Poor Proxies for Leadership
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How do we truly know if someone is a good leader? If your school relies on visible presence, constant busyness, or even a certain "look," you might be measuring the wrong things. In this thought-provoking episode, Shane is joined by experienced educator and leadership development specialist, Chris Baker, to explore the concept of 'poor proxies' for leadership. Inspired by Rob Coe's work on poor proxies for learning, Chris explains how schools often mistake correlated behaviours for the causal impact of effective leadership, potentially undermining leader well-being and organisational success.
You’ll learn to identify common poor proxies like visibility, busyness, and confidence, and discover a more impactful framework for evaluation centred on two questions: "How does this leader make people feel?" and "What does this leader enable people to do?" Chris provides a practical, immediate action plan, advising you to audit your school’s leadership frameworks, recruitment processes, and development programmes for hidden proxies. If you want to move beyond superficial metrics and cultivate leadership that genuinely empowers your team, this conversation is an essential starting point.
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Thank you for tuning in, and as always, if you found this episode useful, please share your experience. You can find me online on LinkedIn and Bluesky. My email address is shane@shaneleaning.com.
