The Middle Leader Manifesto

We asked one question to 160 Aspiring, Middle and Senior Leaders in our Leading from the Middle programme: what does it take to grow into an excellent middle leader?

By Ewan McIntosh

Know what you want.

Have a goal to start with. Even better, have a cause. A strong cause helps guide your project towards a meaningful and valuable outcome.

Simple ideas are ambitious ideas.

There’s no such thing as a small change. Change meets with resistance whatever it is. A simple, clear vision with concrete ideas is a starting point to making any change happen. Make your ideas clear, not clever: draw them so a seven year old can understand and a 57 year old Principal gets excited. “Everything should be as simple as possible but no simpler,” said Einstein. Simple sells. Simple can be easily understood. Simple happens.

It’s about them, not about you.

No Middle Leader is an island. Listening, really listening, is how we build anything worth building. Listening to others is vital, but also listen to yourself. The power of reflection is key to seeing the learning opportunities.

Be vulnerable and lead from behind. Your team makes you a leader, not you. A leader without a team is dancing alone. Find your first follower, and get them to bring a friend. And then you can start being a leader.

Great leaders don’t just run on their gut. They don’t just have hunches. They run on data, too. Data can be on a spreadsheet or on the face of the person in front of you right now.

Find your Brains Trust.

The collective is more powerful than the parts that make it up.

Share, think, wrestle with ideas, constantly shift your perspective and seek out the folk who challenge your ideas with heart. If you work in a school, that should include some students. And it should include people who don’t work in your neighbourhood, who can show you there’s always another way.

And your Brains Trust can also be your ally when you need a reality check.

Make your ideas portable.

The way you communicate your ideas matters, but what matters most is that the idea is memorable on first sight. Make the idea inspirational and memorable. Big ideas are hard for people to deal with. They don’t know what to do. They can’t see the next step. Inspirational ideas are ideas that happen. Memorable ideas are ideas that have happened. Inspirational, memorable ideas are stealable, ones that others can build on.

Leaders create leaders.

Middle Leaders don’t hide out of sight, or keep their ideas hidden. They rock the boat and throw ideas over the side to test the water. Where there are ripples there’s enough interest to keep going, to refine, rebuild and create an alternative way of doing things. Great leaders create ideas that others can borrow, and use to become even better leaders themselves.

Plan serendipity.

Accidental conversations tend not to happen when they’re programmed in as a Zoom meeting. Unless you plan for serendipity. How can you make meetings last 8 minutes, not 60, and start at a weird time that makes people show up early, not on time or late?

Side projects can be the work. The unexpected outcome is often the outcome worth going for.

20% done is an invitation to feedback. 90% done is an invitation to ship.

Feedback is the place where good ideas become great. Iteration isn’t a formula. It’s a mindset.

Build ideas bit by bit with others. Coach the idea, not the person. The ability to reflect and be flexible, change the plan when it needs to be changed. We used to say “fail fast”. Really we need to “learn fast”. Trial and error allows us to do that.

Ask questions that drive an idea forward. Don’t be critical with your question. Don’t question like you don’t believe — question like you need to know more to make an idea happen.

‘No’ is the start. Be bold with your changes so that others will argue with you! Suddenly you’re in a conversation about your cause.

Iterate. Iterate. Iterate. Then iterate again.

When you tell the story again and again, when you run projects again and again, when you keep pushing the flywheel around just one more turn, eventually you get the perpetual motion that makes the whole thing fly. Speed trumps perfection. Get stuff done, find out what needs to be done better, and keep going.

Revisit your scrapheap.

We always throw out ideas that didn’t work out first time around. Keep them somewhere. When you’re lacking inspiration, head back to your old projects and those that fell over at the first hurdle. Revisit them with fresh perspectives. Then coal can maybe become diamonds. Journal it. Anyone who ever came up with anything kept a journal. Write and draw everything that you notice.

Communicate clearly, differently, often.

When you’re trying to communicate your idea clearly, one way might be visually, but other ways help more people understand. Collaborate with a “cabinet of talents”, people whose skills add to yours.

There’s power in small conversations — every conversation is a step closer to finding the nugget that paves the way for the idea to come to life.

Don’t hold your cards close to your chest — make sure you share your ideas far and wide. The better your idea the more likely others will want to borrow it. Then they can make it their own and improve upon the original idea.

Time is your most valuable resource — start using it that way.

Use time wisely. It’s one of the only non-renewable resources that we have. Be effective with your meetings, make sure your team is working on useful tasks. Don’t waste people’s time with meaningless tasks or laborious meetings.

Actually do it.

Leadership isn’t a book. It isn’t a PhD. It isn’t just reading about it. Leadership is what you achieved by trying something out.

Download a high-res version of the manifesto as a poster, for free.

Ewan McIntosh is the passionate and energising tour de force behind NoTosh. He’s a highly-regarded keynote speaker and host at events around the world, marrying intense prep work and a natural capacity to listen and shine a light on the best stories participants have to share.

Ewan will be facilitating a pre-conference on “Leading from the Middle” as well as our host of conversation during our plenaries each day.

‘Defeating Habit with Originality’ – How We Can Teach Students to Study Differently

By Martin Griffin and Steve Oakes

Much of what we do as learners is the result of ingrained habit. Many of us will be able to recall a time in our own education when results at a new level of study suggested our approaches to learning were no longer effective. How did we respond? Usually by doubling-down; doing more of the same, pedalling harder and hoping.  

In many cases students eventually give up, concluding they’re not intellectually capable of study at a new key stage or more challenging level. But they’re often wrong. We’ve worked with thousands of students who are well capable of handling new ideas and of exploring and interrogating new concepts and material. It’s the non-cognitive elements of study that defeat them – the fresh habits, routines and approaches they’ll need. What worked for pupils in Year 7 might not work in Year 9; new levels of study demand new tactics and strategies. 

This is the work we’ve been doing for the last ten years now: defining which non-cognitive factors seem to have an impact on performance, and then developing a series of tools that support pupils changing the way they work. Our strategies are designed to encourage, as art director George Lois put it, ‘the defeat of habit by originality’. 

Some of our strategies are all about vision and motivation. We’ve all seen the impact a magnetic goal can have on learners… but goal setting needs to adjust as students grow. It isn’t just a case of plucking potential grades from the air, writing them down and hoping for the best. High vision students are increasingly aware of who they are and what they stand for, and this growing self-awareness allows them to create a compelling vision of what success looks like and what the future holds for them. They don’t just focus on a ‘what’ (‘I want to be a doctor.’); they know their ‘why’ (‘Fairness is important. Equal access to healthcare is crucial. I want to help solve the inequality problem.’)  

Another group of strategies we’ve developed are all around effort. As students begin working at a higher level, the successful ones snack on learning rather than binge: they read a chapter of a textbook per week, summarise their notes in four half-hour sittings, write an essay in stages, review their understanding by testing themselves on a topic. In short, they actively set themselves work. This switch from the passive completion of directed tasks, to the active sequencing of independent study sessions is a crucial part of unlocking higher levels of effort.  

Some fresh habits we need to teach are all about organisation. There comes a tipping point in your education where you can no longer carry all your notes around with you. At key stage 1 and 2, a single plastic wallet with your homework in will suffice. Now there are textbooks, files, folders, jotters and handouts. Middle-level students need to use a range of tactics to arrange their resources thematically – i.e. by topic – rather than chronologically, and they also begin to project manage. For more distant deadlines and tasks that require multiple sittings, successful students adjust their approach to study so they can effectively sequence their work. We need to teach them how to make strategic assessments of what needs doing next and why.  

A fourth group we’ve developed are all about revision and preparation. Many students hit crisis-point when their beloved practice strategies, used successfully in the past to memorise information, seem suddenly useless. Middle-level students begin to wake up to the realisation that knowing the information isn’t enough; the information needs to be fully absorbed … and then used to analyse unfamiliar data, solve a problem, construct an argument in the form of an essay, evaluate an approach, or critique a case study. For students loyal to memorising information, this can be a shock. High practice students learn to adjust the way they revise, mastering the content as the course goes on so that the bulk of their preparation involves high stakes exam-style problem solving. They are calmer and better prepared as a result.   

And finally, we’ve put together a whole range of fresh strategies to help students with the attitudinal component of study. All pupils face ‘the dip’, that moment when progress halts and backslides. It might have happened before, but what works at one level – reconnecting with our successes, reminding ourselves of our positive qualities, comfort eating and watching a bit of TV – might need adjustment as challenges arise more frequently. High attitude students have a broader and more robust range of tactics when times are tough. They might be adept at benefit-finding. They might have a strong support network they regularly rely on, because they don’t equate asking for help with intellectual inferiority. And they have techniques for handling stress; they know exams are not a test of their self-worth.  

There has been much debate around the extent to which academic performance is predicated on inherited intelligence. Are we genetically fated to achieve certain outcomes, or are we architects of our own results? Each new generation of scientists and researchers places us somewhere else on the nature/nurture continuum. 

But as you might expect, our take is different. It doesn’t matter whether the latest research points us to the inherited cognitive ability end of the spectrum or not. It is the non-cognitive element of study – our habits, systems and behaviours – that we can most easily change as we grow. So rather than debating precisely what proportion of our success is due to genetic predisposition or emphasising a past-equals-future paradigm, we should instead be supporting students in changing the ways they work as the programme of study demands change.  

That way, we prepare them more effectively for an uncertain future.   

Posted with permission from Martin Griffin and Steve Oakes who will be some of our keynote speakers at ELMLEConnect in Malta, January 27-29. Want more information on how to register for our conference? Go here.

A School’s Role in Delivering Sexuality Education

By Miguel G. Marshall, Sara Silverio Marques, Justine Ang Fonte, Amy Patel

(an excerpt from NAIS Sexuality Education: An Overview for Independent Schools)

Perhaps the chief role of independent schools in the context of sexuality education is to bring to the surface the core values of their communities and discuss how those values align with their missions and how those values may influence discussions and curriculum around sex and sexuality at their school.

An additional role that independent schools can play that intersects with sexuality education is developing media literacy. According to research on the health effects of media on children and adolescents (Strasburger et al., 2010), a century ago to be “literate” meant you could read and write. In 2009, however, it meant having the ability to decipher a bewildering array of media and make sense of them all (Strasburger et al., 2010). In the context of 21st century media literacy, it is important for educators to strive to be reliable sources of accurate, non-judgmental information, and have a willingness to engage in direct, honest conversations with students (Goldfarb & Lieberman, 2016). Providing a forum for the discussion of sexuality education is important because of the fundamental role human sexuality and relationships play in the independent school goals of developing character and inspiring high-achieving students. As we have discovered in our research, sexuality, in and of itself, intersects and overlaps with character-development, values, and achievement.

Schools are also wrestling with finding time (and money) to support programs outside the traditional core subjects. Health education and sexuality education curricula may be interpreted as competing with the ultimate mission of core academic schooling. This challenge is not unique to independent schools; it also impacts public schools (Hall, McDermott Sales, Komro, & Santelli, 2016).

Further, independent schools always consider the role that families play. Families may identify a range of knowledge associated with sexuality that they find developmentally inappropriate for children. Although such information is often influenced by religious values and cultural backgrounds, it may not be the case with all families (Robinson & Davies, 2017). Additionally, cultural context and background affect how individuals receive and interpret messages about sexuality (Goldfarb & Constantine, 2011). This information is important to keep in mind when engaging families around the topic of sexuality.

No matter what approach to sexuality education an independent school chooses, the following prompts can start discussion.

1. Consider where you and your school stand on issues about gender, power, trust, hierarchy, and human nature.

● Do your or your school’s stances influence your perceptions about sexuality education? If so, how?

2. Consider the Circles of Sexuality

● What topics does your school already emphasize or discuss with students? Where are the gaps?

● How might the circles integrate with ongoing efforts in social and emotional learning (SEL) and faculty professional development?

○ Recall the SEL framework includes: a. Self-awareness

■ Self-management

■ Social awareness

■ Relationships skills

■ Responsible decision-making (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2017)

3. Consider whether your school helps develop values and educates for character? What are these values? Do they apply to sex and sexuality? Do they apply to human development?

4. Consider, as a community, the ethnic, racial, cultural, personal, religious, and moral concerns and undertones of sex, sexuality, and sexuality education.

5. Consider how a school’s mission statement influences inclusivity and exclusivity of difference and different types of peoples.

6. Consider intersectionality and how students’ diverse backgrounds and experience may affect their personal beliefs, values, and knowledge about sexuality (Breuner et al., 2016).

● According to the Independent School Diversity Network, “intersectionality” (or intersectionalism) refers to intersections between different groups of people identifying in various -isms or social identifiers; the interactions of multiple systems of oppression or discrimination. Find more information about this topic from: http://www.isdnetwork.org/what-is-diversity.html and https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/10/intersectionality-the-many-layers-of-an-individual/.

7. Consider how school dress codes reflect a social focus on adolescents’ dress as an expression of sexuality (Fortenberry, 2014).

8. Considering the role of values:

● Where do your own values come from? (Think of the role of your family, friends, media, religion, school, politics and other factors.)

● Have your own values changed over time?

● To what extent are your values implicit and taken for granted? To what extent are they the result of careful reflection?

● Do you think of values as having universal validity? Or do they apply only within cultures or traditions?

● Can schools avoid teaching values? If not, what sort of values should they teach, and how should they teach them?

● What values (either explicit or implicit) underpin any program of sex education familiar to you?

● Make a list of your own sexual values. Now write another list for someone you know well whose personality differs from you. How much common ground is there between the two of you (Halstead & Reiss, 2003)?

9. Regarding the implementation of sexuality education lessons and curricula, consider:

● Skills development in finding information or resources to make it easy to pursue new information when needed or when interest arises;

● Assigning homework or supplemental individual assignments that allow students to explore a topic of interest to them;

● Conducting activities that help students identify personal values, or start connecting topics learned in class to personal behaviors or situations they may encounter; and

● Including time in the curriculum for student questions and integrating these topics into subsequent activities to cover topics of intrinsic interest to your students. (Silverio Marques, 2014)

● Teens, Health, and Technology: A National Survey conducted by the Center on Media and Human Development, School of Communication, Northwestern University gathered a nationally-representative sample of 1,156 U.S. adolescents. Data from this survey showed that 43 percent of teenagers have viewed pornography online, 27 percent have viewed how to play alcohol drinking games, and 25 percent have viewed how to get tobacco/nicotine products (Wartella et al., 2015).

● Consider the role that your school may play in pedagogically addressing the viewing of negative health information online (e.g., pornography, how to play alcohol games).

10. Consider:

● Where does sexuality education fall within the broader context of the school mission and curriculum?

● Where do conversations need to happen to reflect on human sexuality prior to implementing a curriculum or program?

● Does your school want to use an established curriculum, develop its own, integrate concepts into existing classes, or adapt a curriculum to your needs?

● There are different ways to incorporate health and sexuality education into the school setting, including:

○ Health classes

○ Transdisciplinary projects

○ Guest speakers

○ Using literature from authors representing a diversity of sexual identities

○ Having a “wellness day”

○ Hosting workshops for parents

○ Conducting professional development for faculty

Ultimately, it may be our school communities’ values — moral, ethical, religious, or otherwise— and what we want for our students that determine our approach to sexuality education. Indeed, “moral education (and values education more broadly) is inextricably bound up with sex education, just as it is with education in general” (Halstead & Reiss, 2003). “The key questions now are what sort of values schools should teach in sex education, and what approach they should adopt” (Halstead & Reiss, 2003)? What values a school community espouses and how a school goes about cultivating and representing those values is unique to every independent school.

REFERENCES

Breuner, C. C., Mattson, G., Committee on Adolescence, & Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health. (2016). Sexuality education for children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 138(2), e1–e11. doi:10.1542/peds.2016-1348

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. (2017). What is SEL? Retrieved July 1, 2017, from http://www.casel.org/what-is-sel/

Fortenberry, J. D. (2013). Puberty and adolescent sexuality. Hormones and Behavior, 64(2), 280–287. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2013.03.007

Goldfarb, E. S., & Constantine, N. A. (2011). Sexuality Education. In Encyclopedia of Adolescence (pp. 322– 331). Elsevier. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-373951-3.00086-7

Goldfarb, E. S., & Lieberman, L. (2016). Sexuality Education During Adolescence. In J. J.Ponzetti, Jr. (Ed.), Evidence-based Approaches to Sexuality-Education: A Global Perspective (pp. 218–236). New York: Routledge.

Hall, K. S., McDermott Sales, J., Komro, K. A., & Santelli, J. S. (2016). The state of sex education in the United States. The Journal of Adolescent Health, 58(6), 595–597.doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.03.032

Halstead, J. M., & Reiss, M. J. (2003). Values in sex education: From principles to practice. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Robinson, K. H., & Davies, C. (2017). Sexuality education in early childhood. In L. Allen & M. L.

Rasmussen (Eds.), The palgrave handbook of sexuality education (pp. 217–242). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_11

Silverio Marques, S. (2014). Developmentally-Appropriate Sexuality Education: Theory, Conceptualization, and Practice (Doctoral dissertation). University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1665572178

Strasburger, V. C., Jordan, A. B., & Donnerstein, E. (2010). Health effects of media on children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 125(4), 756–767. doi:10.1542/peds.2009-2563

Wartella, E., Rideout, V., Zupancic, H., Beaudoin-Ryan, L., & Lauricella, A. (2015). Teens, Health, and Technology: A National Survey. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University. Retrieved from http://cmhd.northwestern.edu/wp- content/uploads/2015/05/1886_1_SOC_ConfReport_TeensHealthTech_051115.pdf

Posted with permission from Justine Ang Fonte who will be one of our keynote speakers at ELMLEConnect in Malta, January 27-29. Want more information on how to register for our conference? Go here.