The Three Minute Leader

Overall Verdict: ★ ★ ★ ★

Why this book?
I was drawn to this book by the catchy title. Leadership in 3 minutes? That was something I could get on board with!
The premise is that, on average, school leaders have 20 professional interactions an hour or one every 3 minutes. This short book therefore contains 101 snippets of wisdom to help leaders with these myriad interactions.

Roy Blatchford introduces the book by lying out some guiding principles:
-       ‘Less is more’ in school leadership.
-       All successful school leaders possess humanity, clarity and courage- essentials of leadership in any context.
-      We learn from watching others make mistakes and whilst we won’t repeat these mistakes, we will make our own.

Each of these guiding principles encompasses a theme that is developed strongly throughout the book. This was one of the real strengths of the book for me; whilst each snippet is short and punchy, the themes that develop as the book progresses leave you with a clear understanding of the key qualities, skills and values of a successful school leader. As a Head of Department leading a small team, this is a book that I will pick up regularly- particularly on those days where it feels like I could do with stepping back and seeing the bigger picture!

Three key takeaways:
1. It can be easy to lose sight of what really matters as a school leader (and indeed a classroom teacher!). Work out what you have to do to keep everything in perspective and to know what is really going on. Several ideas in the book link to this theme but one I particularly like is the suggestion that spending a Friday afternoon walking around the school will serve as an optimistic reminder that all is well and thus be suitable preparation for the weekend (Idea 4, p.6)

2. It is important to take risks in a position of leadership. What is important is working out how to achieve a ‘climate of measured risk’ (Idea 36, p.25).

3. In whichever part of a school you lead ‘are values added and value added equally weighed in practice?’ (Idea 59, p.39). How do we achieve the right balance between adding measured value (through academic progress and achievement) and adding to the child’s experience of the world more broadly (their values)?