Teach Secondary Issue 14.8

Managed disagreements The complication, though, is how to do all that without disempowering anyone. When stepping in to mediate, you run the risk of sending the message that your team members aren’t capable of resolving their own conflicts. When youmake a decisive call to move an agenda forward, you risk alienating the person whose idea ended up not getting chosen. A good headteacher will know that their team members’ sense of autonomy and professional worth is inextricably linked to their ability to have their voice heard and ideas taken seriously. You have to create a space where disagreement isn’t a sign of failure, but indicative of a healthy and engaged team. It’s about ensuring everyone feels like a valued member of that team, even when their own particular battle has been lost. One of the most profound complexities a headteacher must navigate is that tightrope walk between tradition and inclusion. Every school is a living, breathing entity, with its own set of unwritten rules and distinct culture forged over years of Ofsted inspections and bake sales. This tradition can be a powerful force for good, providing your school community with a shared sense of stability and identity – but it can also become a suffocating, self-perpetuating echo chamber that treats any new ideas with suspicion. SLT is the arena where these tensions will be most acutely felt. A recently added member may, for example, see themselves as a custodian of the school’s best traditions with a deep respect for its history. At the same time, however, they must also be capable of suggesting that it might be finally time to let go of that photocopied worksheet dating from 1998. Diversity, reflection and instinct The need for diversity in leadership isn’t just a moral imperative, but a practical necessity. A team that’s inclusive in its makeup will be better equipped to handle the myriad challenges that a modern, diverse school community presents. The headteacher’s job is to ensure that a plurality of voices and perspectives aren’t just tolerated, but actively celebrated. They’re not simply hiring staff; they’re shaping the very future of the school. That’s why the hiring process can’t be rushed, and why a headteacher must be deeply reflective when it comes to their own leadership style and imperfections. A headteacher who is a natural visionary, for instance, should seek out a deputy who can translate their wild and expensive dreams into a five-point plan with a workable budget. The leader who excels at charming governors and parents must find an internal champion who can focus on staff wellbeing and morale, and who won’t be afraid to acknowledge when everyone’s tired and needs to go home. Headteachers should devise interview scenarios and tasks that reveal how candidates think under pressure, how they would respond to the truly bizarre, and their answers to the unsolvable problems that are the bread and butter of senior leadership. And whether they have the capacity to laugh at themselves. Reference checks ought to go beyond simple verification and into deep examinations of candidates’ track records in successful teamwork, their integrity, and ability to build lasting relationships. At the same time, a headteacher must also trust their instincts. A candidate who looks ideal on paper, but who gives you an uneasy feeling can sometimes represent a risk that’s simply not worth taking. That ‘gut feeling’ will often a synthesis of all the subconscious cues and data points an experienced leader has collected over time, and could therefore be a powerful tool in assessing whether a given person will be a harmonious addition or a human spanner in the works. Be the careful observer In the end, building an SLT involves finding the right combination of people to create a form of collective genius – or at the very least, a collective who don’t actively despise each other. It’s a process of careful curation, of building a delicate and resilient ecosystem that can withstand the perpetual crises of school life. The headteacher’s role in all this is to act as the architect of a complex ecosystem, and be the careful observer who understands that the true measure of a team’s strength isn’t the individual brilliance of its members, but their ability to work together , support one another, and occasionally bring the biscuits. Awell-constructed SLT is the bedrock upon which a thriving school is built. It’s the engine of a school’s success, the beating heart of its culture and guiding force of its future. The complexity involved in building an effective SLT is immense – but the rewards, for the school and its community alike, are immeasurable. And if you’re really lucky, they might also be fun to go for a drink with at the end of a long, hard term… ABOUT THE AUTHOR Hannah Carter is an experienced headteacher working for The Kemnal Academies Trust and author of the book, The Honest Headteacher (Teacher Writers, £12.99) 41 teachwire.net/secondary L E A D E R S H I P