Best Practice

Leadership: How to earn respect and influence staff

A distinct challenge of early headship, especially in schools requiring improvement, is winning the respect and loyalty of your colleagues. Nick Bannister asks a group of headteachers to share their staff management and leadership advice

“Blockers”, “mood-hoovers”, “mood-formers” and cynics – talk to any experienced headteacher about the early days of their headship and most will mention their efforts to engage with at least one of these staffroom “types”.

For many heads, the memories still hold strong because engaging with new colleagues occupied so much of their mental energy as they sought to establish themselves in their new schools, often in difficult circumstances.

Establishing the right impression right at the start of headship is vital if a new leader wants to instil a culture of change, explained Steve Taylor, executive principal at the Cabot Learning Federation, a federation of seven secondary academies and five primary academies in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath and Weston-super-Mare.

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