The Secret Weapon of High-Performing Teams: It's Not What You Think

Taken together, the more positive the culture and climate you create, the more likely your team of staff are to go the extra mile. This concept is known as discretionary effort. It is commonly described as the input from individuals over and above that which they need to contribute in other to keep their jobs. Critical in this context, however, is that the effort individuals make is directed productively. You will probably know of well-meaning and hardworking colleagues who regrettably did not have the impact that their efforts deserved because they were too often focused on the doing the wrong things. In a classroom context, it’s all very well having fantastically enjoyable lessons if what the pupils are learning doesn’t relate to the curriculum they are meant to be following or the assessments they will have to take.

In other words, it’s not about working longer or harder. That way lie the issues of stress, burn-out and disaffection that mean too many people leave the profession. It’s about caring about one’s work in a way that means individuals are constantly striving to improve, to be a tiny bit better tomorrow than they were yesterday.

Getting the culture and climate right can therefore also have an impact on an individual’s intention to stay at a school, which in turn affects overall retention levels. If you accept the argument that a bigger problem for many school systems is retention not recruitment, then getting these basics conditions right is crucial for both schools and the wider system.

The importance of line manager is particularly significant for larger schools, where this is basically suggesting that it is middle leaders – who line manage most of the staff in – that have the ability to influence discretionary effort more than anyone else. It’s no wonder middle leadership is often referred to as the engine room of larger schools. In smaller schools, I imagine the senior leadership team and line manager categories are probably one and the same!

As with all evidence like this, it is important to recognize it’s limitations around context, but it certainly offers some useful food for thought.

Great ability without discretion comes almost invariably to a tragic end. – Leon Gambetta

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