Leadership is . . . .

Over the last year I have been considering various aspects of school leadership. My final thoughts on this are needed to be sorted and presented in a short 2 minute presentation about what I have learnt about leadership. I thought - 10 minutes would sort this out easy. Oh, how wrong I was!

In 2006, I have started to read business books for the first time and have found remarkable similarities between the qualities and issues in leading and developing a business as in leading, developing and improving a school.

I met Andy Hargreaves at a conference in Boston during the summer and in his most recent book he promotes the idea not just of strategic (planned) leadership but also sustainable leadership - a leadership that prevents burnout or innovation fatigue as I like to call it.

I suppose I have always seen myself as a manager first and leader second. But, the more I think about things, I realsie that I am moving towards being a leader first and a manager second. I have always been proud of my organisational skills - but what use are these if I dont have an innovative way for these to go.

So I continue to think and pnder this question - what is leadership? or more interestingly 'What does good leadership look like?' I hope I am getting closer to an answer! Is motivation enough? Is energy enough? Is creativity enough? Is valuing the indivdual enough? Is creating incentives enough? Amswers on a postcard to me at . . . . . .