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Middle leader tips: how to apply feedback and plan ahead
As the year ends, how should you review and dig deep into the feedback you receive and build that into a plan for the next academic year?
The previous instalment of Middle Leadership Essentials looked at how to assess your year, including through the use of feedback, and now we get to the practical matter of actually applying that new knowledge to the year ahead. So how should you go about digging deep into what you’ve found and transforming those insights into actions?
The lowdown
The first, and most important, point to bear in mind when implementing feedback is that this is an opportunity to learn and grow, rather than a reckoning or a referendum on your performance. So try to make the most of the feedback you’ve been presented with and look for ways to use it to adapt and optimise performance for the future.
Creating a culture of open communication and continuous improvement means really engaging with what your team (and others) have told you about their working lives, so don’t be afraid to ask clarifying questions.
What we know about what works
After seeking out feedback, it’s important for leaders to communicate their commitment to acting on it, says Bogdan Costea, professor of management and society at Lancaster University. This means showing how they plan to address any concerns raised, as well as cementing learning from successful approaches.
“You need to do that collectively - you can’t just do it on your own,” Costea says. “The more you let people input their wishes into that decision-making process, the more you are letting people say how they want to do things next year, the better.
“Then the work is the will of the collective. ‘How can we do it in such a way that nobody has reason to complain? Let’s do it together.’”
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Identifying themes and patterns is a key part of working out what the plan should look like, Costea adds. Recurring issues or areas for improvement should take top spots on the list of priorities to be addressed, and, conversely, existing areas of excellence should offer a steer for what is likely to work well next year.
Exactly what that plan will look like will depend on your feedback findings and your individual setting, but there are some approaches that are applicable across the board, such as ensuring that there are firm strategies in place to address the priorities that you have identified, with clear details of actionable steps, resource allocation and timelines.
This is also where effective delegation can come into play, Costea explains.
“If you can give people authority and deputise certain aspects of the leadership function, you will find that people will do it better than you could,” he says. “If somebody can take on responsibilities and you don’t need to watch over them or worry about them, that’s a good thing. Delegating in this way can make it easier to stay on track.”
Once the plan has been created, it is vital to share it with all of the relevant stakeholders, allowing everyone to see how their feedback has translated into action and creating a sense of trust and transparency. Detailing the allocation of roles and responsibilities in this can also be very helpful, Costea continues.
“When it is visible to everybody, it stops the talk around, ‘Oh, you’re treating x different than you treating y.’ Everybody can see everybody else’s responsibilities and what activities they do if there are elements of change in the coming cycle.”
Creating the right roadmap to success can ensure that the coming academic year is a time of growth and achievement. And part of that plan should also be further opportunities for gathering feedback throughout the year, to monitor progress, make adjustments as needed and ensure that the team remains responsive to needs as they evolve.
The experienced leader’s view
Jon Hutchinson is director of curriculum and teacher development at the Reach Foundation. He writes:
Ask a roomful of middle leaders how they’d like things to be different next year, and it’s likely that a majority will mention moving from being reactive to being proactive. It’s a common position to be in if you work in a school, and especially if you’re new to a middle leadership position. But now, armed with hard-won experience, feedback from your team and your own self-assessment, you’ll be in a position to plan a more calm year from September.
There could be some relatively quick fixes. The first year I was responsible for the key stage 2 assessment cycle, I didn’t have all of the papers printed out in time. I had excuses for this (there are always excuses) but none of that changed how it made teachers feel as we scrambled around to get maths tests in front of children.
More likely than not, you’ll have your own example of where you dropped the ball from this year. Don’t beat yourself up too much - remember instead that, as psychotherapist Philippa Perry puts it, it’s not the rupture that matters but the repair.
Learning where these pinch points are and putting in place more robust action plans can help you to avoid making big errors like this in the future. It’s this tacit knowledge that develops your own mental model for your job, allowing you to spot potential problems much earlier.
But what about the smaller, knottier stuff? Perhaps during your self-assessment the form tutors in your year group said they felt that you could have been a bit more visible at the start of the day. Or maybe the PE teachers in your department had an issue with dodgy tech equipment that was crucial for peer analysis in their lessons.
Preparing a “You said, I did” presentation can be a good way to show your team that you have listened to and carefully considered all of their feedback. It also asserts your leadership, which can sometimes feel more precarious than you outwardly show.
This doesn’t mean immediately changing things in response to every request. In fact, it’s perfectly reasonable to explain that you won’t do something that’s been asked for. Or maybe you will, but just not in the short term.
This will also help you to plan out your year in a way that avoids initiative overload or knee-jerk reactions. Plotting out key foci or actions month by month can ensure that proper attention is given to things that need to be introduced or adapted, instead of constantly spinning too many plates to do anything well.
Middle leadership, like so much else in school, is more often about evolution than revolution. A simple, measured, informed plan for the next academic year should help you to feel a little lighter as you take a very well earned summer holiday.