This Sunday Super Bowl LVIII takes place between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs.
While the appeal of the game may escape some (although Taylor Swift’s possible appearance may entice a few more viewers), American football is a sport where the role of the coach provides many neat analogies for headteachers - and perhaps there is no better example than Bill Walsh.
Walsh was the coach who, in the 1980s, turned the 49ers from a bottom-of-the-pile team to one that won four Super Bowl titles in nine years.
He details much of this in his book The Score Takes Care of Itself: my philosophy of leadership. In it he explains that the key to his success was his “Standard of Performance”: if everyone in the organisation was aligned and pulled in the same direction, progress would be made.
His aim was to produce “a self-sustaining, winning organisation” in which “everyone is able to execute their responsibilities in all ways at the highest level”, even under extreme pressure.
Super Bowl-winning leadership
This was illustrated in the final game that Walsh ever coached. In the Super Bowl in 1989, behind by three points with just seconds left, the 49ers took the ball 92 yards to score a touchdown to win - a product of hours of training, preparation, excellent strategy and meticulous planning.
The team then went on to win the Super Bowl the following year after Walsh had left - evidence that he had, indeed, produced “a self-sustaining, winning organisation”.
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The analogy for schools is clear: improvement comes if everyone takes it upon themselves to do things better each year. If everyone does that, success can become a virtuous, ongoing cycle.
However, Walsh’s career ended with early retirement caused by stress and burnout. His story serves as a cautionary tale for all who lead or aspire to lead because it highlights some of the pitfalls of “hero leadership”.
The pitfalls of ‘hero leadership’
Pitfall 1: An inability to delegate
Walsh was a perfectionist and, as he writes in his book, believed he could do everyone else’s job as well as his own and do a better job than them.
The result was he ended up working seven days a week, 16 hours a day, with little good sleep, eating poorly and dealing with more issues and pressure than he could manage. It ultimately led to him burning out.
Leaders need to look after themselves, and one of the ways they can do this is by putting trust in the talented team that they have around them. They need to use the capacity gained to take time away and be able to reflect and to recharge.
Pitfall 2: The curse of perfectionism
Walsh loved what he calls the “puzzle of perfection”.
His analysis of the 49ers’ performance when they beat Miami 38-16 to win their second Super Bowl is a case in point. In his book, Walsh describes it as a “the closest I’ve ever come to coaching a perfect game”, yet he laments that “two events marred it for me to this very day” and then delivers a detailed post-mortem on two imperfect plays in the game.
Here lies the paradox with which all great leaders grapple: leaders necessarily focus on things that go wrong because these are the areas for improvement, but the leaders who are able to sustain high levels of leadership need to learn when to let things go.
Walsh didn’t, though, and his perfectionism and attention to detail became a destructive force.
Pitfall 3: Focusing on “not-failing”
For Walsh, winning the Super Bowl was the only measure of success.
Fear of failure was inevitable, and it drove Walsh to the point where, when he led the 49ers to their third Super Bowl victory in 1988, he viewed it not as a victory but simply as “not losing”. He experienced relief, not joy.
There are important lessons here for school leaders. We need to take time to celebrate with the team. The post-mortem and work on the next project do not have to start straight away.
Pitfall 4: Not managing expectations
Part of Walsh’s problem in his latter years was that he did not “manage up” well.
He allowed the club owner to have unrealistic and unachievable expectations - like winning the Super Bowl every year. This was a major factor in Walsh’s own burnout and early retirement.
Similarly, throughout my years of school leadership, the most debilitating part of the job was managing the expectations of governors who often, when hearing we had achieved new record results, would immediately set out expectations for even better results the following year.
It is not realistic to better yourself every year - a range of external factors beyond your control mean it is inevitable there will be dips, lulls or pauses on progress. It is not through lack of effort or willingness, but a natural part of the journey of any organisation.
As such, leaders protect teachers and senior leaders from unrealistic demand for ever greater success. After all, burned-out staff do not bring about sustained school improvement.
Mark S Steed was a school principal for 22 years, running independent schools in Devon and Hertfordshire, and international schools in Dubai and Hong Kong
