Education Business Live: speaker insight

Stephen Morales, Chief Executive of the Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL), is speaking at Education Business Live Conference & Exhibition, addressing the importance of operational and financial leadership in education settings. In advance of the event, we ask Stephen for his thoughts on effective leadership and what support is available to advance school business professionals.

In your opinion, what qualities make an outstanding leader within a school?
 
This is a huge question. What makes a good leader in my opinion, is a clear sense of purpose, integrity, emotional intelligence, vision and drive, leads by example - and so on.
 
The four established domains of leadership include: executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking.
 
These are all applicable to schools and trust leaders. But the emphasis will shift according to a number of factors, including the scale of the operation, role autonomy and/or agency, regulatory constraints and contextual complexity (including change both frequency and pace).
 
This brief answer does little justice to a very complex and layered subject.
 
For effective leadership, how important is it for pedagogy, business and governance to operate together?
 
Joined up leadership is essential – if we operate in leadership silos, how can we serve each other and understand the entire organisations needs? For more on this subject read my research in Barriers to Joined up leadership here.
 
How has the role of school business professional evolved in recent years, and has its profile become more important as schools become more autonomous?
 
The role has evolved because the environment and landscape has evolved and become more complex and dynamic. The erosion of LA services and associated teams means specialist functions now often need to be managed in-house. This has led to the emergence of three broad flavours of schools business leadership – the continued role of the generalist, new specialist functions, and a range of c-suite/executive roles. School Business Leadership is and has to evolve because the overall system can no longer rely (in many cases nor does it want to) on access to the support of specialist at a LA level.
 
How does ISBL intend to respond to the capability needs of the sector?
 
ISBL invite schools and trusts to first consider the ingredients necessary for operational effectiveness (OpEx). We then describe the associated functions, and the knowledge required to carry out these functions (as described in our Professional Standards). We then invite practitioners to locate themselves within our Professional Standards framework and therefore firmly position themselves to undertake a role, ensuring that the function is performed optimally. Our portfolio of qualifications allows practitioners to move between specialist functions or progress through the four tiers culminating in strategic leadership.
You can find out more about ISBL on our website.
 
What improvements do you hope the new government will make to the education system?
 
The Labour government have put forward a new bill setting out their intentions. Commentators on both sides of the political spectrum will make the case for the benefits of these proposals or pitfalls. ISBL remains system agnostic and non-partisan and we will continue to work within the constraints of any incumbents policy and reform ambition.
 
What is clear, however, is that this or indeed any future government will need to deal with challenges associated to the following; SEND and inclusion, reducing the disadvantage gap and child poverty, the school estate, core funding, recruitment and retention, and the future role of technology.

About Stephen Morales:

Stephen has a 20-year career history in operations and finance at a senior level in the public and private sectors, managing significant change management and quality assurance programmes. Stephen spends much of his time engaged in discussions related to education policy reforms.

Stephen will be providing the Introduction to the Leadership keynote & panel section at Education Business Live, which takes place on 19 March at Evolution London. He will provide a sector landscape overview and reflect on what this means for operational and financial leadership at a strategic level. He will then go on to chair a Q & A panel with guests to discuss the topic Using feedback to become a better leader.

The inaugural Education Business Live Conference & Exhibition is designed to support the efficient and successful running of education settings. The event will bring together education professionals with a passion for effective school leadership, management, learning and teaching. Register for free here.