Denise Inwood, CEO of BlueSky
Performance reviews used to be focused on a single diary date but that has changed dramatically in recent years.
Those discussions are increasingly being seen as an ongoing theme during the school trust calendar; a flowing conversation between CEO and trustee.
In fact, the term performance review is becoming a misnomer, with more and more organisations in the business world dropping the term because it doesn’t reflect new approaches. Instead of holding leaders to account for past performance they are moving towards performance conversations, where the dialogue is between peers and is focused on improving current and future performance.
So it should be. The performance review of the chief executive of a school trust is one of a trust board’s most significant responsibilities for a number of reasons: it is key to the board’s leadership of strategy and values as well as its accountability for educational outcomes and financial health. And, along with other approaches such as mentoring, it supports the development and wellbeing of the trust’s most senior employee.
How you can ensure that these performance focused conversations are effective is the key question answered by Continuing the conversation, a new guide CST has produced in association with BlueSky and Browne Jacobson.
It’s a wide ranging and detailed guide which provides a wealth of insights and advice for trustees. It also serves to remind us of the purpose of the performance review process, which is to help the trust deliver its vision, by supporting the employee to be as effective as they can be.
So, what should these performance conversations between chair and CEO look like? The guide suggests chairs adopt established strengths-based models to inform these conversations, including the GROW approach (Goal, Reality, Options and Will) which includes a selection of suggested GROW questions, including:
- What was the best thing that happened this month/week in your sphere of influence? What one thing would you like to change?
- How could you rephrase a goal so that it depends only on what you do and not on others?
- Aside from the day-to-day frustrations, what is it about your work that gives you the most dissatisfaction?
- If you had unlimited resources and knew you couldn’t fail, what would you try?
- What step could you take this week that would move you toward your goal?
The GROW model is a useful way to structure the performance conversations that should become a regular feature of the chair’s working relationship with the chief executive. This conversational approach might appear to be less formal than the traditional performance review approach but that shouldn’t in any way devalue them. And these conversations still need to be documented and managed – and be clear and accessible to chair and chief executive – so that there's a shared clarity on agreed goals and objectives.
An external advisor can provide impartial and objective insights at key points throughout this process, providing assurance to trustees that these goals and objectives are both supportive of their development, and aligned with the strategic priorities of the trust. This support can be accessed through CST’s consultancy service.
Continuing the conversation explores the benefits of interim reviews and looks at how to increase the impact of your trust’s review process by maintaining focus on performance in the relationship between the chief executive and the chair across the year. Download it now.
BlueSky’s dedicated online platform streamlines appraisal, professional development and quality assurance processes in thousands of schools and trusts across the UK. Learn more.
The CST Blog welcomes perspectives from a diverse range of guest contributors. The opinions expressed in blogs are the views of the author(s), and should not be read as CST guidance or CST’s position.
