Effective School Management

Personal profile
Starting from the job description, the next step is to define the characteristics
of the sort of person able to meet the criteria. Certain of these characteristics
will be ‘essential’ and others ‘desirable’. A useful checklist is
(1) personal characteristics;
(2) achievements and experience: general education, degrees, etc., jobs,
special projects, awards;
(3) competences: abilities, aptitudes, skills, knowledge and effective
application;
(4) motivation: ambition (direction?), social, intellectual, level of ‘drive’; and
(5) personality: leadership, relationships, emotional stability.

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RECRUITING, EMPLOYING, APPRAISING, DEVELOPING & DISMISSING STAFF
7 7
It will be immediately apparent that while the first two categories are
‘factual’, the last three contain judgemental elements. Some of the
characteristics will – or should – depend on looking for an approach which
will complement that of other members of the team. If the team is creative,
mercurial but disorganized, perhaps we should look for an ‘administrator’
input, and vice versa. If we do not define this need, the risk is always that the
appointer will be attracted by someone whose approach is similar to his or
her own, whereas the need is often for a dissimilar person who will
complement him or her. The people we choose as friends are often similar to
us; the people with whom we can most easily work (or live) are usually
complementary in character (see Chapter 10).