Palvinder Singh, CEO and Principal at Kirklees College in Huddersfield, talks about his personal journey to leadership, and how continuous professional development (CPD) for leaders permeates downwards, positively impacting the whole organisation.
It wasn’t by design. I wanted to contribute to improving student experiences of learning and, through this, contribute to the broader community. In my faith, we have a term – Seva – which describes service to others. I’m always driven by equity, and fairness for all. There is no better place to work than in education if you want to contribute to social mobility. Within education, you have the opportunity to influence, and to transform lives and generations.
In terms of my own career, I was a head of department, then progressed through the senior leadership team, working in a number of colleges. I then realised I could apply to become Principal, and that’s how I got to be in this role.
Leaders at Kirklees College have taken part in various 51³Ô¹Ï¹ÙÍø leadership programmes including Leading from the Middle and Preparing for CEO. I’ve attended the Further Education Strategic Leadership Programme (FESLP) for Principals and CEOs. One of the most important frameworks covered in that leadership course was values, and how they are the glue that holds an organisation together.
Embedding our values has been something I’ve led on at Kirklees. Our success in working together across a multi-site college under three common values – kindness, unity and excellence – was recognised as a key aspect that we do well in our latest Ofsted report. Receiving a ‘Good’ Ofsted rating for Kirklees has been one of the proudest moments of my career. I’m most proud of working with people who share those college values, and who make such a contribution to the communities we serve. That core focus on values is probably one of the biggest things that the 51³Ô¹Ï¹ÙÍø’s programmes have given me and my organisation.
Beyond the importance of values, two other main components of the FESLP stood out to me. The first was adaptive leadership, and our need to address challenges that are complex and difficult to identify that haven’t been addressed because we spend so much time in the technical space. The concept of adaptive leadership was eye-opening and useful in highlighting how we address systemic issues that require multi-layered, joint working – not just across an organisation, but across the whole system.
Another key learning for me was around the power of doubt. We looked at compelling international research demonstrating how you use the power of doubt to help make progress. Brené Brown’s work in this space is incredible, and the focus on this area gives me a lot of hope and optimism for future leadership, not just within the UK, but across the world.
I believe culture is set at the top of the organisation and permeates downwards. Personally, I don’t think of myself as Principal or CEO – I see myself as a student, first and foremost. I’m an FE learner – all of us who work in education are learners. Learning about yourself is so important in the journey of learning – and CPD is critically important for us all. This is especially true in today’s context, where we’re seeing the fourth industrial revolution of the digitised information age.
I think the 51³Ô¹Ï¹ÙÍø has played such an important role in improving further education within the country. I’ve gone from doing the leadership Preparing for CEO programme to doing the 51³Ô¹Ï¹ÙÍø’s programme for CEOs, and it’s helped me understand who I am. Unpacking the values of kindness – starting with compassion and transparency towards yourself first – is something that the leadership programmes have really supported.
For more information on the 51³Ô¹Ï¹ÙÍø’s leadership development programmes, funded by the Department for Education, visit our leadership webpage.