“Leaders don’t simply emerge. If you want to create leadership at every level, we have to create the systems and the culture that allows this to happen. Authoritarian leadership is dead along with leaders who want predictability and to control the uncontrollable. The new leaders realise that they are part of the team, part of the overall agenda, not the master of it.”

It’s not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, nor the nastiest… it’s the one most adaptable to change. We need to develop intelligent learning communities within Education Leeds and across our schools. That means teams of colleagues who share information, insights, experience and toolkits about common interests and the things that we are passionate about. Virtual networks, working groups, clusters and teams building on the informal, non-documented and personal networks that exist across Education Leeds and the schools we serve.

Why an intelligent community? We need to be a dynamic organisation that can quickly adapt to change… can shrink and expand to meet identified needs. We have to develop some kind of structure within our organisation to make it intelligent.. to make it easy to join, to share and to connect. We know that building an intelligent community is always going to be a balancing act… too much structure and you lose creativity, imagination and innovation… too much creativity and you lose focus. The only way it works is if the systems are part of your culture, your day to day practice and your day to day work.

The facts are still the facts.. be true to yourself, your beliefs and values. Pretending to be someone else will make life at work far more complicated than it should be and you will never be effective as a leader. We must also connect our results with our people so that they can all see how what they do makes a real difference.

We must tell our colleagues and those we work with to come and join us… to come and join us if they are inspired, engaged and passionate.. to come and share their magic!
Chris

Chris