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What are you appointing? A brand manager or a kids head teacher?

14th October 2007 By Rick Waghorn Leave a Comment

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In fairness, I'm in no real position to offer anyone any advice about job interviews.

I've only had two in the last 15 years. And the second job interview I failed. More worryingly still, the interview I failed was for my own job.

So as the Canary board spend this weekend sifting through the latest list of runners and riders for the small and unimportant vacancy in their midst, I suspect that there is very little that I can offer by way of advice.

And like I said, with my dubious track record in such regard, any advice is probably best ignored.

The one person in this family, however, who has had recent experience on the job interview front is the Mrs.

And her experiences are, for me at least, rather more pertinent to the biggest, single appointment that the board of Norwich City Football Club are ever likely to make as they stare down the barrel of a League One gun ahead of this week's Annual General Meeting.

Because as anyone will ever tell you, one of the biggest appointments anyone can make in a small village-cum-town the size of Loddon is that of the local school's new headmaster-stroke-headmistress.

In small schools, that one individual sets the whole tone; from them flows so much in terms of the school's performance and results. They have, after all, your kids' lives in their hands; to them you entrust their happiness; their well-being; their safety.

Get it wrong, and just as the board of Norwich City Football Club will find the whole Yellow and Green Army getting on your case big-style, so any school's governing body will find the playground parent army with a few questions they'd like to put… And some of them don't take many prisoners, either.

At which point – for those well-versed in Loddon schools – let's just make it clear that the appointment process I watched unfold at first-hand was for the new head teacher at the Infant and Nursery School, not the Junior. That's a whole different can of worms.

We digress. Appointing a head teacher in a small village school is a big deal. And for the parent and community governors involved, it is a very big deal – one that most of them, I suspect, quietly dread having to do 'on their watch'.

But it happens. As it did last summer.

What was fascinating was the way in which they approached it. Or rather, one particular aspect of it.

Because after all the usual sifting of candidates' initial cvs, the interviews and the mock tests, so they would all break for lunch and the final stage candidates would be invited to join the pupils in the dining hall. And then to wander around the playground. To mix and mingle with the kids.

They are, after all, the people who will dominate the daily life of the new headteacher. It will be on their performance, their happiness and their results that the school itself will be ultimately judged in the endless list of 'league tables' that follows every five-year-old in his or her journey through their educational lives.

How the head teacher mixes and mingles with the board of governors is of less relevance. They only meet once a month.

Of course, for the watching governing board that lunch-time session with the kids was just as much as part of the 'interview' process as how any in-comig head would allocate his financial resources, who he or she knew at the education authority, etc, etc…

Can they relate to the kids? Can they talk to the kids in a way that the kids understand? In a way that the kids respond to? Can they inspire those kids to over-achieve? If they give them a simple job to do, would they know and understand what that job is?

To me, that process is wholly relevant to what is about to unfold in front of the Norwich City board.

Because that's what your appointing – someone to run a kids school. Not someone to run the marketing department of Central Trust or become business development manager of DeliaOnline.

The rules of the interview 'game' do not apply; yes, they've got to be able to communicate with the board; to have certain aspects of what you look for in a modern man manager.

But the success or failure of this managerial appointment depends far, far more on how they get on with the Chris Martins and Michael Spillanes of this world – and if you don't think a professional dressing room isn't full of big kids then you've never met a professional footballer – than it ever does getting on with you, the board members.

So rather than entrusting your reputation and someone else's football club to what a recruitment consultancy tells you should be looking for – and they'll even give you the computer print-outs to tell you who is 'a leader of men' – why not follow the example of Loddon Infants, and watch how your own head teacher works with the kids?

How do you do it? Easy. You tell each final candidates to leave their files full of copious notes behind – instead, pack their boots and training tops.

You get Ricky Martin to get a mini-bus full of his 16-year-olds together, find a park pitch in West London somewhere and for half an hour watch your new manager put on a training session with the kids.

Because, as we all knows, kids can judge a person in an instant. In their own minds, they instinctively know whether they 'click' or not with the adult in their midst.

And that's what you need to look for – with your own eyes. Do the kids 'get' them? Do they respond? Do they respect? Do they listen? Do they understand? Do they take pride in their performance? Do they want to do well?

Because the future prosperity of Norwich City Football Club, by and large, lies in the likes of Spillane, Martin, Lewis, Jarvis, Cave-Brown and Rudd finding inspiration from their 'head teacher'.

Big stick Ron Saunders-style doesn't work with 21st Century kids; shout too loudly and they'll just turn their i-Pod volume up. Or retreat to their PlayStation.

Being able to talk to board directors means very little. Being able to talk to bored teenagers means absolutely everything.

Get the next manager of Norwich City Football Club out, kicking a ball about in a local park with the next generation of Canary Academy kids is, to my mind, probably the best 'interview' you can ever give.

Beats answering questions from a computer, that's for sure…


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Filed Under: Column, Rick Waghorn

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richardjsmith1 Richard Lain-Smith 💛💚 @richardjsmith1 ·
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Fantastic!

I hope @NorwichCityFC have invited them to be guests of honour at the game v Sheff Utd. & introduce them to the crowd.

Would be great to see them have a kick about on the pitch. #NCFC

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claredawn9 Clare @claredawn9 ·
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What about the other 25 or so k #ncfc fans? Where are you? Where are you? You know the rest!!!

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Premier League players past and present look back on non league spells with pride - https://fanbanter.co.uk/premier-league-players-past-and-present-look-back-on-non-league-spells-with-pride/

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#ncfc columnist @EdwardSeaman94 says the strikers need to rediscover their form in front of goal
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