinational companies. For each, we asked five members of staff to describe and rate their leadership according to a set of common criteria (see page 24 for a definition). The results leave us in no doubt that headteachers have much to offer their counterparts in business. While business leaders are more adept at strategy and vision, headteachers strengths lie in raising capability. Technology can render a strategy irrelevant in a matter of months capable, motivated employees will never go out of fashion. Of course there is room for improvement. There are useful lessons for headteachers, not only in the way the contrast explains their habitual approaches to leadership, but also in the strengths of business leaders. Communicating a vision of excellence and linking reward to performance are two examples. As schools grapple with raising standards and performance management, these issues are increasingly important. The two working environments are coming closer together the pursuit of excellence and a hard look at performance are increasingly important to schools; fostering capability and long term development are becoming vital to effective business. There is an important point to bear in mind before we begin. The descriptions are composites of four hundred people. They point usefully to trends and tendencies. Within that sample, particular individuals may vary considerably. We hope this report will be a starting point for individuals to reflect upon their own needs as leaders and a framework for planning professional development.

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Summing Up: A Model of Excellence

The demands of the role of headteacher are captured by a Model of Excellence that defines the varied combinations of characteristics, behaviours and motivations that lead, in different ways, to outstanding performance in the job. We took only the highest performers from our population of business leaders (approximately thirty) and measured them against this model. 48% passed. This gives some indication of the challenge of leading a school successfully.

A Stretching Role: Half of the top management of some of the most successful companies in the world could not do a similarly outstanding job of leading a school.
As well as emphasising the stretching nature of leading a school, this statistic also hints at just how different the two roles are. Comparing headteachers and business leaders in a little more detail also throws up some interesting contrasts. For this we returned to the full population of four hundred leaders. As a group, business leaders have a more strategic focus. They think conceptually, they take carefully calculated risks in pursuit of ambitious goals. They even exert influence in a strategic manner painting broad visions, building coalitions and working through others. Headteachers, on the other hand, are strong operational leaders. They think and plan analytically. They take a much more individualistic approach to their members of staff focusing on their personal development, tailoring their influencing styles and setting clear expectations. Headteachers are also protective they shelter their staff from bureaucracy and encourage co-operation and harmony.

What impact does this have on their organisations?

Headteachers are significantly more versatile leaders than is typically found in industry. They employ a wider repertoire of leadership styles, which helps foster a stronger climate. Headteachers also focus on styles that are more positive over the long term creating space for the growth of their employees. Business leaders are more likely to sacrifice this in pursuit of immediate goals. This means that, overall, headteachers are creating a more motivational climate than business leaders. They excel in minimising bureaucracy, encouraging new thinking and providing clarity. This is not to say that headteachers have nothing to learn from business. By comparison with business, headteachers: Use more of a coercive approach to leadership; tend not to foster as strong an expectation of excellence; and are reluctant to differentiate rewards according to performance. We will explore these findings in greater depth in the next three sections.

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Findings: Characteristics
From among our group of four hundred leaders, we selected the thirty most successful headteachers and the thirty most successful executives. We compared the headteachers and business leaders against sixteen commonly found leadership characteristics. We assessed them against a model of excellence for headteachers scoring the percentage of each group that passed through the model for each major cluster of characteristics (i.e. an individual passed if we found that their personal characteristics matched the combinations demanded by the role). We also compared them directly against each other using the chi squared test (measuring the difference between the two groups). The following groups of characteristics stood out through both tests.

1. Modern Leadership: Teamwork & Developing Others

The headteachers in our sample were better than the business leaders at building teams and developing the capabilities of their staff, although both fare least well in this cluster against the models of excellence.
Highly effective headteachers build teams and care about the long term development of their staff. They solicit and value the input of others and create opportunities for people to experiment and improve. Our research in business also indicates that these abilities are crucial to highly effective executives. 100% of the headteachers in our sample passed the model for Teamwork, compared to only 67% of senior managers (remembering also that we are only looking at the very best leaders in each sphere). Teamwork also distinguishes the two groups, with a 75% bias towards headteachers.
*

Teamwork
100 These graphs show the percentage of each group 80 to pass the Model; and 60 the degree to which the characteristic 40 differentiates the two groups. 20

Head

75%

Exec

100%

0%

100%

Teamwork
Teamwork

Headteachers Business Leaders

* Bias: Used here to summarise the degree to which a characteristic reliably distinguishes one group from the other; built using the chi squared test. The higher the percentage, the more likely one group is to have it and the other not. For example: 8 out of 9 heads possess the characteristic at the required level, and 9 out 12 executives dont: 8/9 + 9/12 = 17/21 or 81% bias to headteachers.

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59% of headteachers passed the model for Developing Others compared to 54% of senior managers. Clearly a difficult area for both, but headteachers fare slightly better. Headteachers may be stronger in these areas because they work in closer contact with their colleagues, and spend more time on internal issues. It also seems that headteachers continue to value learning for adults as well as for their pupils.

IN ACTION Developing Others

I could see he was brilliant great with the children, got wonderful results, all the makings of a first class head of department. I set out to help knock the rough edges off him. He was a big man and I had to chip away at some arrogance no-one had ever tackled him before.

2. Action Orientation: Drive & Confidence

Both groups show similarly high levels of drive, though they come from different sources: business leaders measure and use risk, headteachers love a challenge.
Effective leadership in any sphere requires a bias for action. This drive can come from many sources and sustains the leader in overcoming obstacles and providing inspiration to others. Success here can come from either an Achievement Drive setting stretching goals and taking calculated risks to achieve them or Personal Conviction a willingness to challenge others or beat obstacles. One seeks goals, the other overcomes barriers. This cluster is a strength for both groups. 100% of both groups passed the model in this cluster. Business leaders tend to find their motivation from an Achievement Drive; headteachers work more from Personal Conviction. At the higher levels of Achievement Drive weighing pros and cons and driving action through cost/benefit analysis there is a 70% bias towards business leaders.
70%

Head

Exec

100%

0%

100%

Achievement Drive

IN ACTION Achievement Drive

I said We will double the levels of attainment. And I made that public. I looked at the performance data department by department and worked out where we had to make improvements and where we could make the biggest improvements.

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3. Vision and Accountability

Effective direction can come from an inspiring vision or a firm hand in holding people accountable. A leader who can do both is generally most effective. Business leaders were more likely to use both vision and accountability, but both groups found holding people accountable difficult.
96% of headteachers pass the model either for Transformational Leadership or Holding People Accountable, but only 41% typically exercised both skills. 90% of CEOs passed the model for either Transformational Leadership or Holding People Accountable, 58% typically did both.

One Route or Two?

These graphs show the percentage of each group which consistently uses one or other means of exercising direction and the percentage who typically use both. Headteachers Business Leaders
100 80 60 40 20 0 100 80 60 40 20

Either / Or

Both

Headteachers are slightly stronger overall in this field there is a larger group of executives that possess neither characteristic. Business leaders, however, are more versatile on this cluster. Both groups found holding people accountable most difficult (e.g. confronting poor performance). In this sample of outstanding individuals, only 55% of headteachers and 63% of business leaders were characterised by this ability.

IN ACTION Holding People Accountable

We went round and I got them to report progress on what wed agreed. Of course, when we got to him, he had to confess hed done less than nothing. I said We need you to do what you said and we need it by next Wednesday. It was so clear hed let everyone down, that he pulled his finger out and finally did an excellent job.

IN ACTION Transformational Leadership

We took a day. The main thing was, I got them to acknowledge there were improvements needed. I turned it round from them coming into the room dispirited and low, to people going out euphoric. We didnt have the detailed strategy then, we just had established we were going to change things and why.

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4. Influencing Tactics and Playing Politics

Business leaders stand out for the sophistication of their influencing skills. While headteachers excel at creating a persuasive message and adapting it to their audience, business leaders are more likely to assemble coalitions and alliances, to influence indirectly through other people.
Personal impact is critical to leadership in education and business. Impact comes both through creating a compelling picture of where you want the organisation to go and bringing people with you. Influencing skills come in many degrees of sophistication. Both groups are strong at creating a tailored message, adapting their style and focus to a particular group. Business leaders are more strategic in their influencing. They are more likely to build coalitions or alliances in support of an initiative, to work through others and behind the scenes to build support. There was a 61% bias towards business leaders at this level.

Tailored v Strategic
These graphs show the percentage of each group to pass the model for Impact and Influence and the degree to which this characteristic, at higher levels, differentiates the two groups. Headteachers Business Leaders
100 80 60 40 20 0
100% 0%

Head

61%

Exec

100%

Strategic Influencing
Influencing

87% of business leaders passed the model, compared to 68% of headteachers. Business leaders also relied on a different sort of political awareness. Headteachers performed well at assessing culture and climate, business leaders were more apt at manipulating the forces and playing politics shown by a 75% bias towards business leaders.

IN ACTION Impact & Influence

I knew that even to discuss drugs was out of the question in some of our communities. But we needed to try. We set up a drugs information campaign. I went to the local papers and we used our existing networks with police, community groups and our primary schools. But the key thing was getting to the parents. When I finally got to the grandparents in our community it was a breakthrough.

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5. Thinking Styles
Headteachers tend to think analytically breaking problems apart. Business leaders tend to think conceptually seeing the big picture.
The thinking styles people use habitually in their work can be very different from the ones they apply to academic tests. The real measure is not IQ but the approach people take on their own initiative to problems in the workplace. Headteachers and business leaders are both strong but come from different directions. Headteachers are more analytical than business leaders. They are stronger at constructing and using multiple levels of cause and effect demonstrated by an 80% bias towards headteachers.

Conceptual v Analytical
These contrast the different thinking styles typically adopted by the two groups, showing the degree to which conceptual or analytical thinking differentiates them. Headteachers Business Leaders Business leaders are more conceptual than headteachers, with a 76% bias towards business. They find it easier to clarify complex issues and situations by using unifying concepts and models. They are more inventive in creating new models and ideas.
Head 76% Exec 80% Head Exec

100%

0%

100%

100%

0%

100%

Conceptual

Analytical

IN ACTION Conceptual Thinking

I took all the examples I could gather of effective assessment frameworks. I went through a modification process which took account of the particular needs, and range of needs, that there are within the school. I related the frameworks directly to the curriculum. I constructed a curriculum model because I think if people see things its easier to take in and understand how a system works.

IN ACTION Analytical Thinking

Year on year wed been pushing up percentage achievements. Wed had some very good year groups and I just couldnt see how we were going to push it further. I looked at everything to see where we could wring out further improvements. Finally, I came to the conclusion that for certain subjects I would stream the children.

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Findings: Leadership Styles

Note: For a list and definition of leadership styles, see the Glossary of Terms, page 24. Leadership styles are the techniques people use to influence, motivate and direct others to meet the organisations goals. The characteristics we described earlier feed into and shape leadership styles. There is no single correct style to use. The most successful leaders in any environment are those who can employ a range of styles. Different situations or groups of people call for different styles. Some styles should only be used rarely, others tend to support good leadership on almost a daily basis, but when a particular style is used exclusively it can sour the climate of an organisation. The difficulty is that leadership is frequently founded on habit: the styles we employ are usually unconscious. When under pressure, It is easy to slip into a style as an habitual response, even when inappropriate. To take one example, an Affiliative style of leadership is concerned with creating and sustaining positive, friendly relationships with and between colleagues. There are times, however, when a leader must communicate a vision that stretches and disturbs those relationships, or when they must hold someone accountable for poor performance. In these situations an Affiliative style will not be effective. Because leadership styles are frequently unconscious, feedback from colleagues can be crucial in revealing the true picture. For effective leadership we look for evidence of a broad range of dominant and supporting leadership styles. We measure leadership style by comparison to the total population of leaders we have surveyed (tens of thousands, world-wide). The score is a percentage, showing how much of the population the individual exceeds. An individual with a score of, say, 75% would display that style more frequently than three quarters of the other leaders in the database. The diagram below summarises the styles demonstrated by each group, according to their employees:

Styles
This diagram compares the leadership styles of heads and business leaders. The bars show which percentile of the whole population each group falls into. Headteachers Business Leaders Dominant Style if above this level
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Coercive Authoritative Affiliative Democratic Pacesetting Coaching

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Range of Styles:
Headteachers tend to use a broader range of leadership styles * than business leaders. Using a range of styles creates a more effective and motivational climate.
Headteachers have four styles in the dominant category (defined as falling above the 66th percentile of the population as a whole) Coercive, Authoritative, Affiliative and Coaching. Business leaders, as a group, have only one dominant style Pacesetting. They also have one supporting style Authoritative, which falls in the 56th percentile of the population.

IN ACTION Authoritative Leadership

I set out what I thought the department should look like in a years time and explained that, without the changes to both curriculum and personnel, it would continue to lag in terms of attainment. I talked about how making it would feel in terms of their self-esteem then asked for their ideas on how we could make it happen.

Strengths:
Headteachers tend to rely on the more positive ways of influencing people. Over the long term reliance on these styles will build a positive climate.
Headteachers are strong on Authoritative and Coaching styles both falling above the 70th percentile. They tend to set clear expectations and focus on raising the capability of their people creating opportunities for their development even at the expense of current performance.

Weaknesses:
The two groups have very different weak spots. Two leadership styles can have negative impacts when overused Coercive and Pacesetting. Headteachers are strongly coercive but very low in pacesetting. Business leaders are strong on pacesetting but not coercive.
Headteachers fall into the 85th percentile of the population for use of a Coercive style. They are prone, as a group, to issuing orders and expecting obedience. While this can help create clarity and raise standards in the short term, over the long term it diminishes responsibility and team commitment (see data on Climate below). By comparison, business leaders rarely employ a coercive style falling into only the 32nd percentile of the population. Business leaders fall into the 72nd percentile for use of a Pacesetting style. They are prone, as a group, to expecting high standards rather than providing instruction, taking over tasks if they are worried about quality. They are not keen on letting people make mistakes as development opportunities. While this keep standards high, over the long term it diminishes a sense of responsibility, recognition and team commitment. By comparison, headteachers do not often paceset fitting the 23rd percentile of the population. This reinforces their strength in coaching and development.

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IN ACTION Coercive Leadership

When I joined, the school had serious weaknesses, there was little will to do anything people had their heads down. After I while I simply told them what to do and had to watch closely to make sure they did. Things did change for the better, especially on attendance and behaviour. But, Ive found now that staff are passive and wait for instruction they dont come to me with ideas.

As well as asking colleagues to provide feedback on their bosses leadership styles, through questionnaires, we also ask participants to complete a questionnaire about how they see themselves.

Self Awareness:
Both groups have accurate self-perception. But, while headteachers tend to underestimate their styles, business leaders tend to overestimate them.
The strong message from this study is that, individual blind spots aside, as a group both headteachers and business leaders are broadly in tune with their employees about the styles they employ. Self and employees ratings fall largely within 15% of each other for both groups. Business leaders self-ratings tend to be slightly higher than their employees. In particular they think they are more democratic than they actually are. Headteachers self-ratings tend to be slightly lower than their employees. In particular, they underplay their use of coaching styles of leadership. The findings indicate that headteachers could be more confident that they are doing a good job in the eyes of their employees. They perhaps also provide clues why the coercive style is not used in business so much. Business executives take a pride in not being seen as old fashioned, coercive bosses and would rather think of themselves as democratic.

IN ACTION Blind Spots

An NQT said to me, one day, that during his first year hed learnt the most when hed been able to try a new way of looking at poems for his English class. The lesson had failed, but he understood why. Id let him do this and supported him. Id not seen myself doing that, or realised it was important to him. So hearing it from him fascinating. I started thinking about whether I did that for other people, whether I should do more.

More information on Hays work on leadership styles can be found in Daniel Golemans article in the Harvard Business Review: Leadership That Gets Results.

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Findings: Climate
Note: For a list and definition of climate dimensions, see the Glossary of Terms, page 24. Climate is the sense, in the minds of the people who work there, of what it feels like to be part of an organisation. Climate affects how hard they work, how inspired they feel and how well their efforts are aligned to the needs of the organisation. In short, climate determines results in any organisation that relies on the contribution of people. Weve also shown how strongly the role of the leader influences climate: of all the factors involved, leadership has the greatest impact. This makes climate a vital measure of the effectiveness of a leader. In particular, Leadership Styles influence the climate very closely. For example, the Authoritative style is closely linked with the sense of Clarity, while the Affiliative style, if overused, can diminish it. The Democratic style has a positive impact on the sense of Flexibility, Responsibility and Team Commitment. We gather information on climate through questionnaires that ask people to rate the climate now and as they would like it to be in an ideal situation. Climate is split into six dimensions and the diagram below displays the results for leaders in business and education against each dimension. The measure that is most useful for comparison between different groups is the perceived gap between actual and ideal climate. This measures the demand for improvement or the felt need within the organisation. Measuring gaps ensures that we are comparing like for like rather than observing difference in rating styles. The contrasts between headteacher and business leaders are clear. When looking at the chart below, the smaller the bar, the better it represents a smaller gap.

Climate
This diagram compares the gap between actual and ideal climate for heads and business leaders. The bars show the relative scale of the gap. Headteachers Business Leaders

30

25

20

15

10

5
Flexibility Standards Clarity

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Strengths:
Headteachers foster a sense of Flexibility and Clarity. Business leaders create a sense of Responsibility and Standards.
The climate created by headteachers falls into the 90th percentile of the population for Flexibility, which is actually a big weakness for business leaders. Digging deeper into the responses, it appears this positive rating is driven by headteachers efforts to minimise bureaucracy and to respond innovatively to changes and challenges. Headteachers are also strong on creating Clarity falling into the 86th percentile of the population. They are stronger here, though, on setting expectations and communicating where people fit in, than on conveying a sense of mission and direction (which supports the findings from the study of characteristics). Business leaders reach the 85th percentile for Responsibility, which is not a strength for headteachers. Business leaders build Responsibility primarily by supporting their employees in taking calculated risks to achieve goals. In contrast, the responses showed that this was not something headteachers tended to do. Business leaders reach the 81st percentile for the sense of Standards they create. This sense can be driven by two factors a continuous drive for improvement and an expectation of excellence. It is the latter at which business leaders excel. Headteachers do not excel at creating this feeling.

IN ACTION Clarity
So, first of all, I said to the group that it was Joannes responsibility they were to take up the exact arrangements with her. However, I also took the opportunity at the staff meeting to ensure that everyone knew that our policy was that all team leaders would plan and conduct reviews as part of their job. My senior management team would co-ordinate responses to common issues only.

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Weaknesses:
Headteachers could improve on Standards, Rewards and Team Commitment. For business leaders, the weak spots are Flexibility, Rewards, Clarity and Team Commitment.
As a group, headteachers could most improve on two areas. The first is Standards, where they reach the 76th percentile of the population. Digging into the responses, the difficulty with Standards is fostering a spirit of excellence, with headteachers reaching only the 61st percentile. Headteachers, as a group, do care about improvement. The second area for development is Reward, where headteachers fall into the 75th percentile. This makes sense, as headteachers also report feeling most constrained here by policy and what they perceive to be the expectations of their staff. A sense of reward is built on two factors the feeling of recognition for effort and achievement, on which headteachers do well, but also the sense that reward is linked to performance. In the private perceptions of teachers, there is not a strong enough link in schools between the amount of reward received and the amount of individual effort put in. It is vital to note, though, that Rewards are not just about salary, but the whole emotional return available from work. Business leaders share headteachers difficulties in creating a sense of Reward so the issue is not confined to the public sector. Except that, here, the causes are reversed with business leaders the issue is recognition, not the link to performance. Business leaders fare least well on Clarity. The drivers are reversed when compared to headteachers business leaders are conveying a sense of mission, but they are not communicating individual expectations effectively. Business leaders, according to their employees, are not creating a sufficient sense of Flexibility. The biggest weak spot within this dimension is the level of bureaucracy and procedure. However, business leaders are also much weaker than headteachers on innovation. Finally, the biggest weak spot for both groups is Team Commitment headteachers fall into the 66th percentile, business leaders into the 62nd. Headteachers can inspire dedication and co-operation but they fall short on building a congenial working environment. Business leaders are seen to have trouble encouraging co-operation.

IN ACTION Rewards
The problem, as I saw it, was that people were used to being treated the same. Praise, or more usually, blame, was spread without discrimination. Nobody got fired up. So I make the effort to notice what people do they know that I know what theyve done. Equally, I make it clear if Im not happy. I cant always use the pay scale as I might wish, but there are other ways.

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Expectations:
The most important aspects of climate to teachers were Clarity, Rewards and Flexibility. They valued Responsibility the least. In business, people valued Responsibility most highly.
As well as measuring actual climate, we asked employees to describe their ideal climate on the questionnaire. Overall, the average level of expectations is broadly similar for both headteachers and business leaders in the 98th percentile for headteachers and in the 97th percentile for business leaders. The evidence suggests that neither group has a harder job than the other in establishing an effective climate. The most striking finding is on Responsibility the sense of autonomy and ability to take risks. Teachers ideals here are rather low in the 83rd percentile. It may be that they feel too exposed to public scrutiny and Ofsted inspections. By contrast, the employees of business leaders value Responsibility extremely highly in the 97th percentile. The most important dimension for teachers was Flexibility, scoring 99% on ideal ratings. This is easy to interpret. Flexibility is the sense that there are few or no unnecessary rules.

Ideal Climates
This diagram shows the ideal ratings for climate, provided by the employees of headteachers and business leaders.

100

95

It shows which percentile of the whole population the climate of each group 85 falls into. Headteachers Business Leaders

90

80

75
Flexibility Responsibility Standards Rewards Clarity Team Commitment

IN ACTION Responsibility
He said to me I didnt even think to check with you and I said I wouldnt expect you to. Weve agreed the standards, its your job. Im pleased that you just got on with it.

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Actual Climate:
To reinforce the previous analysis, we also compared the overall climate ratings for the two groups. The diagram below shows scores for actual climate ratings for headteachers and business leaders (rather than the gap between actual and ideal).

Actual Climate
This diagram shows the climate ratings for headteachers and business leaders. It shows which percentile of the whole population the climate of each group falls into. Headteachers Business Leaders

95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50
Flexibility Responsibility Standards Rewards Clarity Team Commitment

Summary:
Overall, headteachers, as a group, tend to create a different climate in the perception of their employees than business leaders.
Headteachers are significantly stronger at encouraging Flexibility and creating Clarity. Business leaders are significantly stronger on providing a feeling of Responsibility and moderately stronger at setting Standards. A shared weakness of both groups lies in fostering Team Commitment.

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What Education could learn from Business

This study reveals that our schools possess strong and versatile leadership. Headteachers perform well, both in comparison to their counterparts in private business and against the expectations of their staff.
We have seen, though, that school climate is an extremely strong influence on the academic and social development of children. We have also seen that headteachers make a strong impression on climate. Any opportunities for improvement, therefore, are still welcome. Obviously, individuals will vary enormously, but as a group, our study reveals two development priorities for headteachers.

Standards:
A shared feeling that things are done well round here is strongly motivational. To foster a sense of high standards, headteachers could learn from business leaders skill at communicating an expectation of excellence. Our investigation of characteristics found that business leaders were better at both painting an attractive vision of the future and holding people accountable for their current performance. This finding may indicate the cause of the difference in standards, in the sense of creating vivid goals for improvement and closely monitoring progress towards them.

Rewards:
The message from teachers is that, whilst headteachers are good at recognising and valuing their employees, they are less good at matching recognition to contribution. In many schools rewards are distributed on an egalitarian or blanket basis. Teachers, on the whole, do not feel motivated by this. It can be extremely disheartening to deliver an outstanding performance and receive the same praise as your average colleague. Taking a more discriminating approach to reward is challenging how will that average colleague feel when the high performer is treated differently? We have seen that headteachers often employ an Affiliative style of leadership they care about harmonious relationships. Headteachers also report feeling constrained by the grading and salary structure for teachers that they must work within. There are two important lessons from business. Business leaders did not rely heavily on Affiliative styles. Equally, modern approaches to reward extend far beyond salary to encompass benefits, training opportunities, responsibility, working environments and recognition. Headteachers strengths rest on their concern for developing people and valuing staff perhaps they could employ these talents to developing a sense of fair reward in school as well.

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What Business could learn from Education

The leadership behaviours and styles used by headteachers also offer some useful guidance for business leaders.

Versatility:
As leaders, headteachers tend to employ a more diverse range of styles and approaches. They can be Authoritative, Affiliative, Coercive or Coaching as required.
Versatility creates a better climate for the motivation of employees. Perhaps this versatility derives from the wide range of constituencies and audiences a headteacher must deal with. One requires very different styles when dealing with pupils or parents, teachers or inspectors. Business leaders may face a slightly more homogenous set of stakeholders but it is hard to see that there is no variety at all. Headteachers seem better able to transfer the styles and approach they use with one group to dealing with others.

Coaching and Development:

Headteachers tend to employ what is often thought of as a more modern managerial style.
They are genuinely interested in the development and growth of their staff. They create opportunities for people to learn and practice new skills, and they are prepared to let someone make their own mistakes and learn from the experience. Business leaders are far less prepared to engage in this kind of activity. Their tendency is to take a task away from someone if they are not swiftly up to scratch, rather than seek ways to improve them. In the short term this promotes high standards, in the long term it is harmful to all other aspects of climate.

Clarity:
Headteachers are more likely to approach their employees as individuals and communicate clear, individualised expectations.
In general, the business leaders in our sample were effective in setting and communicating a vision. They saw the big picture and could clarify it for their employees. What lets them down is their ability to translate the big picture into what is expected of each individual in their organisation in terms of clarity of roles and acceptable behaviours. This is something headteachers are good at. Possibly the fact that schools are smaller organisations helps them focus on individuals. Possibly the fact that the role of a teacher is traditionally well defined makes the task easier. However, evidence shows that outstanding headteachers take the trouble to know their pupils as individuals too making for a very broad organisation. Equally, the role of the teacher is changing particularly that of team leader and senior manager.

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Conclusions
Personal Implications:
The philosophy and findings of this study carry a strong and positive personal message for all leaders. Leadership does make a difference. Through the characteristics and styles they employ, leaders influence the climate of their organisation. Because climate inspires and channels motivation, a positive climate will lead to success in both business and education. It is also clear that feedback is crucial. The first step in effective leadership is to establish exactly what sort of impact you make. Your intuition will get you so far, but feedback from colleagues and employees will paint a more comprehensive picture and show you precisely where to target change in order to have the greatest effect. Feedback can be a painful process for both the giver and receiver. Too often it focuses on the personal rather than the professional. Without a clear model and language to describe leadership it is only possible to say you are a good leader or you are a bad leader. But this cannot promote change. As this study shows, headteachers as a group are good leaders to improve they need specific feedback on strengths and weaknesses. This study uses aggregate data. We can draw conclusions about the trends and averages of our two groups but individuals vary widely. People should use these models as the starting point for reflection and a framework for gathering feedback from their colleagues. Sustainable behavioural change is difficult. It relies on self-direction, accurate self perception, concrete goals, the opportunity to practice safely, and constant feedback and measurement.

Policy Implications:
While many headteachers would say they operate in the face of strong challenges, this study implies that many have faced up to the challenges successfully: Recruitment is difficult in education, yet headteachers have responded by focusing on development and coaching they are more likely to improve someone than replace them, with a long term beneficial impact on the climate of their organisation. They have to cover a broad range of tasks with widely different groups of people, yet this has given them a diverse and flexible approach to leadership problems. Pay and grading are difficult for headteachers to use as discriminating, effective tools, yet teachers feel more valued within school than other employees do within their organisations.

There is much to celebrate in the leadership of our schools. And, given the commitment of many in education to the concept of lifelong learning, the prospects for further improvement are good. This study has tried to reveal the strengths and suggest opportunities for development.

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Appendix 1: Glossary of Terms

Introduction to our Approach:
What difference does a leader make? Hay has pursued this question in a wide variety of environments, starting from early work by Dr David McLelland with the US Navy, through three decades of consulting to international business and, most recently, examining the role of headteachers in UK schools. Hays work breaks down the complicated and amorphous idea of leadership into concrete actions and characteristics with proven links to the outcomes needed of the organisation. In essence, we aim to say These are the things leaders do to achieve the results you are looking for. While many of the findings are intuitive, even common sense, it is the rigour of the links to performance and the clarity of the models that is of real value. They enable people in the job to reflect on their own behaviour and take immediate steps to improve their impact. In all environments in which we have worked, we have found a causal model of the relationship between leadership behaviour and performance:

A Causal Model:
1. The Characteristics (motivation, attitudes and behaviours) of the individual determine the styles of leadership (or methods of influencing) they habitually employ. These Leadership Styles determine the feel of an organisation. They create a perception in the minds of the employees about how they are expected to behave and how they should perform their role. We call this perception Climate. The Climate of an organisation influences and directs the motivation and engagement of the employees. It stimulates the effort they put in at their own discretion. Climate has a direct impact on results, whether they are shareholder value or the rounded development of pupils.

2.

3.

Professional Characteristics Leadership Styles Organisational Climate Results

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An Example of the Model at Work:

If a leader works on

Characteristic:

e.g. Conceptual Thinking

Distilling the key issues from a mass of trends and information; finding new and creative ways to explain things clearly.

it will help them deploy a style which is more

Leadership Style:

e.g. Authoritative
Setting a clear vision for the organisation, communicating where we are going, and why, so that people can work towards the goals.

which will create a sense of

Climate Dimension:

e.g. Clarity
People feel that they understand how their role contributes to the aims of the organisation, and the actions and behaviours that are most appropriate.

Performance:

and consequently, people will become more motivated, morale will be higher and results will improve.

This diagram uses our model to show how a leaders particular characteristics can change the results of the organisation. The key question it leaves is, If this person was motivated to change (perhaps through feedback that people lacked a sense of clarity), what could they do to permanently and significantly improve their conceptual thinking?

Two sets of statistics demonstrate the power of these links: Multiple studies show that up to 70% of the variation in Organisational Climate is determined by the Styles of the leader. Changes in Climate can increase discretionary effort by as much as 30%.

In schools, in particular, we have discovered a direct and proportional correlation between Climate and Ofsted measures of school attainment.

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Professional Characteristics: The specific behaviours, traits and attitudes which people use in their work.
Early research into competencies revealed that the deeper characteristics such as motives and habits, rather than skills and knowledge, are the strongest predictors of success. Skills are necessary but not sufficient to be outstanding.

Leadership Styles:

The habitual approaches an individual uses to motivate and direct their employees.
We have found six main leadership styles: Authoritative Coercive Democratic Pacesetting Affiliative Coaching This is where we are going and why. You must do this now! What are your views on the matter? This is the way to do it. Its important that we all get on. How can I support your learning?

Organisational Climate: The key aspects of the environment of an organisation, as perceived by the people who work there, which affect their motivation and performance.
We have found six key dimensions of climate: Flexibility Reward Clarity Standards Responsibility Team Commitment There are no unnecessary rules here. If I do well, it gets noticed and recognised. I know our goals and how I contribute. We are expected to do well and improve. I can get on with my job, make decisions. People are proud to work here.

Model of Excellence: The combinations of characteristics which lead to success in a particular role.
We have built a model of excellence for headteachers, which describes the varied ways they achieve success. We use it here as a benchmark for both headteachers and business leaders.

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Appendix 2: Methodology and Sample

Methodology:
In separate studies over the last few years, we have investigated the characteristics of leaders in both business and education. Weve also looked at the styles they use and the climate they create. When it comes to characteristics, we are mostly interested in what it takes to become outstanding or excellent in a particular role. So we investigate samples of effective and highly effective performers. The basis of our findings lies in the difference between the two: what outstanding performers do more often or more effectively than the others. These are the differentiating or distinguishing characteristics. We used the following methods to gain the data:

Behavioural Event Interviews:

Three hour interviews, focusing on critical events in the leaders career what do they do, say, feel and think during these events? These interviews are coded against a dictionary of characteristics. These characteristics can be rated for level and frequency displayed. When compiled into a large enough sample, they provide a statistical base for a rigorous and detailed description of behaviour.

Self and Peer Review of Leadership Styles:

We ask a leader and five of their closest colleagues to complete questionnaires on the leadership styles they use. These questionnaires ask a variety of questions around each of the six major styles, drawing on concrete examples of behaviour.

Self and Peer Review of Climate:

We ask the leader and five of their closest colleagues to complete questionnaires on the climate in their team or organisation. Each participant rates the climate along six key dimensions. Each dimension is investigated through a number of related questions. Participants are asked to rate the climate as they perceive it now, and as they would like it to be in the future. This gap between actual and ideal provides useful information for self development.

A Common Benchmark:
These methods give us a great deal of data from a variety of perspectives from the individuals own thoughts and from the experience of their colleagues. In practice, with qualitative data of this kind, we also need to take care that we use a common benchmark, and that different raters are using the same criteria and scales. The next stage of the study is to correlate the data on characteristics with data on the performance of the individuals and their organisations. This enables us to distinguish with confidence between the attributes of effective and highly effective performers.

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Sample:
We brought together a number of separate studies for the current comparison. To enable us to compare outstanding performers in each sphere, we also chose a sample of highly effective leaders from within the wider population of each group the best of the best from business and education. We did not include poor performers in our sample. We gathered data on styles and climate from the whole population. We gathered data on characteristics from the outstanding groups.

Business Leaders:
We used a sample built from studies performed in a number of multinational blue chip organisations. We selected chief executives, board members and senior line managers at director level. These individuals represent the cream of business leaders; they operate on a global level in multi-billion dollar organisations with well known brand names. Their sectors include manufacturing, consumer products, retail, information technology and finance. We used a broad group of 200 effective business leaders. Of these, we also chose 33 who were judged to be outstanding performers according to their results.

Educational Leaders:
We used a sample from two studies of headteachers in the UK. These headteachers have a range of experience, from newly appointed to long serving. They lead schools with a variety of resources and challenges from large secondary schools (often the biggest employer in their area) to small rural primaries; from suburbia to inner city; from prosperous to poorer neighbourhoods. We also included the leaders of special schools whose pupils have a range of emotional, physical and behavioural difficulties. We used a broad group of 200 effective headteachers. We also selected a group of 36 outstanding performers according to their schools achievements.

Size of Sample:
For each group we have comparable data on the characteristics and leadership styles of each individual and the climate they create. The combined group of 66 outstanding leaders is large enough to give our findings on characteristics statistical significance, and is built from over 200 hours of interviews and 70,000 pages of data! The wider group of effective performers contains four hundred individuals and the data is built from over 2,000 questionnaires. For headteachers, we also have a researched Model of Excellence. This model describes the demands of the role what it takes to do a good job as a headteacher. One of the questions we can ask is how the business leaders match up to the model of excellence for headteachers.

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Hay Group Education

Hay Group is a leading global consultancy specialising in people issues. We have researched and designed models of effective leadership for a variety of organisations in the public and private sector. In education in the UK, our expertise stems from a number of projects:

The Leadership Programme for Serving Headteachers

Europes largest management development programme. 5,000 headteachers have been through this development course, based on researched models of excellence for leadership in schools. Over three quarters of participants rate it as the best training they have ever received. Follow up work demonstrates marked improvements in school climate as a result. We are now delivering an FE College Principals Leadership Programme and FE College Senior Management Team Development Programme.

Teacher Effectiveness Research

The DfES asked us to investigate what makes a highly effective classroom teacher. As well as building models of excellence for teaching, we were also able to test the applicability of organisational climate to the individual classroom. In a significant breakthrough, we were able to create a model of Classroom Climate that predicts the academic progress of pupils. From this background we are now working on professional development and school improvement programmes around the world. Headteachers and teachers can obtain personal feedback on the climate they create and the styles they use through our on-line professional development service: Transforming Learning. This is a commercial service for schools and education authorities, who can purchase a licence providing unlimited access for the entire organisation. You can explore how Transforming Learning works through our website:

www.transforminglearning.co.uk
For more information please contact us on:
Phone: (020) 7856 7000 Email: education@haygroup.com Hay Group Education 33 Grosvenor Place London SW1X 7HG

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