Leadership: Aiming high

What is aiming high? For some people it would be to earn a six-figure salary. For others it would be to support as many people as they can into university or keep as many young people as possible out of the criminal justice system.

There could be as many definitions of aiming high as there are people in your organisation unless the tone is set by the organisation and the people who work within it. Without clear expectations of what your organisation values and supports, there is likely to be limited progress towards inspired support for your clients and one another.

1. Aiming high is everyone's responsibility. Every member of your leadership team is responsible for upholding high standards. Aiming high as an organisation can only be accomplished if everyone works towards the improvement of standards, support and the service you provide to children, young people and families. A culture of aiming high comes not from mission statements or from motivational posters in the lobby. Instead it comes from honest conversations about what your organisation does, how well it does it and how it can do it better. A culture of aiming high will only grow and thrive if you listen to reality and then make changes based on positive developments rather than blame.

2. Ensure your organisation reflects the people it serves. It is vitally important your organisation recruits, employs, develops and promotes people who look like the community it serves. Imagine being a young black or mixed-race girl in a UK city who is supported by a team of social workers or teachers who are all white. Where would she see people who understand her and her needs? How would she believe that there was merit in working hard and focusing on aiming high if she didn't see anyone who looked like her in a position of influence or authority? Representation matters.

3. Measure what matters. A couple of years ago, I worked with some young people heading towards their exams in the East of England, delivering a morale- and motivation-boosting session with some particularly disengaged students. I asked one “Why are you here?” The answer he gave floored me completely. Without missing a beat he said “So the school can get money”. It turned out his school had had three head teachers in 18 months. Each one brought in new rules and all had tested every year group in every subject. The entire organisation had tried to measure its performance by assessing students who had been taught by stressed and demoralised teachers. Understandably the young people felt like products being weighed for others to value. The cultural shifts in the school did nothing to support the children within and they felt incidental rather than central. This is why it is so important to measure the things that really matter, when they matter.

4. Aiming high should happen all the time. If we measure success at the end of a process, how do we know which parts helped at which point? People are assessed at the start of their job based on the criteria in the job description, against their CV, application and interview performance. Employees are taken on and often annually appraised by their supervisor against a set of criteria for the role they undertake. How accurate is this? How about we trust employees and professionals in the organisation to self-assess on a regular informal basis? The role of middle managers and leaders is to support staff so how about you develop a system of self-management and reflection into your staff practice? Using the skills required for the role – or something like the Seven Skills Assessment Sheet from my book The Ladder – set aside half an hour per fortnight and ask employees to write a reflective diary for their own use and as a yardstick to measure their own performance. Any gaps can be regularly addressed with leadership. The ongoing nature of the process should help ensure more ownership is taken over the day-to-day operations of the organisation by the whole team.

5. Get your hands dirty. Leadership is generally undertaken by people who have either risen over a number of years or who have come into the organisation at or near the top. Regardless of which it is, the individuals making up your leadership team will likely be some distance from the place the actual work is done. It is highly likely that changes have happened – either forced through events like Covid-19 or as a gradual process of change and evolution via technology or policy – and it pays to understand what is really going on at the place your service is delivered. Going down to the “shop floor” and spending some time working there will help all those in leadership and management teams to understand what is happening now and also see the effects of their decisions, changes and initiatives at the point of delivery. If aiming high is like climbing a ladder, then it makes sense to get a view from lower down.

• Andrew Bernard's new book The Ladder: Supporting students towards successful futures and confident career choices is published by Crown House www.crownhouse.co.uk/publications/the-ladder