Forget greed and egotism; go for team-building and positional play. So said Steve Munby, chief executive of the National College for School Leadership, in a warmly received speech this week on how to be a good head. Rather than the approach of Gordon Gekko (“the guy with braces in the Wall Street film”), he held up the example of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.
He managed to keep 27 men stranded for two years 1,200 miles from civilisation both healthy and happy, said Mr Munby.
Even more popular with his audience was the example of footballer Alan Shearer, still a top goal-scorer well into his thirties by dint of shifting from pace to positional play.
“Many of you as school leaders are not as young as you used to be,” said Mr Munby. “So, like Alan Shearer, we have to adjust our game. We don’t have to be a super-hero leader, working all hours.”
