Page 11 - Leadership Basics 3

Goals or Shared Purpose

Goals are not simply an understanding of the immediate task but an overall understanding of the role
of the group in the overall school organisation. The development of a ‘team charter’ or shared purpose
is critical in forming productive teams. This charter includes the team’s responsibilities and aspirations
‐ what the team wants to accomplish. In many cases members of a school’s team leadership may
assume that they know and understand the obvious goals, but regularly spending time checking and
re‐defining shared purposes, such as vision, values, aspirations and especially clarifying learning
outcomes, can help overcome misunderstandings and problems later on.

Most importantly, productive teams are flexible and understand that schools are complex
organisations. Because they are complex, the goals or shared purpose of a team can change very
rapidly. Goals are not immutable but are more like experimental hypotheses that are put forward to
test the best way for the school to advance.
Teams are only productive when team members view the team as an opportunity to achieve goals of
mutual benefit; it is important to ensure that all team members share collective aspirations, even if
these aspirations are continuously evolving.
There is of, course, one over‐arching goal: all school teams are working towards achieving improved
student outcomes.

Roles

Team cohesion and ongoing development of the group is enhanced through shared leadership. It is
important to the success of the school in achieving its aspirations for individual group members to
accept responsibilities for various roles and tasks. But how do we recognise and utilise the skills of
people in our own leadership team? Some team development theories suggest that team members
need to assess their personality type, cognitive function, style or preference for working and take on
roles that suit them, or at the very least to recognise their strengths and learn to deal with their
weaknesses. We argue that while computerised assessments and psychological inventories are fun
and interesting, they are only artefacts of true ‘team talking’ and ‘team thinking’, which are important
in determining roles.

Roles are concerned about more than simply the psychologically preferred style of working; they are
also about recognising a team member’s knowledge, skills, experience and ability to contribute. There
is nothing more debilitating for a team than when one team member has a particular expertise that is
not recognised and the role is given to another member who has less expertise.
Roles are also concerned with defining clearly responsibilities and accountabilities and answering the
question, “Who is responsible for a specific outcome?” Assigning accountability is empowering and
ensures that all members of the team are engaged in achieving the aspirations of the team.

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