Collectively, in our education system and in most public schools, we seem to have created a “Kolkata environment”. Barring fortunate exceptions and pockets of excellence, it is an environment that is the opposite of energetic. Let me explain.
Professor Sumantra Ghoshal explains in a video lecture that every year he used to go to India for almost a month to visit his parents. In Kolkata in July, the temperature is over 38°C, with humidity of 98 percent. He would spend most of his time indoors, resting and conserving energy.
In contrast, he used to live in Fontainebleau, 65km south of Paris. He says the forest there “is one of the prettiest forests in all of Europe. You enter the forest in spring, with a firm desire to have a very leisurely walk and you cannot. There is something about the smell of the air, about the trees, that will make you want to run, jog, jump up, catch a branch, to throw a stone, to do something.”
He called the difference between Kolkata and Fontainebleau “the smell of the place”. He hypothesised that many companies hurt their profit and performance because their corporate environment – the smell of their place – was more like Kolkata and less like Fontainebleau.
In these companies, the culture disengaged employees rather than energised them. (See The Smell of the Place on YouTube.)
So why do we have a “Kolkata environment” in so many schools? What role does leadership play in this? What difference, if any, can the leader of a school make?
Tom Hamilton, the headmaster at St Alban’s College in Pretoria, has institutionalised a “Fontainebleau environment”. There have been great leaders before him, but as a colleague said: “There is no doubt that it is he who has put St Alban’s College firmly on the map of top South African schools. In this, he has left his own mark and his own legacy.”
I recently spent an afternoon there. A positive and energetic atmosphere was tangible!
All the seats were taken before formal proceedings started on the outside lawn, so I sat down on the grass. Not even 10 seconds had passed before a young man offered me a chair. Before the headboy and headmaster had given their speeches I knew that great leadership had to be behind this energy.
I was convinced that if other schools, businesses and even state-owned enterprises could create such an energetic culture, they would flourish.
When asked to summarise what his success could be ascribed to in three principles, Hamilton highlighted the following:
n Put people first, always.
No matter what Hamilton was doing in his office, if there was somebody who wanted to see him, no matter who they were, they could see him. He said: “There is never a task that is too important not to put a person first.”
A former colleague stated: “It is clear that St Alban’s is about relationships first and foremost. People are valued here.
“He sees people; he understands that a happy teacher is a good teacher, so he is reasonable in his requests or refusals and he takes great pleasure in affording his staff opportunities for growth and renewal.”
n Being rigorous but not ruthless.
Hamilton said he was rigorous and knew what he wanted. He knew what the standard was, and demanded it.
“I challenge people to reach that standard,” he commented.
If they didn’t, they knew there was going to be some sort of response from him. He simply wouldn’t let it slide. He did not wait until it is time for the formal appraisal, he said.
n Lack of fear to confront (candour and honesty).
He viewed confrontation as an opportunity for all involved to grow, “irrespective of what the outcome might be, provided we approach it honestly”.
He believed there was a degree of honesty in him: “I am honest about who I am. Some of my staff members are paragons of virtue compared with me. They are almost saintly men and women, and I am not. I am loose and do all sorts of weird things that some of them must look at with disdain.
“I am fully aware that I am fallible and can get things wrong.”
Yet someone said of him: “He has learnt to see the good in others despite their frail humanity. He understands intimately that he has made mistakes and allows others to do the same – he has a huge capacity for forgiveness and this is a wonderful example.”
Hamilton also explained: “When I think you need to hear the honest truth I am going to give you a chance to hear it and I am going to hope that before you are out the door we are going to have a hug.
“If the honesty leads to your leaving the school, I hope that when we next meet we will have a glass of wine or something together.” He said he hoped the person would not feel diminished as a person.
Hamilton has always strived towards high standards, but in his earlier career it was at the cost of people. He was almost ruthless.
“It’s never at the cost of people now.”
Like all great leaders, he puts the cause, organisation or purpose first. He believes teachers are there to serve the pupils. But “we are all here to serve the school”.
Someone who has observed Hamilton noted: “He talks to and with the boys. He laughs with the boys. He cries with the boys. Young and old alike know that he is human and thus, the ‘title’ becomes irrelevant, but the respect for the man remains.”
When someone suggests something, Hamilton always asks how the pupils feel about it: what do they benefit from that? What about the customers, the parents who pay the fees? How will they benefit from that? Hamilton said he was convinced a lot of his staff saw it that way too.
In the DNA of the school there is positivity, innovation, relationships, difference and diversity. There is also the “DNA of significance, a step beyond success”.
With this leadership and with such a culture, it should come as no surprise that St Alban’s has for years given back to the community. For example, St Alban’s has adopted a school in Mamelodi.
The “Fontainebleau energy” is starting to rub off there. In four years, a 12 percent pass rate has moved up to 82 percent.
How do they do it?
“We play soccer together, the kids do, the staff do. We braai meat together, we attend socials together,” Hamilton said.
“Whenever I go to leadership conferences or whatever, the principal of that school goes with me.”
He claims that St Alban’s did nothing fantastic; they just did simple things well.
“We taught. We were there on time, we were there on the days we said we were going to be there.
“We produced good resources, we followed up on what we said we were going to do and we added a bit of value here and there by coming out here [to St Alban’s] to do stuff that we couldn’t do there.”
Everyone had to have an e-mail address and the students had to start talking to each other by e-mail, which “completely transcends the here and now”, says Hamilton. They simply treated people like they were really important.
It is, in essence, the same sort of things happening at St Alban’s itself.
“People are people, no matter where you’re from, we’re the same,” Hamilton said.
Their school cultures remained distinctly different, but Hamilton said he was convinced this high school in Mamelodi “is going to become one of those iconic places you’ll want to be visiting shortly”.
Not surprisingly, it is said of Hamilton that he has been a great servant. “He has grown with this school and has allowed it to thrive beyond him.”
This is the legacy of a great leader: when what he or she has moved can thrive beyond him. In short, the leader of a school can make all the difference.
Adriaan Groenewald, a lead contributor to the BR Leadership Platform, is a leadership expert and managing director and co-founder of Leadership Platform (www.leadershipplatform.com). Send comments to [email protected] or to Business Report’s editor: [email protected]