Leadership Framework
At Kaizen everyone is a Leader and is supported and guided within
their leadership roles as we believe it is leadership that has the
greatest ability to impact children’s development and achievement.
Leading Self
Emerging
Developing
Established
Enhanced
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Manage own anxieties and appears confident to others.
Give things a go however difficult.
Have a can-do image of self.
Draw on own relevant experience.
Remain calm in crises.
Behave consistently in relation to own value and belief system.
Deliver on what is promised or are open about own shortcomings.
Use plain language in communication.
Consistently support others using own core values.
Stay focused on the goal.
Take time to be personally helpful and constructive to others.
Invest effort in making a difference.
Absorb and deal constructively with criticism.
Know the importance of and strive to gain a healthy work-life balance.
Demonstrate awareness of own feelings.
Notice own physical indicators to emotions e.g. going red, sweating.
Show courage to fulfil role.
Demonstrate optimism about achieving a goal.
Rise to and relish a range of challenges.
Create an environment of openness.
Act as a role model for involvement of staff.
Seek support for others when dealing constructively with criticism.
Manage own energy to maintain stamina over extended periods.
Have a healthy work-life balance, and act as models for colleagues in this respect.
Take conscious steps to manage own emotions and pressures.
Understand nature and causes of emotional reactions.
Recognise how challenges to personal values are likely to trigger emotional responses.
Understand the likely implications and impact of own emotions both on self and others.
Feel able to succeed and are prepared to stand up and be counted.
Require and expect others to be equally open in communication.
Stand up for what you believe is right even when it is difficult.
Put own experiences and expertise at the disposal of others.
Recognise others’ anxieties and problems and encourage them to find ways of dealing constructively with issues.
Show the confidence to involve others in support of reaching a goal.
Challenge the status quo when seeking to improve children’s learning.
Know own strengths and limitations when providing leadership to others.
Withdraw from stressful situations temporarily, creating time for reflection and recuperation, and to seek support
Look to the long term, seeking to leave a legacy.
Take on demanding challenges from which others may shy away.
Challenge others in positions of power where pursuit of a specific goal warrants such challenges.
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Show ability to identify and understand the impact of their emotions on others,
Leading Self – Warning Signals
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Feel overwhelmed by pace and scale of change.
May regard themselves as victims.
Hesitate or give in when faced with opposition.
Hold back from challenging others or are overly confident/arrogant.
Lose self-control in stressful situations.
Suffer from burnout without recognising warning signs or seeking help in advance.
Show a desire to gratify only personal needs or to gain kudos and recognition alone.
Respond to pressure by not standing up for own values or beliefs.
Demonstrate behaviour that is counter to school’s ethos and core values.
Fail to understand own emotions.
Show surprise to own reactions and don’t set aside time for personal reflection.
Fail to recognise or acknowledge the impact of own behaviour on others.
Leading Children
Emerging
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Developing
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Established
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Enhanced
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Communicate effectively with children, young people, colleagues, parents and carers.
Have a creative and constructively critical approach towards innovation, being prepared to adapt their own practices where benefits and
improvements are identified.
Know a range of approaches to assessment, and understand the importance of formative assessment.
Know how to make effective personalised provision for those they teach, including those for whom English is an additional language or who have
special educational needs or disabilities, and how to take practical account of diversity and promote equality and inclusion in their teaching.
Plan homework or other out-of-class work to sustain learners’ progress and to extend and consolidate their learning.
Establish a purposeful and safe learning environment conducive to learning and identify opportunities for learners to learn in out-of-school contexts.
Ensure that colleagues working with them are appropriately involved in supporting learning and understand the roles they are expected to fulfil.
Have high expectations of children and young people including a commitment to ensuring that they can achieve their full educational potential and to
establishing fair, respectful, trusting, supportive and constructive relationships with them.
Evaluate their own performance and be committed to improving their practice through appropriate professional development.
Act upon advice and feedback and be open to coaching and mentoring.
Understand how children and young people develop and how the progress, rate of development and well-being of learners are affected by a range of
developmental, social, religious, ethnic, cultural and linguistic influences.
Know how to make effective personalised provision for those they teach, including those for whom English is an additional language or who have
special educational needs or disabilities, and how to take practical account of diversity and promote equality and inclusion in their teaching.
Have an extensive knowledge and understanding of how to use and adapt a range of teaching, learning and behaviour management strategies,
including how to personalise learning to provide opportunities for all learners to achieve their potential.
Have an extensive knowledge and well-informed understanding of the assessment requirements and arrangements for the subjects/curriculum areas
they teach, including those related to public examinations and qualifications.
Have a more developed knowledge and understanding of their subjects/curriculum areas and related pedagogy including how learning progresses
within the children.
Have sufficient depth of knowledge and experience to be able to give advice on the development and well-being of children and young people.
Be flexible, creative and adept at designing learning sequences within lessons and across lessons that are effective and consistently well-matched to
learning objectives and the needs of learners and which integrate recent developments, including those relating to subject/curriculum knowledge.
Have teaching skills which lead to learners achieving well relative to their prior attainment and making progress as good as, or better than, similar
learners nationally.
Promote collaboration and work effectively as a team member.
Contribute to the professional development of colleagues through coaching and mentoring, demonstrating effective practice, and providing advice
and feedback.
Are willing to take a leading role in developing workplace policies and practice and in promoting collective responsibility for their implementation.
Know how to improve the effectiveness of assessment practice in the workplace, including how to analyse statistical information to evaluate the
effectiveness of teaching and learning across the school.
Research and evaluate innovative curricular practices and draw on research outcomes and other sources of external evidence to inform their own
practice and that of colleagues.
Have teaching skills which lead to excellent results and outcomes.
Demonstrate excellent and innovative pedagogical practice.
Contribute to the professional development of colleagues using a broad range of techniques and skills appropriate to their needs thus demonstrating
their own enhanced and effective practice.
Leading Children – Warning Signals
Warning Signals – Leading children
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Have poor communication with parents.
Deliver lessons that are adult-led with little pupil choice.
Use out of date assessment techniques and do not carry out assessment for learning during lessons.
Have planning folders which are disorganised.
Leave the adults who support learning unsure of what they need to be doing.
Work within a learning environment that is disorganised and at times can be unsafe.
Do not take feedback on board.
Deliver lessons that do not cater for the diverse range of children within their classes.
Feel overwhelmed or even lacklustre.
Are isolated and not working as a member of a team.
The progress of children for whom they are responsible is slow.
Leading Small Teams
Emerging
Developing
Established
Enhanced
Encourage team members to develop a team spirit.
Use a range of skills and approached to interact effectively with others.
Are accessible to new ideas.
Show belief in themselves and in the organisation.
Make decisions.
Communicate ideas and information clearly.
Are aware of opportunities to develop the team.
Demonstrate honesty and fairness.
Demonstrate good understanding by questioning and clarifying.
Show ability to identify others’ attributes.
Show awareness of the organisation’s business and objectives.
Deliver results which achieve objectives.
Work with others to create the right environment for high performance.
Give reasons for decisions.
Communicate ideas and information clearly and concisely.
Recognise opportunities and act upon them.
Encourage others to demonstrate honesty and fairness.
Demonstrate ability and capacity to work hard.
Understand own character, personality and motives and are able to apply this knowledge.
Show awareness of the effects of change.
Stick with challenges until settled.
Know the organisation’s business and objectives.
Lead team to ensure they are effective, motivated and developed.
Make well reasoned and thought-through decisions.
Have a range of strategies for communicating ideas and information clearly and concisely.
Seize opportunities appropriate for their team.
Understand others’ characters, personalities and motives.
Are effective during change.
Have the ability to convince others.
Plan for the business and its objectives.
Influence others to make things happen.
Make well reasoned and thought-through decisions, which are then reflected on to inform next steps.
Can evaluate communicative strategies and refine these skills as a result.
Identify and create opportunities.
Have a high need to achieve.
Show ability to modify own leadership style to suit situation.
Maintain effectiveness in changing situations. Plans strategically for the business and objectives.
Leading Small Teams – Warning Signals
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Unable to encourage team members to develop a team spirit.
Lack a range of skills and approaches to enable effective interaction with others.
Are not open to new ideas.
Manifest a lack of belief in self and organisation.
Are indecisive.
Cannot communicate ideas and information clearly.
Are unaware of opportunities to develop the team.
Do not demonstrate honesty and fairness.
Demonstrate lack of understanding as does not question or clarify.
Struggle to identify others’ attributes.
Have no awareness of the organisation’s business and objectives.
Leading the Organisation
Emerging
Developing
Established
Enhanced
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Identify individuality.
Begin to delegate.
With direction, are able to make decisions when leading a small team.
Manage people and resources within an established framework.
Seek others’ guidance to solve problems.
Communicate ideas and information clearly
Demonstrate honesty and fairness
Uses a range of skills to interact effectively with others (including questioning).
Have an understanding of the organisations mission, ethos and goals
Allow for individuality.
Use resources flexibly.
Delegate, set goals and review outcomes and achieve outcomes.
Experience effective partnerships of distributed leadership.
With consultation able to make some proactive decisions regarding the leadership of the organisation.
Review and rearrange resources and people with consultation.
Use solution-focused problem-solving.
Work with others to create the right environment for high performance
Encourage others to be fair and honest in their engagements.
Use individuality.
Creatively use a wider range of internal and external resources.
Delegate with support/guidance, goal setting and monitoring.
Create opportunities for effective partnerships for distributed leadership.
Make proactive, measured and thought out decisions.
Make changes to resources and people based on an understanding of the impact on the bigger picture.
Review solutions from problem solving. To seek expert advice of others to build a team to solve a problem.
Identify and adapt or create structures.
Facilitate and drive forward a shared understanding.
Effective during change.
Seizes opportunities for the organisation.
Maximise others’ individuality.
Use delegation (with coaching) as a tool to develop individuals.
Identify and facilitate effective partnerships for distributed leadership.
Know when proactive decisions need consultation or when to be decisive.
Have the foresight to plan for the effective impact of people and resources.
Have confidence to take risks when solving problems.
Be instrumental in creating a shared understanding/ethos.
Make well reasoned and thought out decisions which are reflected on to inform next steps
Can evaluate communication strategies and refine these as a result of reflection
Identify and create opportunities
Plan strategically for the future of the organisation.
Leading the Organisation – Warning Signals
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Unable to delegate effectively
Show lack of understanding of why individuality should be fostered
Unable to link key individuals for distributed leadership
Unable to make decisions unaided and/or become stressed when doing so
Have poor forward-planning skills, unable to pre-empt
Lack confidence to take risks, have poor problem-solving skills
Create negative feelings within a group
Unable to sustain or believe in the organisation’s ethos
Leading Small Teams
Emerging
Developing
Established
Enhanced
Encourage team members to develop a team spirit.
Use a range of skills and approached to interact effectively with others.
Are accessible to new ideas.
Show belief in themselves and in the organisation.
Make decisions.
Communicate ideas and information clearly.
Are aware of opportunities to develop the team.
Demonstrate honesty and fairness.
Demonstrate good understanding by questioning and clarifying.
Show ability to identify others’ attributes.
Show awareness of the organisation’s business and objectives.
Deliver results which achieve objectives.
Work with others to create the right environment for high performance.
Give reasons for decisions.
Communicate ideas and information clearly and concisely.
Recognise opportunities and act upon them.
Encourage others to demonstrate honesty and fairness.
Demonstrate ability and capacity to work hard.
Understand own character, personality and motives and are able to apply this knowledge.
Show awareness of the effects of change.
Stick with challenges until settled.
Know the organisation’s business and objectives.
Lead team to ensure they are effective, motivated and developed.
Make well reasoned and thought-through decisions.
Have a range of strategies for communicating ideas and information clearly and concisely.
Seize opportunities appropriate for their team.
Understand others’ characters, personalities and motives.
Are effective during change.
Have the ability to convince others.
Plan for the business and its objectives.
Influence others to make things happen.
Make well reasoned and thought-through decisions, which are then reflected on to inform next steps.
Can evaluate communicative strategies and refine these skills as a result.
Identify and create opportunities.
Have a high need to achieve.
Show ability to modify own leadership style to suit situation.
Maintain effectiveness in changing situations. Plans strategically for the business and objectives.
Leading Small Teams – Warning Signals
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Unable to encourage team members to develop a team spirit.
Lack a range of skills and approaches to enable effective interaction with others.
Are not open to new ideas.
Manifest a lack of belief in self and organisation.
Are indecisive.
Cannot communicate ideas and information clearly.
Are unaware of opportunities to develop the team.
Do not demonstrate honesty and fairness.
Demonstrate lack of understanding as does not question or clarify.
Struggle to identify others’ attributes.
Have no awareness of the organisation’s business and objectives.
Leading the Community
Emerging
Developing
Established
Enhanced
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Engage with parents and members of the school community to build relationships.
Begin to identify openings and make links with the local community.
Bring groups together for a positive outcome.
Show empathy with and understanding of those in the local community.
Engage and works alongside local stakeholders to reach a goal.
Use strengths of the local community & individuals and involve them in specific school projects. Have developed a network of key
players.
Lead community groups towards a common goal.
Promote positive change in the community.
Through the understanding of community needs, identify changes that they want.
Understand the local community group dynamics and how to involve group members fully in school life.
Organise events and projects that allow others in the group to begin to take a lead.
Through events and projects, lead community change.
Have developed a network of proactive community players that are themselves involved throughout the school.
Support/guide others to organise and lead on a project.
Consistently make positive changes through community groups.
Have systems in place to enable community groups to promote change independently.
Leading the Community – Warning Signals
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Show lack of understanding towards others.
Are unable to identify key community groups.
Are unable to identify community group needs.
Are unable to share responsibility, thus taking over the group.
Do not show empathy towards others.
Are unable to allow others to step forward and take the lead.
Lack focus and direction for a project.
Show poor organisational skills.
Are unable to build on the energy and enthusiasm of the group.
Show lack of commitment towards a particular group or project.
Are overbearing and not collaborative in the way that they work.
Are unable to delegate.
Are unable to nurture a learning environment for the group.
Are unable to step back and allow others to thrive.
Projects they lead lose momentum and fail.
When compiling this guide we used a number of valuable resources as reference points: