A typical day in the life of a headteacher can be fast-paced, hands-on and hectic.

And yet, many heads struggle to let go of this role when they climb up the leadership ladder.

The ability to step back from these day-to-day responsibilities is vital when you are overseeing multiple schools as an executive head or CEO of a multi-academy trust (MAT), leading education figures have said.

Increasingly, heads are choosing to step up to these higher-level roles because the government’s vision for the schools system is one led by academy chains.

But Sir David Carter, the national schools commissioner, has recognised that this is not an easy journey for the new generation of leaders, admitting that he himself struggled as an executive head in the past.

The former CEO of the Cabot Learning Federation, in Bristol, told a conference last week: “I spent the first few years trying to be head of all three [schools]. And I learned pretty quickly you can’t do that.”

He added: “It is not as simple as I thought it was - that leading three schools or two schools is just one times three or one times two. It’s a different role with a different set of core skills behind it.”

Bev Mabey, former head of a single school and now chief executive of Birmingham’s Washwood Heath MAT, has had to adapt quickly with some “pain barriers” along the way, she told the event organised by the Birmingham Education Partnership.

Two years ago, Ms Mabey, then head of Washwood Heath Academy, became executive head when the school stepped in to support a primary and secondary school in special measures. Following the successful partnership, a decision was made to form Washwood Heath MAT - which will soon have a total of five schools.

Building trust

But the chief executive of the trust said that letting go of her old responsibilities and making sure that her new role was understood by staff and parents had been a difficult process.

“I worked very hard on stepping out and not allowing myself to be embroiled in anything that really could constitute as day-to-day school life, and - slowly and surely - they all started to get the message in the community,” she said.

“It was probably hardest for me because obviously I was so used to being embroiled in that community, as I had been for nine years.”

The issue came up just months after TES reported on concerns over how school groups choose which of their headteachers will become the CEO when they form a group or MAT.

Sharing the executive role could be problematic, governors’ leaders said, but picking one person for the top job could create a situation where the other heads feel that their authority is undermined.

More recently, a report from the thinktank Reform claimed that the “power struggle” between heads and CEOs was thwarting the growth of school chains.

Last year, the charity Future Leaders Trust launched a leadership programme for current and would-be MAT CEOs, alongside the Department for Education, after recognising the need for specialised skills.

Heath Monk, the former CEO of the charity, which has trained more than 100 chief executives of chains, described the change as an “emotional challenge” for heads as the executive role is so different.

“There is a sense of loss - the way that your day was filled as a head, it is no longer filled in the same way,” he told the Birmingham conference.

Mr Monk, who is now executive director of the King Edward VI Foundation grammar schools in Birmingham, told the event: “The temptation is to be needed, to be rushing around, fuelled by adrenaline, but, actually, the difficult thing is to step back.”

He added that for many it will be the first time that they have to sit back and think strategically about where the organisation is going, as the normal day of a headteacher can be “breakneck”.

Senior leaders raised their concerns about how often they should be on-site and how best to balance their time between schools.

“If you fill [your time] with the things you did as a head, then you will never have the opportunity to do the strategic things…that’s actually where you will add the most value,” Mr Monk stressed.

Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It’s a step up that some people find more difficult to make than others.

“It’s a step away from the day-to-day running of the organisation and the regular contact with staff and pupils. You are giving away a certain amount of authority to other people and you have got to build up that level of trust.”

@Eleanor_Busby