Case Study – Leadership Development
Brief
- To establish a shared vision for a Faculty and shift the focus of leadership from a hierarchical culture, to a culture of leadership at all levels across the Faculty.
- To identify any barriers to leaders and managers moving the Faculty performance to outstanding and to identify ways of overcoming these barriers.
Organisation
- Large Further Education College
Scope
- Working with leaders and managers at all levels within one of the six College Faculties
Background
- Hierarchical leadership and management culture
- Low turnover of all staff – teaching and management
- Lack of challenge, rigour and learner centred approach in learning and teaching practices
- Changing and sometimes challenging student profile
- Difficulty in recruiting part-time teaching staff
- Curriculum Managers with different perceptions of their roles
- Recent restructuring of Faculty
Methodology
- Scoping meeting with senior leaders to agree development programme
- Whole day workshop for Faculty management and leadership team – identification of vision and milestones for the faculty, agreeing curriculum manager and leaders roles, identification of preferred leadership styles, self-assessment of leadership behaviours, and introduction to 360 degree feedback
- 360 degree feedback process undertaken for each leader and manager in the Faculty – results benchmarked against international database
- All participants received 3 individual coaching sessions to explore the issues arising from the above feedback, and to agree an individual and team action plan to secure improvement for the faculty
- The recurring issues, concerns and barriers emerging through the above coaching sessions were identified and presented in anonymised form in a half-day workshop with curriculum leaders and managers.
These issues included:
- People management – particularly challenging the prevailing culture and poor performance
- Time management and prioritisation – particularly covering teaching hours
- Effective mechanisms to keep staff professionally updated – particularly part-time staff
- All Leaders and Managers were provided with a conversational feedback model and with support in preparing for the appraisal of staff and in challenging poor performance of teaching staff
- Leaders and Managers ran a whole day staff session to establish a professional code of conduct and to produce handbook for both staff and students on codes of behaviour
Outcomes
- A shared Vision for the vaculty was established, which was supported by individual and team action plans and codes of conduct
- All Leaders and Managers clearly identified their areas for improvement in relation to their roles
- A Senior Leader’s role was changed in order to establish a lead mentor in the Faculty – with a particular focus on the professional updating of new and part-time staff
- There was clarity on the roles and responsibilities of curriculum managers and leaders and a more proactive approach by these managers and leaders
- There was more consistent management of student behaviour, attendance , and punctuality