ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 concludes the section by exploring the innovative approaches of “experiential learning” and the writing of personal narratives as a means of enabling school leaders to reflect upon their experiences and enhance their leadership development and effectiveness. Drawing on his extensive experience of senior leadership development in the corporate world, Ben Bryant suggests that headteachers and school principals have much in common with chief executive officers (CEOs) and senior executives in the corporate world because of the responsibilities of their roles and the expectations of certainty and clarity that are placed on them. He argues that, although educators have understood the importance of experiential learning more than other sectors—applying it increasingly to many areas of the school curriculum—rarely do they apply experiential learning approaches to their own leadership development. Senior executives tend to miss opportunities to learn because they become defensive and stuck in their role. He argues that although opportunities for learning in senior executive roles in both corporate and academic settings are ubiquitous, the opportunity to learn from that experience is often not taken up. If it is, it frequently takes the form of shallow clichés and unhelpful generalizations about what makes a successful leader. Drawing on case studies of executive learning by three senior executives, he demonstrates how it is possible for senior leaders to sustain their learning through in-depth exploration and making sense of their experiences. His research shows that executives can enable and sustain their learning through a combination of personal narrative writing and dialogue. The narratives in particular are a vehicle to help executives get in touch with the more visceral (rather than intellectual) experience of leadership while the dialogues are helpful for deeper sense-making.
