It’s certainly not hard to see why so many school leaders shy away from taking on the onerous task of heading up a multi-academy trust. Those who assume the pay package is the only conceivable appeal of the job are sadly mistaken: the £500k pay package of Harris Federation’s Sir Dan Moynihan is atypical of the sector.

So why would a successful headteacher, probably on the same salary as a CEO (or sometimes higher) take on the extra responsibility of eight, 10 or even 20 schools?

There’s no denying that the workload is immense.

Add to that the fact that the opportunity to become a MAT CEO tends to arrive later in life when education professionals, like everyone else, are often looking to improve their work-life balance.

But after being a headteacher for 20 years, I saw becoming a CEO as the next step, an opportunity to improve some existing skills and develop new ones.

MAT appeal

Being a CEO is everything I expected it to be, and much more. 

So what’s the appeal? As chief executive, your responsibilities stretch much wider than those of a principal and that means that you’re able to impact on the lives of many more children - in my case a wider age group, from primary to post-16 students who come from across an incredibly diverse range of backgrounds. At one of our schools, more than 40 nationalities are represented. One of our primaries has just over 100 pupils, while in one of our secondaries Year 7 entry alone is more than 200.

Working with larger communities - locally, regionally and nationally - really challenges you. A headteacher’s job will naturally evolve - you take on more responsibility as you develop into the role - but the CEO job is all-encompassing.

Working to improve the quality of leadership with headteachers, the quality of professional dialogue is exhilarating. Ideas about new ways of doing things just bounce off each other and actions are immediate.

Personally and professionally, I’ve improved all sorts of key skills such as diplomacy, tolerance, negotiation and communication.

Share and develop 

We also have a moral obligation to share our experience and knowledge. If you’re a successful headteacher and you have something to offer both personally and professionally which can positively impact on a greater number of children, young people and their communities, then I believe you should step up and offer it.

When it comes to recruitment and succession planning, I believe it’s incumbent on MAT CEOs to develop their staff to take on this role, to ensure that leaders have greater opportunity to lead in different and even more challenging areas.

Of course, it’s not always possible to develop from within the organisation, but in my view, this is the best way to grow more MAT leaders.

MATs are complex organisations and I believe the best CEOs come from a headteacher background. Obviously, some of the required skills are generic across many types of managerial roles - leadership, budgets, finance, etc. But it’s very difficult to challenge your headteachers and principals to improve the quality of teaching and learning if, as a CEO, you haven’t achieved it in a headteacher role.

No regrets

I admit it’s not all plain sailing. When things aren’t going well, everyone points the finger at you.

And it can be incredibly frustrating. I suspect every school leader will agree with me when I say that not having the resources to do what you need to - never mind what you want to - is scuppering our capacity to do the things we know will make a difference to children’s futures.

But however tough the current environment, I’m in a job I love. Ignore the headlines and give it a go. I am close to retirement, and I’ve not regretted a thing. 

Dr Patrick Hazlewood is chief executive of the Excalibur Academies Trust

Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow Tes on Twitter and Instagram, and like Tes on Facebook