Category: Leadership

National talent management strategy for school business professionals

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The summer is over and darker nights are here, bringing with them the usual range of TV shows where celebrities and wannabes hone their aspiring talents in dancing, singing or even business skills for our entertainment. Enjoyable though these shows are, I am more interested in the year-round activity of encouraging and supporting talented people …

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“appoint people who are better than you and then get out of their way.”

The oft repeated leadership adage is that good leaders appoint people who are better than themselves and then get out of their way. It is something I have tried to do in every leadership position I have had; surround myself with people who are really, really good at doing their thing and letting them do …

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Everest: a lesson in leadership

A brief leadership story drawn from the 1996 Everest Disaster Stephen Morales wanted to use lessons from a disastrous climbing expedition in 1996 to illustrate the perils of pressing on too high, too far, too soon as NASBM transitioned to institute status. He was unable to deliver the presentation to conference as planned on the 16th November 2017 and …

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Professional Prominence: opening address from the last NASBM conference

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  This is the text of the opening address I gave in place of Stephen Morales at the final NASBM Annual Conference (NASBM becomes the Institute of School Business Leadership tomorrow). It has had minor edits to make it suitable for reading but is 98% ‘as delivered’. The slides appear in the text at the …

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There are over 150 job titles for school and university leaders (and most of them are probably named Sarah or David!)

A brief delve into Edubase this week revealed a couple of interesting statistics. School leaders are most likely to be called Sarah or David but you have little chance of accurately guessing their actual job title. This is because there are over 150 different job titles listed in the DfE’s online database. OK, so some …

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School business leaders to hold roundtable discussion

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A group of school business professionals have convened a roundtable discussion in Birmingham on the 30th May. The event will take place just days before the General Election. I’m one of the SBMs who came up with the idea and I am convinced the time is right to hear from school business leaders as the country decides which …

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Malpractice and the Authority Gradient

An accidental discovery this weekend led me to a number of articles about the impact of  the ‘authority gradient’ in high stress, high stakes situations in both medicine and the airline industry. The authority gradient is defined as the perceived difference in status between different members of an organisation. It is a barrier to effective communication …

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Launch date announced for the Institute of School Business Leadership

NASBM has confirmed the timeline for its conversion to the institute status and has announced that the new Institute of School Business Leadership will open its doors on the 20th November 2017. Conversion to Institute status is the latest development for the school business leadership profession and is designed to promote and further professionalise the …

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Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre

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Managing change is a key skill for school leaders. Even more so in the current funding climate where we have to make tough decisions. This blog looks at the importance of communication during times of change.  I was talking to Gary my network manager recently  about the importance of letting colleagues know when their computers …

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Serve First (an SBM equivalent of Teach First)

It’s time to celebrate the concept of public service and to encourage our some of our brightest and best graduates to serve in the wider public sector beyond Whitehall and the Civil Service Fast Track programme. I want to see able young men and women follow me into school business leadership. But administrative careers are …

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