I love a list! Every so often I come across and article that breaks down key aspects of leadership into a set of characteristics or behaviours that you can recognise. They are both descriptive and prescriptive in how they view the role of a leader. Throughout my Leadership Journal, I made note of them in the context of being a School Leader and provided a checklist to benchmark myself against. In this post, I've included some of those lists. Think of them like a collection of recipes for effective leadership with their own individual lists of ingredients. The important thing is that they help to deconstruct what's going on and help look at things in a different way.

10 Rules of Leadership

Sir Michael Barber, Head of Delivery Unit, under the then PM Tony Blair, wrote a paper entitled 'How to run a government so that citizens benefit and taxpayers don't go crazy'.

Whilst he's talking about political leadership, there's much to be gained from thinking about what an effective political leader does; turning promises into action.

In his piece, he laid out 10 rules for leaders who want to make things happen.

Set a small number of well-designed targets
Targets are important but not the point
Set up a delivery unit
A targets approach will get you from awful to adequate
Prepare a plan that is good enough to get started
Government by routine beats government by spasm
Take all the excuses off the table
Learn actively from experience
Persist but don't expect the credit
There is no substitute for sustained and disciplined leadership

8 Leadership Components

I'm not sure where I got these from. I found it amongst my notes from my NPQH. They provide a good reminder of all the aspects of school life you are responsible for as a School Leader. It's important not to take your eye off any of them.

5 Key Leadership Behaviours

Just as the 8 Leadership Components, I'm not sure where this list came from. They were written on the same page of my Learning Journal, so I can only assume it was written down during an NPQH face-to-face session (and a time when I loved a list!)

Establishing key goals and expectations
Resourcing strategically
Planning, co-ordinating and evaluating teaching and learning
Promoting and participating in teaching and learning
Ensuing an orderly and supportive environment

I have to admit that in reading them again some years after writing them, I can't help but feel that they sound somewhat impersonal and sterile. What I think is missing as key leadership behaviours are INTEGRITY and ROLE-MODELLING.

6 Emotional Leadership Styles

In his book, 'Primal Leadership', Daniel Goleman, along with Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee highlight the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership. These styles of leadership reflect the mood of the leader.

I think that a mistake many people make is adopting a style as though they're picking the next play in an American Football game. While this doesn't come naturally to some people, emotional intelligence in leadership is being able to 'read the room' and pick up on the cues to know what style of leadership is needed.

7 Common Traps for a New Leader

Michael Watkins, Professor at Harvard Business School, paired up with Dan Ciampa, senior advisor to CEOs and directors, in writing 'Right From The Start', outlining the common traps for new leaders. It stands to reason, therefore, that effective leadership involves the opposite.

Falling behind the learning curve - not using the time before starting the job to learn about the organisation and how it has got to the position it's in
Becoming isolated - shutting away in your office to get on with tasks at hand and not letting people get to know you first and understand how you think
Coming in with the answer - being too quick to reach a conclusion to come across as decisive without understanding the complexity of the circumstances
Sticking with the existing team too long - whether trying to be fair or the arrogance that you can make them work or hubris, not seeing this as an opportunity to establish your own team with people in the roles you need
Attempting too much - on the other side, experimenting too much without seeing what works
Being captured by the wrong people - those who previously exerted influence will look to do the same or even those people who see this as an opportunity to push their own agenda
Falling prey to successor syndrome - if the previous incumbent becomes CEO or stays within the organisation, there can be active resistant to changes to what was built

7 Behaviours of an Effective Leader

I said that it stands to reason that effective leadership involves the opposite and so, here goes. This is my take on what those might be and the advice I try and follow on a daily basis.

Staying ahead of the curve - know where you are as an organisation, how you got there and the direction of travel
Talking to people - stay connected to the people of your organisation and others in a similar role to you
Listening to others - get a number of responses to an issue and see what the range of perspectives you get and where your initial thoughts would sit
Keep the team fresh - taking the opportunity to give people new challenges and responsibilities withint he established team for a different perspective
Allowing things to work - gieving things time to wrk and keep working without unnecessary interference
Surrounding yourself with the right people - these are people who understand the vision and are able to challenge the decision making in line with this vision
Being your own person - to lead others, they need to see that you are someone worth following

Like all great recipes, the key ingredients are roughly the same. Books on leadership are a bit like cookbooks. Some want to show sophistication and craftsmanship, while others want to keep it as easy and manageable as possible. Everyone can chose their own methods and even some of the ingredients can change. If you don't like an ingredient, you can leave it out or change it up for something else. However, it might change what you get at the end. And that's why every leader is different.

Ingredients of an effective leader