Free Success Profiling Tutorial: Clearly Articulate Expectations for Success
Here is an example of a Position Description for a Head of Faculty role:
The Head of Faculty is responsible and accountable for creating a collaborative and caring team environment leading to the development of creative, enthusiastic, confident teachers who will take action in an ever-changing environment.
This is an example drawn from a school that had the following expectations for their Head of Faculty:
Instill a commitment to professional learning that supports the team,
Be able to build consensus among the team on a vision and purpose that senior leadership will support, and
Develop their own leadership capability by developing and maintaining relationships within and outside the team.
This position description serves as an executive summary for the Success Profile that explicitly details the behaviours, dispositions and experience leaders must demonstrate to realize the outcome stated in the position description. Below is a 3-step process for creating a Success Profile for leaders, adapted from my Book Study Course, and includes a 2-minute video tutorial. Completing these activities will ensure you can clearly define how middle leaders can succeed in their roles.
Start with the Position Description
The objective for this activity is to help you draft a Success Profile for your leadership role. At the top of a Success Profile is the position description, so let’s start by drafting yours. You will need to reflect on your leadership role or the role that you aspire to, as a lens through which to answer each question below.
Answer each question for each dimension (Team, Outcome, and Capability) and then combine your 3 answers into 1 sentence. Once you have drafted a sentence summarizing your 3 answers for each dimension, you will need to draft a 2-3 sentence job description that incorporates the responses for all 3 dimensions.
3 Dimensional Selection Criteria
Team
How familiar are the team members with one another?
What are each team member's primary professional interest and need for the team?
Can they demonstrate how they are invested in the results of each other’s students?
Answer each question and draft a single sentence that explains the challenges and/or opportunities for this team to work interdependently.
Outcome
What outcome does the school need this team to achieve?
What past outcomes has this team achieved?
Do the team’s needs align with the school’s? Explain why or why not.
Answer each question and draft a single sentence that explains what outcome the team must achieve and what obstacles it must overcome to achieve that outcome.
Capability
What behaviors and skills does this team need to demonstrate to foster greater interdependence?
What beliefs, attitudes, or opinions does this team need to develop to achieve it’s expected outcome?
What experience, knowledge and skills does this team need to achieve it’s expected outcome?
Answer each question and draft a single sentence that outlines what the team needs to learn or rely on to achieve it’s expected outcome.
Identify the Key Behaviours, Dispositions and Experience required to be successful in the role
After you have taken the 3 sentences above and consolidated them into a clear and compelling position description, answer the question in each section below by identifying a behaviour, a disposition, and experience for each of the 3 Dimensions, Team, Outcome, and Capability. The final answer for each section should include 3 explicit examples for how to be successful relative to each Dimension. At the bottom of this activity guide is an example of a Success Profile andhow these answers are incorporated into it.
Job Challenge / Experience
To thrive in your school culture, what does the middle leader need to do?
Knowledge
What does the middle leader need to know before they begin leading the team?
Leadership Behaviors
What leadership behaviors does the middle leader need to demonstrate to lead effectively?
Personal Style
What personal behaviors does the middle leader need to exhibit to thrive in the team/school culture?
Create your Success Profile
Now you are ready to put your Success Profile together.
Below, I provide a sample of a Success Profile, something that I feel takes the job description to a whole other dimension, or to be more precise, the three dimensions. Use the answers from the two previous activities to create a Success Profile for your role or the role you aspire to.
Please try to identify for each of the 4 sections in my example below how I have identified relevant behaviours, dispositions or experience for each of the 3 Dimensions (Team, Outcome, Capability) based on the example for the Head of Faculty position description.
