91¶¶Òõ

Visible leadership is often talked about in schools as a key element of effective management.

It underpins trust, authority, knowledge and a recognition that the leadership is actively engaged in what is going on around the school.

Yet despite this importance, it is rarely coherently strategised. If we treasure the idea of visible leadership, should we not measure it?

Within our school, we try to hold ourselves accountable for visible leadership in simple ways that, cumulatively, ensure it is not being overlooked.

1. Rota duties

One obvious practice is to actively nominate yourself for rota duty. This is a key time to meet and greet staff and students, and demonstrates a commitment to being part of the team.

I do the morning duty in the cafeteria each day, for several reasons:

1. It is our earliest starting duty, meaning that whoever picks it up has to come in 10 minutes early. This starts each day, demonstrating that I won’t ask people to do things I wouldn’t.
2. All of our students eat breakfast in the cafeteria, so duty gives me a chance to see and speak to every student, every day. This helps me to build positive relationships and consistent visibility with them.
3. I get to help set the tone for the day with the students, starting positively and with clear expectations.
4. The duty rota automatically tracks my visibility and holds me to account with our student body.

You can adapt this to many contexts, including plays, sports contents or open days, all of which are opportunities to clearly demonstrate visible leadership.

2. Corridor walks

These can be a great way to feel the buzz of a school and pick up on issues that need solving, or how certain behaviour policies are being enforced.

In the busy life of a leader, it can be easy to let this intention slide. One solution is to actively schedule corridor walks in your calendar, signalling their importance both to yourself and to staff who may try and book a meeting at that time. Treat it as a part of your workload, like a meeting.

You could even schedule corridor walks with a colleague to reinforce your commitment.

3. Lesson drop-in data

This example is my personal favourite: develop a form for leaders to fill in as part of planned lesson drop-ins. Ours, created using Microsoft Forms, includes seven statements that align with our definition of high-quality learning and teaching.

After a drop-in, the form can be filled in with what was witnessed, which can be measured against our seven standards. This not only offers lesson insights but also helps provide ongoing data about which leaders are dropping in and which are not.

You can even set minimum drop-in expectations based on the leader’s loading. In our case, for example, I have the highest target, followed by our senior leaders and, finally, our middle leaders.

4. Run an after-school club/pick up cover 

I recently started a school ukulele club, inspired by one of our senior leaders who helps to run the drama club.

This has been a great way to stay connected to the classroom while building great relationships with students. It has been positively received, with multiple staff approaching me about it.

In addition to this, I do cover myself whenever I can, rather than dishing it out to others. This takes the edge off teachers, demonstrates a love for teaching, and helps build deeper relationships with students.

Reviewing the data

Once you have your visibility data sets (duty rota, after-school activity allocations, lessons covered, drop-in data, corridor-walk schedules), it’s time for routine and systematic review.

This is where you can see how well you have achieved your goals. Perhaps you shot too high, or you might have underestimated your capacity. That’s what this process is here for.

If visibility is something you value, prioritise it by setting goals, scheduling it, tracking it and reflecting on it. It can help ensure you truly practise what you preach.

Gregory Macur is EY and PYP principal at the Canadian International School of Hefei

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