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Why you don't need superpowers to be an epic leader

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I was recently invited to join a conference panel discussing how to have impact at any level as a leader. It got me thinking about successful leadership behaviours. I concluded there are four that together add up to epic leadership. Epic leaders are empowering, (moral) purposeful, impactful and compassionate. Epic wasn’t a word I used much until my home became dominated by the superheroes and accompanying jargon my husband and children are obsessed with. It seems a good fit for the notion that successful school leaders have a touch of the superheroic about them. But you don’t need special powers to be an epic leader; just four qualities anyone can develop. Empowering Epic leaders don’t rely on personal performance, but inspire and enable others to deliver. This can be particularly tricky for middle leaders, who are often ‘pace-setters’, leading by example and urging others to keep up. It certainly can be difficult to let go, especially when you  know  (or think you do) tha
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Improving leadership diversity: Five lessons from two women’s leadership programmes

First published by the Teaching Schools Council in July 2017. In 2016 Southwark Teaching School Alliance won an award from the NCTL Leadership Equality and Diversity Fund for two programmes exclusively for female leaders, which we ran in collaboration with United Learning and the Gipsy Hill Federation. The programmes are a response to the historic underrepresentation of women in headship and executive leadership [1] , seeking to unlock talent that could help meet the demand for more great leaders and ensure every child goes to a school led by a great headteacher. We will run them again in 2017/18. The programmes Our two programmes –  Headship Beyond One School , for serving heads and executive heads, and  Senior Leadership Development for Women , for those on their journey to headship – tackled some of the barriers that can hold women back. A central theme was how it is possible for women to lead in a way that is both consistent with their values, and compatible with the other
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Leadership of school leadership is a white male preserve

First published in  Schools Week  on 27 May 2017. The new board of the Foundation for Leadership in Education is all white and nearly all male – a fact which in no way reflects the reality of the sector it claims to represent, argues Dr Kate Chhatwal If the role of a board of trustees is to set the tone at the top, I’m a little perplexed at the note the Foundation for Leadership in Education (FLE) wants to strike. Years in the making, it went live last week, but of the nine trustees  on its new website , eight are men, only one is a woman – and all of them are white. The cause of this problem doesn’t lie entirely with the Foundation itself. The founding trustees represent the organisations behind the FLE, and all of these except NGA are run by white men (though I’m not sure why the serving female presidents of both ASCL and NAHT appear to have been overlooked). News of the board’s line-up reached us the same week that NAHT confirmed the appointment of the aptly named Paul Whit
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We need strong values-led leadership in today's divided world

First published in TES   on 16 February 2017. The qualities traditionally ascribed to female leadership are among those that are most needed in our schools, and indeed in the turbulent wider world, writes a co-founder of the Leading Women’s Alliance Friday 20 January turned out to be a very good day to be closeted in the theatre at the Mulberry and Bigland Green Centre, surrounded by scores of  inspirational leaders , cut off from the outside world. When we set the date for the second Leading Women’s Alliance Summit last summer, we had no idea it would be the day  Donald Trump would be inaugurated . Uppermost in our minds at that time were the communities closer to home, reeling in the aftermath of the  Brexit vote . Both events provided a backdrop for a day focused on the need for, and the power of,  values-led leadership . The day after 52 per cent of voters set us on the path to Brexit last May, my six-year-old son asked his half-Indian daddy whether his life would
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Ten lessons in leading challenging schools, as taught by Future Leaders

In three years at The Future Leaders Trust (TFLT) I have been fortunate to visit scores of “challenging” schools and to work with hundreds of inspirational school leaders. Each has brought their own experiences and perspective, but all have been united by a shared commitment to transforming schools and closing the achievement gap – a commitment I will always share. As I leave TFLT to take up post as Director of Southwark Teaching School Alliance, I can think of no better tribute to the incredible leaders I've worked with than to capture and share some of what they’ve taught me. There are no great revelations here. As is often said, improving schools isn’t rocket science; it’s about simple things done consistently and well. The challenge is that that simple isn’t necessarily easy! Lesson 1: Great leadership starts with a compelling vision and values The most powerful leaders are driven by a moral purpose and passion that recognises and addresses the needs and aspirations of every ch
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Circling the line of Multi-Academy Trust accountability

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Superman fans may recall the scene where the pant-sporting hero flies up to catch Lois Lane as she falls from a skyscraper. He reassures the distressed damsel, “Easy, miss. I’ve got you.” Lane stammers “You – you’ve got me? Who’s got you?” I’ve been wondering the same about multi-academy trust (MAT) boards. Since becoming a trustee in the autumn, I’ve been trying to understand how accountability for pupil outcomes flows through the MAT and how the Standards Committee I chair fits in. I was lucky to join a trust that had recently undertaken a governance review and already had a clear scheme of delegation, but the visual learner in me needed to see it in diagram form to really understand it. It’s taken us a few months, but a diagram now exists which shows a ‘golden thread’ of accountability from headteachers to the board of trustees. I would urge anyone involved in MAT governance to attempt this task, as the process led us to some useful streamlining and refinement of ro
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Peacefully defending our Carnegie Library

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Our boys don't need Carnegie Library. We've been going since they were babies enjoying Wriggle and Rhyme, but they could probably live without it. Our shelves are bursting with books which they devour at such a rate that we've had to get a Kindle as well. We also have a variety of ways to connect to the internet, and a computer and quiet space for homework. We are lucky. Other children and families are not as lucky. I'm acutely aware of this because throughout my career I have worked with some of the country's most deprived schools, including a number in Lambeth. For some of the children in these schools, homes are filled not with books, but with chaos. It can be difficult for these children to find a quiet space to read, think and do school work, or an adult with the time and inclination to encourage them to do so. Sometimes home is not a safe place to be, the lives of those in them blighted by abuse, violence and addiction. That is why libraries, like Carn
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