As educational leaders we must continually demonstrate our passion and dedication, and we must be relentless in the pursuit of achieving excellence for our students helping them to become better than they think they can be.

Excellence can be obtained if you:
• care more than others think is wise
• risk more than others think is safe
• dream more than others think is practical
• expect more than others think is possible.

The reality is that within any school we never stand still, to support our current and future success we are continuously evolving. When this happens learning improves, teaching improves, resources improve and support systems improve to the point where the quality of data and insight wholly support the notion of personalised learning for our students. Simultaneously the concept of leadership and what success is are constantly changing, constantly evolving. Currently I find leadership discussion to be encouraging as we debate the attributes of leadership in the 21st century. Attributes for current and future leaders include: Ethics; honesty; transparency; integrity; humility; respect; flexibility and collaboration are the foundations of our current leadership framework. Until very recently the major skills most schools focused on in their leaders were things like vision, strategic thinking, decisiveness, execution, drive, and accountability for results. While these features still remain important, it is obvious that the pendulum has swung from a focus almost purely on results to a position supporting highly ethical behaviour that still delivers. This is an extremely positive shift, one which has benefits for everyone within a school organisation, especially one which embraces distributed leadership.

The importance of setting a clear direction for a school is solidly grounded on unyielding integrity and commitment to an agreed and mutually purposeful mission. Implementation revolves around professionalism, teamwork, respect, service, and most importantly, a learning focus. However, that culture of excellence and student learning centeredness cannot be left to chance, it must be nurtured, visible and supported strongly throughout the school. Alongside this leadership style must be based on ethical values, professional integrity and drive toward a better future for all within, this will be the cornerstone for a successful school over the coming years.

Effective strategies for the realisation of this mission requires a bias for action, vision, articulation, moral purpose and attention to the change process in a dynamic 21st century are all key to the success of an effective school. Our leadership must be accompanied by strategies which get the right people in place, people who want to make a difference and provide the energy and enthusiasm which will drive toward an identified goal, a journey which is measurable, supported by success indicators continually informing progress. Always remember that in today’s fast changing, global context, within a brain based economy our greatest assets are our staff, their leadership potential will not emerge from a system requiring blind obedience. The moral purpose of our leadership is to encourage everyone's evolution, as leaders we can distribute leadership and create a strong sense of moral purpose which will both mobilise and energise all, making a leap in performance, expectation and outcome.

Change is an active and constant feature of the world in which we live. An organisation such as a school is a living thing, there is no equilibrium. The rapid nature of change in the 21st century and the non linear nature of change have the potential to cause difficulty, particularly if we promote rigid planning and implementation expectations. Success in the 21st century is beyond planning. A flexible responsive approach to both school and human development can also provide the potential and opportunity for new paradigms, new success, new dimensions in teaching and learning and creative breakthrough to inform our activity. We should consider moving away from a benchmarking process against the competition as the more we benchmark against our competitors, the more we risk looking like them; however we can still monitor them. We need face up to and deal with the challenges ahead, to live with candor, without denial, to simply action toward better futures for our schools.

Our target is to create a future for our community as a “Blue Ocean”. A Blue ocean organisation is by definition innovative, challenging, and very successful. In our "Blue Ocean" schools we will continually challenge and progress as learning organisations, avoiding the trap of, ‘this is what we do.’ There are several driving forces we are required to activate toward the creation of such a school, including technological advances, increased understanding of the learning process, growth of learning awareness and potential as well as pedagogical growth. Staff will be able to look for opportunities which further develop their skills and pedagogy beyond their current thinking and expectations and be confident in moving forward, taking risks, confident about their strengths and purpose. Most importantly they will have a mindset founded in lifelong learning, commitment to self, team and school, of being a professional educator.

As leaders our challenge is to:
• Create uncontested space as a Centre of Excellence.
• Make the competition irrelevant.
• Create new paradigms in teaching and learning.

As we define and develop our individual “Blue Ocean” schools we need to be confident enough to take considered risks, to adopt a Kaizen approach of slow continuous change. Continuously challenging, adapting and growing our schools offering sustained high performance as well as increasing levels of personalisation and innovation.

Concurrently we need to maintain, review and enhance rigorous and methodical approaches and systems, following key procedures relating to self evaluation, school development planning etc. We also need to be aware of and respond flexibly and positively to the new, maybe unforeseen opportunities that may arise. Leaders make plans, but success is often beyond planning. Ultimately our strategic plan is to get things done. We need to continue to develop a culture that has a bias for action with rapid learning, adaptation, and an appetite for challenge and change, personal and whole school improvement.

It is insufficient to only have a dream or a vision, nor is it appropriate to resist a better future because, ’this is how we do things’, we need to get things done, to execute our plans, that is the job of the leader. On our doorstep in Dubai is an outstanding example of excellent leadership encompassing, vision, execution, getting things done. HRH Sheik Rashid and HRH Sheik Mohammad have turned little known Dubai into a breathtaking display of the impossible made possible. Dubai is the single greatest act of vision, drive and charismatic, hands on leadership, one of pure imagination. Visionary leadership combined with Excellence in Execution is; Deepest “Blue Ocean”.

When we challenge, really challenge ourselves, it will be our mistakes which inform a new, different and better futures. Our job is to encourage staff to commit to trying new ideas, bringing new learning dimensions to our students, we must continually motivate and consistently support them, to celebrate excellent failures. Then to offer to pick them up, to help them to improve and to try again, to offer the opportunity to succeed in a culture where we reward excellence and challenge mediocrity. In summary we need to make better mistakes.

We are already transforming our learning cultures: the value recognition and support for individual differences and the growth potential for our students and staff have been areas of growing focus. Increasing personalization and assessment for learning techniques are facilitating enhanced learning styles are now embedded in our day to day activity. We continue to change the way we do things, growing our capacity to seek, research, critically assess and continually incorporate best practice within and across our schools.

Across our schools we want our staff and students to have great experiences, offering added value and striving to make a difference. At best schools should be an emotional, vital, innovative, joyful, creative, entrepreneurial endeavor that elicits maximum concerted human potential in the wholehearted service of young people. Within this context every member of the school community is free to do his or her absolute best and to discover their own greatness.

To achieve this we need to acknowledge that a bias for action is essential and we need to develop a can do culture where leadership matters, energy matters and tempo matters, so let’s hustle! We can ride the value added curve to the sky but to do so we need to distribute leadership, energise, listen, challenge, and grow excellence in an environment where every one is a leader, where schools are great places to be and work! As we continually strive for excellence and continually redefine success we create an, ‘excellence always’, culture to the benefit of every student and member of staff. Deep “Blue Ocean!”

References
Blue Ocean Strategy: W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
Guy Claxton
Dryden and Vos
TomPeters.com