A new model for talent management in schools

This presentation was given virtually at the COBIS Leadership Conference on Sunday 8th May 2022. It offers a new model for talent management in schools, which reflects the changing world of careers having shifted from 'jobs for life' to 'portfolio careers'. The presentation proposes a 'tour of duty' model of mutually beneficial short term commitments between schools and individuals. 

 

What School Sport teaches young people (especially girls).

The Value of School Sport

Independent Schools devote a significant proportion of the curriculum to sport; indeed, here at Berkhamsted pupils spend more time at Key Stage 3 each week playing games than they do learning mathematics. We do this because we believe that sport has true educational value. 

Hilary Levey Friedman, in her book Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture, identifies five ways in which sport develops important transferable skills:

1. Sport internalizes the importance of winning;
2. Sport helps young people to learn how to bounce back from a loss to win in the future;
3. Sport teaches the importance of performing within time limits;
4. Sport helps young people to learn how to succeed in stressful situations;
5. Sport teaches the importance of being able to perform under the gaze of others.

Girls, Sport, Success, Self-esteem and Body Image

A study by the Women's Sports Foundation (in the USA) found that:

1. High school girls who play sports are more likely to get better grades in school and more likely to graduate than girls who do not play sports. 
2. Girls and women who play sports have higher levels of confidence and self-esteem and lower levels of depression. 
3. Girls and women who play sports have a more positive body image and experience higher states of psychological well-being than girls and women who do not play sports. 

Girls, Sport and later Business Success

A survey of top women business executives published by the Oppenheimer Foundation in February 2013 discovered that 81% of top women business executives played organized team sports growing up.

When asked how playing team sport contributed to their business, they commented that,

1. Sport developed leadership skills, 
2. Sported engendered greater discipline, 
3. Sport developed the ability to function as part of a team

A final thought . . . 
One of the most important aspects of School Sport is the camaraderie that it brings. When Old Boys and Old Girls come back to school more often than not they end up reminiscing about their sporting triumphs. It was a great privilege a forthnight ago to sit between two 95 year-old Berkhamstedians at a special lunch. It was not long before they were talking about their days in the First XV - one played Full-back and the other Lock - and that was some 77 years ago, but just like yesterday to them!

References and Further Reading:

• Hilary Levey Friedman, Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture (September 2013)
• Hilary Levey Friedman, 'Do Your Kids Need More Competitive Capital?'  Harvard Business Review Blog 03/09/2013
• 'Benefits - Why Sports Participation for Girls and Women' Womens Sports Foundation
• 'Successful Women Business Executives Don't Just Talk a Good Game... They Play(ed) One'  Oppenheimer Foundation Report: (February 2013)

Advice to Young People

The following video was shown to the sixth form in assembly this week. It makes you think . . . . .



Lyrics of Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience . . . I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind;
you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.

But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.
You’re not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you.

Sing

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind . . . the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life . . . the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary . . . what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever
own . . .

Dance . . . even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen . . .

How do high achieving "Super People" stand out from the crowd?

Travelling back from a day in London, I enjoyed reading an interesting feature article in yesterday's Evening Standard on "Super People".

Super People "have got qualifications coming out of their ears, speak lots of languages and have been 'prepped' for success by the experts, and are set on landing the very top jobs."

The article explores what it takes for the very best to be literally "outstanding". With competition fiercer than ever for places at top universities and for jobs in top firms, how does one "stand out" from the crowd in a world where so many people get top grades? The simple answer is that they have to shine elsewhere, be that in the skills that they have [languages etc] or in what other things that they have achieved.  The article outlines how coaches can 'prep' Supers so that they can build a CV that will enable them to get the top university place/ job.

However, there is a sting in the tail here - the danger is that such an approach is artificial, not grounded and even counter-productive. As one executive coach candidly admitted,

"the biggest problem with Supers is that they only care about one person - the hospital that they helped build in Africa actually to build their own résumé. The charity work is for them, not for the people they claim they are serving."

11 things that Young People don’t learn in school, but need to know about life.

Adapted from the American for an English Audience:

1. Life is not fair - get used to it!


2. The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.


3. You will NOT earn £60,000 a year right out of University. You won't be a vice-president with a company car and a mobile phone until you earn both.


4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss


5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: They called it opportunity.


6. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.


7. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest and set about cleaning up the planet from the mess your parent's generation have made, try tidying up your own bedroom first.


8. Some schools may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. The examination system may allow you retake exam modules as many times as you want to ensure you get the top grade. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.


9. Life is not divided into terms. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.


10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to work.


11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

[Extract from Speech to Berkhamsted School Upper Sixth Leavers - Vale 05/07/11]

These 11 things have circulated on the Web purporting to be a speech that Bill Gates gave to High School Leavers - this is an urban myth. The rules are an abridged version of an original piece that was penned by author Charles J. Sykes' 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School

Careers - what it takes to be the best of the best.

I recently was given the opportunity to spend a day with the top executives responsible for Talent Management at Novartis at their Campus of Innovation, Knowledge and Encounter in Basel. I was part of a group of educationalists who are concerned about the growing dislocation of education and the world of work. Our aim was to gain a better understanding of the needs of business , industry and the professions so that we can prepare young people better for their future careers.

Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and has the value and turn-over the size of a small country. Their continued profitability depends on developing new drugs and medicines each year to replace those that are going out of patent. Novartis' success relies on attracting and developing the best talent in the world - how they do that is a lesson to us all . . . . .

A few thoughts on what it takes to be the best of the best:

1. A degree is not the end of a young person's education.
   A BA or BSc is just the starting point, every sixth former should expect to go on to study for a higher degree [MA or MSc], an MBA or for a professional qualification [Law - LLB, Banking - CFA, Accountancy - ACA, Teaching PGCE, etc.]. Novartis recruit the majority of their top 400 executives from the premier MBA programmes around the world.
2. Young people are competing in a world employment market.
   Being the best in the UK is not necessarily going to take you to the top - there are many extremely talented people out there who are hungry for success. Novartis actively set out to attract a diversity of talent from around the world.
3. Leading firms remunerate extremely well, but don't expect a work-life balance if you want to get to the top
   Novartis openly talk about a "work-life integration", rather than a "work-life balance." They provide restaurants, a supermarket and a post-office onsite so that you don't have to leave early.
4. Top firms are not just concerned with results, but also on how one treats other people.
   Top firms are not just concerned that individuals meet their targets, but they are also concerned that they develop their teams and treat people well. This makes business sense because a poor manager is often the cause for talent to leave the firm. Novartis pay their bonuses according to the following matrix:

So what skills are firms like Novartis looking for?

1. Agility - the ability to apply what you have learned to a new situation - be that in a different division of the firm or in a different culture or part of the world.
2. Ability to collaborate - an attitude of tolerance and the ability to draw out the best in others. This requires a significant degree of self-awareness.
3. Ability to manage horizontally - Novartis recognise that the new generation doesn't like hierarchy and key leaders will need to manage on a "more flat matrix"
4. Soft Skills - particularly good communication skills and languages

"Girls can have it all - but not all at once"

It is a great privilege, as a man, to be a member of the Girls' School Association. It is rare that a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, middle-aged, middle-class male finds himself in a minority, but that is my lot this week at the GSA conference in Harrogate. It is a privilege because GSA is one of the few places where educated eloquent women meet together on a national stage and discuss an agenda that unashamedly revolves around the education of girls and the place of women in society. Few men are given the opportunity to be a part of such an event. As with the coverage of women's sport in the back pages, the national press shy away from an informed debate about the thorny issue of the place of women in society and the question of balancing careers and family. The danger here is of parody - this is a debate that is easy to caricature or to polarise.

Thus Jill Berry, the President of the GSA is to be congratulated on having the courage to use her annual address to open up this important debate. It is a debate that we need to have in society; and the GSA conference is a fitting place for that debate to start. The debate has moved on from breaking "glass ceilings" - it is about preparing young women to exercise choice:

"We need to educate our girls so if they choose to be working mothers they need to get a grip on their guilt. If they choose not to work and to stay at home with their children, at least for a period of time, they shouldn't feel guilty. If they choose not to have children at all, they shouldn't feel guilt. If they find they are unable to have children, that's also something we need to educate them to be able to handle. That's what I wish for the girls we are educating."

Jill Berry, Presidential Address, 16/11/09

The GSA debate is informed all the more because most of the Heads themselves have faced those very choices and dilemmas themselves. These are very real choices. Each professional woman has to face those decisions, and schools have the responsibility to find a range of role models for girls to help them determine their own future.

I was very impressed a couple of months ago to meet an old girl of my school who had grappled with these very decisions. Her problem was that her professional work took up so much of her life that she didn't even have time to meet someone with whom to settle down. I listened in awe to her solution as she expounded how she and her friends, having worked in blue chip firms for fifteen or so years, were all setting up their own firms so that they could retake control of their lives and find the time to regain a work-life balance. It seemed to be working for her - three years on she had just got married and the business was going well. What struck me most was how what had been a problem had become a catalyst for a life-changing career move - that's what I call entrepreneurial.

Press Reports [not all accurately reported!]:

• Girls ‘must be taught risks of juggling career and motherhood’ Times Online 14/11/09
  
• Can girls have a career AND babies? No, and they shouldn't feel guilty, says leading headmistress Daily Mail 14/11/09
• Girls shouldn't expect to 'have it all' says school head Independent 13/11/09
• Having it all 'not realistic' BBC News 13/11/09
• Is it possible for an attractive, fashion-conscious girl to be taken seriously? DT 16/11/09
• 'You can be beautiful and still be a feminist' Independent 16/11/09
• Fashion not a betrayal of feminist ideals, says leading headteacher 16/11/09
• Make-up and attractive clothes don't make girls bimbos, insists headmistress 16/11/09
  

The Challenge of the marketplace in Global Recruitment

"There are more A* outstanding pupils in China than there are pupils in the UK."

I spent yesterday afternoon at Goldman Sachs' London HQ discussing the challenges that will face school leavers in 2018. During our wide-ranging discussion it struck me like it had never struck me before, what it means to be preparing young people for a Global Economy.

The danger with the British university entrance system, with separate quotas being offered to UK and overseas pupils, is that it gives the impression to our school leavers that they are only competing with fellow UK pupils for places - but, when it comes to getting a top job this is not the case. Top firms, such as Goldman Sachs, are looking to recruit, not just the cream of British crop, but the best talent in the world - recruitment has gone global!

In many ways Independent Schools have nothing to fear - we offer the best education in the world - but is that enough?

Pupils from Independent Schools have considerable advantages over their overseas competitors in that they have relatively easy access to UK universities. However, the scale of numbers and talent in China and India, and the hunger and drive of pupils from Eastern Europe pose a huge challenge to our students when competing for the world's top jobs.