Watching party leaders during a general election campaign and cabinet ministers in government, it’s easy to conclude that school leaders would make a much better job of running the country.

Part of the problem is surely the lack of leadership experience of the current crop of senior MPs, many of whom have had no experience outside the political bubble and have spent their whole adult lives in and around local and national politics.

Prime minister Theresa May worked in the financial sector for 20 years, but not in any substantial leadership position; Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn chaired the Stop the War Coalition; and Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, was a lecturer in higher education.

None could be said to have had significant leadership experience, comparable to that of a headteacher.

This lack of experience is widely replicated on both front benches in parliament, with Keir Starmer, the ex-head of the Crown Prosecution Service, a notable exception.

Experience counts

In the mid-2000s, when Tony Blair promoted a good number of people in their early 40s into the cabinet, all of them, with the exception of ex-teacher Jacqui Smith, only had experience as special advisers to ministers, jobs at party headquarters or in think tanks and other Westminster-related organisations.

Of the 12 leadership behaviours of successful school leaders set out in my book, The School Leadership Journey, our political leaders, past and present, have had little experience and consistently fail to show the principled, authentic leadership expected from school leaders on a daily basis.

Good school leaders show principled leadership, which is such an essential characteristic in the leadership of young people, not least to counteract the falsehoods that are part of the political discourse.

Values-based leadership in schools contrasts with the cynical disregard for truth so often evident in the claims of some politicians, the latest examples of which are the fiction on the Brexit bus of £350 million a week extra for the National Health Service and the continuing claim that increasing school selection will improve social mobility, which flies in the face of all available evidence.

The leadership of schools needs to be authentic, building excellence over time. So many government policies seek the quick fix or the catchy headline that sustains politicians in power but leaves education trailing in the wake of constant change.

As in education or business, politicians should be promoting the slow-burn, not the quick-fire, to create sustainable change that is the ultimate sign of authentic leadership.

Playing to their strengths

Political leaders make their reputations by changing things and getting headlines in the media for their new policies. So we get policies, more policies and micro-management of the system, breaking down rather than building up.

Great school leaders, on the other hand, build on the good and, when things are successful, offer encouragement and leave well alone. Like the great conductor, Sir Colin Davis, school leaders know when their players know what to do and let them do it.

Like successful school leaders, education politicians need to be learning-focused. No school can do well unless its priorities are clearly founded in learning. Yet politicians so often seek the easy media headlines of structural change, rather than the hard grind of policies that sustainably improve learning.

Servant leadership is important too, in both education institutions and in politics. Shortly before becoming president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela said: “I stand here before you filled with deep pride and joy - pride in the ordinary, humble people of this country.

“I stand before you humbled by your courage, with a heart full of love for you all. I regard it as the highest honour to lead ANC at this moment in our history. I am your servant...”

The humility of the servant leader would be good to see from the politicians seeking election to lead our country.

Servant leaders, as Steve Munby articulated in an influential speech in 2010, do not seek power as an end in itself, but because they want to serve their electorate. Leadership should not be about power, self-importance or self-indulgence, but about empowering others to make a difference in their leadership roles.

‘The current campaign seems to emphasise their weaknesses’

The skills of school leaders, which could be applied to running the country as much as to leading a school, come from the range of leadership activities they perform every day.

I recall an exchange I did in schools’ Industry Year, 1986, when I spent two days at a local company and the managing director spent two days in school. He observed with surprise the number of different leadership activities during the course of a school day.

I am not being critical of all politicians. I have worked with politicians of all parties in education for more than 20 years and there have been as many who have shown good leadership and moral purpose as there have been showing poor leadership and self-promotion.

But the current election campaign, with a strong contrast between the party leaders, seems to emphasise their leadership weaknesses.

Alas, there are no school leaders standing in my constituency, or they would certainly get my vote.

John Dunford is chair of Whole Education, a former secondary head, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders and national pupil premium champion. He tweets as @johndunford

For more Tes columns by John, visit his back catalogue.

On Wednesday 24 May, Tes will be hosting a General Election hustings with education secretary Justine Greening, her Labour shadow, Angela Rayner, and their Lib Dem counterpart, Sarah Olney. If you are unable to join us in London, you can watch debate live on our Facebook page, or Twitter page.

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