Coaching and training in methods of educational management and leadership
Educational institutionsare a special case when it comes to management because the aims and objectives are so complex, fraught with emotional charge and involve many factors, which cannot be controlled. Traditional hierarchies are no longer relevant in education and the qualities of leadership required in an educational institution ultimately require consent, insight, shared responsibly, individual creativity and accountability. It is not easy to manage a group of creative individuals whose creativity requires a high degree of autonomy who are nevertheless capable of high levels of teamwork. This usually occurs in under- funded settings in which the primary activity teaching is a high stress occupation. Teaching has been shown to one of the most challenging professions with very high levels of burn out and drop out. On top of which, the tradition social respect that that teachers once enjoyed has been eroded. Respect has to earned the hard way.
Yet quality education thrives on individuals who are clearly perceived to possess enhanced personal qualities, authenticity and values, which earn them the respect of pupils, parents and colleagues alike. A teacher should inspire, reassure, guide and be a figure of authority as well as being a creative artist in the art of education.
The quality of teaching and learning is directly affected by the quality of educational management. Successful management has to be effective, unobtrusive, inclusive, creative, serving, enabling. Above educational management has to optimise organisation and resources in support of the primary educational processes of learning and development. It must support teachers and pupils, and often today parents, in ways that enable them to do their best. Management has to release potential and generate resources and create creative spaces for everyone to develop.
One of the main reasons for schools and other educational institutions failing to consistently optimise and the potential of its students and teachers is ineffective management, which can be either too light or too heavy handed. Getting the balance wrong can lead to frustration, depressions, lack of motivation, conflict and other emotional states that consume rather than generate energy.
This highly challenging, almost impossible task cannot simply rely on the charisma of leaders and assumptions of authority or power but is based on a range of skills that can be developed. Sometimes institutions are simply trying to persevere with management methods that used to work at different times with different people. Sometimes there are simple but fatal misunderstanding about management works. There is often deep seated resistance to collective responsibility- there are a lot of isolated heroes doing great work but their efforts are not sustainable or in any sense joined up within an integrated mutually supportive system.
ipf is not in business to sell patent systems because it believes that there are no perfect systems. Each social organisation has to find its own solutions. Above all each organisation has to enter into an on-going process of evidence-based review of the systems it already has and systematically evolve these. Revolutions tend to be messy and can often lead to new dictatorships and ideologies. Evolution ensures that forms are sustainable and suited to the circumstances. When the circumstances changes so too must forms evolve.
The key to organisational change lies in the balance between the creative individual and the learning community. This requires a management sensitive to the processes involved. There are tools and techniques that be successfully used and their use can be learned and their effects evaluated. However at the heart of good management is a good understanding of the principles of human development and understanding, which principles work in a healthy way in each sphere of life and work. At the heart of good management is learning through doing, which of course involves the process of systematic reflection and analysis.
ipf offers coaching and training in various management techniques, can advise on organisational development, can help audit social and organisational processes and introduce the methods of action research in a management context.