In our new book we reveal the ‘uncommon sense’ of MESSY Leadership. The concept first originated in research we undertook during the pandemic to understand the attributes that characterised the leaders who were most successful during that period when faced with unprecedented challenges and high levels of uncertainty. We have combined those insights with learning from coaching more than 20,000 school leaders, drawing in particular on data from 6500 coaching conversations held with school leaders over the past few years, to offer a very practical guide to school leadership today. In the book we unpack five important leadership traits and mindsets and share tried-and tested tools that school leaders have found especially helpful in building these capabilities.
1. The first leadership attribute is Making Meaning. In our original MESSY Leadership research during Covid, this was the attribute shared by many of the most successful leaders who were able to passionately advocate for a wider purpose of schools, driven by a strong sense of moral purpose that made clear to them the role that schools should be playing to support children and families at such a difficult time.Making Meaning is a collaborative activity, that calls on leaders to build a shared sense of agency for their teams in service of a shared, inspiring vision. It’s captured well by a new school principal we worked with, who recognised that, despite holding a clear vision herself for the changes needed in her school and issuing some clear directives, she hadn’t managed to bring her team with her. An important realisation was, in her words, that "I need to shift from fighting fires to lighting fires where other people gather”. Thus Making Meaning is not just about developing a compelling vision for your school, but also being able to engage and empower others successfully, so that they can share responsibility and leadership with you.
2. Our second MESSY leadership attribute is Emotional Connection. Of course, most school leaders are all too aware of the importance of building the right relationships, but many still find it tricky to strike the right balance between ‘being professional’ and building deeper connections with colleagues. Times of uncertainty create a need for stronger, more honest relationships, and without this, it’s easy to unintentionally create relationships where things are left unsaid and problems are pushed below the surface. Tensions may be patched over, feedback avoided and underperformance not effectively addressed. For one school leader, the change he recognised he needed to make was about “Moving from a ‘culture of nice’, to a culture of trust”.
Connecting more authentically and building more open and trusting relationships with his team, enabled this head and also his colleagues to acknowledge their concerns and vulnerabilities, and together, to successfully broach important topics that previously had seemed too difficult. They discovered the uncommon sense that in fact, rather than avoiding it, addressing conflict, can lead to greater trust, and deeper, more fulfilling and productive working relationships.
3. The third MESSY attribute, Sensing the Future is all about your ability as a leader, and as a leadership team, to learn, to experiment and to adapt quickly. It’s clear why this was important during Covid, but it remains hugely important given the rapid pace of change in the world, the uncertainty over our children’s futures and the challenges and opportunities they’ll need to face – and thus how best schools can prepare them for these. Leadership is about the future not the past – where we are going and what we’ll need to succeed, yet, unlike our corporate clients at BTS, who have to invest significantly in innovation to stay ahead of their competition, most school and trust leaders are not well-practised in finding the insights and running the fast-cycle experiments that enable nimble, future-focused problem-solving.Taking the time to dream big, creatively investigate and imagine a different type of future for their school feels like a luxury many school leaders just can’t afford. Nevertheless, this is exactly what our schools need. We need agile and adaptive learning communities with leaders who can slow down enough to see the big picture, challenge the status quo, and experiment with new solutions to create the future they want for their schools or organisations.
4. The next S in our MESSY acronym stands for Seizing Momentum. This addresses the challenge of how to take more control of how you spend your time as a leader. In our coaching work with school leaders, we’ve seen countless examples of leaders who realise they are “doing their best on autopilot”. In other words, they get through each day by responding to situations and fulfilling regular commitments in their schedules while not really feeling in control or able to prioritise what matters most to them. Often they have a constant sense of not getting enough traction on what’s really important.
This MESSY shift is then about learning to become more proactive and to make deliberate choices rather than staying in reactive mode. Some of the most helpful processes for leaders here are about understanding proactivity, procrastination and prioritisation, but as with all of the MESSY attributes, it’s not enough (or simple) just to change your behaviour, instead there will be key mindsets, or beliefs that need shifting too. Recognising that you do in fact have more freedom to choose how you spend your time than you have ever believed might be one of them!
5. Our final MESSY leadership attribute, Your Presence (as a leader) is arguably the most important of the five, and generally, the place to start. It’s about what kind of leader is most effective today – and we would argue an authentic one is a good part of the answer. We know from our coaching relationships, that many school and trust leaders, even the most senior and experienced, feel that they need to be something they’re not – perhaps holding on to the myth that leaders need to be superheroes, portraying strength, and having all of the answers, when in reality they feel uncertain and lack confidence. Some may seek to portray an invincibility that makes it difficult for others to connect or to share their own vulnerabilities. Yet our coaches see time and time again how letting go of these beliefs can be hugely empowering for leaders, and also transformational for their teams, as others are then also able to open up and to step up more into their own leadership potential.As leaders grow in self-awareness, better understand their strengths (and sometimes the unintended consequences of these), acknowledge areas where they are less adept, and lead with greater authenticity, humility and vulnerability, they find they can connect much more deeply with others, empower others more readily, and ultimately achieve more. A more realistic perception of good leadership also enables them to address their own needs, to focus on their own well-being, to shift from a state of stress and survival, to build their own authentic confidence and personal resourcefulness, and to role model and build a culture that is more empowering and inspiring for all members of the school community.
Embracing MESSY Leadership delves more deeply into each of these five leadership attributes, illustrating them with real-life school leadership examples, and sharing practical tools and processes to build these capabilities.
Find out more about MESSY Leadership, order the book and download a supporting toolkit via our website here.
We also have a new MESSY Leadership programme to help your team or individual leaders to embrace MESSY Leadership approaches. This can be delivered through coaching or workshop sessions, including as a two-day residential for leadership teams. Please do get in touch if you’d like to learn more!