Effective Leader-Led Relations

Many of the documents in this series are prepublication/preprint articles, which may subsequently appear (part or whole) in peer reviewed journals and books. In most cases they are draft documents, the purpose of which is to foster discussion and debate, prior to publication elsewhere, whilst ideas are still fresh. Further information about the research programme and other papers in this series can also be found at the following websites: Citation notice Citation should conform to normal academic standards. Please use the reference provided or, where a paper has entered into print elsewhere, use normal journal/book citation conventions. is owned by Inspire Learning Ltd, from whom permission should be sought before any materials are reproduced. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission, provided that full acknowledgement is given. Executive Summary* This final working paper from the 'effective leader-led relations' project summarises the key findings and recommendations from the research. In particular, it outlines: A brief overview of five central research findings: the vital importance of leadership, high staff motivation, leadership challenges, multiple community engagements and blended leadership. Ten recommendations that are informed by these research findings. This research project was specifically designed to feed ideas back into the post-16 sector about how to enhance leadership processes. An additional case study on blended leadership. A primary focus of our research is its examination of staff's perceptions of what constitutes effective leadership in the post-16 sector. This in turn reveals employees' preference for (what we term) 'blended leadership'. This theme is elaborated in the appendix of this paper, where we present a further case of blended leadership in action within the FE sector. *We are very grateful to all those in the learning and skills sector who have generously provided their time to outline their experience and views on key issues surrounding effective leader-led relations in the post-16 education sector. The researchers would also like to acknowledge the funding of this project by The Department of Education and Skills via The Centre For Excellence in Leadership.