Experience of a leadership development programme - workshop activities from AHDS 'Culture of Leadership' Conference

1. Learning and changes resulting from progression through a leadership
programme
Wednesday 14th September – Jackie Funnell
Activity 1
Leadership/Management – What’s the Difference?
In the table below, make up to 3 entries in each column that highlight a difference between
leadership and management. An entry in one column should be accompanied by a directly
comparable entry in the other.
Leadership Management
The difference between a leader and a The difference between a leader and a
manager is that a leader: manager is that a manager:

2. Activity 1 – Reading and Reflection
Leadership and Management – what’s the difference?
The following paragraph is from an article by Danny mUrphy, Leadership and Management –
Where next?, provides a succinct summary of the differences – as well as the close links – between
management and eladership. The article was written as a contribution to the consultation following
the draft publication of “CPD for educational Leadership” (SEED 2003).
“ Management is assigned responsibility and involves making the best use of
resources to fulfil a set of clearly defined functions associated with a particular
post and job description. Leadership is a quality which any individual can
possess. Leadership power can flow very effectively, for example when others
choose to follow someone not because of their position but because of what
they say. Management is top down. Leadership can come from any part of the
organisation. Managers are given responsibility, leadership involves taking
responsibility. Management is about structures, leadership is about cultures.
Management is about what you do on the outside, leadership is about what you
believe on the inside. Leadership requires the exercise of context-sensitive
judgement, management favours predicable responses. Management
responsibility is associated with particular posts, but leadership, in a
democratic society is something we look for in all teachers in a school
community, whether they are in management posts or not. Developing
leadership in all members of the community (pupils and staff) is, indeed, one of
the key educational functions of schooling in a democratic society, so
leadership development is important not just to make schools more effective,
but because it is a central purpose of democratic schooling itself”
Macbeath and Myers also offer some succinct comment on the difference between management
and leadership:
“ ……… management is, by definition, expected to produce a degree of predictability and order, to
meet short term expectations….., to plan and to work to a more or less rational model. Leadership
is more at home in the world of the unpredictable, the spontaneous and creative.”
“People can save time and energy through efficient management . It is
therefore not too surprising that management training has developed into such
a major industry. Leadership, on the other hand, which is more about people,
relationships, intuition, values and moral judgement is hard to teach because
these things in themselves are not easy to identify and difficult to dissect.

3. Now, return to the table on Leadership/Management and see if you can
make entries in all of the remaining spaces.
Learning and changes resulting from progression through a leadership
programme
Wednesday 14th September – Jackie Funnell
Activity 2
Reflect individually first and then with a partner on the 12 extracts below. Which 3
extracts would you commend most strongly to a colleague aspiring to leadership.
“The first rule of leadership is that it is “Effective leaders place an emphasis on
shared” teaching and learning as well as building
capacity”
“Leadership should be viewed as a “The first step towards success is
capacity to learn” identifying your own leadership strengths”
“Shared or distributed leadership is not “Good leaders know when to push and
simply about extending delegation from when to back off, when to give strong a
the top. It is inherently democratic, strong lead and when to support.
involves multiple sources of guidance and Different situations and time need
direction and is underpinned by a different approaches”
common culture”
“True leadership always works with the “Leaders never lose their focus. They
grain of human nature, not against it! keep their eyes on the positive”
Leadership needs to be seen more as a “The challenge for the headteacher is to
sensitive response than the application of provide the opportunities that allow each
strategies and techniques” individual in a school to contribute,
though their own skills, expertise and
leadership, to the collective good fo the
school”
“If leadership is fundamental to school “It is surely one of the greatest ironies of
improvement and success then it is not leadership, that while we look traditionally
unreasonable to speculate that it might to leaders to solve our problems, it would
also be crucial factor in teams, seem that leaders are most likely to be
classrooms and every social unit in a successful when they reflect the problems
school” straight back to where they have to be

4. solved – at the feet of the followers”