The Great Unbossing

Unbossing redefines school leadership, promoting autonomy, collaboration, and innovation to combat burnout.

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Education systems all over the world are undergoing a tectonic shift vis-a-vis space and liberty provided to educators and learners.

The traditional authoritarian model of management has become disturbingly incapacitated to chase the demands of a rapidly evolving world. Schools are proverbially known for their strict and fastidious management.

The objective of school management is confined to policing and micromanaging teachers by depriving them of self-governance.

The term 'Unbossing', popularised by Lars Kolind and Jacob Botter in their book Unboss, says that leaders must act more as facilitators and mentors than as authoritarian figures.

Unbossing redefines leadership as the guardian of a culture of trust, collaboration and shared accountability.

It nurtures teal consciousness that tends to live life from possibilities rather than fears and to value co-creativity, which requires personal autonomy and personal responsibility. 

The modern concept of unbossed management, which stipulates decentralising authority, shows a promising pathway to reform our education sector.

Unbossing means shifting from a command-and-control model to one that prioritises inclusivity, autonomy and innovation at the micro level.

It dilutes the polarisation rife in schools between management and teachers as it challenges the conventional notion of administrators as Orwellian Big Brothers.

Unbossing would create holacratic environments where teachers, students and other stakeholders are empowered to lead, innovate and co-create.

Our education system, with its hierarchical command and control and outdated pedagogies, lags far behind in preparing students for the challenges of the modern world.

In boss-centric educational institutions, decision-making is siloed, excluding teachers, students and even parents from discussions that directly impact them, leading to en masse disengagement and dissatisfaction.

Unbossing can empower teachers to innovate, tailor teaching strategies to their students' needs and take ownership of their classrooms.

The rule of thumb is the degree of teacher professionalism in a school is directly related to the professional orientation of principals in their wielding of administrative authority, particularly in extending adaptive discretion to teachers in the conduct of their work.

Our schools are the best illustrations of Jeremy Bentham's panopticons.

The basic setup of Bentham’s panopticon is this: there is a central tower surrounded by cells.

In the central tower is the watchman. In the cells are prisoners – or workers, or children, depending on the use of the building.

The tower shines bright light so that the watchman is able to see everyone in the cells. The people in the cells, however, aren’t able to see the watchman, and therefore have to assume that they are always bossed.

As a consequence, the inmate polices himself for fear of punishment.

The sociological effect is that the authority changes from being a limited physical entity to being an internalised omniscience, which promotes conformity – the silent killer of creativity. 

Coercing people to work harder, longer and faster actually results in mistakes, burnout and absenteeism; productivity and engagement plummet eventually.

Contrarily, human sustainability presupposes creating value in all aspects of people’s lives: physical, mental, emotional, financial and purposeful.

Low engagement means low morale, which snowballs into low productivity, ineffectiveness and hence inefficiency.

Unbossing integrates purpose, values and behaviours into the rules and regulations in a way that we know we’re serving, not just what’s in it for the system, but also what’s in it for us.

Unbossed workers believe they are not only serving the system’s agenda but also reaping personal rewards that are aligned with their own values and ambitions.

Our leadership style is predominantly transactional. Riveted on rigid structures, task monitoring and rewarding compliance, transactional leadership is inadequate for innovation and flexibility.
 

To reengage teachers and relieve them of burnout in this era of The Great Unbossing, we need to think outside the box or, in today’s terms, think outside the bosses.