“It takes two flints to make a fire.” –-Louisa May Alcott

You think you’re pretty good at your job, right?  At Teach Meet London, I spoke about whether great teachers are born or made.  I don’t have an answer; I want to ask the question to get people thinking about teaching and professional qualities that lead to outstanding outcomes for students.  In my Teaching and Learning sessions, I want staff to consider how their professional qualities make them great – and I want them to be specific.

There are times when I will find myself seeing the qualities I have listed in people and I will be overwhelmed by how grateful I am to have them on my side.  But, as with any job, I have been in situations where teams have become dysfunctional.  One can use as many leadership models as one likes to analyse their staff – a team is only as strong as its weakest link.  It takes individuals to step up and demonstrate professional qualities.  If I was hiring a member of staff, I’d want to see the qualities I’ve listed because those are the qualities I want in myself.  It’s no good as a leader writing a person specification that does not tie in with my own values.

Speaking of person specs – how many times have you seen the same qualities flagged up as essential?  Organisations pilfer person and job specs, particularly in schools and end up being less than specific about the qualities they want in their teams.  I’d like to actually see the list below on a person spec.  At least it would be clear and precise.  I want to poke out my own eyeballs when I see person specs that outline a requirement for a ‘good sense of humour’.  The last thing I want on my team is someone who needs to be told how to do every part of their job, but does a stunning impression of Donald Trump in kindergarten.

The list below isn’t purely a wish list for the ideal team or team member, it’s a reminder to myself of all I want to be.  I don’t think anyone can be all of the things below, all of the time – but it’s worth sharing with your teams to see whether they can remind themselves at intervals that the following qualities and professional skills make a team hum positively.  And it’s worth having somewhere so you can remind yourself as a leader what you want to be as part of the team you are part of.

1. Resilient – reflects on failure and self-motivates to move on
2. Intuitive – senses when others are struggling and steps in
3. Empathetic – is able to see the work environment from another’s perspective
4. Pitches in – doesn’t need to be asked
5. Optimistic – comes in with a smile and keeps shoulders up and head up
6. Constructively critical – can spot where errors might be made and flags up
7. Solutions focused – finds the problem and suggests the solution
8. Determined – for students and the rest of the team
9. Productive – often underrated – can get a lot done in the time given
10. Anticipates problems – and finds ways around them before making mistakes
11. Intellectual – you don’t have to be a genius, just someone who ponders, reads and knows their stuff
12. Precise and careful – someone who proofreads, checks and double checks
13. Independent – doesn’t need their hand holding beyond the start of a role
14. Organised – plans, schedules, lists – throws them out – does it all again

When a team gets to the point where these qualities are not evident – or certainly not evident in the majority of team members, the only possible result is underperformance.  And more pertinently, for education professionals, the result is good people leaving.  Workload is intense, the external pressures on staff can make or break people – but in my experience as a school leader, what makes people leave is other people.  That could be a member of Senior Leadership who forgets that they are part of the department team, whether they like it or not; it could be a staff member who doesn’t pull their weight, whose lack of enthusiasm for the job leads to tension and resentment; it could be that the middle leader isn’t precise and careful enough.

With a new half term about to swing into action – one that requires teams to be the best versions of themselves – I’m going to pin this up on my wall at work and give myself a daily reminder of the qualities I want to display.  And then I think it is important to hold people to account – not in having these qualities instantly – but to hold people to account for working towards them.  That’s professional development and quite often we forget as leaders that we have to develop the whole professional, not just their hard skills, knowledge and the mechanics of how they do their job.  We owe it to the education sector, in any case.  We need to develop good people. We want good people to stay.