True Leaders Don't Create Followers, They Create More Leaders.

At Ainslie Wood, we believe everyone is a leader.  From the leadership of self, the leading of 'stuff' and the leading of people, the journey isn't always that well structured but thinking about it in this way helps us to work out where people are in their journey and what we can do to help them.  We put a considerable amount of focus into nurturing the leadership journey of all staff through shared responsibility, reflection and support in order to create an environment of positive, confident, supportive leaders who work together to keep moving our school forward.

While we believe there is no single recipe for helping someone grow into an effective, confident leader, as a team we have considered the qualities and behaviours that, in our opinion, make the ideal leader for Ainslie Wood.  Our Leader of Adult Development works with each of our leaders (wherever they are on their own journey) and helps them to develop across the areas we identified.  The key qualities that we believe every great Ainslie Wood leader should posses and demonstrate are:

• A positive attitude and a sense of humour
• Commitment
• The ability to seek first to understand before being understood
• Confidence
• Honesty and integrity
• The skills and ability to involve others in the journey
• The confidence and credibility to make decisions and take risks
• The ability to inspire

Leadership Support

All leaders at Ainslie Wood, at all stages in their journey, are mentored and coached to develop their leadership skills.  This is done through a range of one-to-one dialogues and collaborative opportunities which will be tailored to develop their specific area of focus.

Leaders also have the opportunity to work with an external Leadership Coach who provides fresh eye and ears and acts as a sounding board and critical friend to help our leaders with their thinking, ideas and implementation.

In order to create a shared language and shared understanding of how we view leadership and the part each of us play in keeping our school moving forward, our leadership team create and regularly update our school leadership manual - The Leadership Toolkit. 

The process of creating and maintaining this document is just as valuable (if not more so) than the end product as the work that is done and the discussions that are held become an invaluable part of evaluating and modifying our systems and thinking.

Leadership is not a position or title, it is action and example.