The ‘teamwork’ buzzword has come around again – haven’t you heard?
\nYou must have been on holiday in outer space this summer not to get whacked about the eyes and ears by \u2018teams\u2019. Not literally – \u00a0no heavies at your door. But much media proclamation that \u2018The Team\u2019 is definitely now the thing.
\nThat makes a change from \u2018Leadership\u2019, which has been The Thing for so long, it\u2019s probably past its sell-by date. The evolution may go back to the last Olympics, when many of us thought there were some great cyclists, but all the talk was of \u2018the team\u2019, including, ultimately, every athlete in the mothership, \u2018Team GB\u2019. Actually, the sacrificial nature of the peloton, where group action ensures individual success for someone else, is a good example of team-ism, when the leader really can\u2019t sustain his position unless someone else takes the force of the wind. And let\u2019s not even consider F1 racing, because if ever individualism was an uneasy bed-fellow with team-ism, it\u2019s in a car racing against a team member.
\nSchools are not such ruthless places \u2013 maybe. And they will \u2013 usually \u2013 have a Head, who is, obviously enough, the Leader. But which school today does not have a senior leadership team?\u00a0 And what Head could stand at Speech Day, taking credit for all the great things a school and its pupils achieved in the year? If you are the Leader, social etiquette demands not just competence, but also humility and gratitude. Mother Theresa, not Superman. Leaders thank and applaud the team, with a grammatical version of the football expression, \u2018The lads done brilliant!\u2019 \u00a0– itself a wonderful indication of solidarity with the team even if spoken by the \u2013 er \u2013 Leader.<\/p>\n
Given that all Heads will now have an SLT, wouldn\u2019t it be nice to see Heads arrive with one of their own, already established and long trusted, as football managers often do<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In the European football competition this summer, where a team had an obvious stand-out \u2018star\u2019 such as Ronaldo or Bale, there seemed to be a concerted effort, in public at least, to downplay their importance. The mantra of the times seemed to be, \u2018It\u2019s all about the team.\u2019 To worship at the golden-booted feet of any one player was to appear to denigrate the talents and efforts of the rest of the team. To be avoided, if only because you really can\u2019t put a footballer on the pitch on his own.\u00a0 Visibly a team game. And this year, the anti-individual, pro-team mood was neatly demonstrated by a Times headline, \u2018Ronaldo revels in his new image as ultimate team man.\u2019 Bless.
\nThis year the team spirit emphasis reached tennis. Andy Murray won the Wimbledon Men\u2019s Singles Championship. The clue is in the name. But apparently not. Andy, like other winners at Wimbledon this year, stood with the trophy and a huge \u2018Look what I did!\u2019 grin on his face, and made a very big point of thanking his team. Indeed, this year there has been gentle comedy on social media about Andy bringing back into the fold his former coach, Ivan Lendl. Much talk of attributing his success to \u2018The Lendl Effect\u2019, which is quite sad for his previous coach, and dangerously close to the dreaded individualism.
\nBut I suspect that Andy\u2019s team is slightly bigger than himself and a great coach, whichever one it may be. What are we guessing?\u00a0 Possibly two coaches: one for clay, one for grass; possibly one for serving, one for volleying, one for forehand, one for backhand? Then surely a physio, a nutritionist and a sports psychologist? Do they not say that winning or losing is all in the mind?
\nThe same kind of \u2018hidden asset\u2019, the team, is probably lurking in golf, and maybe darts. Certainly boxing \u2013 most of the team being visible in a boxer\u2019s corner after every round. And of course F1 drivers \u2013 post-race broadcasts are thick with thanks to the teams. Given the tiny time margins for a win, those guys who change four tyres in under two seconds –\u00a0 now that\u2019s a team worth thanking.
\nSo what may all of this have to do with us, in the world of education, leaders with teams whom we nurture and value and thank now (I believe) more than ever. Homework: compare and contrast the number of thank you cards you wrote this year with those sent five years ago. Extension task: compare the number you now send with the number you received when you were a whipper snapper and your Head thought teams belonged on hockey pitches.<\/p>\nWe may talk about senior leadership teams, but we all know the truth of the solitary nature of headship, how lonely it is at the top<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Solo deputies (I was one for seven years, in addition to teaching half a timetable) giving way to SLTs was definitely progress. Distributing identifiable items – \u00a0compliance, pastoral care, curriculum, assessment, outdoor education, marketing – \u00a0spreads the load and provides valuable experience for small armies of deputies and the new guys, assistant heads.
\nGiven that all Heads will now have an SLT, wouldn\u2019t it be nice to see Heads arrive with one of their own, already established and long trusted, as football managers often do \u2013 \u2018Hire me, hire my men…\u2019\u00a0 Surely if they did, they would achieve more, and faster? How many new Heads are sabotaged by a disgruntled deputy, or an SLT cabal reluctant to adapt or implement change? Arriving with your own small army of familiar enforcers sounds very attractive.
\nBut the revolution I would really like to see is Heads, like tennis players, with personal teams, employed not take responsibility for bits of the job, but to make sure that the player is fit to do the job wonderfully well, to keep the main player in totally good nick, fit for purpose, effective on all counts. Who would you need? \u00a0A personal trainer, nutritionist, physio, psychologist for the health of the Head, yes. But also the mentor, strategist and management guru to help the Head put into practice the theory from the MBA.
\nWe may talk about senior leadership teams, but we all know the truth of the solitary nature of headship, how lonely it is at the top. The sporting world is ahead of the game in demonstrating that the solo player \u2013 the driver, the tennis player, the boxer, the golfer \u2013 reaches excellence with the support, specific and personal, of his or her own team. If you\u2019re lucky, you might get a Lendl.
\nWe should be looking for this kind of support to be included in the Head\u2019s package on entry, not informally \u2013 a pairing up with a rival Head down the road, or in my case 200 miles away. I called her twice: once she could not come to the phone, the second time she came to the phone only to say she had no idea how to advise. \u00a0So much for mentoring in olden times, when it was charitable, not official. What you don\u2019t need is alarm about your mental health: \u2018She said she needs a counsellor, is she ok?\u2019\u00a0 But support in the top job is just as necessary as pay and pension, and more immediately useful, to the school as well as the Head.
\nBecause at the end of the day there is only one of you, in the ring, on the court, in the driving seat.\u00a0 Even The Times acknowledged it: next to a whole page trophy picture of Andy Murray, the headline: \u2018He\u2019s done it again!\u2019
\nNote the pronoun. I rest my case.
\nThis article first appeared at http:\/\/ie-today.co.uk\/Article\/no-i-in-team.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ‘teamwork’ buzzword has come around again – haven’t you heard?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[124,191,212,213],"class_list":["post-518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ie-today","category-independent-education-today","tag-leadership","tag-slt","tag-teams","tag-teamwork"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/menu-items\/403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}