When I was appointed as a Chief Operating Officer in a newly formed regional MAT, I thought I knew what I was getting in to. When I wrote my application, I was confident. I had been a PA, LGB Clerk, Office Manager and Business Manager and I had worked across a national MAT leading school improvement, business, HR and governance projects. I’d worked with Senior Leadership Teams, Headteachers, Regional Directors, HR Directors and Finance Directors and I had had front line experience of Ofsted, the DfE and the ESFA.

The role of Chief Operating Officer in a MAT broadly encompasses strategic business and operational leadership, aligning and deploying the resources of the MAT to secure efficiency, effectiveness and the successful achievement of identified objectives. When re-reading my COO application as ‘research’ for this article, I couldn’t help but smile at my boundless optimism and blind determination. I had big plans. I knew exactly what needed to be done and exactly how I would do it. Only now can I see how little I really knew.

The main issue with the role of Chief Operating Officer is that due to its breadth it is difficult to define. It is bespoke to every organisation, context and individual. There are no constants or points of reference and there isn’t a standard job description. This creates both opportunity and ambiguity. For me, taking the role of Chief Operating Officer was the equivalent of jumping off a cliff and finding out I had to make my own parachute on the way down. For everyone who has followed or wishes to follow me over that cliff, here I share with you my five most important lessons:

Find your balance and do it quickly

Being a Chief Operating Officer gives you a completely different and unique perspective on your MAT. You can see everything from where you sit and for that reason you have to operate on parallel tracks; the long-term vision and the day to day. It’s your job to keep those tracks clear of obstacles and as close together as you can as delays and divergence can create chaos. This is the most challenging part of the job. Balancing the needs of the whole with the needs (and wants) of the parts. Knowing when to talk and when to listen, when to intervene and when to escalate and when to enforce and when to mediate requires remarkable judgement and absolute confidence. How well you do this can make or break you.

Credibility is key

It doesn’t matter what your job title is, what qualifications you have or where you sit on the leadership diagram if nobody listens to what you have to say. Without credibility you cannot operate effectively. Credibility is earned, it is not given. How people see you affects how they respond to you. Aligning yourself and the purpose of your role with the educational objectives of your MAT is crucial. As Chief Operating Officer of a MAT, you can’t operate in isolation. Everything you do should be about supporting the delivery of a quality education provision. Articulating your role in these terms as well as demonstrating sound knowledge, a thorough understanding of data, objectivity and empathy will go a long way to gain the confidence and trust of your teaching colleagues.

The ‘big picture’ is deeper and broader than you think

As Chief Operating Officer, you have to use every tool at your disposal to not only determine the way forward but also to forecast impending doom. The management of risk relies on you being as informed as you can possibly be – all the time. Having up to date and accurate information is essential to the decision-making process. Whether you are looking at finance, HR, facilities, service level agreements or pupil progress you need to be confident in the accuracy, consistency and integrity of the data that you receive and the data systems you use. And it doesn’t stop there. You must go on to triangulate everything you think you know. Numbers need narrative and narrative needs numbers. Whilst the destination may be set, the current reality will continue to shift and you will need to be able to split your focus accordingly in order to make truly sound assessments.

Pursue the ground truth of your MAT

A person’s perception is their reality. That means that there are potentially billions of realities out there. This may sound deep but by understanding the realities of your schools and their leaders, you can work to create a shared reality in your MAT. By seeing the world through the eyes of others, you can predict and navigate conflict with ease as well as determine the best way to support and manage change. Not only can ground truth inform your leadership style, it can also be critical when it comes to making informed decisions. Evidence can tell you a lot but intelligence can tell you a whole lot more and can be a real differentiator.

Speak up and say it straight

In your role, you sit to one side of the central accountability line. The Heads report through to the CEO and the CEO reports to the Board. Your role spans across all of these organisational layers and due to the unique perspective we spoke about earlier, the odds are that at some point you are going to see something happening or about to happen that is unacceptable, out of line or potentially apocalyptic. Unfortunately, it will often only be you that can see this happening which means that it is your responsibility to speak up. In these instances you need to be blunt, unequivocal and unwavering. Speaking up may not be pleasant but your insight and your ground truth is one of the most powerful tools that your MAT has.

Despite my steep learning curve, you’ll be pleased to know that I survived my cliff jump and I can honestly say that it was exhilarating, rewarding and satisfying. There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the possible extinction of the MAT business generalist and the increasing preference of the MAT business specialist. My view is that centralisation should not automatically lead to specialisation. The very process of centralisation results in an increase, not a decrease of moving parts, conflicting agendas and accountability. A successful MAT is an efficient and effective operation and nobody is better placed to oversee, manage and shape this operation than a Chief Operating Officer.

So, to those who are thinking of becoming a Chief Operating Officer, I can’t recommend it highly enough. And to those of you who are already, I salute you. Fly the Chief Operating Officer flag and fly it high.

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Written for: Capita SIMS Blog (@CapitaSIMS)

With the introduction of performance related pay (PRP), an increase in accountability measures and workload, changes to pension and national insurance, a reduction in funding and the shifting sands of performance tables, it isn’t an understatement to say that the current ‘employment deal’, or in HR terms, the ‘psychological contract’ of the teaching profession has transformed. The psychological contract of economies past i.e. a job for life has gone. The psychological contract of today rewards performance over service and employability over loyalty. Teacher pay is now explicitly linked to performance as opposed to length of service and increasingly includes the ‘justification’ of larger than appropriate salaries.

The effect of these shifts on schools and school improvement is significant. Though school leaders are working to affect positive change in the sector over the long term, the pace of change means that it will take time to feel the impact of this in the corridors of our schools.

Whilst MATs face the same challenges as their maintained counterparts, they are better placed to influence long term sustainable change from the ‘inside out’ whilst at the same time mitigating the effect of the ‘outside in’. Whilst teachers may be disillusioned with their profession, MATs have the ability to shape their employment and working practices to provide schools in which teachers are enabled, supported and excited to teach. MATs should use the freedoms afforded to them to construct, articulate and maintain their own organisational psychological contract.

The psychological contract is the ‘silent partner’ of the employment contract but is different in that it is unwritten and subjective. It is focused around the employee expectations of the employer and how they hold up their end of the ‘employment deal’. These expectations relate to areas such as reward, recognition, development and progression, security, management support, flexibility and work/life balance and autonomy, fair treatment and trust.

The management of the psychological contract is key to positive employment relationships and the facilitation of employee choice in order to improve recruitment and retention.

Here are my 5 top tips on how MATs can assess, communicate and conserve their organisational psychological contracts:

Dig into the data

To improve recruitment and retention, you need to understand the local landscape that your MAT inhabits. Dig into the turnover data so that you can identify the pain points of your MAT. Is it attraction or retention? Is it location or legacy? Is it reputation or competition? Is it strategy or process? Is it money or marketing? Do they feel supported with the sufficient training and development opportunities? Ask staff what it is like to work for your MAT. Find out what keeps them working for you and what stops them applying for other jobs. Also, consider any differences between individual schools. Differences aren’t necessarily a bad thing but understanding them could help you improve the performance of the whole.

Root yourself in your reality

To get a truthful and complete picture of the current psychological contract of your MAT, you need to be objective. Look at your MAT policies, salary scales, performance management processes, benefits, training packages and progression routes. Determine how competitive your employment deal is and how far it goes to meet not only the needs of your MAT but also the expectations of your staff. Consider whether it is reflective of your ethos and culture. Think about what your staff have told you and identify any discrepancies. Identify what you think is going well but in reality, is falling flat and either fix it or get rid of it.

Build trust with consistency

Inconsistency is the death knell of the psychological contract. If any of your leaders operate in a way contrary to your MAT mission, vision and values it will be observed. From the moment that staff join your MAT, they are constantly yet often unconsciously assessing whether leaders do what they say they will, honour the promises they make, lead by example and apply policy fairly and consistently. Consistency of behaviours throughout all layers of the MAT is just as important as consistency of policy. External influences may be driving change and you may need to do things you don’t want to do but when it comes down to it, you and your staff are on the same side. Your staff need to trust that you will do your absolute best to treat them fairly and if for any reason you can’t and a promise needs to be broken, that not only you will be honest but that you will be supportive.

You don’t need to be better, just be different

Before you recruit, invest time in job design. When recruitment goes wrong, it tends to be before it has begun so don’t just dust off the old job description, person specification and advert. It’s in job design that the psychological contract is constructed so do it consciously and creatively.  It’s where you can not only plan for the future but also evaluate the present and learn from the past. Reflect upon where the role fits in your structure and whether it’s an attractive and do-able job. Each role has its perks and its quirks so be up front and where you can, balance them out. Don’t just do this at school level either, look across your MAT in terms of opportunity and progression. Remember, progression doesn’t have to mean ‘upwards’. If you can define progression differently in your MAT, you can expand your talent pool and your organisational capacity.

Get performance management right

In your MAT, this process is where the psychological contract is at its most vulnerable. It’s the only process aside from management that spans all the employee expectations we covered earlier; reward, recognition, development, progression, fair treatment, autonomy and trust. It shouldn’t facilitate under the table budget cuts, nor should it be a capability process in disguise. It should be a process in its own right. Some see performance related pay as an accountability measure but within your MAT it should be about development, capacity building and improving the quality of teaching i.e. a force for good rather than a blunt instrument of punishment. This way, not only will you get more from your staff, they will be more than happy to give. As a MAT, the training and development of your central and leadership teams is just as crucial as they will need to be both competent and confident using the systems and processes your MAT puts in place to monitor school performance and implement successful school improvement strategies.

As a MAT, how you do business defines both your culture and your identity so focus on the things that you can control and remember that how you do something is just as important as what you do. You can have policies and processes all day long but they must be designed and actively managed with people in mind; not only to hold them accountable or to measure them but to recognise them, reward them, bring out the best in them, engage them and value them. By doing this, the right people will not only want to work for your MAT, they will stay working for you, progress with you and move your organisation forward into the next phase of its journey.

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P.S. Have you joined The Business of School Leadership Facebook Group yet? For practical support, advice, tips, tools & guidance about all things school leadership, join us in the community by clicking here.

Written for: Capita SIMS Blog (@CapitaSIMS)