Inspirational - and Cautionary - Tales: Gerald Haigh

If you’re looking for policy advice, views on system re-configuration (I didn’t make it up) or academic research, this is not for you. Forget those yawn-inducing guides, remedies and reports we see so much of. Here is a true gem, the real thing: a distillation of wisdom and revelations that will bring Gerald Haigh into your school as a fun-driven, humane presence.

A former primary head, leadership adviser and popular TES columnist, he has a fund of stories you will remember, re-tell and apply. And he brings in quotes and references, from tales of lion tamers and ‘f-laws’ to time machines and chewing gum fences, to illuminate his many stories.

You don’t have to skim through long chapters seeking the buried treasure. The insights spill from every page, every paragraph. The chapter headings read like memos to yourself: ‘Just tell them what to do’, ’Things to do’ or ‘Make sure the message is clear’. Each is around newspaper column length. Many readers will recognise the pieces from the leadership pages of the TES and be glad to be re-united with old friends. The collection offers easy-to-dip-into reads we could give to any of our colleagues and watch the smiles.

For example, I loved the tale, in a piece on the art of delegation, of the executive who, anticipating a long power point, switched off the projector and said, ‘Let’s just talk about this.’ Wow - how many opportunities I’ve missed when I should have done just that! But you have to know where the actual switch is, warns Haig, or you could lose the impact.

Advice on ‘Managing the impossible staff member’ who just happens to be the ‘caretaker from hell’ will make everyone smile and cry out, ‘Yes!’ when they hear the solution. It won’t work in all cases but it will be a catalyst at least: you, ‘Put the dog on the porch’, leave written instructions, avoid arguments and are cold and distant. It’s a great tactic to use on the colleague who wants to manipulate you.

There are stories on topics as wide-ranging as performance-related pay and what really motivates teachers, through to embarrassing moments and team-building. His values inspire. Cynicism is crushed by his natural assertion that the term ‘teacher’: ‘is a lifetime badge of honour.’

He often sums up what we know but haven’t quite expressed: that the best measure of your own leadership is to judge how strong the other leaders are in your school: that the hallmark of the excellent leader is the uncanny ability to be everywhere at once. All will recognise walking around the corner into a crucial discussion just when it matters.

Instead of writing ‘to do’ lists, write into your diary the actual times when you will perform the tasks: that’s so simple but effective. Gerald Haigh credits his source for this advice as, ‘someone who understands real people’, the very quality that makes this little book such a compulsive read.

Inspiration – and Cautionary – Tales for Would-be School Leaders by Gerald Haigh (Routledge Taylor & Francis Group)