Harvard’s Five Types of School Leaders
Takeaway:
There are five different types of school leaders, but only one makes both a short and long term positive impact on their schools. Interestingly, each type of leader is connected with the subject that they taught. Which type of leader are you?
Harvard’s Five Types of School Leaders:
It is common knowledge that great organizations are led by great leaders. For schools this is no different. Researchers from Harvard University interviewed more than 400 school leaders in the UK and measured the impact each one had on their schools. The research led to categorizing the leaders into five types, each with its own specific short and long term impact on their schools.
Of the five types of leaders, only one was truly successful. Meaning, just one of the five leaders brought short and long term success which continued even after departing from their school. The researchers labeled the five different types of leaders as Accountant, Architect, Philosopher, Soldier, and Surgeon. Which one best describes you? Read on.
Surgeons
If a schools wants someone who will lead for 1-2 years and dramatically turn around their biggest apparent problem, then look no further. Surgeons have a clear vision for getting results and wins right away, but will do so at the cost of long term success. For their careers, this is fine, as they will quickly show school improvement and then move on to another school.
Long term, Surgeons are quite harmful to a school as they are not afraid to remove teachers or students that they deem are underperforming. This is a hit to morale and leaves the next leader in a very difficult situation. Recovering from such a loss of people and income is very challenging. According the study, 85% of Surgeons were former Physical Education or Religious Studies teachers.
Soldiers
If you want someone who is focused on the bottom line, on saving the most money for your school, then the Soldier is the one for you. Never afraid to reduce costs in staffing, supplies, or support staff, soldiers do whatever it takes to save money and stretch resources.
The staff working for Soldiers work in a climate of fear. Everyone is expendable and can be replaced, so work hard! This type of culture wears out the staff and increases turnover. Around 95% of Soldiers worked either at Chemistry teachers or in IT.
Accountants
This is the first group of leaders that do no short or long term harm. Accountants are creative leaders who know how to find new sources of revenue to reinvest in their schools. This can range from renting out facilities to expanding the school or looking to increase enrollment.
Sounds too good to be true? Well, the financial success of Accountants tends to continue even after they leave the school. The downside is not necessarily a downside, but student performance typically stays at the same level before and during their time at a school. Nearly 78% of Accountants were math teachers.
Philosophers
A neutral group in general, Philosophers tend to be high minded individuals who view themselves more as experienced teachers than leaders. They are appealing to the staff as they truly value the hard work each member puts into teaching students.
However, outside of valuing teaching and learning, nothing intangible happens. No healthy change comes. Students test scores and finances remain the same and teachers can end up frustrated that progress does not take place. Around 89% of Philosophers are English or language teachers.
Architects
The true heroes of the five types of school leaders, this is the only group that has a long lasting positive impact on their schools. The focus is to build healthy and proper systems and cultures that best support the teachers and enable improvements in student learning. This takes time and patience, around year three is when growth is seen in student testing.
Always looking to build culture and serve people, Architects have a long view on leadership. They are visionary, humble, and are willing to put in the hard work to best benefit the local community. With a focus on legacy over today’s praise, Architects are the real deal in school leadership. Sadly, they are also the least recognized and appreciated of all leader types. About 68% of architects are career changers and have a background in history or economics.
Summary
There tends to be trends in what type of leader you are based off of what subjects you taught while in the classroom, at least within the UK. Of the five types of leaders, only one had a long lasting positive impact on their schools, the Architects.
These mostly former history teachers bring about a sense of slowness and intentionality of building capacity and mindset within the entire school community. This level of focus combined with a very strong set of student learning values ensure that growth will happen for years to come, both financially and academically. Knowing that this is true even after this leader has left proves just how important it is to be an Architect type leader.