‘Leading in a school is complicated. It requires us to know enough about many different issues and to be able to spin different plates without allowing the most important one to come crashing down. No two days are ever the same in a school; and while this daily cut and thrust is demanding, for many it is the variety that keeps us in the job.’ (Tom Rees, 2018) 

There is often debate leadership versus management in school settings and the differences between the two. Peter Drucker believed; Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.’ 

When we think of leading and managing in schools John West-Burham suggests we think of it in terms of a school’s capacity for change. ‘Effective management will lead to incremental improvement that is useful but may not be sufficient. Leadership, by contrast, offers the possibility of transformation.’ 

Of course, there are various definitions of leadership and management, and many distinctions are made. Bennis and Nanus list several key differences between leaders and managers: 

Leaders: 

• Do the right things 

• See people as assets 

• Seek commitment 

• Focus on outcomes 

• See what and why things could be done 

• Share information 

• Promote networks 

Managers: 

• Do things right 

• See people as liabilities 

• Seek control, create and follow the rules 

• Focus on how things should be done 

• Seek compliance 

• Value secrecy 

• Use formal authority (hierarchy) 

Bennis and Nanus (2007) express leadership as transformational and empowering. They stress six areas of emphasis: 

1. Leadership is about character, 

1. Leaders must be instrumental in creating a social architecture capable of generating intellectual capital, 

1. The significance of a strong determination to achieve a goal or realise a vision, 

1. The capacity to generate and sustain trust, 

1. Leaders have an ability to enrol people in their vision through optimism, 

1. Leaders have a bias towards action that results in success. 

John West-Burnham suggests a more specific distinction might be the comparison between operational and strategic. Consider your team – are they focusing more time on management rather than leadership? Do you / they concentrate on operational routines, structures and processes or on the values, purpose and people? 

‘The best leaders…achieve great results not because they micromanage behaviours of their staff or spend their lives obsessing over how to improve outcomes in the short term, but because they focus on the root causes of the challenges they face. Leadership with substance and authenticity, connecting to the values, beliefs, emotions and thought processes of others, is a far more powerful and effective approach.’ (Tom Rees, 2018) 

This blog was written by Bretta Townend-Jowitt, Education Consultant and Trainer.