Foreword by Andy Hargreaves.Hero headship is out. Imperfect leadership is in. This book is designed to help leaders develop and embrace an imperfect leadership mindset as a foundation for growth and development. In his first book, Imperfect Leadership: A book for leaders who know they don't know it all, Steve Munby uses the word 'imperfect' to describe his own leadership style. This is not something he apologises for; he feels imperfect leadership should be celebrated. Too often we are given examples of leaders who are put on some kind of pedestal, lauded as superheroes who have it all worked out and are so good at what they do that nobody else can come close. But imperfect leadership is the antidote to this flawed perception. In Imperfect Leadership in Action, Steve has teamed up with Marie-Claire Bretherton to delve in more detail into a broad range of themes under the umbrella of imperfect leadership. Writing with sparkling clarity, the authors explore the approach's key principles and share engaging exercises and inspiring case studies which give voice to a wide range of experiences from across the education sector.The central message is that we can use our imperfections as a springboard for leadership development by asking for help, investing in self-reflection, focusing on building teams - and by trying to be a better version of ourselves tomorrow than we were today.The book provides numerous prompts for self-reflection, and also includes a chapter on leading in times of change (such as the COVID-19 lockdowns) and how the principles of imperfect leadership turn out to be equally applicable in times of crisis.Suitable for all those in or aspiring to leadership positions in education.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go. Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Imperfect Leadership in Action by Steve Munby,Marie-Claire Bretherton in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Education & Education General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Imperfect leaders are self-aware – they know their strengths but they are also aware of their weaknesses.
We believe that a deep self-awareness is one of the most important aspects of effective leadership. If leadership is about moving a group of people forwards towards an agreed goal, then the ability of the leaders in the organisation, at every level, to be aware of themselves and their contribution is vital. Self-awareness can help leaders to be more effective by giving them insights into how they might need to reshape actions, reframe conversations and adjust approaches, so they have a better impact. It helps leaders to bring the best of themselves and mitigate for the worst of themselves.
But self-awareness is complex and can be a lifetime’s work. There are many things that influence how we behave as leaders: our skills and knowledge, our self-image, our traits, our motives and, of course, external factors and the context in which we are currently. If we want to improve our self-awareness as leaders, we need to ask ourselves a range of questions:
What knowledge, experience and skills do I have that make me an effective leader within my current context? What does my context need from me? What are the gaps?8
What do I think others want and expect from me as a leader? How do I know? Am I happy with that? Is my self-image as a leader overly influenced by the expectations of others?
How do my traits work for or against me as a leader? What are my default modes? When and why do I sometimes end up behaving in a way that I regret afterwards? What am I like when I am tired or stressed? Can I detect the warning signs and amend the negative aspects of my behaviour before harm is done or before I make myself unwell? How might I adapt or change my default modes to make myself more effective?
What motivates me about leadership? What are my drivers and how does that affect my behaviour and how I feel about myself? Is my main driver making a difference, status and power, income/paying the mortgage, not being a failure or being liked?
Being an imperfect leader means that you develop an accurate, balanced view of yourself as a leader. You know what you do well, and you know where you have gaps in knowledge, weaknesses or insecurities.
Self-awareness is developed naturally over time through experience and feedback, but there are several ways that self-awareness can be nurtured in a more proactive and deliberate way. We do this through things like:
Working with a mentor or coach.
Recording our behaviour in meetings and watching it back, perhaps with a facilitator.
Inviting external critical friends into our organisation to watch how we operate.
Keeping a personal diary and using it to reflect on our leadership behaviours and feelings.9
Steve
I kept a personal diary for ten years as a leader. It wasn’t too onerous, and I only made occasional entries, but it definitely helped me to be more aware of the patterns and habits in my leadership and to reflect on how I was developing on my leadership journey.
One psychological tool that can help to frame how we might expand our self-awareness is the Johari window (see Figure 1.1 on page 10), created by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in 1955. There are two dimensions to the Johari window: what you know or don’t know about yourself, and what others know or don’t know about you. The model has four quadrants. Firstly, anything you know about yourself and are willing to share is part of your open area (quadrant 1). You can build trust when you disclose information to others, which in turn allows them to share things about themselves as well. However, there will be areas where you have a blind spot (quadrant 2). This is where others around you can see things about you and your leadership of which you are unaware. With the help of feedback from others you can become aware of some of your positive and negative traits, as perceived by others. Clearly, there are also aspects about yourself of which you are aware but might not want others to know. This is known as your hidden area (quadrant 3). This leaves just one area, which is the area that is unknown to you and to others (quadrant 4).
The key is that it is possible to increase your open area by asking for feedback from other people. When feedback is given to you honestly, it can also reduce the size of your blind area. For example, maybe you interrupt people before they have finished speaking, which can cause frustration. Sometimes you don’t realise these aspects of your character until it is pointed out to you. By working with others and asking for feedback, it is possible to discover aspects about your leadership that you can build on, develop and improve.
The Johari window reminds us that we all have blind spots or areas where we hide behind a facade. The people around us have a contribution to make to our journey to self-awareness. How we solicit feedback is an important first step in understanding 10how we are known and perceived by others. (At the end of this chapter there is a simple exercise you can do to begin this process of asking for feedback.)
Figure 1.1. The Johari window (Luft and Ingham, 1955)
360° feedback can be a very powerful way of developing self-awareness
The National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) was introduced in England in 1997. This was a part-time programme for prospective head teachers, to be completed over one or two years, leading to a qualification awarded, from 2000 onwards, by the National College for School Leadership on behalf of the government. By 2008, it had become a government requirement that all those applying for their first headship role had to have the qualification or to be enrolled on the programme.11
But there was a problem: too many people had achieved the qualification but were either nowhere near ready for headship/principalship or else they didn’t really want to become heads. The reputation of the qualification had therefore been diminished; its brand had been tarnished.
One of the changes that was introduced to improve the situation was that all those applying for the NPQH programme were required to take part in a 360°-feedback process. For every applicant, a sample of colleagues would be asked to complete a questionnaire about their leadership. When the applicants received the feedback about their areas of strength and areas for improvement, if they embraced the feedback, recognised it and were keen to work on their weaknesses, they were more likely to be admitted onto the programme. Conversely, if they did not recognise the feedback, challenged it or were overly defensive about their areas for improvement, then they were less likely to be accepted. This was based on the firm belief that self-awareness is a key to effective leadership. Over time, this process worked well as one of the guardians of quality for the development of head teachers.
360° feedback can sometimes challenge us in ways that make us feel uncomfortable or vulnerable. It takes courage and commitment to be open, to listen and reflect; having a balanced attitude is an important foundation. 360° feedback represents other people’s perceptions of us, not necessarily the whole truth. Aim to use the feedback as a starting point for more in-depth conversations with a coach or mentor about how you can grow.
Sometimes it is hard for us to accept the positive feedback we get, as too often we fixate on the negative. We have a tendency as humans to overly focus on our weaknesses and deficits rather than be encouraged by the constructive feedback we get. There is an abundance of research about how strengths-based approaches to leadership and personal development have a positive impact on both well-being and performance (Buckingham and Clifton, 2001; Dubreuil et al., 2016). Consider how you can identify and develop further the things you do well as a leader, as well as the areas you want to improve. According to Miglianico et al. (2020), ‘The best opportunity ...
Table of contents
Praise
Title Page
Foreword by Andy Hargreaves
Acknowledgements
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Self-Awareness and Tuning into Context
Chapter 2: Developing and Empowering Teams
Chapter 3: Asking for Help
Chapter 4: Managing Ego and Acknowledging Mistakes
