By Dr. Jack McKay
Testimonials
As a first-year superintendent, I found the advice presented in this book to help build stronger relations with the school board, particularly the chapter on Board Meetings and Protocols, to be practical, logical, and helpful. The information is laid out in a way that helps develop consistent planning routines and the building blocks for a strong superintendent-board relationship. This book is a great resource for new superintendents to make sure they start strong as they learn about their job, district, and community. by Troy Tornow, Ellensburg School District (WA)
The “Good to Great: Superintendent’s Career” provides readers with valuable information to consider when considering the ultimate position of leadership in schools. The information about communication, planning, and politics are very useful. By Dr. Larry Dlugosh, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (NE)
Dr. Jack McKay appears to be a prominent figure who brings together his wealth of leadership experience and a vast network of school leaders from across the nation to offer comprehensive guidance and support to both experienced and aspiring superintendents. His focus is on helping these educational leaders develop and enhance their leadership skills and capabilities within the context of the education system. This type of mentorship and support can be invaluable in fostering effective leadership and improving the quality of education in schools. Dr. Brian Benzel, former Spokane School District (WA)
The Superintendent’s Journey: Good to Great is a must-read for current or aspiring educational leaders. The concepts and skills covered are relevant, timely, and practical. As a 17-year veteran superintendent, I walked away with a new appreciation for what I was living every day and better intentionality to improve my leadership. In easy-to-read nuggets, this book is a gem. Jeanne Collins Deweese. Former superintendent, Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union (VT)
Dr. Jack McKay writes from experience as well as research. He has been “through the chairs” as a teacher, principal, superintendent, and professor in his distinguished career. In this highly readable book, he presents a guide to success in leadership with a focus on the superintendency. It is an anthology, a presentation of organizing principles, a guide to essential actions, and a sharing of his thinking informed by his experience and research. It can rightly be called a “primer on the superintendency”. Whether an experienced leader, a neophyte or one thinking about and preparing for the superintendency, this book with a focus on the essentials of leadership by one who has been there deserves your time and attention. Dr. Rodney Hermes, former superintendent of rural, suburban, urban, and international schools
Table of Content
Introduction 10
Part One: Leadership 13
You Know It When You See It – Leadership 13
Defining Leadership 17
Leadership Definitions by Major Authors 20
Leadership, Like Beauty, is Hard to Describe. 25
Common Theories of Leadership? 32
Leadership Theories and Styles 40
Differences between Leadership and Management 41
Leadership Styles: Benefits, and Shortcomings 43
The Power and Pitfalls of Charisma 50
What is Level Five Leadership? 52
Change Agent or Collaborative Leader 54
Leadership Knowledge and Skills 58
What Stands in the Way Becomes the Way 63
The Biggest Lies Leaders Believe 65
Characteristics of a Leader for the Future. 67
Leadership Transition to Being Responsible 70
Seven Stages of the Leadership 73
Competence and Confidence 79
Five Variables for Success 82
The Unintended Consequences of Power 84
Why Would You Want to Be a Leader? 86
Part Two: Leadership and the Superintendent 89
Six Statements of Every Profession 89
Characteristics of Today’s Superintendent 92
Why Would an Educator Want to be a Superintendent? 94
Analogies – The Board and the Superintendent 99
Career Phases of the School Superintendent 107
Tenacity with Grit and the Superintendence 109
Stay Close to the Culture of the Community 111
Characteristics of the Successful Superintendent 114
Leading the District’s Financial Responsibilities 116
The Imposter Syndrome 127
Behaviors that Hurt Your Career 131
Coming Up Short of Grand Expectations. 138
The Crisis of Making a Hiring Mistake 141
Strategies for Resolving Disputes 145
Why is There a Need for Creating Hope 148
Success as a School Leader 149
Part Three: The Communications Plan 153
The Theories of Communication 153
The Importance of Your Communications 156
Eleven Tips for Improving Your Presentations 159
The Ideal Way to Prepare a Great Speech 160
Seven Tips for Powerful Sit-Down Presentations 163
Characteristics of an Influential Speaker 166
Presentations to the School Board 167
Becoming an Effective Persuader 168
Part Four: The Importance of Meetings 178
The Agenda for an Effective Meeting 178
The Huddle: An Alternative 182
Five Tricks to Maximizing Meetings 187
Six Ways to Improve Virtual Meetings 190
Minutes at a Board Meeting 193
School Board Meeting and Protocols 198
Part Five: The Plans, Decisions, Changes, and Politics 207
The Six-Month Plan 207
Options When Decisions Are Needed 214
Making Changes Immediately 218
A Solid Transition Process 222
The Superintendence and Politics 228
The Art of Decision-Making 231
Leadership Traps in Decision-Making 236
Approaches to Leading Organizational Change 244
Leading Change in a School District 247
Why Do Change Efforts Fail? 251
Ten Ways Great Leaders Make Changes 261
Part Six: The Superintendent’s Career 264
The Search Process 264
The Application Letter 264
Observations of a Search Consultant 282
Reversing the Interview Process – Questions 285
Be Prepared for Your Next Interview 290
The Job Interview Answers 295
Signals in the Life of the Superintendent 302
Responding to the Signals 307
Why School Superintendents Get Dismissed 315
The Successful School Superintendent 317
About the Author 319
References 321
Attachments 326
The Patron’s Tour 326
The Key Communicator Network 331
The Theories of Learning 338
Wasted Meeting Time Index 344
The 101 Leadership Axioms and Quotes 348
The New Superintendent’s Rating Form 377
Calculation of a Wasted Meeting Time 387
Introduction
The role of the school superintendent is one of the most crucial positions in the education system. As the top executive of a school district, the superintendent is responsible for providing strategic leadership, managing resources, and ensuring students’ academic success.
In recent years, the demands and expectations placed on school superintendents have increased significantly. In addition to traditional responsibilities, superintendents are now expected to be effective communicators, community builders, and change agents.
Leadership is a critical component of the superintendent’s role. Effective leadership can inspire and motivate staff, students, and the community, improving academic outcomes and increasing community support. However, leadership is a more than one-size-fits-all approach, and different leadership styles may be more effective in certain situations.
This guide will explore leadership’s role in the school superintendent’s context. It will examine the skills, competencies, and characteristics that effective superintendents need and explore the different leadership styles that can be used to achieve success. We will also explore the challenges that superintendents face in their roles and provide strategies and insights for overcoming them.
This guide is a practical approach for aspiring and current superintendents, professors, and school board members. Through theories to application and practical advice, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the critical role of leadership in the superintendent’s position and how it can be leveraged to achieve success.
This book contains six parts, each containing ideas and suggestions on how an aspiring and veteran school leader might follow. Obviously, there are more sections and topics to highlight, but if these critical components are understood and practiced, you are on the right path. The six sections are: (1) the Definition of Leadership, (2) the Superintendence and Leadership, (3) the Communications Plan, (4) the Importance of Meetings, (5) Decision-Making and Changes, and (6) the Superintendent’s Career. The last part of the guide is a collection of activities proven to be ways to broaden the path to a rewarding career.
Special Thanks to Contributors:
Dr. Brian Benzel
Dr. Martha Bruckner
Mrs. Jeanne Collins Deweese
Dr. Larry Dlugosh
Dr. John Erickson
Dr. Charles Fowler
Dr. Terry Grier
Dr. Jinger Haberer
Dr. Rodney Hermes
Dr. Frank Hewins
Mr. Kevin McKay
Dr. Larry Nyland
Dr. Douglas Otto
Dr. Dennis Ray
Dr. Kevin Riley
Dr. Gene Sharratt
Dr. Art Stellar
Dr. John Sweet
Mr. Troy Tornow
Part One: Leadership
“A leader is a dealer in hope.” — Napoleon Bonaparte.
You Know It When You See It – Leadership
During my graduate studies and as a coach, principal, superintendent, and professor teaching aspiring school leaders, I thought I had all the answers, particularly about leadership. I practiced some techniques, but it was more intuitive than purposeful. Leadership was more of a natural habit, but until I was at the district level of leadership, did I fully appreciate the skills necessary to be effective at helping others on the team be more effective? Looking back, I led by a “hit or miss” style. At times, I was on the mark; at other times; I made things worse for the team and myself.
As a novice at understanding the nuances of leading, “Experience is a dear teacher,” but there must be a more effective way to be better prepared to learn and lead. Possibly pulling together some of my thoughts, sharing some purposeful research by others, and then organizing these ideas in a format that might help others not learn the hard way. So, that is my primary reason for this book. I will be presenting some stories about my career. I hope that some will resonate with you and your career as an educational leader.
Beauty and Leadership
Often, a person might compare a beautiful person to a leader. Both are easy to recognize but hard to describe. How is a beautiful person and a good leader the same and different?
Describing beauty and leadership can be challenging since they are complex and multifaceted concepts encompassing various attributes and qualities. While they may seem unrelated on the surface, there are some interesting parallels between beauty and effective leadership:
Subjectivity: Both beauty and leadership are highly subjective. What one person finds beautiful or admirable in a leader may differ from someone else’s perspective. Beauty is often said to be in the eye of the beholder, and various individuals can similarly perceive leadership effectiveness differently.
Impactful Presence: Beautiful individuals and effective leaders tend to have a strong presence that draws attention. Beauty often commands attention through physical appearance, while effective leaders capture attention through charisma, confidence, and communication skills.
Confidence: Both beauty and leadership are associated with confidence. Beautiful people often exude self-assuredness, which can be appealing. Similarly, influential leaders exhibit confidence in their decision-making and inspire confidence in others.
Communication: Communication is a key aspect of both beauty and leadership. Beautiful individuals often have excellent non-verbal communication skills. At the same time, good leaders excel in verbal and non-verbal communication, enabling them to articulate a vision and inspire others to follow.
Charisma: Beauty and leadership often involve an element of charisma. Charismatic individuals have a magnetic appeal that draws people towards them, whether in terms of physical beauty or leadership qualities.
Influence: Both beautiful individuals and effective leaders have the potential to influence others. Beautiful people may influence perceptions and emotions, while leaders can influence decisions, actions, and outcomes.
Inspiration: Beauty and leadership can inspire others. Beautiful people may inspire admiration or desire, while effective leaders inspire others to achieve common goals and work towards a shared vision.
Resilience: Both beauty and leadership may require resilience. Beautiful individuals may face societal pressures or judgments, and effective leaders often encounter challenges and setbacks in their leadership journey.
However, Beauty is primarily related to physical appearance and aesthetics, while leadership is about influencing and guiding others toward achieving goals and creating positive change.
Moreover, effective leadership transcends physical beauty and encompasses vision, integrity, empathy, adaptability, and the ability to make tough decisions. These qualities are often more important in leadership than physical attractiveness, emphasizing that leadership is a multifaceted and dynamic concept beyond what meets the eye.
In conclusion, while beauty and leadership may have some superficial similarities regarding presence, confidence, and influence, they are fundamentally distinct concepts with different dimensions and qualities at their core. In its truest sense, leadership relies on diverse attributes and behaviors that extend well beyond physical appearance.
Summary
This chapter draws an intriguing comparison between beauty and leadership, emphasizing their subjectivity, impactful presence, confidence, communication, charisma, influence, inspiration, and resilience. However, it ultimately underscores that leadership is multifaceted, focusing on attributes such as vision, integrity, empathy, adaptability, and decision-making as the true foundations of effective leadership.
Defining Leadership
Following are ten definitions of leadership by some leading scholars in the field. Note the key elements of each definition.
“Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.” Yukl (2013). (Key elements: Process, influence, others, shared goals)
“Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.” Northouse (2019) Key elements: Process, influence, others, shared goals.
“Leadership is the influencing process between leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through change.” Lussier et al. (2016). Key elements Process, influence, others, goals (through change)
“Influencing individuals to contribute to group goals and coordinating the pursuit of those goals.” Van Vugt et al. (2008). Key elements Influence others, shared goals, process.
“Leadership is human (symbolic) communication that modifies the attitudes and behaviors of others to meet shared group goals and needs.” Johnson et al. (2018) Key elements: Process, influence, others, shared goals.
Leadership is “a process of social influence that is planned and unplanned, formal and informal, and defined as much by the leader as the follower.” Ruben et al. (2017) Key elements: Process, influence, others
“Leadership is a multi-level (person, dyad, group, collective) leader-follower interaction process that occurs in a particular situation (context) where a leader (e.g., superior, supervisor) and followers (e.g., subordinates, direct reports) share a purpose (vision, mission) and jointly accomplish things (e.g., goals, objectives, tasks) willingly (e.g., without coercion).” Yammarino (2013). Key elements: Process, context, influence (indirectly), others, shared goals
“Leadership involves multiple individuals engaged in a process of interpersonal and mutual influence that is ultimately embedded within some collective.” DeRue et al. (2010). Key elements: Process, influence, others, context.
Leadership is a social and goal-oriented influence process, unfolding in a temporal and spatial milieu.” Fischer, Dietz, and Antonakis (2017). Key elements: Process, influence, others, goals, context
Leadership is a formal or informal contextually rooted and goal-influencing process that occurs between a leader and a follower, groups of followers, or institutions.” Antonakis et al. (2018). Key elements: Process, influence, context, goals, others.
Current definitions of leadership have three common elements: (1) Process, (2) Influence, and (3) Followers.
Summary
This chapter comprehensively explores various definitions of leadership proposed by prominent scholars in the field. These definitions consistently highlight three key elements: leadership as a process, the influence of leaders, and followers’ involvement in achieving common goals.
Leadership Definitions by Major Authors
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
—Jack Welch
“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey – This classic book on personal and organizational leadership has sold millions of copies worldwide and is a must-read for anyone interested.
In “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” author Stephen Covey defines leadership as “communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.”
Covey emphasizes the importance of servant leadership, where leaders prioritize the needs of their team members and work to create an environment where people feel empowered and motivated to do their best work. He believes that effective leaders can communicate a clear sense of vision and purpose and those they inspire and motivate others to work together toward achieving that vision.
Covey also emphasizes the importance of personal leadership, where individuals take responsibility for their lives and work to cultivate the habits and behaviors necessary for success. He argues that effective leadership begins with self-awareness, self-mastery, and a deep understanding of one’s values and priorities.
Overall, Covey’s definition of leadership centers on empowering and inspiring others to achieve their full potential. He believes that effective leaders prioritize the needs of others, communicate a clear vision and purpose, and cultivate the habits and behaviors necessary for success.
“Good to Great” by Jim Collins – This book analyzes the common characteristics of companies that have gone from being good to being great and identifies key leadership traits that can help organizations achieve this transformation.
In “Good to Great,” author Jim Collins defines leadership as “a set of behaviors, not a set of personality traits.” Collins argues that great leaders are not necessarily charismatic or visionary but possess a unique combination of humility, willpower, and a fierce commitment to achieving long-term success.
He emphasizes the importance of having a clear vision and strategy and the discipline to execute that strategy over a sustained period.
Collins also emphasizes the importance of creating a culture of discipline, where individuals are empowered to take ownership of their work and hold themselves accountable to high-performance standards.
He believes that great leaders can create an environment where everyone in the organization is aligned around a common goal and people are motivated to work together to achieve that goal.
Overall, Collins’ definition of leadership centers on the idea that leadership is a set of behaviors and actions that can be developed and cultivated over time. He believes great leaders can create a culture of discipline, build a strong team, and execute on a clear and compelling vision.
“Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek – This book argues that great leaders prioritize the needs of their team members over their interests and that this selfless approach is the key to building strong and successful organizations.
Simon Sinek defines leadership as “a way of thinking, a way of acting, and, most importantly, a way of communicating.”
Sinek argues that true leadership is about putting the needs of others before your own and creating a culture where people feel safe, supported, and inspired to do their best work.
He emphasizes the importance of trust, empathy, and cooperation in effective leadership: The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own.
Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the true cost of the leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest.” Overall, Sinek’s definition of leadership centers on the idea of service and selflessness.
“Dare to Lead” by Brené Brown – This book draws on Brown’s research into vulnerability, courage, and shame. It offers practical advice for leaders looking to cultivate more compassionate and authentic leadership styles.
Brown defines leadership as not about titles or the corner office. It’s about the willingness to step up, put yourself out there, and lean into courage.
She also emphasizes the importance of vulnerability in leadership, stating that vulnerability is not weakness, and the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure we face daily are not optional. Our only choice is a question of engagement. Our willingness to own and engage with our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage and the clarity of our purpose.
Overall, Brown’s definition of leadership centers on the idea that leadership is a choice and requires courage, vulnerability, and a willingness to step up and take action.
“Drive” by Daniel Pink – This book explores the science of motivation and argues that great leaders should focus on creating environments that foster intrinsic motivation rather than relying on external incentives and rewards.
In his book, Daniel Pink needs to provide a specific definition of leadership. Instead, he focuses on the concept of motivation and how leaders can create environments that foster intrinsic motivation, which he argues is the key to achieving high performance and engagement in the workplace.
Pink suggests that traditional models of leadership, which rely on external incentives and rewards, often need to be more effective in motivating people to perform at their best.
Instead, he advocates for a more autonomy-supportive approach to leadership, where leaders give people the freedom to pursue their own goals and interests and create an environment that fosters intrinsic motivation.
This book explores the science of motivation and argues that great leaders should create environments that foster intrinsic motivation rather than relying on external incentives and rewards.
Summary
This chapter provides insights into the definitions of leadership put forth by notable authors in their respective books on the subject. The diverse definitions collectively emphasize that leadership involves behaviors, selflessness, vulnerability, and motivation, ultimately emphasizing the importance of empowering and inspiring others to achieve their potential.
Leadership, Like Beauty, is Hard to Describe.
Leadership is like beauty – it’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it. – Warren Bennis
The Process
Leadership is inherently a process that involves a series of intentional actions, behaviors, and interactions carried out by individuals or groups (leaders) to achieve specific goals or guide collective efforts. This process is dynamic and ongoing, not a one-time event.
This understanding of leadership as a process aligns with several well-known leadership theories, including the Transformational Leadership theory by James MacGregor Burns and the Leadership as a Social Process theory by Mary Uhl-Bien. These theories emphasize leadership processes’ active and continuous nature in mobilizing and inspiring followers.
The process of leadership typically includes planning, decision-making, communication, problem-solving, motivation, and evaluation. It is not a one-time event but an ongoing journey that requires adaptability and continuous improvement.
In the process of leadership, individuals or groups play the role of leaders. They initiate and guide the process, facilitating the movement toward a shared vision or objective.
Leadership is mainly a leveraging process and focuses almost exclusively on inspiring followers. Context can be many things. It can be where you lead, whom you lead, or even when you lead. Context can also be the type of task you coordinate and the time to complete the task with your team.
Regardless of how you look at the context, it is a dominant part of any leadership process. Followers can attribute quite different meanings and intentions to the same interaction/process you have with them, depending on where, when, and in what conditions it occurred.
Influence
Influence is a central element of leadership, referring to the capacity of leaders to shape the thoughts, attitudes, behaviors, and actions of others. Effective leaders leverage their influence to inspire, motivate, and guide followers toward shared objectives.
Influence is foundational in leadership theories like the Situational Leadership Model by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard and the Path-Goal Theory by Robert House. (See references at the end of this chapter.) These theories highlight the role of leaders in providing direction and motivation to their followers through influence.
Influence can be exerted through various mechanisms, such as persuasion, inspiration, role modeling, setting an example, and making compelling arguments. It is not necessarily based on authority but can stem from trust, expertise, or charisma.
Leadership influence can be positive, motivating individuals to achieve their best, or negative, exerting control through fear or manipulation. Effective leaders typically employ positive influence strategies that foster collaboration and commitment.
The element of influence also appeared, directly or indirectly, in all definitions of leadership. Rather, both leaders and followers influence each other during leadership. That is, the leader affects and is affected by the followers. Leadership influence often shapes followers’ ideas, priorities, values, and feelings. However, followers are not empty receptors, passively waiting for your influence. They can accept, modify, or even reject your influence, and their reactions to your influence shape you and your leadership.
First, your followers interpret your influence through their own eyes. Second, we evaluate constantly and automatically how effective a leadership influence is in a given organizational culture or task.
Leadership influences the leader-follower relationship and how collaborative work is started, directed, and coordinated. In other words, the impact of leaders on followers is greater than the impact of followers on leaders.
You can also exert influence through dominance by coercion and intimidation. This style of influence is only leadership if followers accept the leadership style. Followers may willingly accept and welcome a dominance strategy when danger or an emergency arises. The group must adapt quickly to survive or deal effectively with the situation.
Given that leadership is a relational process that unfolds over time, influence can take many forms. Influence can occur through formal (emanating from your position, role, or title) and informal channels (from informal conversations and work activities). It can be intentional (for example, you write a well-crafted email intending to influence someone) or accidental (for example, you have a casual conversation with no intention of influence in mind that ends up influencing someone).
Your dominant leadership style also tends to produce unique forms of influence and, depending on the culture, different reactions from followers. Even your silence can influence your speech in conveying a powerful leadership message. This means that, in one way or another, influence is an element of leadership. Sometimes, influence will be blunter and overt, other times, it will manifest subtly and indirectly. Either way, it is present and largely shapes the way followers see their work and the meaning they extract from it.
Others – the Followers
Followers are individuals or groups who willingly align themselves with a leader’s vision, values, or goals. They are essential to leadership since leaders can only exist with followers.
The importance of followers is emphasized in various leadership theories, such as the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory by Graen and Uhl-Bien. LMX theory posits that the quality of the leader-follower relationship significantly impacts leadership outcomes.
The existence of others (followers) is also a necessary element of leadership in all definitions. However, to fully understand leadership, it is important to consider why others, the followers, should be included in the definition.
There are two main reasons for that. First, acts of leadership (or attempts to influence others) do not grant you leadership status automatically. For leadership to occur, others also need to decide to follow you. Thus, leadership happens when acts of leadership are combined with acts of followers. There is no leadership when you attempt to influence others, and they do not follow you.
However, when others grant you a leadership role, you decline it, there is also no leadership. For example, imagine that you are the most qualified person to solve an emergency issue at work. Without these two strategies (leadership and followership), coordination would be challenging – straightforward things like deciding what to do, when, and who to do it would be rather difficult. In addition, the consequences of poor coordination would have been serious.
Shared goals
Goals also appear in most definitions. However, while in some cases shared goals are mentioned, in other cases, only goals appear in the definition. This variation reflects one of the most controversial issues in leadership: the purpose and outcome of the leaders’ influence. Shared goals give leadership an ethical undertone – that is, it suggests that leadership only occurs when both the leader and the larger group benefit from the cooperative work.
However, goals that are self-serving or unethical and promoted by egoistic and selfish leaders are more likely to fail. There are two main reasons for that. First, we value leadership attributes like integrity and fairness regardless of our country or culture. Second, since leadership emerged to facilitate collaborative efforts, we developed a series of mechanisms to detect and punish selfish or biased forms of leadership.
In contrast, shared goals tend to sustain leadership. You can achieve this by influencing others towards an already shared goal or by influencing others to build a new, meaningful, and shared goal to pursue. If the goal is already shared, you may use your influence to anticipate unseen problems, establish priorities, and guide followers toward short-term goals. If the goal still needs to be mutual, you can use your influence to encourage new thinking, sharing, and collecting feedback on your vision for the future. Most effective leaders do both.
Although your behaviors, attributes, or characteristics do not necessarily make you enact leadership, nor are they leadership per se, the four elements matter for leadership. If we see leadership as a leader-follower relationship, your followers’ behaviors, attributes, or characteristics are also relevant. Followers and what they do affect your behaviors during leadership and the nature and outcomes of the relationship established.
At first glance, the four elements of current definitions of leadership seem satisfying. However, defining leadership using these four elements can be problematic. For instance, if you think about it, management and leadership can be defined with the same four elements. Both assume you work with other people over time (process and others), and that you influence others towards shared goals. The most common attempt to solve this problem is to accord different functions to leadership and management.
The function of management would be to produce order and consistency through, for example, allocating resources, staffing, and solving problems. In contrast, leadership would bring forth change and innovation through, for example, sharing a vision and inspiring followers. These functions are appealing but need to be improved. The main function of a manager is to ensure that goals are achieved most efficiently and effectively.
The main function of a leader is to ensure that followers derive a shared meaning for what is being done. Leaders can influence followers’ ideas, feelings, behaviors, and values about the work. In a way, leaders are managers of meaning at work.
It is estimated that approximately half of the people who occupy leadership positions fail or derail in one way or another. It is a challenging position to sustain over time.
Suppose leadership is seen as a romanticized and glamorized view without understanding the day-to-day work required to be a leader. These views put you at risk of being unprepared to meet the true challenges associated with leadership, facing relationship problems with your followers, and failing to build and sustain an effective team. And these are all established reasons for leadership failure. After all, how can you do something well without knowing what it is?
Knowing what leadership can make you an actual, if not a better, leader. It can also be helpful for potential followers to make informed decisions on whether to follow another person.
Summary
The chapter delves into the intricate nature of leadership, drawing parallels with the elusiveness of describing beauty. It highlights that leadership comprises four essential elements: a dynamic process, the power of influence, the involvement of followers, and a shared goal.
Common Theories of Leadership?
Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play. – Immanuel Kant
Just tell me how to lead. “I don’t need the theory.” There are many reasons for resistance to understanding theory. However, a balanced approach that combines practical experience with theoretical knowledge can often lead to more informed and effective decision-making and problem-solving. Bridging the gap between theory and practice can be highly beneficial in many fields, as theory can provide valuable guides and insights that enhance the quality and ability to adapt to make decisions.
Here are some common reasons for resisting the importance of theory:
Some practitioners may view theoretical concepts as abstract and disconnected from the practical aspects of their work. They might prioritize immediate tasks and hands-on experience over theoretical knowledge. Others may find theories daunting and prefer to stick to what they already know and are comfortable with.
Some may see theory as a disruptive force that challenges their established ways of doing things. On the other hand, they may value what works in practice over theoretical knowledge. They may prioritize achieving results over understanding the underlying theories. There can be misconceptions about theory being too abstract or disconnected from practical problems.
In some workplaces or professions, a culture may devalue or downplay theoretical understanding in favor of more practical, hands-on skills. Finally, some may have had successful careers built solely on practical experience, reinforcing their belief that theory is unnecessary.
However, understanding theory is essential for leaders because it equips them with the knowledge, tools, and perspectives to make informed decisions, solve complex problems, and lead effectively in a constantly evolving environment. Theory complements practical experience, providing a solid foundation for leadership excellence.
Following are some reasons for appreciating theory. In my view, theory provides the “why” of what has happened in the past or will likely happen forecast the future.
Leaders who understand relevant theories can better analyze situations, identify potential solutions, and make strategic choices that align with their organization’s goals and values. Theory equips leaders with problem-solving skills. They can use theoretical models to diagnose problems, identify causes, develop good solutions, and improve their ability to address problems. Theory often stimulates creative thinking and then applies it in innovative ways.
A background in theory can help explain complex concepts in simpler terms, fostering better understanding among team members. Theory can provide insights into trends, organizational dynamics, and advantage, which are vital for successful strategic planning. Theory often helps identify broader trends and patterns that had better prepare leaders to adapt to changing environments and anticipate future challenges, ensuring their organization’s success.
Many theories, particularly in ethics and leadership, provide guidance on making ethical decisions. Leaders who grasp these theories are more likely to make ethical choices, which is crucial for maintaining trust and integrity. Theory helps leaders assess risks and rewards, enabling them to evaluate the potential consequences of their decisions. Theory can offer insights into the causes of conflicts within organizations and suggest effective conflict resolution strategies.
Leadership theories provide valuable insights into different leadership styles and approaches. Leaders who understand these theories can adapt their leadership style to suit the needs of their team and organization, enhancing their effectiveness as leaders. Finally, leaders can learn from the experiences and research of others through theory. They can gain insights from case studies, academic research, and the lessons of historical leaders, enabling them to avoid common pitfalls and capitalize on successful strategies.
Many different leadership theories emphasize different aspects of what it means to be an effective leader. Some of the most well-known theories of leadership include:
Trait theory suggests that effective leaders possess certain innate characteristics, such as intelligence, charisma, and confidence that enable them to lead effectively. These leaders possess certain innate characteristics or traits to lead effectively, such as intelligence, charisma, and confidence. Some leaders don’t have these traits. Some are just born that way.
Some are born with certain personalities and abilities: intelligence, self-confidence, empathy, determination, integrity, and emotional stability. Some of the positive aspects of the trait theory are that the characteristics are easy to identify and useful in assessing potential.
The weakness of the trait theory is an oversimplification of the complexity of leadership, which does not include the follower’s situation, culture, goals, or characteristics. As far as moving from theory to practice, the Trait theory lacks a strong relationship to effective leadership and lacks consideration of other necessary skills such as personality and abilities: intelligence, self-confidence, empathy, determination, integrity, and emotional stability.
Behavioral theory proposes that effective leadership is not determined by innate traits but rather by learned behaviors, such as communication skills, decision-making abilities, and the ability to motivate others.
The characteristics are task-oriented behavior to achieve specific goals and people-oriented. Emphasis is on communication, the ability to inspire, and a belief that these skills can be learned. The shortcomings are a lack of emphasis on the situational factors and a belief that it is the “best” way to lead.
Applying the behavior trait to practice is difficult and complex but useful with other theories. It helps identify useful skills for future leadership development.
Situational theory: The situational theory of leadership proposes that effective leadership depends on the situation and that different leadership styles may be more effective in different situations. Leaders can adapt their leadership style to the needs and characteristics of their followers and the situation at hand. The situational leadership theory proposes four main leadership styles: directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. Leaders must understand how to adapt their leadership style to different situations and followers.
A shortcoming of this theory is that it requires leaders to analyze and adapt to various situational factors, group readiness, task complexity, and organizational culture. Finally, it could oversimplify the complex nature of leadership.
Putting this theory into practice is difficult because it usually requires significant time and effort. However, it can be useful in assessing the current situation, the culture, the needs and abilities of others, and the priorities.
Transformational theory: This theory emphasizes the role of the leader in inspiring and motivating followers to achieve their full potential. Transformational leaders are seen as charismatic and visionary, and they work to create a sense of shared purpose and inspire their followers to work towards a common goal. Leaders can create a sense of meaning and purpose in the work of their followers and empower them to become more creative, innovative, and autonomous.
The shortcomings are that the transformational theory needs an emphasis on the intended purpose or objective, has the potential to be manipulative or exploitative, and may not meet the need for the tasks. It usually requires significant time and effort and has the potential for burnout and groupthink. Transformational theory, in practice, focuses on intangible qualities such as inspiration, motivation, and vision.
Servant leadership: This theory emphasizes the importance of leaders serving the needs of their followers rather than the other way around. Servant leaders are focused on empowering their followers and helping them to achieve their goals rather than exerting power over them. Servant leadership emphasizes the importance of leaders serving the needs of their followers. The emphasis is on empowering their followers and helping them to achieve their goals rather than exerting power over them.
Effective leaders are those who prioritize the needs and well-being of their followers.
The focus is on empowering their followers to achieve their full potential. The leader can listen actively, empathize with others, and foster community and collaboration. There are high levels of integrity, humility, and self-awareness. The leader is willing to put the needs of others before their own.
Shortcomings are that the followers may become overly dependent on the leader, over-reliance on consensus, and neglect organizational goals.
Putting servant leadership into practice requires developing strong relationships with followers, prioritizing their well-being and growth, and fostering a culture of collaboration and teamwork.
Finally, an observable willingness to lead with humility, a long-term focus on the goals of the organization, as well as providing the necessary support for followers to succeed.
Authentic leadership: This theory emphasizes the importance of leaders being true to themselves and their values and being transparent and honest in their interactions with followers. Authentic leaders are seen as trustworthy and inspiring. They build strong relationships with followers based on mutual respect. Authentic leaders act on their core values and beliefs. They can inspire and motivate others. The four main elements are self-awareness, transparency, balanced processing, and moral perspective. They are seen as trustworthy and inspiring, and they work to build strong relationship skills based on respect and trust.
The shortcomings are an emphasis on personal qualities and values instead of the culture, situation, and goals. From theory to practice, leaders must deeply understand their values, strengths, and limitations and be open and honest in their relationships. Display a strong sense of personal ethics and values and committed to doing the right thing, even when unpopular.
Legitimacy Theory: The Legitimacy Theory of leadership, also known as the Legitimate Power Theory, is a leadership theory that focuses on the concept of legitimacy as a source of power and influence for leaders. The leader derives their authority and influence from the perceived legitimacy of their position. They conform to the expectations, values, and norms of the group, Leaders facilitate a positive leader-follower relationship and promote collaboration. They effectively guide and motivate their team towards achieving goals and provide a sense of stability and order.
Shortcomings could be a need for more innovation and an emphasis on conformity, which may discourage diversity of ideas.
Moving from theory to practice, the leader demonstrates behaviors and actions that align with the prevailing beliefs. The leader will seek achievement through various means, including formal positions, expertise, or endorsement. The leader strives to build credibility by demonstrating expertise, adhering to ethical standards, and acting consistently with the values and expectations of their followers. There is open communication, listening, and demonstrating transparency in decision-making. The leader acts ethically and responsibly.
Each theory offers a unique perspective on what it takes to be an effective leader, and different theories may be more relevant in different contexts and situations.
Summary
This chapter underscores the significance of understanding leadership theories and their practical applications. It acknowledges common resistance to theory-based learning and the perception of theory as abstract or disruptive. However, it argues that theory provides a valuable foundation for leadership excellence, offering insights, problem-solving skills, and tools for better decision-making.
Leadership Theories and Styles
The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy. – Martin Luther King
Now, let’s try to move from leadership theory to actual practice.
Leadership theories help to explain and understand the concept of leadership. These theories provide an understanding of leadership by exploring the underlying principles, concepts, and factors of effective leadership.
Theories explain why and how leadership occurs and attempt to highlight the key traits, behaviors, or factors that influence leadership. Leadership theories include trait, behavioral, contingency, and transformational theories.
Leadership theories provide an understanding of leadership as a concept and attempt to explain the principles and factors contributing to effective leadership.
Leadership styles are more specific behaviors that leaders use to influence and interact with their followers. Leadership styles represent the patterns of behavior by leaders with their teams.
Different leadership styles reflect different ways of leading: autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, transactional, transformational, servant, or situational. Leadership styles can be influenced by a leader’s personality, values, beliefs, and the needs of their followers and the situation.
Summary
Leadership theories offer a conceptual foundation for understanding leadership principles, while leadership styles represent the practical behaviors and approaches that leaders adopt to lead and interact with their teams. Both elements play integral roles in effective leadership practice.
Differences between Leadership and Management
Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right thing.
Leadership is a process-oriented practice of inspiring a shared vision, enabling others, modeling, and encouraging. The leader determines what should be done about change, paradigm shifts, improvements, innovations, and values. The person is a critical thinker, a risk taker, and a visionary. Leaders are innovative, courageous, creative, forward thinking, open to change, and able to learn from and overcome failure.
The leader is a team builder, a continuous learner, able to get along with people. They are honest, dependable, competent, supportive, fair-minded, cooperative, respectful, motivating, values-driven, inspiring, resilient, patient, tenacious, credible, balanced, and emotionally mature.
Leaders are visionary insightful, understand dilemmas and complex choices, and facilitate actions toward a goal. The leader motivates and inspires, builds potential in others, creates an environment that fosters learning, collaboration, and fluid teamwork, and attracts high performers. The leader is self-directed, situational, opportunistic, serendipitous, and can be courageous in uncertain outcomes.
Management:
The manager implements those task-oriented duties that facilitate, support, and direct the timely and efficient maintenance of operations. The priority is to get it done and done well. Be effective and efficient in completing products or services while focusing on quality. A good manager is a team-builder, a continuous learner,
able to get along with people. The person is honest, dependable, competent, supportive, fair-minded, cooperative, respectful, motivating, values-driven, inspiring, resilient, patient, tenacious, credible, balanced, and emotionally mature. The manager is forward thinking and in for the long term. The manager has an organizational focus and is responsible for policy development and compliance, maintenance, support, implementation of systems, and incremental focused improvements. The manager also focuses on individual performance while maintaining calendars, directives, scheduling, customs and culture, and deadlines.
Summary
Leadership is more about guiding change and fostering innovation, while management concentrates on maintaining and improving daily operations. Both roles are crucial within an organization and require a blend of skills and qualities to be effective.
Leadership Styles: Benefits, and Shortcomings
Leaders think and talk about solutions. Followers thihk ad talk about problems. – Brian Tracy
Leadership styles are the behavior patterns leaders adopt It is what leaders do. A leadership style occurs when a unique combination of complementary behaviors co-occurs.
Many styles are tied together via underlying commonalities, forming three core leadership styles: (1) Levels of engagement in decision-making, (2) Levels of influencing effectiveness, and (3) Levels of values and results.
Definition of leadership styles
A leadership style is the behavior pattern displayed by a leader. In other words, a leadership style reflects the recurrent way in which a leader acts towards followers.
A leadership style is a set of behaviors, not a single behavior.
Leadership styles are viewed as complementary behaviors that tend to co-occur frequently. The combined set of related behaviors forms a leadership style, not a behavior in isolation. Each behavior alone can capture the complexity and requirements of most leadership styles. This does not mean that, to adopt a leadership style, a leader must engage in all specific behaviors of such leadership style at the same time. In contrast, a leader adopting a style engages in specific behaviors over time, as necessary.
A leadership style can be adopted automatically or via a monitoring effort.
Each leadership style we display can result from an automatic or a monitored effort. Following are highlights of six important aspects of leadership styles:
One: The first is largely unconscious and guides us toward our most habitual leadership style(s). Across situations, we lead in the way that comes to mind and aligns with our dominant leadership style. These automatic leadership styles tend to be adopted when (a) we need more time to analyze a situation, (b) the style fits our personality, (c) we find it easy to use, (d) it served us well in the past, and (d) the situation requires adopting a different leadership style.
Two: Personality traits are an important root of behavior patterns. The stronger a person’s propensity toward a personality trait, the more likely that person engages in a set of behaviors over time and across situations.
This tells us that not every person has the same likelihood of adopting a given leadership style.
Three: Certain leadership styles tend to be more frequently adopted by people with certain personality traits. For example, because extroverts tend to be optimistic, talkative, and assertive, they will likely display transformational leadership behaviors such as enthusing and inspiring followers.
Four: Personality traits and behaviors are so intricate and fuzzy that it is difficult to draw a line separating them.
For example, in the ethical leadership style, personality traits and behaviors are so interconnected that it is usually accepted that ethical leadership reflects both.
Traits (such as integrity, morality, fairness, and disposition to reflect upon the consequences of one’s actions)
And behaviors (such as setting an example at work of behaving ethically, discussing ethics and values with followers, and addressing violations of ethical standards in the workplace).
Five: In theory, a leadership style is a set of complementary behaviors that co-occur frequently. After identifying new behavioral leadership styles, researchers and practitioners attribute a descriptive name to it. Transformational leadership, ethical leadership, and servant leadership are examples. In practice, many leaders adopt styles that are combinations of theoretical leadership styles.
This may happen because a specific behavior is irrelevant for a particular job or because a leader finds out that the most effective way to lead in each context is to mix and match behaviors from different styles and theoretical models.
Six: Large-scale studies indicate that leadership styles have stronger effects on effectiveness than the leaders’ traits and skills. These research findings have suggested that leadership styles have a more significant impact on organizational effectiveness than the traits and skills of individual leaders. Here are some key studies and insights that support this idea:
The Ohio State Leadership Studies, in the 1940s, were among the earliest studies to examine leadership behavior. They identified two major dimensions of leadership behavior: initiating structure (task-oriented) and consideration (relationship-oriented). These studies suggested that leadership behavior, rather than personality traits, was a more critical factor in predicting leadership effectiveness.
Researchers at the University of Michigan categorized leadership styles as either employee-centered or production-centered. These studies emphasized that leadership behaviors could be taught and developed rather than being solely dependent on innate traits.
Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Mouton suggested that effective leadership involves balancing these two dimensions, emphasizing that leadership styles could be adapted for different situations.
In the 1980s, MacGregor Burns emphasized the impact of leadership styles on followers. Transformational leaders who inspire and motivate their followers significantly impact organizational outcomes more than leaders with transactional styles.
Bernard Bass and Bruce Avolio’s Full Range Leadership Theory expanded on transformational leadership by identifying a range of leadership styles from laissez-faire to transactional to transformational. This theory suggests that transformational leadership is most effective for organizational outcomes.
When leaders adopt a leadership style, they serve as role models to many followers, who emulate the leader’s attitudes, values, and behaviors.
Many styles are tied together via shared commonalities in their core approach, goals, and focus. The most established leadership styles are organized into broad types of leadership according to their main approach, goal, and focus.
The decision-making leadership styles:
One: Level of Engagement in Decisions.
In participative leadership, all have an active role in making and implementing decisions. However, it is time-consuming, inefficient in emergencies, and requires more expertise.
In autocratic leadership, the leader asserts authority and power and expects the followers’ obedience and compliance. The weaknesses are a lack of member engagement, limited creativity, innovation, or accountability.
In a laissez-faire leadership style, the leader avoids making decisions, taking action, or responsibilities. This style reduces the effectiveness, satisfaction, or well-being of followers. Members are likely to need to understand their roles or responsibilities.
Two: Level of influencing effectiveness.
The emergence of leadership styles focused, at their core, on influencing effectiveness beyond what is expected in everyday activities. Among the most well-established and promising styles are transformational leadership, visionary leadership, and empowering leadership.
In transformational leadership, the emphasis is on the leader’s ability to inspire and motivate followers to work towards a shared vision. While good, these abilities can be difficult to measure accurately and connect intent to outcome.
Visionary leadership emphasizes the leader’s ability to inspire and motivate others through a compelling vision, strategic thinking, innovation, communication, empowerment, and resilience. This involves seeking input and collaboration from others, balancing long-term vision with short-term execution, and staying connected to current realities.
Empowering leadership is when the leader builds a motivated, engaged, and high-performing team by fostering autonomy, skill development, collaboration, and support. This approach has time and resource limitations, and the teams’ aspirations, goals, or preferences may not align with organizational objectives.
Three: Level of Value and results.
The values-based leadership styles represent behaviors rooted in morality, community values, and continuous improvement.
It represents a shift in the focus of leadership behavior – specifically, from influencing results to how they are achieved. Leaders give followers something they want when followers do what leaders want.
Ethical leadership is where the leader encourages the followers to solve problems without the leader’s guidance. This style provides the discretion and leeway for followers. However, it focuses on intangible qualities such as inspiration, motivation, and vision, making it difficult to connect the intent and outcome.
Authentic leadership happens when the leaders understand and act in keeping with who they are, their purpose, and their values. This style involves seeking input and collaboration from others, balancing long-term vision with short-term execution while staying connected to current realities.
Servant leadership is when the leader builds a motivated, engaged, and high-performing team by fostering autonomy, skill development, collaboration, and support. Again, there are time constraints, the possibility of micromanagement, and team preferences may need to align with organizational objectives.
Behaviors are the building blocks of leadership styles. When a pattern of complementary behaviors occurs, a leadership style is established. Understanding which leadership styles leaders can rely on and knowing the defining behaviors of the most important styles can leave a leader better prepared to face the challenges ahead.
Summary
Leaders may adopt a combination of styles based on situational demands. While personality traits can influence leadership styles, leadership styles, in turn, influence organizational effectiveness. Overall, understanding leadership styles and their defining behaviors can better prepare leaders to address the challenges they encounter in their roles.
The Power and Pitfalls of Charisma
Charisma with character is postponed calamity – Peter Ajisafe
One would think that a charismatic leader could be the silver bullet or secret to success. These leaders have what it takes to have a relatively smooth ride as a leader. So, what are the positive benefits of being a charismatic leader?
On the plus side, charismatic leaders are often inspirational, rallying people around a vision or goal. This can boost morale and productivity. They can build trust and loyalty and be able to retain talent. Their natural charm and persuasiveness allow them to influence followers and get buy-in for their ideas. This makes driving change easier.
Their confidence, vision and inspiring ability elevate their status and reputation. This brings credibility.
On the downside, the charismatic leader places style over substance. Charisma does not necessarily equate to competency. They may need more depth or rely too heavily on their charm. Another downside is that followers can become devoted personality cults, disregarding reason in favor of the leader’s vision. This is dangerous long-term.
At the same time, followers’ admiration can lead to arrogance, feelings of invincibility, and poor decision-making.
Team members may need help constructively criticizing charismatic leaders, leading to groupthink and echo chambers. An organization’s fortunes may sink when the charismatic leader departs if that magic is not institutionalized.
Finally, charismatic leadership can inspire but also distort. A leader’s self-awareness and balance are key to maximizing the upside and minimizing the risks. So, if charm and being liked is not the path to effective leadership, then what is?
Summary
Effective leadership goes beyond charm and popularity. It requires self-awareness, balance, and a focus on substance over style to maximize the benefits of charisma while minimizing its risks.
What is Level Five Leadership?
Humility is the cornerstone of leadership. – John Miller
Level 5 leadership is a concept developed in the book Good to Great by Jim Collins.
The Level 5 leaders display a powerful mixture of personal humility and indomitable will. They’re incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, the organization, and its purpose, not themselves. While Level 5 leaders can come in many personality packages, they are often self-effacing, quiet, reserved, and shy. Every good-to-great transition in our research began with a Level 5 leader who motivated the enterprise more with inspired standards than an inspiring personality.
“Level 5” refers to the highest level in a hierarchy of leader capabilities identified.
Level 5 leadership is not the only requirement for transforming a good organization into a great one—other factors include getting the right people together and creating a culture of discipline. Collins describes the five levels.
The Level 5 Hierarchy
Level 1. Highly capable individual: Makes productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills, and good work habits.
Level 2. Contributes to advancing group objectives and works efficiently with others in a group setting.
Level 3. Organizes people and resources toward the efficient pursuit of predetermined objectives.
Level 4. Catalyzes commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating the group to high-performance standards.
Level 5. Builds endearing greatness through a paradoxical combination of personal humility and professional will.
Level 5 leadership is essential for taking an organization from good to great, but it’s not the only one. It is a combination of humility and will. Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, shy, and fearless. A quiet, peaceful, shy figure.
Collins concludes that modesty is typical of Level 5 leaders. Besides extreme humility, Level 5 leaders also display tremendous professional will. Level 5 leaders, inherently humble, look out the window to apportion credit—even undue credit—to factors outside themselves.
Summary
Level 5 leadership represents the highest tier of leadership capabilities. Level 5 leaders possess a unique combination of personal humility and unwavering will. Their ambition is primarily directed toward the organization’s cause and purpose rather than personal recognition. Their leadership style focuses on setting high standards and inspiring others through actions rather than relying on a charismatic personality.
Change Agent or Collaborative Leader
Leadership is about coping with change. – John P. Kotter
As a superintendent, the school board will formally and informally guide decisions about stability or change in the district’s priorities. While it should be a mutual agreement, it is, unfortunately, often implied. This means the school board wants change – to shake things up. Some superintendents grasp this opportunity and implement new strategies and procedures. And, some say, “You have six months to take advantage of this window of opportunity” for changes. – to make a significant impact and drive meaningful change.
In a Havard Business Review article by Velasques and Gleitsman, championing new ideas becomes the differentiating factor between success and failure. Unfortunately, when faced with resistance, some leaders become frustrated and disengaged or even choose to leave the organization. This is particularly true for leaders explicitly hired to be “change agents.”
The Change Agent Approach: Passionate but isolating.
A change agent is a leadership style who has a passionate advocacy for their vision, values, and goals. They tackle change directly and forcefully, driven by a profound sense of purpose that fuels their willingness to voice their opinions, even in the face of opposition. They may gain a short-term positive impact on their ideas, but it often proves counterproductive in the long run. The change agent is often perceived as closed-minded, inflexible, and overly passionate. While passion can be a positive trait, it becomes detrimental when accompanied by predictable negative behaviors.
Change agents, while knowledgeable in the proposed area, are passionate but likely to display behavior that can be misinterpreted as inflexible and defensive. They often have considerable expertise in an area. They believe their way is the best way forward, which makes them less likely to accept or consider alternative perspectives. This leads to exhaustion, ineffective, and harmful. Some leaders default to the change agent style because of the immediate results and impressive results in the short term. But in the longer term, these tactics can backfire and undermine the leader’s ability to achieve lasting change.
A more effective approach to driving change in the workplace involves adopting the mindset of a collaborator. Collaborators focus on building relationships, understanding organizational culture and reasons for resistance, and using this knowledge to advocate for change in a shared and purposeful manner. Here are six ways to become a more collaborative leader:
One: Understand the organizational culture. Understand that influence is in the hands of those we want to be influenced. Learn how things work in the culture of the school district. Find clues about what works and what doesn’t. Ask others how they might approach a particular situation. Finally, understand the “rules” of the game.
Two: Choose your battles.
Change agents often want to change the big and complex things and require a winning coalition. And in some instances, the crusader isn’t the right person to make those changes. The big things are more complex, requiring collaborative efforts and a broad coalition to be addressed effectively. Be aware that there is frustration, burnout, and credibility if changes materialize slowly. And most likely, your team will respond defensively to your ideas without collaboration.
Three: Seek feedback.
Others often see us more objectively than we see ourselves. Change agents don’t realize how they behave in certain situations leading to an inaccurate perception of themselves. Their perceptions often consume them, and they overlook crucial details or perspectives. For suggestions, seek feedback to understand better how your approach is perceived. This is a transformative (often sobering) step for a change agent moving to a collaborative leadership style.
Four: Develop and leverage relationships.
Building and fostering a winning coalition of individuals who can support your ideas is crucial. To be a collaborative leader requires building relationships and coalitions within the organization to gain support for ideas and create a sense of shared ownership. Instead of pushing your concerns independently, you could propose a joint project that addresses both concerns. Combining your ideas with the needs and concerns of your colleagues for others to support yours and their proposal.
Five: Be open to other perspectives.
To gain influence, you must also be open to being influenced. Ask open questions of colleagues who don’t share your view and try to identify shared perspectives. Even the right decision can lead to the wrong outcome if you’re unsuccessful in creating a shared understanding of the process.
Six: Focus on long-term goals.
Lasting change requires maintaining focus on the long-term objective. Sometimes, being a change agent style is warranted and appropriate, particularly when urgent action is needed, and you have the authority to make change. However, only sometimes a critical decision is required. Lasting change, it’s unlikely to happen all at once. Confront your change agent style with these three questions: (a) Is this problem mine to solve? (b) Do I need to solve it alone? (c) Do I need to solve it now?
Lasting change is not a solitary quest but an inherently shared effort. It requires embracing a collaborative mindset that respects and includes diverse perspectives, maintains a strategic focus, and patiently navigates the complexities of organizational dynamics. It’s not about surrendering your passion or advocacy but leveraging them in a more inclusive, strategic, and ultimately effective way.
Summary
Leaders in educational systems face the challenge of balancing the need for change with the potential resistance to it. Some leaders, known as “change agents,” are passionate advocates for their vision, driving change forcefully and directly. While this approach may yield short-term results, it can also lead to perceptions of inflexibility and resistance in the long run. In contrast, collaborative leaders focus on building relationships, understanding organizational culture, and advocating for change in a shared and purposeful manner. They seek feedback, develop relationships, and remain open to other perspectives.
Leadership Knowledge and Skills
A leader is best when people barely know he exists; when his work is done and his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. – Loa Tzu
Leadership doesn’t come naturally. Like any other behavior and skill, leadership is learned by knowledge, experience, passion, self-awareness, and embracing life-long learning. Moving from a member to a leadership position is significant and daunting.
In the book The Leap to Leader: How Ambitious Managers Make the Jump to Leadership, Adam Bryant writes that In this age of so much disruption and uncertainty, if people are looking for certainty, if they want to create a strategy document and put it on a spreadsheet and take it out for the next three or five years and then get frustrated when the world doesn’t comply or employees don’t comply with that, it’s just a recipe for disaster. You will just be disappointed and frustrated and ultimately become a bad leader.
Bryant writes that everything about leadership is a balancing act of handling a series of contradictions or paradoxes. Even if you must have a clear and simple plan about the direction you want the district and the team to go. There are so many paradoxes and contradictions of leadership that require you to be in that center point and know which way to flex depending on the moment.
It is a balance between compassion and inclusive of others while holding them accountable and sustaining your values. The difficult decisions rise up to your level.
And you must make those decisions with questionable data and cause anger. Being a leader requires a thick skin, sustaining your values, and the long-term betterment of the organization. Decisions must also be made in a context of humanity, transparency, compassion, and authenticity.
Bryant poses three questions for aspiring leaders:
Why do I want to lead? Is it prestige, money, or power? Leaders have long hours, difficult problems, and more people to work with. It used to be power or prestige.
What are your ambitions? For some, leadership is the goal or place to contribute and impact the organization. For others, it may be control of resources or people.
What are you trying to achieve? For some, it may be the opportunity to shape and influence the organization’s long-term direction. On the other hand, it might be personal attainment and power. Today, it is the ability to influence and have insight into complex problems, with people with various needs and issues, along with organizational goals and cultures.
Some other leadership tips shared by Bryant:
Mastering the art of compartmentalization. What does that entail?
Empathy is good, but you can have too much of it. And it can get in your way as a leader because you feel the mood of the room and individual employees and you feel the weight of every single decision and imagine all the consequences of it.
It is that balancing point of your need to have empathy so you can pick up the signals and have a good antenna in general for people and culture. On the other hand, you’ve got to be able to make the hard decisions and live with them and not chew yourself up because then you’re not going to be effective.
Set the bar for your team’s performance, taking it out a little bit from this individual reflection and bringing it to the team. As a leader, you can make it so ambitious that it becomes enervating, and people say, “Well, we’re never going to get there,” destroying morale. You can set the bar too low where people succeed just by getting up in the morning and running a comb through their hair, and that’s not good enough. It’s an infinite learning curve as a leader.
Self-awareness and being clear about those things that set you off and that prompt these reactions that may not be completely rational.
We’re all human beings; we’ve all got our quirks; we’ve all got our triggers. You have to be able to step outside yourself and know what those are. It would be best if you had a plan for managing them and how you keep yourself in check.
You need to be predictable. If you are unpredictable, then people are going to be spending a lot of their energy trying to figure out what mood you’re in today when they should be thinking about the work. Be consistent.
Everybody thinks they’re making the right decision based on their context. It would be best if you created that context for people so that everybody has the shared context of what the organization is trying to accomplish within the broader context and all its challenges. By relentlessly communicating that context, you are much more likely to get people to make the right decision to help drive the strategy.
When looking at successful leaders, what do they do differently in their decision-making that makes them stand out?
First, it starts with acknowledging that whatever the problem, it is probably a tough decision, and there is no obvious answer and negative consequences of whatever you choose, so the first thing is to get comfortable with that reality.
Secondly is to be able to know who makes the call. When taking on a new role at a new organization, you must decide if others should be involved in taking responsibility to deal with the problem, the initial process or procedures to resolve the problem, and when a solution should be expected.
Third, your job is to have the courage to decide and own it. Get as much input as possible before you make the decision. And don’t feel like you must make the decision alone.
One of the most courageous and powerful things as a leader is to say, “I need help. And what do you think?” You have people who see the world through different lenses and might spot something you’re not seeing.
Some final advice by Bryant is to be clear about why and understand your motivations. Spend time reflecting and being clear about why you want to do it. Too many people say, “Yeah, I want that job, I want that promotion,” and then they get the promotion, and then they realize that most of their day is spent dealing with people’s problems and putting out fires and all these challenges.
Summary
Leadership is a learned skill that requires continuous growth and self-awareness. It involves navigating paradoxes and contradictions while balancing various aspects of leadership. Aspiring leaders should reflect on their motivations, ambitions, and goals, considering whether leadership aligns with their values and aspirations. Leadership is about acknowledging challenges, taking responsibility, and continuously learning and growing.
What Stands in the Way Becomes the Way
Leadership is the ability to get extraordinary achievements from ordinary people.
In her recent book “Dare to Lead,” Brene Brown states, “What stands in the way becomes the way”. This is paradoxical, meaning that the thing we see so clearly as a barrier is the solution. The path forward.
Brown asks what, if anything, about how people lead today needs to change for leaders to succeed in a complex, rapidly changing environment. Following are ten behaviors and cultural issues that leaders identified as getting in their way in organizations:
Avoiding tough conversations -instead dealing with the elephant in the room. Spending a lot of time managing problematic behaviors – instead of addressing fears, rumors, and obstacles.
Losing trust by a lack of connection and empathy – instead of outreach and engagement.
Avoiding smart risks and sharing bold ideas – instead of looking for creativity and innovation.
Defining setbacks as disappointments and failures – instead of utilizing available resources and talented members within the organization.
Using shame and blame – instead of accountability and learning new skills.
Opting out of vital conversations about diversity and inclusivity – instead of embracing different cultures and new solutions.
Rushing into ineffective or unsustainable solutions -instead of clarifying the problem and seeking options and solutions.
Promoting values as aspirations – instead of modeling behaviors that can be taught, measured, and evaluated.
Seeking perfectionism and fear – instead of encouraging learning and growing.
Summary
What stands in the way becomes the way,” highlighting the paradoxical idea that barriers can be the path forward. Brown identifies ten behaviors and cultural issues leaders should address to succeed in a rapidly changing environment. Addressing these issues can help leaders navigate challenges and lead more effectively.
The Biggest Lies Leaders Believe
The practice of leadership is not the same as the exercise of power. – James MacGregor Burns
Organization and team members suffer when leaders believe lies. Interestingly, the worst lies are the ones they tell themselves. Two of the most common lies are the inability to listen and arrogance.
Lie #1. I am a good listener. Any leader who always needs to be right gets dumber as time passes. Listening to learn includes the willingness to change. But having authority makes learning and changing a challenge. Steps to becoming a good listener are showing respect, a willingness to learn, curiosity, and empathy.
Lie #2. I don’t have a problem with arrogance. The second lie is at the root of the first. Arrogance doesn’t listen. Arrogance crouches at the door waiting by a closed mind, preaching self-sufficiency, claiming superiority. Any leader who doesn’t grapple with arrogance is self-deceived.
Summary
This brief chapter emphasizes the importance of self-awareness for leaders to avoid these common lies and their negative consequences.
Characteristics of a Leader for the Future.
The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails. – John Maxwell
Leadership, while complex and demanding today, tomorrow, a new type of leadership will be emerging to meet the needs of a vibrant organization. Former characteristics of the change agent, charisma, and technician need to be updated. The new titles are architect, bridger, and catalyst. In a Harvard Business Review article by Linda Hill and others, the new emphasis is to develop an innovative mindset and paradigm.
Leading Innovation. Leaders need agility, innovation, and digital technology to survive and grow in a thriving organization. Leadership is no longer about getting others to follow them into the future; instead, it is about inviting others to co-create the future with them — a process driven by teams composed of individuals with diverse expertise and experience willing and able to collaborate, experiment, and learn together.
Leaders were visionaries who knew that innovation rarely resulted from an individual genius’s having an “aha” moment. Consequently, an inclusive definition of leadership is democratizing innovation. Everybody had a “slice of genius” — their talents and passions — that can be unleashed and leveraged to develop innovative solutions.
Successful leaders will need to know how to manage the paradoxes of innovation: supporting bottom-up creativity, initiative, and improvisation while establishing structures, performance standards, and guardrails to minimize outsize risk-taking and keep people aligned.
They will need to know how to remove barriers to create innovative problem-solving and built an engaging culture where members are bound by a common purpose, shared values, and mutual rules of engagement that serve as the foundation for co-creation.
Tomorrow’s leader will need to set the stage and create an environment in which others were willing and able to do the hard work of innovation. This requires emotional resilience, courage, and patience to expand diversity of thought and navigate potential conflict, while having options open so that even opposing ideas can be integrated into creative and useful ways.
These people must master three interconnected functions: architect, bridger, and catalyst. Leader as an architect requires leaders to create the culture and capabilities that will encourage everyone within an organization to be willing and able to innovate. Innovation matters more, and digital tools and data are key enablers of co-creation. They must build the mindsets and behaviors that are required for co-creation and encourage team members to work closely with people outside the organization.
The leader as a Bridger needs to learn how to access talent and tools that cannot be found within the walls of a single department, division, or organization. The Bridger must establish social connections across organizations and geographies with a sense of mutual trust, influence, and commitment.
Learning to Let Go of Formal Authority
More and more leaders will find themselves having to perform the functions of the architect, the Bridger, and the catalyst without traditional power or authority. When people first become leaders, most believe that their power derives from their position in the hierarchy. Yet they soon discover that their direct reports, especially the most talented, don’t follow orders.
It is commitment is what they need, not compliance. If people aren’t committed, they won’t take the effort, or the risks required to execute or engage in incremental innovation. Formal authority is a limited power source in leading innovation because innovation is voluntary. Command and control don’t work; leaders must invite people to innovate and give them space.
Leaders get their organizations to become agile, innovative powerhouses, able to move from idea to impact. They must be prepared to transform themselves. That means getting comfortable exercising influence well beyond their formal authority. It also means collaborating, experimenting, and learning with unusual suspects inside and outside their organizations.
Summary
This chapter explores the evolving characteristics of leadership for the future, emphasizing the shift from traditional leadership roles to new roles: architect, bridger, and catalyst. These leaders must foster an innovative mindset and paradigm, focusing on co-creating the future with diverse teams. The chapter highlights the importance of democratizing innovation and leading the paradoxes of innovation, such as balancing bottom-up creativity.
Leadership Transition to Being Responsible
Leadership is taking responsibility while others are making excuses. – John Maxwell
Many people are promoted or recruited into leadership positions without understanding the fundamental philosophy of leadership. As a new school administrator, thinking that if I opened the building in the morning, ran the copier to help the staff, or met with faculty as a superintendent, I was doing what others are paid to do. Not surprisingly, after the expectation that you will continue to do those things, you will be criticized for not continuing to do those jobs. While it might have seemed at the time to be helpful and accessible, it turns out to be infringing on another’s responsibility. It is a “no-win” situation.
In the article Leadership Transition to Being Responsible for the Job by Simon Sinek, he explains that it is all about people. It is not about doing their job. When you are a leader, you are no longer responsible for doing the job; you are now responsible for inspiring, coaching, mentoring, and motivating your team to become the best version of themselves, which will help them produce their very best work.
Many new leaders are grossly over-managed and severely under-lead. The talents that make a person successful in a previous, non-leadership role are rarely the same ones that will make them excel as leaders.
When a leader can inspire and empower their team to become the very best version of themselves by challenging their assumptions of what they can accomplish, they can now empower their team to believe in the impossible and produce incredible results to the astonishment of many.
Summary
Many new leaders tend to over-manage and under-lead, relying on skills that made them successful in previous non-leadership roles, which may differ from the qualities needed for effective leadership.
Seven Stages of the Leadership
Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if it must be without one, be with strategy. – Norman Schwarzkopf
When coming into an existing organization where emotions are high, relationships must be established, and the members of the organization harbor expectations that you still need to be fully aware of. Followers were watching. In an article by Warren Bennis, titled The Seven Ages of the Leader, he explains that every new leader faces the misgivings, misperceptions, and personal needs and agendas of those to be led. One way to learn about leadership is to look at each of these developmental stages and consider the issues and crises that are typical of each.
First: The Critical Entry
To underestimate the importance of your first moves is to invite disaster. The critical entry is one of several passages—each with an element of personal crisis—that every leader must go through at some point during a career. When you make major changes in the first six months, they will inevitably be perceived as arbitrary, autocratic, and unfair, as much for their timing as for their content. Knowing what to expect can help the leader survive and, and with luck, become stronger and more confident.
On the brink of becoming a leader, the world that lies ahead is mysterious and frightening. One mark of a future leader is the ability to identify, woo, and win a mentor. You may feel lonely in your first leadership position, but you won’t be unsupported.
Second: On Stage and First Impressions The first leadership experience is an agonizing education. Nothing else in life fully prepares you to be responsible for other people’s well-being. Worse, you must learn how to do the job in public, subjected to unsettling scrutiny of your every word and act, a situation that’s profoundly unnerving. Like it or not, as a new leader, you are always onstage, and everything about you is fair game for comment, criticism, and interpretation (or misinterpretation). Your first acts will win people over, or they will turn people against you, sometimes permanently. And those initial acts may have a long-lasting effect on the group’s performance. Therefore, it is almost always best for the novice to make a low-key entry. This buys you time to gather information and develop relationships wisely. It allows you to learn the organization’s culture and benefit from the wisdom of those already there.
A quiet entry allows the group members to demonstrate what they know. It allows you to establish that you are open to the contributions of others. It shows them that you are a leader, not a dictator. It is worth noting that, no matter what your first actions are, you can influence other people’s image of you only to a limited extent. People under your leadership will have formed an opinion about you by the time you walk into the office, even if they have never met you. They may love you, hate you, trust, or distrust you, but they’ve probably taken a stand, and their position may have very little to do with who you are. To some degree, all leaders are created from the needs, wants, fears, and longings of those who follow them. The first challenge is not to take your new followers’ assessments too personally. The second—and far trickier—challenge is to embrace that certain elements of their assessments may be accurate, even if they put you in an unflattering light.
Third: Listening and Trust
For the leader who has come up through the ranks, one of the toughest is how to relate to former colleagues who now report to you. Setting boundaries and fine-tuning your working relationships with former peers is difficult. Relationships inevitably change when a person is promoted from within the ranks. You may no longer be able to speak openly as you once did, and your friends may feel awkward around you or resent you. They may perceive you as lording your position over them when you’re just behaving as a leader should. The challenge for the newcomer knows whom to listen to and whom to trust. Leaders new to an organization are swamped with claims on their time and attention. Often, the person who makes the most noise is the neediest in the group and the one you must be most wary of.
Knowing what to pay attention to is just as important and difficult. In their efforts to effect change, leaders coming into new organizations are often thwarted by an unconscious conspiracy to preserve the status quo. Problem after problem will be dumped in your lap—plenty of new ones and a bulging archive of issues left unresolved by previous administrations—and responding to them ensures you will never have time to pursue your agenda. The cumulative effect of handling each of these items matters because it keeps you from addressing what was truly important: articulating a vision and persuading the rest of the community to embrace it as their own. At this stage, an inability to delegate effectively can be disastrous.
Newcomers find themselves at some point having to ask others to leave the organization—firing them, to put it bluntly. This is always a painful task, if only because it usually devastates the person being let go, and the timing is never opportune. There’s little available to guide leaders on how to do this awful business humanely; only remember that you have people’s emotional lives in your hands in such circumstances as surely as any surgeon or lover does.
Fourth: Ascendancy to Nurture.
Over time, leaders grow comfortable with the role. This comfort brings confidence and conviction but can also snap the connection between leader and followers.
Two things can happen: Leaders may forget the true impact of their words and actions and assume their hearing is accurate. The more effective the leader is, the more careful he or she must be because followers hear about an idea that is little more than a passing thought. Followers don’t tell leaders everything.
A second challenge for leaders in their ascendancy is to nurture those people whose stars may shine as brightly as—or even brighter than—the leaders’ own. In many ways, this is a leader’s real test of character. Authentic leaders are generous. They’re human and may experience the occasional pang at watching someone accomplish something they cannot. But they are always willing—even anxious—to hire people who are better than them, partly because they know that highly talented people can help them shine. Many of the greatest leaders have healthy enough egos to surround themselves with people who have the potential to steal their jobs.
Fifth: The Wise General
One of the greatest challenges a leader faces at the height of his or her career is not simply allowing people to speak the truth but being able to hear it. Among the many ways to block the flow of information upward is to limit the pool of people and, thus, the number of people involved. Arrogance keeps those from building the alliances and coalitions that every leader needs. Their egos are not so fragile that they cannot bear the truth, however harsh—not because they are saints but because it is the surest way to succeed and survive.
There is wisdom in avoiding major change in the early months of a new position. At this stage, the challenge is different because leaders in their careers are frequently brought in with a specific mandate to bring about change, and their actions directly and immediately impact an organization’s long-term fortunes.
Hesitation can be disastrous. However, you still need to understand the mood and motivations of the people already in the company before you act. The world is filled with stories of leaders who failed to achieve greatness because they failed to understand the context they were working in or get the support of their underlings.
Sixth: The Statesman
The sixth age covers the years in which a leader’s power begins to wane. The leader in this stage is often hard at work preparing to pass on his or her wisdom in the organization’s interest. The leader may also be called upon to play important interim roles, bolstered by the knowledge and perception that come with age and experience without the sometimes-distracting ambition that characterizes an early career.
One of the gratifying roles that people in a late career can play is the leadership equivalent of a pinch hitter. One who could immediately apply a career’s worth of experience to a crisis and whose tenure was unsullied by any desire to keep the job for the long term.
Consider, too, because they accomplished all their goals and were tired of the politics associated with his job. The ability to perform an even better job than a younger person might have, not only because he brought a lifetime’s worth of knowledge and experience but also because they didn’t have to waste time engaging in the political machinations often needed to advance a career.
Seventh: The Sage
Mentoring has tremendous value to a new leader. The value helps the mentor as well. Mentoring is one of the great joys of a mature career, the professional equivalent of having grandchildren. The true nature of mentoring, it’s inevitable reciprocity, and finding and cementing a relationship with a mentor is not a form of fawning but initiating a valuable relationship for both individuals. When you mentor, you know that what you have achieved will not be lost and that you are leaving a professional legacy for future generations. The reciprocal benefits of such bonds are profound, amounting to much more than warm feelings on both sides.
Summary
This chapter outlines the seven stages of leadership, from the critical entry to becoming a sage mentor. It highlights leaders’ challenges and responsibilities at each stage of their careers and underscores the importance of self-awareness, adaptability, and mentorship in leadership development.
Competence and Confidence
A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. – Douglas MacArthur
One of the characteristics of a leader is competence. Competence, but while critical, there needs to be confidence. Some colleagues advance in their professional careers more than others. Why, when we have the talent, are passed over? It’s a familiar feeling: while we are busy doing a good job, others advance much faster.
In many cases, the answer is that your contributions need to be seen and recognized. One important reason this happens is that people are not great at assessing competence — a crucial trait for succeeding at work — and perceptions of competence are just as important for success as actual competence. But don’t results mostly speak for themselves? They don’t.
In a Havard Business review article by Jack Nasher, titled To Seem More Competent, Be More Confident he explains that people tend to evaluate competence based on many factors, meaning you have to do more than achieve results to convince them of your expertise.
Demonstrating confidence in your abilities is one way to do this. Researchers have scrutinized the effects of projecting confidence versus modesty, gathering contradictory conclusions.
Projecting confidence does lead to positive effects, but only when it is non-comparative. In other words: praising your competence seems fine, as long as you do not claim that others are incompetent.
But why do people consider confident others more competent, even when their performance suggests otherwise? One explanation is that we tend to believe what we are told and to confirm our beliefs by selecting information that supports them. So, if you project confidence, others tend to believe you know what you’re talking about, and they will filter contradictory information.
While it’s unwise to project fake confidence when you know you won’t perform well, being too modest likely won’t serve you well. People tend to penalize humble people and choose the confident ones. Modesty is regarded as hedging against possible failure, an attempt to take the wind out of critics’ sails. If the expert doesn’t trust their abilities, how could anyone else? To convince others of your abilities, you should make it a habit to communicate that you are good at what you do — without self-deprecation regarding your core competencies.
We first have to convince ourselves to feel more authentic in demonstrating confidence. Ask yourself: What am I good at? What was my most tremendous success so far? Why should I lead others? What do I know that they don’t? If you have difficulty answering these questions, you have a problem — how should you convince others of your expertise if you aren’t convinced?
An axiom worth noting is “Praise yourself daringly because something always sticks.” If you want to ensure that your achievements are recognized, think about how your leader and colleagues see you and your abilities. Do they have a good sense of your competence and expertise? If not, could you demonstrate more confidence in your tasks? This doesn’t necessarily mean praising yourself at every opportunity but projecting an optimistic attitude. You will be recognized for your competence and contributions by displaying more confidence in your abilities.
Siummary
This chapter emphasizes the importance of being competent and projecting confidence in leadership. It highlights the role of perception in leadership success. It offers guidance on how to strike the right balance between confidence and modesty to ensure that others recognize and acknowledge your competence.
Five Variables for Success
We are all leaders – whether we want to be or not. There is always someone we are influencing – either leading them to good – or away from good. – Leif Erikson
Leadership, while complex and challenging, there are behaviors that separate the “want to be” and the authentic. In the article Want to Become a Better Leader? Question Your Assumptions by Adam Grant are five key variables that can provide insight on becoming more effective and successful as a leader.
The first is a resistance to new ideas. Considering new data-driven evidence can leave you better prepared for the future.
The second is acknowledging your shortcomings and asking questions to learn about the other person’s perspective.
The third is encouraging discussion, where people build on each other and challenge each other.
The fourth is that success depends on your ability to make other people successful. No matter how high you climb in your career, you cannot succeed alone. In fact, the higher you climb, the more your success depends on the ability to make other people successful.
The fifth is that leadership is not a “soft skill.” It’s one of the hardest things to master. Every circumstance is different, and it requires a level of emotional intelligence, intellect, and interpersonal skills.
Summary
This chapter underscores the importance of these five variables for becoming a more effective and successful leader. It emphasizes the need for openness to new ideas, self-awareness, fostering constructive discussions, empowering others, and recognizing the multifaceted nature of leadership as essential components of authentic leadership.
The Unintended Consequences of Power
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou
There are several unintended consequences of power. Today’s leaders no longer can expect nor endeavor to use power as the path to effective leadership of an organization. Power is gained through force, coercion, or manipulation – none of which can be sustained for long-term success for the leader and the organization.
Following are some of the unintended consequences of power in leadership.
Abuse of Power: Those who hold power may misuse it to serve their interests, even if it harms others. They may use their power to gain personal benefits or intimidate and control others.
Corruption: Power can create an environment where people may engage in unethical or corrupt practices to achieve their goals. This can lead to a loss of public trust and damage to the reputation of those in power.
Groupthink: When those in power surround themselves with like-minded individuals, they may become isolated from different perspectives and viewpoints, leading to groupthink. This can lead to poor decision-making, as alternative perspectives and viewpoints are not considered.
Resistance and Opposition: Those who feel oppressed or marginalized by those in power may resist or oppose them, leading to conflict and tension. This can lead to social unrest, violence, or even revolution.
Overconfidence: People in positions of power may become overconfident and feel that they are invincible or above the law. This can lead to poor decision-making and a disregard for the consequences of their actions.
Alienation: Those who are not in positions of power may feel alienated or powerless, leading to feelings of frustration, anger, and resentment towards those who are in power.
To minimize their negative impact on others, listen to feedback and criticism, seek diverse perspectives and viewpoints, and be transparent and accountable for their decisions and actions.
Some of the Unintended Consequences of Leadership?
Blind Spots and Bias: Leaders may have blind spots or biases that prevent them from seeing the bigger picture or considering alternative perspectives. This can lead to poor decision-making and a lack of creativity and innovation.
Micromanagement: Leaders may need to control every aspect of their organization or team, leading to micromanagement. This leads to a lack of trust, employee dissatisfaction, and decreased productivity.
Burnout and Health: Leaders may be so focused on achieving their goals that they neglect their well-being and that of their team members. This can lead to burnout, stress, and poor mental health.
Groupthink: As with power, leaders may surround themselves with like-minded individuals, leading to groupthink. This can lead to poor decision-making and a lack of innovation.
Disengagement and Isolation: Leaders may need to engage with their team members or provide them with meaningful feedback and recognition. This can lead to disengagement, low morale, and decreased productivity.
Resistance and Opposition: Leaders may face resistance and opposition from team members or stakeholders who feel their interests must be adequately represented or addressed.
To minimize the unintended consequences of leadership, leaders need to be self-aware, seek out diverse perspectives, and be open to feedback and criticism. Leaders should also prioritize their well-being and that of their team members and strive to create a culture of transparency, trust, and collaboration.
Summary
This chapter highlights the unintended consequences of relying on power as a leadership strategy. It emphasizes that modern leaders should avoid coercive and manipulative tactics and instead focus on ethical and inclusive leadership approaches to achieve long-term success for themselves and their organizations.
Why Would You Want to Be a Leader?
Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult. – Warren Bennis
People pursue leadership roles for various reasons, and there are benefits and downsides to being a leader.
Motivations for Wanting to Be a Leader:
Influence and Impact: Many individuals aspire to leadership positions to positively impact their organization, community, or society. Leadership allows them to shape decisions and directions that can lead to meaningful change.
Personal Growth: Leadership roles often provide opportunities for personal and professional growth. Leaders are often challenged to develop new skills, improve decision-making, and broaden their perspectives.
Recognition and Status: Leadership positions can bring recognition, prestige, and a sense of accomplishment. Leaders are often respected for their expertise and contributions to their field.
Financial Rewards: Leadership roles often come with higher compensation and financial rewards. This can be a significant motivator for individuals seeking to advance in their careers.
Fulfillment of Passion: Some people become leaders because they are passionate about a particular cause or mission. Leading allows them to pursue their passion and work towards their goals.
Downsides of Being a Leader:
Responsibility: Leadership often comes with significant responsibilities, including making tough decisions, managing conflicts, and dealing with crises.
Stress and Pressure: Leaders often experience high levels of stress and pressure due to the weight of their responsibilities and expectations.
Work-Life Balance: Achieving a work-life balance can be challenging for leaders, as they may be required to work long hours or be on call to address issues.
Criticism and Accountability: Leaders are often subject to criticism and must be accountable for their decisions, even if they are unpopular.
Burnout: Leadership demands can lead to burnout if not managed effectively, impacting physical and mental health.
Lack of Privacy: Leaders often have a reduced level of privacy, as others scrutinize their actions and decisions.
Summary
This chapter delves into the various motivations that drive individuals to pursue leadership roles and the challenges of being a leader. It highlights that while leadership can offer opportunities for growth, recognition, and impact, it also carries significant responsibilities, stress, and potential downsides that individuals must consider when aspiring to leadership positions.
Part Two: Leadership and the Superintendent
“The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what needs to be done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
Six Statements of Every Profession
Every profession has guidelines and expectations for its members. Dr. Lee Shulman, Past President of the American Educational Research Association, presents a list of qualities of the profession of educators. These qualities highlight the uniqueness of our profession and how we need to continue serving others, testing theories, improving the practice, being comfortable by being out of step with others, making judgments, dealing with uncertainty, and sharing our knowledge.
Service: The goal of a profession is service–the pursuit of important ends. Professionals are educated to serve others using bodies of knowledge and skills not readily available to others on the street. The core meaning of a profession is that organized practice of complex knowledge and skill is the service of others.
Theory: When we call something a profession, we are not only claiming that the skills, strategies, processes, and procedures that the professional undertakes are far too complex for the average person to perform, we are claiming that such a complex body of skills and practice rest in large measure on the body of theory, understanding, and research.
Practice: It is not professional knowledge unless and until it is enacted in the crucible of the field. Part of what it means to be a professional and a professional educator is that you are purposely out of step. If you are not out of step and not advocating positions different from those of the average parent and the average person, you probably need to do your job. Our job is to be just enough out of step to read the needed changes in the professional community.
Judgment: Judgment appears because life is uncertain life, as it plays itself out in our everyday activities, doesn’t correspond to our generalizations about how the world is in general, and, for the most part, doesn’t repeat itself. Our lives as professionals are best characterized by the unexpected and the unpredictable. The parts of the world in which we need professionals are parts of the world characterized by high degrees of uncertainty Although we use theory and learned practice, the bottom line is what we must learn is judgment. Judgment is essentially that set of intuiting, deciding, or discerning reasoning that one undertakes in the presence of novel combinations of uncertain elements, where one must make the best estimate of decisions about what to do next. Judgment is the hallmark of what our profession is.
Experience: Experience occurs when theory and practice when design and change collide. Experience is what you have when you can be thoughtful about the consequences of a collision of design and chance. Experience results from an encounter where an uncertain situation leads to an act of judgment, actions are taken, and consequences follow.
Communities of Practice: The sixth principle is the principle of a professional community because learning from experience is a very situated, very limited, very personal, very individual matter. Individual experiential learning isn’t sufficient to guide, much less provide grounds to judge. Professional community members come together because they recognize how interdependent they are. They recognize that they need access to bodies of experience beyond their own.
Summary
These six commonplaces characterize every profession, emphasizing the importance of service, theory, practice, judgment, experience, and the support of professional communities. These principles apply broadly across various fields, reflecting what it means to be a professional and contribute meaningfully to one’s chosen profession.
Characteristics of Today’s Superintendent
In leadership, particularly the school superintendent, friends seem to come and go, but enemies seem to accumulate. Jack McKay
The characteristics of school superintendents can vary widely depending on factors such as location, district size, and other demographics. However, here are some general trends.
Age: According to a report from the American Association of School Administrators, the average age of school superintendents in the United States is 53. However, there is a wide range of ages among superintendents, with some in their 30s and others in their 70s.
Highest Degree: Many school superintendents have earned at least a master’s and doctorate degrees. According to the same report from the American Association of School Administrators, over 90% of superintendents hold a master’s degree or higher.
Gender: While many teachers are women, school superintendent positions are still largely held by men. According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, in the 2018-19 school year, only 24% of superintendents in public school districts were women.
Length of Tenure: School superintendent tenure can vary widely depending on the individual and the district. According to the same report from the American Association of School Administrators, the average tenure for a superintendent is around three and a half years. However, some superintendents stay in their position for much longer, while others may leave after just a few months.
It’s important to note that these characteristics are not necessarily predictive of success as a school superintendent.
These characteristics provide a general overview of the demographics of school superintendents but do not necessarily predict their success in the role.
Why Would an Educator Want to be a Superintendent?
Great leaders don’t set out to be leaders; they set out to make a difference. It’s never about the role; it’s always about the goal. – Lisa Haisha
Some successful educators may aspire to become school superintendents for various reasons, and like any leadership role, there are benefits and shortcomings associated with this position. Following are some general reasons for desiring to be a school superintendent.
Many educators become superintendents because they want a broader and more significant impact on the education system. As superintendents, they can influence policies, programs, and practices that affect an entire school district. They can lead and make critical decisions that shape the district’s educational direction. They can implement innovative strategies and improvements. Some are passionate advocates for quality education. The position allows them to champion causes they believe in, such as equitable education, special needs support, or educational reform.
They can be involved in continuous learning and professional development. This can lead to personal and career growth, allowing them to broaden their skills and knowledge.
The position allows them to interact with various groups, including parents, teachers, students, and community members. This role can be rewarding for those who enjoy community engagement and collaboration. Superintendents can create a positive environment that benefits teachers, parents, and students by developing trust and healthy communication.
Other reasons may be:
Superintendents significantly influence a school district’s educational direction. They can implement changes that benefit students, teachers, and the community.
Serving as a superintendent allows them to develop strong leadership skills, including decision-making, problem-solving, and strategic planning. The positions often come with competitive salaries and benefits, reflecting the level of responsibility and leadership required.
They can influence the success in improving student outcomes, and seeing others thrive can be highly satisfying, contributing to the job. They can also build extensive networks of other professionals, which can be valuable for professional growth and collaboration.
With every reason why the school superintendence would be a good fit, there are some downsides to the position. Superintendents face high expectations from various stakeholders, including school boards, parents, teachers, and the community. Meeting these expectations can be challenging.
The role of the superintendent is demanding and can be stressful, especially during budget crises, labor disputes, or when making tough decisions that affect staff and students. They are often subject to public scrutiny and criticism, which can be emotionally taxing. The position may require long hours, including evenings and weekends, to attend board meetings and school events and handle emergencies. Managing a school district involves complex issues such as budgeting, curriculum development, personnel management, and legal matters, which can be overwhelming.
School superintendent positions can be politically charged, as they often involve navigating the interests and agendas of various stakeholders, including school boards and local politicians. Dealing with unhappy people, budget restrictions, and naysayers may be difficult, but embracing these challenges allows superintendents to respond creatively and grow professionally.
Teachers and principals may aspire to become school superintendents to have a broad and positive impact on education. However, this role comes with significant responsibilities, stress, and challenges, but it can also be highly rewarding for those committed to improving education and leading school districts. Aspiring superintendents should carefully weigh these factors against their career goals and personal aspirations.
Comments:
An 11-year veteran as superintendent, Dr. Laurie Barron, of a relatively small district near Kalispell, Montana, provides insight into a typical path to the superintendence.
In the spirit of transparency, I never initially aspired to the superintendence. I was a long-term building assistant principal and principal (11 years) and did not want to move to a superintendence. I had heard and seen so many things that seemed less desirable associated with the superintendence (law, policy, budget, board relations, etc.), that I had no interest. I enjoyed our school community, where I felt I had a much more significant and lasting impact on improving student outcomes.
If not for my involvement with my national association (NASSP) and for other educational leaders and mentors who continually supported and encouraged me and helped me see the overall “bigger” picture (and a wonderful opportunity to live in the most incredible place on earth–northwest Montana), I don’t think I would have taken the chance on the superintendence.
I am now in year 11 of my superintendence in the same district (the same years I spent as a building administrator). I can truly see and know how strong district leadership and topics I shied away from before (law, policy, budget, board relations, etc.) have a significant impact on improving student outcomes.
I truly enjoy working with a strong, effective, and trusting board that supports staff and students and allows me to support staff and students better. My role positively impacts all district areas in meeting our vision and mission.
Despite the challenges, many educators find the role of superintendent to be personally and professionally rewarding, as it allows them to make a lasting impact on education and contribute to the success of students and their communities. Some superintendents may not initially aspire to the role but eventually embrace it and discover its significance in improving student outcomes and the overall educational system. Dr. Laurie Barron, Superintendent, Evergreen school District (Kalispell, MT)
Dr. Jim Sutfin
As I progressed through my career from teacher to superintendent, I was fortunate enough to serve in multiple capacities: teacher, coach, assistant principal, principal, director, assistant superintendent, and superintendent. Along my path I was blessed to always have a mentor. From the best assistant principal as my supervisor as a teacher to the retiring superintendent that I succeeded.
I can’t say that I always aspired to be the superintendent. I aspired to do the very best that I could in the position I was in. The mentors along the way helped guide me to see that I was capable of serving and giving more.
When my former superintendent decided to retire, I saw the opportunity to serve the district that I graduated from. Taking this job was deeply personal and each day I was grateful to serve to the best of my ability. Deciding to retire was one of the most difficult decisions I ever made because of the deep connection to hundreds of staff members that I served with for many years.
Developing others and helping them find their leadership journey has been my priority. Helping others, just like those who helped me on my journey has and is the most rewarding part of being an educator. Dr. Jim Sutfin, former Superintendent of the Millard Community Schools (Omaha)
Analogies – The Board and the Superintendent
Leadership is not about executive position or title. It is about connection and influence. At its highest, leadership is all about adding value to the world and blessing lives through the work you do.
— Robin S. Sharma
Captain and Crew: The school board is like the owner of a ship, setting the course and making decisions about the district’s direction, while the superintendent is like the captain, responsible for executing the plan and ensuring that everyone is working together effectively.
Board of directors and the CEO: The school board is like the board of directors of a company, setting the vision and overall strategy, while the superintendent is like the CEO, responsible for implementing the plan and ensuring that everyone is working towards the same goals.
Owner and Coach of the Team: The school board is like the owners of a sports team, providing guidance and strategy, while the superintendent is like the coach, responsible for executing the plays and working together to achieve a common goal.
It is a marriage –
Shared Decision-Making: In a marriage, both partners typically make significant decisions jointly.
Interdependence: Like in a marriage, the superintendent and school board are interdependent.
Collective Vision: A successful marriage often involves a shared vision and common goals between partners.
Conflict Resolution: Just as conflicts and disagreements can arise in a marriage, differences of opinion and conflicts may emerge between the superintendent and school board.
Long-Term Commitment: Marriage is often viewed as a lifelong commitment, and the relationship between the superintendent and school board is similarly expected to be long-term.
Summary
These analogies provide valuable insights into the roles, responsibilities, and dynamics between school boards and superintendents, emphasizing the importance of collaboration, shared goals, and effective communication in achieving success within the education system.
What Sets Successful Superintendents Apart?
Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing. – Jack Welch
Of course, there are good and poor leaders. In the Harvard Business Review, Botelho and others described executive leadership differences in the corporate environment. These differences can be adapted to the superintendent’s role in leading a school district.
The school superintendent’s role is a tough one to fill. In the past ten years, almost a quarter of the superintendent’s departures were involuntary. Those figures are discouraging for school boards with the hard task of selecting and keeping school leaders and consequential to any leader aspiring to the superintendence.
Clearly, many otherwise capable school leaders and boards need to be corrected. The question is, what? There needs to be more clarity between what school boards think makes for an ideal superintendent and what leads to high performance. That disconnect starts with an unrealistic yet attractive stereotype.
A successful leader is thought to be a charismatic six-foot-tall white man with a major degree who is a strategic visionary with a seemingly direct-to-the-top career path and the ability to make perfect decisions under pressure. However, only some fit the image, and fewer find success.
The goal is to identify the specific attributes that differentiate high-performing superintendents. While governing boards often gravitate toward charismatic extroverts, introverts are slightly more likely to surpass the expectations of their boards. Almost all leadership candidates had made major mistakes in the past, and almost half had at least one major career blowup that resulted in termination.
Regarding the superintendent’s advanced degree, such as a doctorate, there is no universally agreed-upon correlation between effectiveness and success. While advanced degrees can provide valuable knowledge and skills, however, other factors, including experience, leadership abilities, and situational factors, play a more significant role in the superintendent’s effectiveness.
Often, high confidence more than doubles a candidate’s chances of being chosen as the superintendent but provides no advantage in performance on the job. What makes candidates look good to boards often has little connection to what makes them succeed?
Leaders tend to demonstrate four specific behaviors that prove critical to their performance. When school boards focus on those behaviors in their selection and development processes, they significantly increase their chances of hiring the right leader.
The Four Behaviors.
It’s rare for successful leaders to excel at all four behaviors. (a) Deciding with speed and conviction, (b) Engaging for Impact, (c) Adapting proactively, and (d) Delivering reliably. These principles of effective leadership are generally associated with leadership effectiveness in various fields. Leaders who exhibit these behaviors tend to have a greater likelihood of success. Here is how each behavior can contribute to leadership effectiveness:
One: Deciding with Speed and Conviction: Leaders who make decisions promptly and with confidence can help organizations respond quickly to challenges and opportunities. Research in decision-making often emphasizes the importance of decisiveness and the ability to balance thorough analysis with timely action. Good leaders realize that a wrong decision may be better than no decision at all. While the quality of their decisions is often good because they pursue the perfect answer, they can take too long to make choices or set clear priorities—and their teams pay a high price.
These smart but slow decision-makers become bottlenecks, and their teams either grow frustrated (which can lead to the attrition of valuable talent) or become overcautious, stalling the process. Decisive leaders recognize that they can’t wait for perfect information. Employees and other key constituencies will quickly lose faith in leaders who waffle or backtrack once a decision is made. Every leader makes mistakes, but most of them are not lethal. Of leaders who were terminated over issues related to decision-making, a third lost their jobs because they made bad calls; two-thirds were non-renewed for being indecisive.
Two: Engaging for Impact: Effective leaders are often skilled communicators and collaborators. They engage with their teams, stakeholders, and communities to build relationships, gain buy-in, and drive positive change. Engagement fosters a sense of shared purpose and commitment among team members. They had an insight into their employee’s priorities, needs and motivations, engaged other administrators, faculty, and staff, excelled at bringing others along, knew the strong leaders who needed to be on board., knew the detractors and their concerns, were aware of how their moods and body language can affect the impact of their communications, demonstrated calm under pressure, did not invest their energy in being liked or protected their teams from painful decisions, did not shy away from conflict in the pursuit of school district goals, had the ability to handle clashing viewpoints also seems to help candidates advance in their careers, good at engagement by giving everyone a voice but not a vote, did not default to consensus-driven decision-making. Consensus is good, but it’s too slow, and sometimes you end up with the lowest common denominator.
Some leaders have unstructured meetings with 20 to 30 of the district’s key administrative team leaders before making key decisions. Those meetings aim to challenge him and present them with new perspectives but is careful not to create the illusion of democracy. None of this means that leaders should behave as autocrats or lone wolves. Typically, “take no prisoners” leaders last only as long as the district has no choice but to end the contract. These leaders often get ousted because they lose the support of their team or of board members. It’s no coincidence that the careers of short-term superintendents are frequently a series of two- to three-year stints; they put out the fires and then move on to the next school district.
Three: Adapting Proactively. Adaptability is a crucial leadership trait in today’s rapidly changing world. Superintendents who can proactively anticipate change, pivot when necessary, and guide their organizations through transitions are more likely to achieve success. They are constantly faced with situations where a playbook cannot exist. They are ready to adapt. They spent as much as half of their time thinking about the long term and could pick up on early signals. They recognize that setbacks are integral to changing course and treat their mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow. Adaptable superintendents give matter-of-fact accounts of where and why they came up with short and specific examples of how they tweaked their approach to do better next time. The strong leaders were prepared to deal with setbacks.
Four: Delivering Reliably: Reliability and consistency in delivering results are key to leadership effectiveness. Superintendents who set clear expectations, meet their commitments, and ensure team accountability tend to build trust and credibility. They could reliably deliver results – the most powerful of the four essential leadership behaviors. School boards love a steady hand and trust predictable leaders. Reliable superintendents set realistic expectations upfront. They rapidly assessed the district to develop their point of view on what is realistic and work to align expectations. They established management systems that included consistency of meetings, metrics dashboards, clear accountability, and multiple channels for monitoring performance.
Unfortunately, the most common mistake among first-time leaders was not getting the right team in place quickly enough. They are skilled at choosing talent with high stakes, and the misses are obvious, and move decisively to upgrade talent. They set a high bar and focus on performance relevant to the role rather than personal comfort or loyalty—two criteria that often lead to bad calls.
Educational leadership research often emphasizes the importance of leadership practices such as communication, decision-making, adaptability, and accountability. Leaders who exhibit these behaviors are more likely to foster positive educational outcomes and effectively lead their districts. Additionally, the superintendent is influenced by behaviors, skills, experiences, and situational factors. Therefore, while these behaviors can contribute to leadership effectiveness, they should be considered within the broader culture of the school district, the community, and the leaders’ specific challenges.
Conclusion
To be clear, no perfect mix of the four behaviors works for every leadership position. The school district and the community context determine which behaviors and skills are most important in any situation. A leader in a rapidly changing environment—for example, technology—will surely need to excel in adapting proactively.
What about integrity and work ethic qualities? While critical. They will not help separate the best from the rest. Interestingly, 100% of low-performing leaders scored high on integrity, and 97% scored high on work ethic.
Unattainable pedigree. Nor is there a ‘silver bullet” about the key ingredients: decisiveness, the ability to engage others, adaptability, and reliability. No “one size fits all” approach of focusing on these essential behaviors will improve both a board’s likelihood of renewing the contract of the leader, but the chances of succeeding in the role are likely to be greatly improved.
Summary
This chapter explores the qualities and behaviors that set successful superintendents apart. It challenges the common stereotypes and expectations associated with leadership and provides insights into the attributes that differentiate high-performing superintendents.
Career Phases of the School Superintendent
The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. – Ralph Nader
The career phases of a leader can be broadly categorized into three phases:
Early Career Phase: Superintendents typically focus on developing their technical and functional skills in the early career phase. They may work on acquiring knowledge, skills, and experience in a specific area of expertise. The development of leadership potential and the building of a professional network also characterize this phase.
Mid-Career Phase: Leaders take on more significant roles and responsibilities in the mid-career phase. They may begin to manage teams and projects and focus on developing their leadership skills. This phase is also marked by developing a leadership style and the ability to influence others.
Late-Career Phase: In the late-career phase, superintendents often hold the positions and significantly influence the school district. They may focus on strategic planning, decision-making, and creating a legacy. This phase is also marked by a focus on mentorship and developing the next generation of leaders.
It’s important to note that the career phases of a superintendent are not necessarily linear and can vary based on individual experiences and circumstances. These phases may overlap or occur in different orders depending on the leader’s career path and goals.
These career phases are not rigid or linear. Individual experiences, circumstances, and career goals can lead superintendents to move through these phases in various ways. Some superintendents may experience overlapping phases or follow a different order based on their unique career paths and aspirations.
Tenacity with Grit and the Superintendency
Grit is passion and perseverance for the long-term goals. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in day-out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years. And working hard to make that future a reality. – Angela Duckworth
At its most basic level, leadership tenacity is about working hard and intelligent over a sustained period. An article by Klocko and others in the Journal of Education Leadership Journal, Leadership Tenacity and Public-School Superintendents, provides insight into the complexities of leading school systems while challenging social issues and unsettled economic times.
School superintendents face increasing pressures to adapt to mounting expectations from diverse populations, increase academic performance, balance operating budgets with reduced funding allocations, and respond to unpredictable social media commentary. They didn’t embrace tenacity but rather humility and passion for their work.
The superintendents ‘ leadership grit, resilience, and tenacity were covert until they had adequately worked hard and worked smart over a sustained time.
Superintendents with tenacity rely on their leadership strength and are solution-oriented in the face of adversity. They are strategic and understand that to maintain strength; they must consciously seek a healthy balance and reserve time for rest and renewal. In general, they have strong personal and professional support networks. They tend to be more highly motivated to utilize their skills and assets to improve outcomes.
Resiliency contributes greatly to the tenacity of a superintendent when faced with the challenges of school leadership. Resilience is complex and multidimensional, describing the complexity of resiliency as a “dynamic process that enables the individual to respond or adapt under adverse situations.” Resilience stems, in part, from the capacity and opportunity to understand the role of adversity in one’s life and the role of individuals and groups to challenge systems of inequity and discrimination. Coping may result in accepting the unacceptable.
Superintendents with a tenacious leadership mindset tended to use deeper approaches and critical strategies to improve their performance and self-regulate their motivations and emotional responses to a crisis.
Summary
This chapter underscores the importance of leadership tenacity, grit, and resilience in the role of school superintendents. It highlights the complexity of their responsibilities and the need for a strong, solution-oriented, and resilient mindset to navigate the challenges and uncertainties of educational leadership effectively.
Stay Close to the Culture of the Community
“Culture eats good planning for lunch and has the contract renewal consideration for dessert. – Jack McKay
One of the significant differences between being a successful and unsuccessful superintendent is appreciating the school district and community culture. Today, leadership of a school system is always a challenge. Even with having the technical and social skills, knowing the culture of the community is far more essential to grasp and appreciate.
A definition of culture is a term that refers to a large and diverse set of primarily intangible aspects of social life. “Culture consists of the values, beliefs, systems of language, communication, and practices that people share and that can be used to define them as a collective.”
When reviewing reasons why the superintendent’s contract is not renewed or bought out can usually trace it to a misunderstanding of the school and community’s culture. It is not an inability to lead, but rather not being “culturally” in sync with the school board, employees, and the community.
Metaphorically, it might be like driving on a freeway. You are driving a car with a large S (for Superintendent) painted on the roof. The car in front of you has a large C (for the Culture) painted on the top. Cars behind you are the school board, faculty, and staff, and community members. Imagine the Culture car is going 65 in a 70 MPH zone. As the Superintendent comes up behind the Culture car, they have two choices: follow (staying with the local culture) or pass (moving ahead of the local culture).
Choice #1- As the Superintendent – Follow the Culture car. Some would view this as holding up traffic – the reluctance to make the necessary changes to improve the schools.
Choice #2 – As the Superintendent – Pass the Culture car. If you pass the Culture car, passing could view this in two ways: Some might see you passing as reckless and ignoring the speed limit – the Culture of the school board, faculty, and community’s customs and values. Others may view you as the hero for passing the Culture car and finally doing something necessary and long overdue.
If you pass the Culture car, what happens to the other cars behind you? If they, too, pass the Culture car, you have a following. The other drivers agree that the Culture car needs to pick up the speed up and “symbolically” change the culture.
Now the dilemma is that the driver of the Superintendent car has two choices: Maintain visual contact with the Culture car (staying ahead, but close) or leave the Culture car behind and move forward, not having the Culture car in the rearview mirror.
Losing contact with the Culture car – losing a connection with the local culture – is the position many superintendents face while leading the school system through a change process. Even with the initial support of the school board and the community, if the Culture car is left too far behind, the immediate gains will be lost.
If the Culture car driver stops for lunch, the main course will be long-term planning, and dessert will be the superintendent’s contract renewal.
Summary
This chapter underscores the critical role of cultural alignment in the success of school superintendents. It uses a vivid metaphor to illustrate superintendents’ choices and challenges in navigating cultural dynamics within their school districts and communities, emphasizing the need to balance cultural adaptation, and driving change.
Characteristics of the Successful Superintendent
Effort is one of those things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is import ant to you and you are willing to work for it. – Carol Dweck
However, what makes a successful school leader? How do you become effective as a superintendent? While there is no one solution to successful school leadership, there are certain strategies, skills, traits, and beliefs that many of the most effective school leaders share.
From an article by Joseph Lathan titled Ten Successful Traits of School Superintendents, the following characteristics are common among the most successful school leaders.
They Understand the Importance of Building Community. Effective school leaders build and sustain reciprocal family and community partnerships and leverage those partnerships to cultivate inclusive, caring, and culturally responsive school communities.
They Empower Teachers and Cultivate Leadership Skills. Great school leaders know they are not running a one-man show; they cannot do it alone. They know that they must surround themselves with great teachers and colleagues, and not only that, but they must also fully support teachers and staff by encouraging them to continually learn, develop, and perhaps most important, become leaders themselves.
They Utilize Data and Resources. Successful school leaders use data, including standardized and school-based assessments, to drive continuous improvement through site-based decision-making to promote equitable and culturally responsive opportunities for all students.
They Have a Vision and a Plan. The better superintendents are also visionaries. They have a goal to unite a team and plan to help them get there. Not just that, but they can clearly articulate their school vision and goals.
They Create Collaborative, Inclusive Learning Environments. Inclusive learning provides all students access to flexible learning choices and effective paths for achieving educational goals in spaces where they experience a sense of belonging. The best educators know this and prioritize inclusivity, creating safe learning environments that nurture every student.
They Are Passionate About Their Work. Passion is a critical ingredient for nearly anyone who wants to be successful and happy in their job. But passion is especially important for school leaders, who typically greatly influence their school’s climate and culture.
They Encourage Risk-Taking. What most educators already know is that failure can be the greatest teacher. Just as teachers should encourage risk-taking amongst their students to spur growth, truly effective leaders encourage risk-taking amongst their subordinates and colleagues by creating a supportive environment that rewards successful ideas, initiatives, and effort, no matter the outcome.
They Lead by Example. Superintendents who lead by example position themselves as tremendous role models for not only the students in their school or district but also colleagues and parents.
They Persevere – Stay with a School District for at Least Five Years. Change, while good, can also be disruptive when it occurs too frequently. In the case of school leadership, it has been documented those frequent turnover results What are the specific strategies and techniques for successful leadership in the role of a school superintendent? What are the specific strategies and techniques for successful leadership in the role of a school superintendent in a negative school climate, which hurts student performance? A leader’s commitment displays not only passion but dedication, which can have a tremendously positive effect on school culture.
They Are Lifelong Learners. Perhaps the most important qualities a school leader can possess is the unquenchable thirst for knowledge. They are humble in their knowledge yet confident in their abilities. They’re endlessly curious individuals who never stop questioning and learning.
Summary
Successful superintendents are often characterized by certain traits and behaviors, such as building community partnerships and cultivating inclusive, caring, and culturally responsive school environments. Understanding and appreciating the culture of the school district and community is a fundamental aspect of effective leadership in the superintendence.
Leading the District’s Financial Responsibilities
by Brian Benzel
All will be right with the world when the military must hold a bake sale to buy bombs, and the schools have all the money they need. A retired superintendent
Keeping students and their achievement, health, and safety at the core of leadership priorities is essential. Everything the successful superintendent does must focus on this leadership imperative.
Still, school systems are complex business enterprises that require effective leadership of finance, business operations, facilities maintenance, transportation systems, food services, safety, information technology, and related functions. Each area presents challenges and complexity that can undermine or scuttle the best-laid plans for improving student success.
As an Applicant
Every departing school superintendent leaves a contrail of unresolved issues and emerging challenges. This reality is often not due to leadership failures or prior mistakes; it simply reflects the complex nature of school systems, and that additional information and conditions evolve. Know and understand the challenges of applying for a superintendent position. Certainly, the status of student test score performance, student demographics, the profile of school principals and other teaching and learning executives, and indicators about student progress within the school system are among the issues that must be explored.
Examining the district’s past and current financial condition is also vital. Look for recent reports of the district’s financial audit (the past two or three years are helpful) and the budget for the current school year. Ask these questions based on these documents: student enrollment, federal revenue, staffing, support services, and ending fund balance.
Use publicly available data sources to form an initial understanding of the district’s academic performance and fiscal condition. Usually, the district’s website provides the first level of information, but also check with the regional education agency, the state education agency, and the state auditor. Scan the local newspaper for reports about district issues. These information sources will provide valuable insight to help frame an interview with the Board of Directors. Listen to what directors and district personnel say about these issues, too. Clear conversations with the Board based on these information-gathering efforts will positively prepare the successful candidate to enter the new leadership role.
After being hired for the position. The first two months in office:
Review budget assumptions.
A new superintendent entry plan will include an assessment of the district’s financial condition. The entry plan is developed in consultation with the school board and, as appropriate, the stakeholder community. One non-negotiable element of the entry plan endeavors will be assessing the district’s financial condition. A top priority review will be to examine the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget process may be nearing completion, or a budget may already be adopted when you begin as the new superintendent. Inheriting a budget is normal, but this transition requires careful examination of the assumptions embedded in the budget as soon as possible after beginning service.
Key forward-looking concerns: student enrollment, staffing, collective bargaining, educational programs, support services, and the ending fund balance.
In addition to a deep dive into the operating budget for the upcoming school year, review the most recent audit report. Any findings noted in the audit should be addressed or be in the process of being addressed. Consult with the chief business officer to validate that a work plan exists to resolve any findings. Pay particular attention to internal control issues, processes for obligating resources, and payment of people and accounts payable functions. Validate that sound internal controls are in place and are in use.
Depending on the circumstances of the leadership transition, what prior fiscal challenges require immediate action?
Assess the fiscal health of the district by examining proper ratios that provide tracking assistance to you and your leadership team. These ratios include:
Operating Efficiency Ratio: Divide the total revenues by total assets to track the efficient use of assets. The higher the ratio, the better. More importantly, monitor the trend and consider benchmarking your district to others with similar profiles.
Liabilities to Fund Balance Ratio: Divide total liabilities by the total fund balance to determine if the district can meet its fiscal obligations. A ratio greater than one (1) is troublesome.
Current Ratio: Divide the current assets by liabilities to assess whether the district’s current obligations can be met. A ratio of 2:1 is an indicator of fiscal health.
Fund Balance as a Percentage of General Fund Expenditures: Divide the ending Fund Balance by the GF expenditures to determine the percentage. A typical sound range is between 3% and 7%, depending on the district’s experience and context.
During the early weeks in office, if unable to do so, between being selected as the new superintendent and officially taking office, meetings must be held with the district’s key leadership executives. In keeping with the primary focus on student achievement, such a meeting must occur with the executive responsible for the district’s supervision of teaching and learning. Meet with as many building principals as possible before the start of the school term. Consultation with the chief business officer and the director of human resources will occur in the initial budget review sessions. Depending on the district size and its existing organizational structure, meeting with leaders of other district support services functions (e.g., building maintenance and operations, transportation, nutrition services, safety, and technology-related leadership) might also be necessary.
These early interviews may have started before your official arrival in the district. Whenever they happen, they will help you know the people who lead important district segments. They will also allow you to establish clarity about the reporting relationships and superintendent expectations for prompt notification of emerging issues and identifying current issues affecting the district’s administration. Effective superintendents rely upon these key executives to set the “tone at the top” by communicating effectively, leading with integrity, and cooperating to achieve the district’s strategic objectives.
Unless events or circumstances indicate otherwise, extending the presumption of competency and trust to the existing leadership team pays dividends in forming an effective leadership team. Still, as you assess the caliber of the top-level leadership team, a “trust and verify” approach is prudent. As each team member gains experience with you, trust will build, or the need to change the team will become evident. Whichever avenue emerges, be clear about your expectations, grant each colleague the time to meet with you, and provide frank, private feedback to each person.
Related to fiscal and business affairs, though, it is essential that the chief business officer have your trust and confidence. The chief business officer’s success is vital to the superintendent’s success. Include them as a whole and active district leadership team member. Expect the chief business officer to know and understand educational priorities; likewise, expect all program managers to pay close attention to fiscal and operational affairs in the educational program. All the reasonable efforts to focus on student performance and build a robust and effective learning system are undermined if the fiscal support is eroded or if the business affairs are not honest and trustworthy.
The results of the upcoming school fiscal year budget review, interviews with leadership staff, fiscal condition data, and the particular auditor’s final report (if engaged) will be presented to the Board in public sessions as they are completed and ready. Keep the Board informed about the progress of these review activities and make recommendations that reflect the answers to the abovementioned questions. This report will set the tone for fiscal leadership by outlining the process for budget monitoring, program reviews, and future budget development plans. This report.
Ongoing fiscal leadership actions
Use the information gathered as a candidate and through initial executive interviews and meetings to identify the future course of action. Share your thinking with members of the school board as it evolves. Ensure the board knows how you develop future reports about the district’s fiscal status. If re-examining the inherited budget raises concerns or results in a need to alter priorities, take steps to reallocate resources within the current budget year. Staffing or operational decisions that have already been committed may constrain this process. Use care to honor commitments that have already been made. Be clear about the consequences and work to achieve the best possible outcome with the decisions.
Avoid dwelling on the past or blaming your predecessor for the current reality; accept it and move forward, knowing that alterations can be planned in subsequent months or fiscal years. It is also helpful to remember that someday you will leave similar issues or challenges for your successor. Make sure your leadership team knows it has access to you. Regular meetings with leaders will support timely avenues of communication, enrich your understanding of the district and its operations, and build clarity about future strategic actions.
Specific actions include:
Ask the chief business officer to prepare a revenue/spending forecast for the entire fiscal year based on the school district budget. Use this forecast to monitor actual behavior each month.
Conduct weekly leadership team meetings with all senior-level administrators. Use one of these monthly meetings to assess the district’s fiscal status. The chief business officer should lead this presentation.
A one-on-one meeting with the chief business officer ahead of the team meeting is useful and builds trust and confidence for each of you.
Use the team meeting to examine actual student enrollment compared to the forecast and track monthly spending and revenue compared to the forecast.
Examine the cash flow forecast each month by starting with the beginning fund balance, then add actual monthly revenue and subtract the month’s expenditures to reconcile the ending fund balance for the month with the official report from the financial institution that hosts district resources (often may be a municipal treasurer’s office). Benzel, Hoover, and Parla (2022) describe a sample cash flow.
Expect all district leadership team members to know and understand the district’s fiscal status. Likewise, all team members should be conversant with critical instructional, human resources, and other program issues and initiatives.
Use the results of these monthly fiscal review meetings as the basis for a monthly public report to the Board of Directors.
Ask the chief business officer to make this report, but be prepared to comment to reinforce their presentation or answer systems-level questions.
Public reports are essential to building confidence and transparency for the Board, other district personnel, and the community. A history of consistent reporting about the good news, challenges, and timing issues will build knowledge of the school system’s finances, which will be essential when or when tough times occur.
Establish a program review process for the district’s educational and operational programs. Because these reviews can be time-consuming, set a schedule that aligns with the budget development process and focuses on programs that are more extensive. Plan to address all programs over a schedule that may take a year or two to complete. Start the program reviews by expecting the executive responsible for each program to engage with the chief business officer to assess the program’s fiscal status. Identify expense drivers, revenue elements, and anticipated issues and challenges for the program. Present the results of these reviews to the entire leadership team and consider, when appropriate, conducting a study session about the program with the Board of Directors. Use the recommendations from such reviews to guide future initiatives and budget decisions.
Longer term considerations
Ongoing leadership of the district’s fiscal affairs involves the complex interaction of three separate fiscal years. The current year must be monitored against forecasts, as previously noted. Secondly, the fiscal officer must reconcile the year-ending report and prepare you and their colleagues for the annual fiscal audit of the prior fiscal year’s performance. Finally, planning is always in process for future fiscal periods in anticipation of the next budget adoption cycle.
Create an annual calendar of key events and deadlines to assist all parties in keeping track of these various events. Because these reviews can be time-consuming, set a schedule that aligns with the budget development process and focuses on more extensive programs. Plan to address all programs over a schedule that may take a year or two to complete. Benzel and Hoover (2021) provide a sample of critical fiscal activities that might occur in each quarter of the fiscal year. As the first year of service heads toward completion, planning will begin for your second year. It will reflect your leadership to implement priorities that have emerged from your work with the Board, other district leadership members, internal district stakeholders, and the community.
At least six months before the Board must adopt the budget, set a time for the Board to identify budget parameters and guidance. Engage district personnel, union leadership, and stakeholders in this process. Budget parameters might include statements like:
Strategic educational programs, initiatives, and legally required special services can be articulated as fiscal priorities. This statement will reflect actions that are developed through other strategic planning efforts.
Present a budget planning schedule in a public board meeting and report progress or adjustments to the program with the board as appropriate. This schedule will note when initial assumptions are identified, legislative action at the state is anticipated to alter essential revenue assumptions, and public input will be solicited before Board action. Clarity about the budget planning timeline will assist all parties in understanding what will happen and will be helpful when revised assumptions and forecasts are made.
As part of the budget adoption process with the school board, share a budget forecast for at least two fiscal years. While forecasting future state and federal funding levels is daunting, it is helpful to try. Document the assumptions in this forecast and mark the result as a forecast. The key to this process is to demonstrate that decisions made for the current budget plan are likely to be sustainable or to identify what must happen for the proposed budget to be sustained.
Conclusion
Effective fiscal and operational planning provides a solid foundation for developing effective, long-lasting educational services for students and the community. Budgets are plans, but fiscal status reports document how the project is progressing and provide accountability for you with the school board and the school board with the public. Unknown events and the unexpected actions of others will undoubtedly influence these practices and require alteration. Use these changes as opportunities to teach the board, district staff, and the public about the complexity of school finance. More importantly, creating a record of honesty and transparency in managing the district’s business practices will build trust in the district’s plans. Wise superintendent leadership will rely upon actively incorporating fiscal planning into developing successful education programs and services.
Summary
Effectively managing the financial responsibilities of a school district is integral to ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently and that the district can fulfill its primary mission of providing a high-quality education for all students.
The Imposter Syndrome
Maybe we all have imposter syndrome and perpetually feel like our real life is right around the corner. – Anna Kendrick
Imposter Syndrome, also known as Impostor Phenomenon, refers to a psychological pattern where individuals doubt their abilities and fear being exposed as a “fraud” despite evidence of their competence and accomplishments. People with Imposter Syndrome often believe that their achievements are due to luck or external factors rather than their skills or qualifications. They may feel that they don’t deserve their success and worry that others will eventually discover their perceived inadequacies.
Key characteristics and feelings associated with Imposter Syndrome include:
Self-Doubt: Individuals with Imposter Syndrome often doubt their own abilities and competence, even in areas where they have expertise.
Attributing Success to External Factors: They tend to attribute their successes to luck, help from others, or external circumstances rather than acknowledging their own efforts and skills.
Fear of Exposure: A persistent fear of being “found out” as a fraud or impostor leads to anxiety and stress.
Perfectionism: Many people with Imposter Syndrome set unrealistically high standards for themselves and are driven by a fear of making mistakes.
Overworking: Some individuals with Imposter Syndrome compensate for their self-doubt by working excessively hard to prove their worth.
Underestimating Achievements: They often downplay their accomplishments and need help to internalize positive feedback or recognition.
Avoidance of Challenges: Fear of failure can lead to avoidance of new challenges or opportunities.
Imposter Syndrome is not classified as a mental disorder but can significantly impact an individual’s mental health and overall well-being. Recognizing and addressing Imposter Syndrome is important because it can hinder personal and professional growth and lead to stress, anxiety, and burnout.
Addressing Imposter Syndrome typically involves:
Self-awareness: The first step is to recognize and acknowledge that you may be experiencing Imposter Syndrome.
Changing Self-Talk: Challenge negative self-talk and replace it with more positive and affirming thoughts about your abilities and accomplishments.
Seeking Support: Talk to friends, mentors, or a therapist about your feelings and fears. Sharing these thoughts can often help alleviate some of the anxiety associated with Imposter Syndrome.
Setting Realistic Goals: Set achievable goals and recognize that it’s okay to make mistakes or experience setbacks.
Internalizing Success: Learn to accept compliments and take pride in your achievements. Remind yourself that your success results from your skills, effort, and dedication.
Professional Development: Continue to build your skills and knowledge through education and training, which can boost your confidence.
Experience aligns with research that shows that high achievers, like school superintendents, often confront imposter syndrome, doubt their skills and achievements, or fear being exposed as a fraud. You may be more likely to feel they do not fit in, are not welcome, and don’t belong. In an article about the imposter syndrome, Keith Dorsey explains that it can be crippling mentally and emotionally, drain your energy and attention, and cause you to fall short of the performance you are capable of, thus, feeding the cycle of self-doubt. If you experience imposter syndrome, you may explain away your successes by thinking anyone could have done what you did, thinking you just got lucky, or fearing that others are mistaken in believing that you’re talented.
As if that isn’t bad enough, when you stumble or face challenges, your self-perceived incompetence looms larger than life — increasing your chance of failure and perpetuating the syndrome. While awareness of this cycle is helpful, understanding imposter syndrome does little to end it. Instead, you need action. And to act, you need vigor.
Vigor reflects an intensity of motivation and is related to (but distinct from) traits such as grit, self-control, and the ability to overcome procrastination.
In research, the attributes of vigor — the strength of will, self-discipline, and the ability to persist despite challenges — were vital to underrepresented directors’ success. Whenever they set goals, they achieve them. They had a ‘refuse to lose’ mentality. And once I emulated what I saw in them, I rapidly ascended the corporate ladder myself.”
They neither internalized the obstacles they encountered as personal failures, nor did they externalize them as irreconcilable systemic barriers. When asked to identify the barriers they faced, it took them a while to recall and identify them because they had transformed their obstacles into sources of motivation. It became apparent that vigor responded to their childhood experiences of racism, sexism, macroaggression, and other difficulties. If you want to push forward and advance in your career, you will encounter obstacles and experience failure. At these times, you have a choice to make: Will you allow the obstacles and failures to feed imposter syndrome, or will you pick yourself up and use vigor to persist toward your goal?
If you choose vigor, you may not be disappointed. In a study, vigor predicted intrinsic and extrinsic motivation more than other constructs like grit or self-control. Vigor also predicted goal achievement — largely because people will invest more resources into their aims.
Summary
Imposter Syndrome can affect individuals across various professions, including school superintendents. Recognizing this phenomenon and adopting a mindset of vigor can empower individuals to overcome self-doubt, persist in the face of challenges, and ultimately achieve their goals and aspirations.
Behaviors that Hurt Your Career
The superintendent and others in educational leadership face a continuing call to make decisions. As noted previously, they may lose their credibility and face non-renewal, not from bad decisions but from failing to make a timely decision. The following are six factors about leadership and making decisions that can jeopardize your career.
One: Avoiding Conflict
This isn’t just about avoiding difficult discussions, though that’s certainly part of it. At its core, conflict avoidance is used to escape or intimidate to mask insecurities and avoid having our fears, uncertainties, or mistakes exposed.
Once you realize your conflict avoidance is fear, seek advice on confronting the issue. If you’re nervous, start by simply writing down your plan. Discuss the problem and seek support from your mentor or colleagues.
Some suggested strategies to avoid conflicts, as a leader is realizing that conflict, when managed properly, can lead to positive outcomes such as increased creativity, better decision-making, and stronger relationships. Embrace conflict as an opportunity for growth. Practice active listening skills to understand the viewpoints and emotions of others. When team members feel heard and understood, they are more likely to engage in constructive conflict resolution. Consider offering conflict resolution. Demonstrate a willingness to address conflicts directly and respectfully. Model the behavior you want to see in your team. Establish clear guidelines for handling conflicts within the team or organization. Outline the steps for addressing conflicts, including when and how to prioritize resolving the issues when necessary. When conflicts arise, remain calm and neutral as a leader. Avoid taking sides or allowing your emotions to exacerbate the situation. Consider using a mediator to facilitate discussions and help parties find common ground in situations where conflicts are particularly challenging or have escalated. Provide constructive feedback to team members on how they handle conflicts. Offer coaching and support to help them develop better conflict-resolution skills. Remind team members that their shared goals and objectives should precede personal differences. Reinforce the idea that conflicts should be resolved in the best interests of the team and organization. Conduct regular check-in meetings or one-on-one discussions with team members to address potential conflicts proactively. Encourage members to share concerns early to prevent issues from escalating. Acknowledge and celebrate instances where conflicts were resolved effectively and led to positive outcomes. And finally, recognize team members for their efforts in managing conflicts constructively.
Two: Impulsiveness
This might include unpredictable emotional responses, such as anger and frustration, or doing what is popular rather than what is good for the district. A habit loses your relationships, support, and buy-in.
If impulsiveness is a decision-making behavior, reflect on previous successes and failures. Coping with impulsiveness is a process that requires ongoing effort and self-reflection. It’s a valuable journey toward becoming a more thoughtful, effective, and strategic leader.
Some strategies to understand and remedy impulsiveness are to reflect on your past actions and decisions to identify instances of impulsiveness. Self-awareness is essential for change. Clearly define your priorities and long-term goals. Resist the urge to react immediately. Use this time to consider the potential outcomes and consequences of your actions. Create a set of decision-making criteria you can refer to in various situations. These criteria should align with your values, goals, and the best interests of your team or organization. Develop a structured decision-making process that includes gathering information, evaluating options, considering risks, and setting a timeline. Do not hesitate to seek input and advice from trusted colleagues, mentors, or team members. Delegate tasks and responsibilities to team members when appropriate. Share your goal of reducing impulsiveness with a trusted colleague or mentor who can hold you accountable and provide support. Cultivate patience and tolerance for ambiguity. Understand that not all decisions require immediate action, and taking your time when the situation allows is okay.
Three: Blame-shifting
Blaming others is the major cause of poor decision-making. Blame shifters increase the negative feelings and the leader’s credibility when blame is placed on others, it distracts from the real issue. Problem solving focuses on assigning faults rather than finding solutions to prevent future errors.
Shifting blame diminishes accountability, erodes trust, and discourages growth from mistakes.
To correct this behavior, model the behavior you want to see in your team. Admit your own mistakes and take responsibility for them. When you show vulnerability and accountability, your team is more likely to follow suit. Foster a culture where team members feel safe admitting mistakes. Emphasize that errors are opportunities for growth and learning, not reasons for punishment. Encourage your team to focus on finding solutions rather than dwelling on blame. Promote open and honest communication within your team. Encourage regular feedback sessions where team members can discuss challenges, share concerns, and offer suggestions for improvement. Ensure that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities within the team. This reduces confusion and minimizes opportunities for blame when expectations are clear. Provide training in conflict resolution and interpersonal skills. Finally, be clear about your expectations regarding accountability and responsibility. Communicate that taking ownership of mistakes is a valued trait in your organization.
Four: Insisting on control
You might be trying to avoid failure, but others will no doubt perceive you as rigid and micromanaging and disengaging. The outcome of the decision falls short of the objective because others felt they were not needed. Team members working for a controlling leader stop taking initiative, no longer offer ideas, avoid giving valuable feedback, can’t develop their skills, and often quit.
Following are some strategies to help an administrator balance effective leadership and giving their team members autonomy. Trust your team members by assigning them clear responsibilities and tasks. Communicate your expectations regarding goals, deadlines, and quality standards. Ensure members have the necessary skills, training, and resources to perform their tasks. Instead of constant oversight, schedule regular check-in meetings or status updates. Encourage team members to identify and propose solutions and ask questions that guide them toward solving the problem themselves. Create an environment where team members feel comfortable expressing their concerns, asking questions, and providing feedback. Emphasize the desired outcomes and let team members determine the best approach. Acknowledge and reward team members who demonstrate initiative, take ownership, and work independently. Finally, ask members for feedback on your leadership style. They may provide insights into areas where you could improve and reduce micromanagement tendencies.
Five: Perfectionism
We should all strive to do our best, but some always aim for perfection and often miss deadlines and opportunities. By this behavior, you seldom express satisfaction-leading members not to submit work because you never see it as good enough.
Overcoming perfectionism is a process that takes time and self-awareness. Promoting a culture of progress and learning can create a more balanced and productive work environment while also improving your well-being as a leader.
Some suggestions to avoid perfectionism are to understand that perfectionism can be detrimental to yourself and your team. Be realistic about what can be achieved within the given constraints: time, resources, or other factors. Encourage your team to see mistakes and setbacks as opportunities for learning and improvement. Understand that perfection is unattainable, and that is okay. Encourage a culture where mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth. Trust that your team can deliver results, even if the process isn’t flawless. Establish boundaries to prevent overworking yourself and your team. Avoid self-criticism and self-blame when things don’t go perfectly. Treat yourself with the same compassion you would offer to others. Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Emphasize that the goal is not to be perfect but to grow and develop over time. Model the behavior you want to see in your team. Show that you value a balanced approach to work and that perfection is not the goal.
Six: Power hunger
This includes claiming control over the resources in a relationship due to a lack of empathy, focusing on your own goals at the expense of others, an unwillingness to compromise, or seeing others as a means to an end. Power-hungry leaders tend to make snap decisions and alienate the people around them.
Power can be a positive force when channeled toward shared goals and mutual benefit. By acknowledging and addressing a need for power, leaders can create, a more productive and harmonious work environment while harnessing the potential of their team members’ strengths and ambitions.
To effectively deal with authority and power, understand that the need for power is a natural and legitimate aspect of human behavior. Model behavior that builds a shared purpose and vision within the team or organization. Create opportunities for team members to collaborate, share ideas, and collectively make decisions. Provide opportunities for other team members to take on leadership roles and responsibilities in areas where they excel or have expertise. Encourage team members to express their ideas, concerns, and aspirations. Recognize and reward individual contributions and achievements. Offer constructive feedback to help team members understand the impact of their actions and decisions. Address conflicts and power struggles promptly and constructively. Encourage team members to resolve disputes through negotiation and compromise rather than resorting to power plays. Ensure all voices are heard and decisions are made collectively whenever possible. Model the behavior you want to see in your team. Periodically assess the team’s dynamics and power structures. Be open to adjusting to maintain a healthy balance and address any emerging issues promptly.
Summary
This chapter highlights behaviors that can harm a leader’s career and provides practical strategies for overcoming these behaviors. By addressing these challenges, leaders can create a more positive and productive work environment, improve team dynamics, and enhance their own effectiveness as leaders.
Coming Up Short of Grand Expectations.
Leadership is the challenge to be something more than average. – Jim Rohn
Several reasons exist why some superintendents may need to meet grand expectations. Some are beyond the control or leadership of the superintendent. Astute leadership and persuasive skills may overcome others. Following are some factors to consider before signing a three-year contract. There may not be a possibility of success. However, is there a chance to lead the way? After all, “anyone can be captain on a calm sea.”
Here are a few potential factors:
Limited resources: Superintendents may need more resources to achieve their goals. This can include budget constraints, inadequate staffing, or outdated infrastructure, hindering their ability to implement effective strategies and initiatives.
The school district can be highly complex, with numerous groups and layers of bureaucracy. Superintendents may encounter resistance or face obstacles when implementing changes due to entrenched interests, differing priorities, or conflicting agendas.
Unrealistic expectations: Sometimes, superintendents are expected to deliver immediate and dramatic improvements in a relatively short period. However, meaningful, and sustainable change in education often requires time and patience. Unrealistic expectations can pressure superintendents and undermine their ability to make long-term progress.
Lack of support or collaboration: Superintendents rely on the support and collaboration of various groups, including school boards, teachers, administrators, parents, and the community. A lack of support or communication breakdown among these stakeholders can impede the superintendent’s ability to implement their vision effectively.
External factors: Superintendents may face challenges that are beyond their control, such as changes in national and state policies, economic downturns, or shifts in demographic patterns. These external factors can significantly impact the superintendent’s ability to achieve their goals, regardless of their competence or efforts.
Leadership and management skills: While superintendents are often selected based on their educational expertise and experience, they also need strong leadership and management skills to navigate complex educational environments. A superintendent lacking these essential skills can hinder their effectiveness in driving meaningful change.
Resistance to change: Change is often met with resistance, particularly in established institutions like education. Superintendents may face opposition or pushback from various groups who resist new ideas or fear the potential consequences of change. Overcoming this resistance requires strong communication, stakeholder engagement, and a well-thought-out change management strategy.
Dissension within the school board. The school board members need to be more unified and clearer about the school district’s priorities. This may be single-issue ideas and interests that need to be clarified, sometimes petty and political, and at the expense of dealing with educational priorities.
This chapter emphasizes the complex and multifaceted challenges that school superintendents may encounter. It underscores the need for a comprehensive understanding of these factors before entering a superintendent contract and the importance of assessing whether there is a feasible path to success despite these challenges.
The Crisis of Making a Hiring Mistake
Toxic people are the ones who will leave you mentally and emotionally to the point where you return to self-pity and self-doubt.
One toxic employee wipes out the gains of more than two superstars. In terms of leadership and productivity, a superstar may add, for example, 10 points on a ten-point scale, while a hiring mistake could set back the team by 20 points. The real difference could be greater if you factor in the spread of avoidable conflicts, litigation related to dismissal, lower morale, and upset team members. Rude members have a stronger effect on the organization than civil ones. That’s why it’s especially important to weed out toxic people before they join your organization. A superintendent sets the level for expected behavior. The reluctance or lack of courage to deal forcibly with inappropriate behavior sends a message about leadership ability, integrity, and doing what is best for the school district. (Keep in mind that when undertaking a dismissal, the unacceptable behavior will likely become secondary to the process used for eventual dismissal.)
Here is how to avoid selecting a toxic person.
Interview for civility. Throughout the interview process, be on the lookout for signs of civility. Asking the candidate how they managed a particular situation in the past provides more valuable insight than hypothetical questions such as “How would you handle…” or “What would you do if…” Request examples of how their past behavior matches the values you’re looking for (which you also need to make explicit during the interview). Don’t just accept the first answer — ask for 2–3 examples.
Consider using these interview questions:
What would your former employer say about you — positive and negative?
What would your former subordinates say about you — positive and negative?
What about yourself would you like to improve most? How about a second thing? A third?
Tell me about a time when you’ve had to deal with stress or conflict at work. What did you do?
When have you failed? Describe the circumstances and how you dealt with and learned from the experience.
What are some examples of your ability to manage and supervise others? When have you done this well?
What kind of people do you find it most difficult to work with? Tell me about a time when you’ve found it difficult to work with someone. How did you handle it?
Also, observe these behaviors:
Did the candidate arrive promptly for the interview?
Does the candidate speak negatively of former employers or others?
Does the candidate take responsibility for behaviors, results, and outcomes, or do they blame others?
Follow up with every team member who encounters the candidate, not just those on her interview schedule. How did she treat your staff? Your receptionist? Your administrative assistant? Is the candidate kind, gracious, and respectful?
Some of the best feedback they receive is from the person who drove the candidate from the airport or the receptionist who greeted the candidate at the front desk.
Get your team involved.
Have your team attend lunch or dinner with the candidate or take them to a ball game. You want to give the candidate a first-hand opportunity to observe your team’s and organization’s values. Doing so will help the candidate consider whether they will sign up to live those values. If they aren’t, you can save time, frustration, and heartache — not to mention the district’s legal fund. If convenient, play a round of golf with the finalists. Golf provides an environment where observing emotions, courtesy, and sportsmanship is relatively easy.
Ask their references about civility. Understanding how the candidates behaved in the past will help you assess whether they’ll be civil when they come to work for you. Ask their references for specific behavioral examples of the candidates’ characteristics. Ask questions at the heart of civility: “What’s it like working with him?” or “What could he improve on?”
Share the company’s core values with the reference and ask them to give examples of candidates demonstrating those values. Did the candidate’s behavior ever reflect negatively on the organization?
You might also ask:
1. How did subordinates feel about working for him?
2. How emotionally intelligent does she seem? Is she able to read people and adjust accordingly?
3. Is he comfortable in various situations and working with different types of people?
4. How well does she seem to collaborate? Is she a team player?
5. How did he react to authority?
6. Would you rehire the person?
A call, not a letter, is more likely to reveal specific behavioral problems.
Seasoned search consultants report that the most useful data they get from references come from follow-up questions and mainly from the reference’s tone, demeanor, and pace — not necessarily their words.
Listen very closely and follow up on hints of trouble. Don’t just stick to the reference list — talk to your own network as well. Picks up the phone and call people that should know the candidate. It never fails. It’s worth talking to a candidate’s colleagues from lower levels to make sure the person isn’t the type to “kiss up, kick down.”
Also, check references with other people to whom the candidate has been accountable outside of work, such as boards, community organizations, professors, or coaches, boards, and community organizations. It’s hard to expect someone to be civil if you’re not modeling the same behavior.
Summary
This chapter underscores the critical importance of avoiding toxic hires and maintaining a civil and productive work environment. It provides practical strategies for evaluating candidates’ behavior, values, and alignment with the organization’s culture to reduce the likelihood of making a hiring mistake.
Strategies for Resolving Disputes
The quality of our lives depends not on whether we have conflicts but on how we respond to them. – Thomas /crum
A dispute resolution practice (and policy) for a school district must ensure that conflicts and disagreements among students, parents, teachers, and staff are handled fairly and consistently. When considering a “dispute resolution statement, it is suggested that there is involvement of a wide variety of participants ranging from students and parents to faculty and support staff.
Statement of Purpose: Begin with a clear statement of the policy’s purpose, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a positive learning environment and addressing conflicts promptly and fairly.
Scope: Define the scope of the policy by specifying the types of disputes and conflicts it covers, such as student-to-student conflicts, parent-teacher disagreements, or staff disputes.
Informal Resolution: Encourage people involved in a dispute to attempt an informal situation. This could involve discussing the issue with the other person (teacher, bus driver, coach) or seeking assistance from a counselor or mediator.
Formal Resolution: Outline the formal procedures for dispute resolution when informal methods fail. This may include the following steps:
Filing a formal complaint or request for a resolution to the person’s principal or supervisor. Designate a school official or committee to investigate and mediate the dispute. Setting clear timelines for each stage of the formal resolution process.
Confidentiality: Emphasize the importance of maintaining confidentiality throughout the dispute resolution process to protect the privacy of all people involved.
Access to Support: Provide information on resources and support services available to parties involved in a dispute, such as counseling services, legal assistance, or advocacy groups.
Appeals Process: Specify the procedures for filing an appeal if any person is dissatisfied with the outcome of the formal resolution process. Ensure that an impartial body hears the appeal.
Record Keeping: Describe how records of disputes and resolutions will be maintained, including documentation of all formal complaints, investigations, and outcomes.
Protection Against Retaliation: Include a provision that protects individuals from retaliation for filing a complaint or participating in the dispute resolution process.
Training: Mention ongoing training for school staff and administrators in conflict resolution techniques and the policies and procedures outlined in the policy.
Communication: Explain how the school district will communicate the dispute resolution policy to all stakeholders, including parents, students, and staff members.
Compliance with Laws: The policy will adhere to all school district policies and other relevant local, state, and federal.
Resources and References: Provide links or references to additional resources, such as relevant laws, regulations, or external organizations that can guide dispute resolution.
Contact Information: Include contact information for the designated individuals or offices responsible for handling disputes and inquiries related to the policy.
Tailoring the dispute resolution policy to your school district’s specific needs and circumstances is essential.
Summary
This chapter emphasizes the importance of tailoring the dispute resolution policy to the specific needs and circumstances of the school district while ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations. This comprehensive policy promotes fairness, transparency, and effective conflict resolution within the educational community.
Why is There a Need for Creating Hope
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness. – Desmond Tutu
School superintendents who are givers of hope inspire and motivate others by providing a positive vision of the future.
These leaders have a clear and compelling vision of what can be achieved, and they communicate this vision in a way that inspires others to act. The relationship between leadership and a giver of hope is that effective leaders must be able to provide hope and optimism to their followers.
Leaders often guide their followers through challenging times and uncertain situations. In these situations, leaders who can provide hope and optimism can help their followers maintain a positive attitude and remain focused on achieving their goals. Moreover, leaders who are givers of hope can inspire their followers to believe in themselves and their abilities.
Leaders encourage their followers to think positively about the future and believe they can achieve their goals. This type of leadership can be especially effective during times of change and uncertainty when people may feel anxious or discouraged. The relationship between leadership and a giver of hope is that effective leaders must be able to provide hope and optimism to their followers. They must be able to inspire and motivate others by providing a positive vision of the future and encouraging their followers to believe in themselves and their abilities.
Summary
This chapter underscores the importance of leadership in fostering hope, optimism, and a positive outlook within the educational community. By providing a clear vision of what can be achieved and instilling belief in individuals’ abilities, superintendents can effectively inspire and motivate others to work towards shared goals and aspirations.
Success as a School Leader
by Jack McKay
“Don’t tell me your values. Rather, tell me what you do all day, and I’ll tell you your values.” Jack McKay
For a coach, it is easy to tell wins and losses. But, for a school superintendent, it is a bit more complicated. Following is an attempt to list the attributes of a successful school superintendent. “Hindsight is just about perfect.”
Being a successful school superintendent involves a combination of leadership qualities, strategic thinking, effective management, and the ability to navigate the complexities of the educational landscape. Here are some key factors that contribute to success in this role:
Vision and Strategic Planning:
Developing a Clear Vision: Have I developed a clear vision for the school district’s future and can articulate it to the faculty, staff, and community?
Strategic Planning: Have I created and implemented long-range plans to achieve goals to improve educational outcomes?
Leadership Skills:
Inspirational Leadership: Have I motivated and inspired staff, teachers, and the community to work collaboratively toward common goals?
Decision-Making: Have I made timely, informed decisions aligning with the district’s mission and vision?
Communication:
Effective Communication: Have I transparently communicated with all faculty and staff, including school board members, parents, and the community?
Public Relations: Have I developed solid public relations and maintained a positive image for the school district? Have I been visible in the classroom and the community?
Collaboration:
Building Relationships: Have I developed positive relationships with various groups in and beyond the school district, fostering collaboration and promoting a sense of community?
Team Building: Have I created and led a cohesive administrative team?
Educational Expertise:
Understanding Educational Trends: Have I stayed informed about current educational trends, research, and best practices?
Advocacy: Have I advocated for policies and initiatives that enhance the district’s education quality and equity?
Financial Management:
Budgeting: Have I effectively ensured the district’s budget, allocating resources wisely and ensuring fiscal responsibility?
Grant Acquisition: Have I pursued and secured grants to support educational programs and initiatives?
Adaptability:
Adapting to Change: Have I adapted and been able to navigate changes in educational policies, technology, and societal dynamics?
Problem-Solving: Have I demonstrated strong problem-solving skills to address challenges as they arise?
Community Engagement:
Engaging the Community: Have I effectively involved parents, community members, and local businesses in supporting and enhancing the educational experience for all concerned?
Student-Centered Focus:
Student Success: Have I prioritized student success and well-being in all decisions and initiatives?
Ethical Leadership:
Ethical Decision-Making: Have I upheld high ethical standards and modeled integrity for the school community?
Continuous Monitoring for Improvement:
Regular Self-Assessment: Have I regularly assessed my performance against these criteria and sought feedback from various groups?
Professional Development: Have I stayed informed of developments in education, networking with other education leaders, and participating in professional development opportunities?
Overall Advice: Have I been Inspirational with my team, faculty/staff, and the community, Visible in the schools and community, and able to anticipate upcoming issues?
Part Three: The Communications Plan
The most successful leaders are those who can communicate their vision and inspire others to follow.” – Simon Sinek
The Theories of Communication
The most successful leaders are those who can communicate their vision and inspire others to follow.” – Simon Sinek
There are several theories of communication, each of which provides a different perspective on how communication works. These theories help to provide a framework for understanding how communication works and how it affects our thoughts, behaviors, and interactions with others. It is difficult to say which communication theories are better than others since each theory offers a unique perspective on communication. Instead, each theory provides a useful framework for understanding different aspects of communication, and the effectiveness of each theory may depend on the specific context in which it is applied.
Information theory focuses on how information is transmitted and received, and how it can be measured and quantified. The emphasis of information theory is on the mathematical properties of information, and how information can be transmitted efficiently and accurately. In practice, the information is gathered and processed to make informed decisions or act based on the problem or objective. Information theory can help in decision-making by providing a foundation for assessing the value of information.
Cognitive dissonance theory explores how people deal with conflicting beliefs and attitudes, and how communication can influence their attitudes and behavior. Emphasis of cognitive dissonance theory is on the psychological discomfort that arises when people hold conflicting beliefs or attitudes. In practice, cognitive dissonance theory can be used to develop persuasive communication strategies that can change people’s attitudes and behaviors.
Social exchange theory can be used to develop communication strategies that emphasize the benefits of communication and promote positive interactions between people. The emphasis of social exchange theory is on the costs and benefits of social interactions and how people make decisions about whether to engage. In practice, this theory encourages team members to share ideas and collaborate on projects by emphasizing the benefits of teamwork and recognizing the contributions of individual team members.
Social learning theory explores how people learn from observing others’ behavior, and how media and other sources of information can influence them.
The emphasis of social learning theory is on the ways how learn from observing others’ behavior and the media consume, and how communication. In practice, social learning theory can be used to design educational programs and media campaigns that promote positive behaviors and attitudes.
Gratifications theory explores why people use media and other communication channels and how they derive different types of gratifications from these channels. The gratifications theory emphasizes the motivations and needs that drive people to consume media and other communication channels and how these channels can be those needs and gratifications. In practice, gratifications theory can be used to develop media content that meets the needs and interests of audiences.
Cultural studies theory. In practice, cultural studies theory can be used to analyze and critique media content and its impact on society. Cultural studies theory emphasizes how communication reflects and shapes cultural values and practices and how communication can be used to challenge dominant power. In practice, use this theory to analyze how media representations of gender, race, and class reinforce or challenge dominant cultural values and power structures.
Agenda-setting theory: This theory explores how media and other sources of information influence what people think by setting the agenda for public discussion and shaping opinion. The emphasis of agenda-setting theory is on how media coverage of issues and events can shape public perception and opinion by influencing what people think about. In practice, agenda-setting theory can be used to analyze and critique media coverage of important issues and events.
Diffusion of innovation theory is a framework that explains how new ideas, technologies, products, or innovations spread and are adopted within a social system or a community. It seeks to understand the process by which innovations are accepted or rejected by individuals or groups over time. This theory is widely used in fields such as marketing, sociology, communication studies, and technology adoption. This theory suggests that media exposure can shape people’s perceptions and beliefs about the world. It emphasizes the role of media in shaping our understanding of social reality. In practice, learning is a gradual and social process influenced by a variety of factors, such as personal beliefs, social norms, and institutional policies.
It is important to consider the context in which a theory of communication is being applied and choose the theory that best fits the situation. Additionally, drawing on multiple communication theories may be useful to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the communication process.
Summary
This chapter provides an overview of various theories of communication, each offering a distinct perspective on how communication functions and influences human behavior. These theories serve as frameworks for understanding communication in different contexts.
The Importance of Your Communications
The skill of Communicating effectively is of utmost importance in your school district as well as your career. Influencing decisions, forming connections, and motivating change would only be possible with communication. Leaders are the ones who set the direction for their team, build a vision for the future, and drive innovation. Public speaking is essential to effective leadership for several reasons:
Uniting around a cause. Public speaking allows leaders to communicate their ideas, vision, and goals effectively to their followers. It helps leaders articulate their message clearly and concisely and inspires others to achieve the same goals. Of all the leadership skills you have gained, communicating effectively is the most important one to improve on continually.
Inspiring and motivating others: Leaders who are effective public speakers can inspire and motivate others to act. They can use their words to create a sense of urgency and encourage their followers to work towards achieving their shared goals.
Connect with your people. Connecting is more likely to win someone over. Showing that you care by being honest and taking them into confidence. Public speaking enables leaders to build and maintain relationships with their followers. It helps them connect with their audience more deeply and understand their needs, concerns, and aspirations.
Building credibility: Public speaking is a way for leaders to establish their credibility and expertise. When leaders can communicate their ideas effectively, they can build trust and respect with their followers, which is essential to effective leadership.
Persuasion: Effective public speaking allows leaders to persuade others to adopt their point of view, ideas, and proposals. It helps them to convince their followers to act and make the necessary changes to achieve their shared goals.
Public speaking is essential to effective leadership because it helps leaders communicate their ideas, build relationships, inspire, and motivate others, establish credibility, and persuade others to take action.
Summary
Public speaking is an indispensable aspect of effective leadership. It enables leaders to articulate their vision, establish connections, inspire action, build credibility, and persuade others to work towards common objectives. Continuous improvement in communication skills is vital for effective leadership.
Eleven Tips for Improving Your Presentations
If you can’t communicate, it is like winking to a girl in the dark. Warren Buffet
Few skills will bring more opportunity into your life as an educational leader than the ability to speak well in public. Below are 11 tips that can make the difference between speakers who leave a powerful, positive impression and quickly forgotten ones.
Speak with an intent to move people to action.
Start strong with a “grabber”.
Structure your material in three sections- grabber, middle, close.
Practice. Practice. Rehearse out loud with all equipment you plan on using.
Know the audience. Try to speak to one or two people in the audience as they arrive.
Know the setup. Arrive in good time to check out the speaking area and get practice using the microphone and any visual aids.
Relax. Begin with a well-prepared grabber.
Visualize yourself successful. See yourself at the end of the speech surrounded by people asking questions.
Don’t apologize- the audience probably never noticed it.
Pauses. Include 3-8 second pauses at key moments – just before key statements or just after a story.
Get experience. Take every opportunity you can get to speak (and listen to other speakers).
The Ideal Way to Prepare a Great Speech
You can’t just give a speech and expect people to stand up and agree with you. — Hillary Clinton
It’s all about making your ideas come to life. Importantly, doing that goes beyond your platform skills. Or to be more accurate, it precedes your in-person speaking. That is because your performance begins when you start thinking about your speech. And at this point, you take an entirely new approach to speech preparation. An article by Gary Genard provides some insights about preparing a presentation by speaking and then writing.
Let’s look at the age-old way presenters have been. Think → Write → Speak. You know how this works: you have some ideas (THINK), which you then write down or put into a slide deck (WRITE). After editing and polishing this document, your talk is where you want it to be, or so you think. Since the deadline is coming up, maybe you get up on your feet and practice (SPEAK). If time is very tight, you may skip this step.
Practice or not, you deliver a speech without the right preparation on stage. And that can be a very uncomfortable spot indeed. Your task at this moment is establishing rapport with the audience—right now, in real-time. Build your presentation from the first moment as a conversation with listeners designed to get through to them. Think about the difference. So many speakers lack presence because they are reading to the audience. Their focus is on speaking out loud the words on a page or slide instead of talking with listeners with an immediacy they can respond to. Why not prepare yourself by conceiving and practicing a custom-made speech for these listeners? You can do this by the following method:
Think → Speak → Write
Notice the difference in the order of the three steps. Here, you think about your talk just like before. But this time, you immediately speak out loud what you plan to say. As you hear what you will be saying aloud, you will naturally be asking yourself questions like these:
How do the words, phrases, and ideas sound?
• Is the tone right?
• Does the level of simplicity or sophistication fit this audience?
• Am I respectful, upbeat, and inspirational?
• Will my remarks resonate with the audience’s needs and desires?
• Are the points I’m trying to make clear?
• Am I using strong transitions . . . and so on.
By using this method, you’ll discover that, in fact, sometimes what you’re thinking of saying won’t sound right for any number of reasons. You’ll then have to think about making that point in another way. But that’s the beauty of this approach: you’re using your own ears to help your remarks sit on listeners’ ears the way you want them to. The result is that you’ll save yourself a lot of time and maybe some embarrassment.
Summary
Effective speech preparation begins with a unique approach, as discussed in an article by Gary Genard. Traditionally, speakers follow the sequence of Think → Write → Speak. They conceive ideas, write them down or create slides, and finally practice their speech. However, a more impactful method involves reversing this order: Think → Speak → Write.
Seven Tips for Powerful Sit-Down Presentations
A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power. — Quintilian
Whether it’s answering an offhanded query, “How’s the project going?” or selling your ideas for conducting a new employee survey, every presentation you make is an opportunity to establish an executive presence and move up in your organization. In an article by Dianna Booher, the following are seven tips for improving your next presentation’s substance and style so that you can speak up with confidence and authority.
Do not “Let Down” for Sit-Down Presentations: In a meeting setting, you may make presentations to only a few people seated around a conference table or desk. Although there is no correlation between audience size and the importance of the outcome, consider several issues in the informal setting. Do not assume that because the audience is small, its members do not expect a formal presentation—visuals and the works.
Enthusiasm, Assertiveness, and Authority: Because you are seated around a desk or table—at eye level with the group—you must convey your enthusiasm, assertiveness and authority at “half-mast” through your facial expressions, posture, and voice. Sitting down may tempt you to slouch, but do not. Sit comfortably erect, leaning slightly forward in your chair to show attentiveness and enthusiasm for your subject. Sit back in your chair to convey openness to questions.
Eye Contact: Position yourself to maintain eye contact with everyone in the room. Do not get stuck between two listeners, so you must turn your head back and forth with each point as though you are watching a game of table tennis. Remove any physical obstacles that block vision or create a “distance” between you and your audience.
Never Let Facts Speak for Themselves: Facts need interpretation. According to Mark Twain, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” If you don’t believe this, tune in to the next political campaign. People can make facts and numbers mean almost anything. Interpret yours so that your listeners draw the same conclusions you intend.
Statistics: People digest numbers with great difficulty. Graphs and charts help. But if you can go beyond these common visuals, do so.
Use Metaphors, Similes, and Other Analogies: A metaphor is a word or phrase substituted for another to suggest similarity. A simile compares two things with the actual words like or as in the analogy. The more complex the idea, the more important it is to simplify and illustrate by comparison.
Use Analogies to Provide a Consistent Framework: Visual or emotional analogies help audiences follow a lengthy presentation step by step.
Timing Indicates Emphasis: Generally, a good rule of thumb for allocating your overall time is to spend 10 to 15 percent of your time on the opening, 70 to 85 percent on the body, and 5 to 10 percent on the closing. This allows slightly more time up front in the introduction to grab attention “win over” the audience. If your presentation includes an involved action plan, that section most likely should be part of the body of your presentation, and your close should focus on the final persuasive push toward the decision to act. Think of your presentation as a roadmap. If your audience wants to take only interstate highways to their destination, do not pencil in all the farm-to-market roads along the way. This merely clutters the map.
Never Ramble on Past the High Impact: Anything you say after your polished point of close dilutes your impact. Do not ramble on with anticlimactic drivel. Say it and stop.
Summary
Delivering compelling sit-down presentations requires careful consideration of substance and style. Seven valuable tips for improving the effectiveness of such presentations.
Characteristics of an Influential Speaker
The mediocre leader tells. The excellent leader explains. The superior leader demonstrates. The great leader inspires. – William Arthur Ward
When you speak to others, you have the power to create influence. Speeches, presentations, lectures, and pitches—even remarks at meetings. Speaking in public has always been an avenue to inspire ideas, motivate, and alter behavior positively.
Credibility. Whatever the topic on the agenda, audience members have the right to ask themselves: “Why should I listen to this person?” It must be done immediately—in the first 60 seconds of your presentation.
Honesty. Even though you may think of yourself as honest, a different type of honesty must occur in a speech or presentation. When an audience senses that you’re not hiding anything from them—that you’re human just like them—they will more likely empathize with you, like you more, and be more willing to listen to what you say.
Audience-Centered. As natural as it is to be concerned with your performance and “looking good,” you must do the opposite to be influential. Try to understand what they need to hear and how they need to hear it. And, of course, look them in the eye.
Action-Oriented. Many presenters must correct a fundamental mistake: they primarily concern themselves with content, rather than the people hearing it. Your true love is the audience, and it’s them you should be trying to woo. Specifically, think about what you want the audience to think, feel, or do because of your talk.
Summary
Influence in public speaking relies on four key characteristics: credibility, honesty, audience-centered focus, and an action-oriented approach. These elements, underpinned by genuine emotion, empower speakers to connect with their audience, make compelling arguments, and inspire action.
Presentations to the School Board
If you can’t write your message in a sentence, you can’t say it in an hour. – Dianna Booher
Main Point: What is the one (main) point that I hope the audience will remember about this presentation?
Explain the Purpose or Intent: Tell the audience what you hope they remember from this presentation.
Opening: How are you going to attract and hold the audience? Present a headline or factoid. It could be a statistic, a different perspective, or a story. A Quotation or an endorsement. A Metaphor or an Analogy or Comparison. Something that creates an interest in your topic.
The Filters. How are you going to get through the filters of the audience? How will I connect what they know and the new information I will present?
The One Thing to Remember. What is the one thing I would like the audience to remember about this presentation? What two or three sub-points would I like them to remember bonus? c. How am I going to support my main point and sub-point?
Connecting and Remembering
How will I help them and tell them again?
How will I remember to be engaged and be involved?
How will I connect?
How can I show enthusiasm, discuss, and my experience of the topic?
Summary
Effective presentations to the school board require a clear main point, a well-defined purpose, and a compelling opening to engage the audience. Presenters should consider navigating the audience’s filters, connecting existing knowledge with new information, and emphasizing the key takeaway they want the board to remember, supported by relevant subpoints.
Becoming an Effective Persuader
One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears––by listening to them. –– Dean Rusk
The critical importance of being an effective presenter is mentioned in several sections of this part of the book. If there ever was a time for leaders to learn the fine art of persuasion, it is now. Gone are the command-and-control days of executives managing by decree. In an article by Jay Conger, the fine art of persuasion is explained.
Today, leaders are run largely by cross-functional teams of peers and populated by baby boomers and their Generation X offspring, who show little tolerance for unquestioned authority. Electronic communication and globalization have further eroded the traditional hierarchy, as ideas and people flow more freely than ever around organizations and decisions are made closer to the markets. These fundamental changes, more than a decade in the making but now firmly part of the economic landscape, essentially comes down to this: work today gets done in an environment where people don’t just ask What should I do? but Why should I do it? To answer this “why” question effectively is to persuade. Yet many leaders need to understand persuasion.
The reason? Persuasion is widely perceived as a skill reserved for selling products and closing deals. It is also commonly seen as just another form of manipulation—devious and to be avoided. Certainly, persuasion can be used in selling and deal-clinching situations and can be misused to manipulate people. But exercised constructively and to its full potential, persuasion supersedes sales and is quite the opposite of deception.
Effective persuasion becomes a negotiating and learning process through which a persuader leads colleagues to a problem’s shared solution. Persuasion involves moving people to a position they don’t currently hold, but not by begging or cajoling. Instead, it involves careful preparation, the proper framing of arguments, the presentation of vivid supporting evidence, and the effort to find the correct emotional match with your audience.
Effective persuasion is a difficult and time-consuming proposition, but it may also be more powerful than the command-and-control managerial model it succeeds. “The day when you could yell, scream, and beat people into good performance is over. Today, you have to appeal to them by helping them see how they can get from here to there, establish credibility, and give them some reason and help to get there.
What constitutes effective persuasion? If persuasion is a learning and negotiating process, then in the most general terms, it involves phases of discovery, preparation, and dialogue. Getting ready to persuade colleagues can take weeks or months of planning as you learn about your audience and the position you intend to argue. Before they even start to talk, effective persuaders have considered their positions from every angle.
What investments in time and money will my position require from others? Is my supporting evidence weak in any way? Are there alternative positions I need to examine? Dialogue happens before and during the persuasion process. Before the process begins, effective persuaders use dialogue to learn more about their audience’s opinions, concerns, and perspectives.
During the process, dialogue continues to be a form of learning, but it is also the beginning of the negotiation stage. You invite people to discuss, even debate, the merits of your position, and then to offer honest feedback and suggest alternative solutions. That may sound like a slow way to achieve your goal, but effective persuasion is about testing and revising ideas in concert with your colleagues’ concerns and needs. In fact, the best persuaders listen to others and incorporate their perspectives into a shared solution.
Persuasion, in other words, often involves—indeed, demands—compromise. Perhaps that is why the most effective persuaders share a common trait: they are open-minded, never dogmatic. They enter the persuasion process prepared to adjust their viewpoints and incorporate others’ ideas. That approach to persuasion is, interestingly, highly persuasive.
When colleagues see that a persuader is eager to hear their views and willing to make changes in response to their needs and concerns, they respond very positively. They trust the persuader more and listen more attentively. They don’t fear being bowled over or manipulated. They see the persuader as flexible and are thus more willing to make sacrifices themselves. Because that is such a powerful dynamic, good persuaders often enter the persuasion process with judicious compromises already prepared.
Effective persuasion involves four distinct and essential steps.
First, effective persuaders establish credibility.
Second, they frame their goals in a way that identifies common ground with those they intend to persuade.
Third, they reinforce their positions using vivid language and compelling evidence.
And fourth, they connect emotionally with their audience.
As one of the most effective executives in our research commented, “The most valuable lesson I’ve learned about persuasion over the years is that there’s just as much strategy in how you present your position as in the position itself. I’d say the presentation strategy is the more critical.”
Establish credibility. A persuader can’t advocate a new or contrarian position without having people wonder. Can we trust this individual’s perspectives and opinions? Such a reaction is understandable. After all, allowing oneself to be persuaded is risky, because any new initiative demands time and resources. Research strongly suggests that most leaders are in the habit of overestimating their own credibility—often considerably.
Credibility grows out of two sources: expertise and relationships. People are considered to have high levels of expertise if they have a history of sound judgment or have proven themselves knowledgeable and well-informed about their proposals. An. effective persuader would need to be perceived as possessing a thorough understanding of the proposal—the specifications, the history, the purpose, the problem to be remedied, the benefits to the groups involved, and the long-term implications.
On the relationship side, people with high credibility have demonstrated—again, usually over time—that they can be trusted to listen and to work in the best interests of others. They have also consistently shown strong emotional character and integrity. Indeed, people known to be honest, steady, and reliable have an edge when going into any persuasion situation. If expertise and relationships determine credibility, you must honestly assess where you stand on both criteria before beginning to persuade.
Expertise: First, step back and ask yourself the following questions related to expertise:
How will others perceive my knowledge about the strategy, product, or change I am proposing? Do I have a track record in this area that others know about and respect?
Then, to assess the strength of your relationship credibility, ask yourself,
Do those I hope to persuade see me as helpful, trustworthy, and supportive?
Will they see me as someone in sync with them—emotionally, intellectually, and politically—on issues like this one?
Finally, it is important to note that more is needed to get your read on these matters. You must also test your answers with trusted colleagues for a reality check. In most cases, that exercise helps people discover their weaknesses, either on the expertise or the relationship side of credibility. The challenge then becomes to fill in such gaps.
In general, if your area of weakness is on the expertise side, you have several options:
First, you can learn more about your position’s complexities through formal or informal education and peer conversations.
A second alternative is to hire someone to bolster your expertise.
Third, utilize other outside sources of information to support your position.
Finally, you may launch pilot projects to demonstrate your expertise and the value of your ideas on a small scale.
The relationship gap: It would be best if you made a concerted effort to meet one-on-one with all the key people you plan to persuade. If you have the time and resources, you should even offer to help these people with issues that concern them.
Credibility is the cornerstone of effective persuading; without it, a persuader won’t be given the time of day. In the best-case scenario, people enter a persuasion situation with some measure of expertise and relationship credibility.
Frame for common ground. Even with high credibility, your position must still appeal strongly to the people you are trying to persuade. After all, few people will accept a new proposal that may bring them to ruin or even mild discomfort. Effective persuaders must be adept at describing their positions in terms that illuminate the advantages. That is not deception. It is just a persuasive way of framing the benefits of taking such a journey.
In negotiating, persuasive framing is obviously more complex, but the underlying principle is the same. It is a process of identifying shared benefits. At the heart of framing is a solid understanding of the other side. For example, in negotiations, what pressures are they dealing with? How important is their credibility?
Even before starting to persuade, the best persuaders we have encountered closely study the issues that matter to their colleagues. They use conversations, meetings, and other forms of dialogue to collect essential information. They are good at listening. They test their ideas with trusted confidants and ask questions of the people they will later be persuading. Those steps help them think through the arguments, the evidence, and the perspectives they will present. Often, this process causes them to alter or compromise their plans before they even start persuading. Through this thoughtful, inquisitive approach, they develop some plans that appeal to their audience.
Provide evidence. With credibility established and a common strategy identified, persuasion becomes a matter of presenting evidence. Ordinary evidence, however, won’t do. Most effective persuaders use language in a particular way. They supplement numerical data with examples, stories, metaphors, and analogies to make their positions come alive. That use of language paints a vivid word picture and, in doing so, lends a compelling and tangible quality to the persuader’s point of view.
The persuader often advocates a goal, strategy, or initiative with an uncertain outcome.
Reports, with data, are only somewhat informative. Often, reports are too abstract to be completely meaningful or memorable. Numbers don’t make an emotional impact. Numbers do not make an emotional impact, but stories and vivid language do. By contrast, stories and vivid language do, particularly when they present comparable situations to those under discussion. The research shows that listeners absorb information in proportion to its vividness.
Connect emotionally. In the real world, we like to think that our colleagues use reason to make their decisions, yet if we scratch below the surface, we will always find emotions at play. Good persuaders are aware of the primacy of emotions and are responsive to them in two important ways.
First, they show their own emotional commitment to the position they are advocating. Such expression is a delicate matter. If you act too emotional, people may doubt your clear-headedness. But you must also show that your commitment to a goal is not just in your mind but in your heart and gut as well. Without this demonstration of feeling, people may wonder if you believe in the position you’re championing.
Perhaps more important, however, is that effective persuaders have a strong and accurate sense of their audience’s emotional state, and they adjust the tone of their arguments accordingly. Sometimes that means coming on strong, with forceful points. Other times, a whisper may be all that is required. The idea is that whatever your position, you match your emotional fervor to your audience’s ability to receive the message. A persuader must match his or her emotional fervor to the audience’s ability to receive the message. Effective persuaders have a second sense about how their colleagues have interpreted past events in the organization and how they will probably interpret a proposal.
The best persuaders would usually canvass key individuals who had a good pulse on the mood and emotional expectations of those about to be persuaded. They would ask those individuals how various proposals might affect colleagues emotionally—in essence, testing possible reactions. They were also quite effective at gathering information through informal conversations. Ultimately, they must ensure that the emotional appeal behind their persuasion matches what their audience already feels or expects.
Only effort to persuade can succeed with emotion, but showing too much emotion can be less productive than showing too little. The important point to remember is that you must match your emotions to your audience’s.
The Force of Persuasion: The concept of persuasion, like power, often confuses and even mystifies leaders. When mishandled, it is so complex and dangerous that many would rather avoid it altogether. But like power, persuasion can be a force for enormous good in an organization. It can pull people together; move ideas forward, galvanize change, and forge constructive solutions. To do all that, however, people must understand persuasion for what it is—not convincing and selling but learning and negotiating. Furthermore, it must be seen as an art form that requires commitment and practice, especially as contingencies make persuasion more necessary for effective leadership.
Summary
The chapter emphasizes the crucial role of effective persuasion in contemporary leadership, highlighting the shift from command-and-control to collaborative leadership styles. It explains that persuasion, often misunderstood as manipulation, is a constructive skill vital for navigating modern organizational dynamics.
Part Four: The Importance of Meetings
As indicated earlier, there are four essentials of being a successful school superintendent: (1) understanding leadership, (2) understanding the unique position of a superintendent as an educational leader, (3) the importance of making effective presentations. The fourth part is about the skill of developing effective meetings.
The Agenda for an Effective Meeting
“As a leader, you must consistently drive effective communication. Meetings must be deliberate – your organizational rhythm should value purpose over habit and effectiveness over efficiency.” — Chris Fussell
We’ve all been in meetings where participants are unprepared, people veer off-track, and the topics discussed are a waste of the team’s time. These problems – and others like it – stem from poor agenda design. An effective agenda sets clear expectations for what needs to occur before and during a meeting. It helps team members prepare, allocates time wisely, quickly gets everyone on the same topic, and identifies when the discussion is complete.
If problems still occur during the meeting, a well-designed agenda increases the team’s ability to address them effectively and quickly.
Seek input from team members. If you want your team to engage in meetings, ensure the agenda includes items that reflect their needs.
Select topics that affect the entire team. Team meeting time is expensive and difficult to schedule.
List agenda topics as questions the team needs to answer. A question enables team members to better prepare for the discussion and monitor whether their and others’ comments are on track.
Note whether the purpose of the topic is to share information, seek input for a decision, or decide.
Estimate a realistic amount of time for each topic. This serves two purposes. First, it requires you to do the math.
Second, the estimated time enables team members to either adapt their comments.
Propose a process for addressing each agenda item. The process identifies the steps through which the team will move together to complete the discussion or decide.
Specify how members should prepare for the meeting. Distribute the agenda with sufficient time before the meeting.
Identify who is responsible for leading each topic. Someone other than the formal meeting leader is often responsible for leading the discussion of a particular agenda item.
Make the first topic “review and modify agenda as needed. Not all agenda modifications are this dramatic, but by checking at the beginning of the meeting, you increase the chance that the team will use its meeting time most effectively.
After each action item or motion, note:
a. the lead person to follow-up,
b. the resources needed,
c. the kind of product or report, and
d. the date for an update or to be completed.
End the meeting with a question. What did we do well? What do we want to do differently for the next meeting?
Often, we hear complaints about meetings needing to be more organized, unproductive, and a waste of time. For a good leader, this perception should raise a huge red flag.
Meetings are wonderful opportunities to further a project, encourage productive dialogue, gain buy-in, and build collegial relationships in the workplace. A skilled leader recognizes the importance of meetings and knows how to handle them in a way that optimizes their outcomes.
Here are five ways an effective leader gets the most out of meetings. A good leader is (1) clear about the meeting’s purpose, (2) makes sure everyone speaks on the topic, (3) is patient and encourages everyone to be engaged, (4) doesn’t treat differences as weaknesses, and (5) takes the first step in fostering professionalism.
Summary
This chapter discusses the importance of an influential meeting agenda in improving the quality and productivity of meetings. It highlights the critical elements of a well-designed agenda, including seeking input from team members, selecting relevant topics, framing them as questions, specifying the purpose, estimating time, proposing a discussion process, and assigning topic leaders.
The Huddle: An Alternative
Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to whatever time is allotted.
The superintendent’s life seems to be meetings. Sometimes, meetings are one right after another from the start of the day through the evening so much so that the superintendent’s effectiveness to lead is critical. Steven Rotenberg provides an alternative to the routine, one-hour weekly team meeting.
A ten- or fifteen-minute meeting is a tool for a leader to consider. These meetings are expected in high-stakes workplaces like military, emergency, and school settings. In these environments, short meetings often debrief or reflect on an event (e.g., what worked, what didn’t, and why).
The research on these types of meetings enthusiastically supports their ability to enhance future individual and team performance and the behaviors of attendees. Short meetings with a focused agenda, lead effectively, can have tremendously positive effects. These short meetings align with research on limited human attention spans and fatigue. A sports metaphor would be something like a huddle during a football game.
While the stand-up brief meeting would often result in many such meetings per week, this practice could be highly responsive to employee needs, placing a meeting on a calendar much easier and moving projects and initiatives forward without delays. Limiting the meetings to ten minutes gives team members a tight and highly focused agenda that promotes success. Highly focused and short are the hallmarks of a final type of short meeting: the huddle.
In sports, a huddle is an everyday activity that may be planned or spontaneous before or after an action. The huddle is a gathering of the team to discuss, strategize, motivate, monitor progress, and celebrate.
Logistically, a huddle is typically ten or fifteen minutes and starts and ends on time. It coincides in the morning, each day (or every other day) at the same place and involves the same people. Perfect attendance is expected. If a team member can’t attend in person or remotely. Finally, everyone is standing up, if possible
Although each leader (or other attendees if serving in the role of facilitator) can customize a huddle according to the needs of the organization and team, it is often the case that one question from one or more of the following categories is used:
What have you accomplished since yesterday? What are you working on today?
What is your top priority for the day? What might hold you back from accomplishing your task today?
When you implement the huddle, all attendees should quickly answer the facilitator’s questions unless there are extenuating circumstances. The meeting leader should clarify that employees’ answers should be succinct to promote efficiency. The meeting leader to stress that the huddle is not about reporting to the leader (this can be emphasized by rotating facilitator responsibilities).
The huddle is about the team members. Communicating, pulling together, learning, and seeking ways to support each other.
Relatedly, given the tight time limits of huddles, it is important to recognize that huddles are often about setting the table for additional conversations between team members offline. While quick suggestions and guidance can be shared during the huddle from attendee to attendee, if the issue involves a small subset of attendees, they can continue the conversation after the huddle is done. If the issue is substantive and involves most of the attendees, this issue can be taken up in a separate meeting.
These conversations keep the team moving forward and allow the leader to see if someone is off course or if any misunderstandings occur. Overall, huddles promote a sense of unity and coordination, get needed information out there quickly, enable problem solving, promote accountability, reveal blind spots, promote better communication, enhance understanding of goals, and stimulate attendees to help one another achieve success.
One concern often associated with the daily huddle is that people must be busy to engage in this practice (e.g., they need help finding time each day for something like this). However, this minor investment can yield big returns. By improving coordination and communication among team members, time is ultimately saved in the form of less rework, more teamwork, more support, and fewer miscommunications that need to be resolved.
There are two essential hazards to guard against when engaging in these practices. The first hazard is creating yet more time spent in meetings. But shorter meetings are designed to replace some longer meetings. In other words, the hope is that some current longer meetings can be dropped because of these frequent and effective huddles. If a critical issue emerged in a huddle that needed substantive, all team members knew that this time was available for follow-up. Thus, the huddle did not run over the scheduled end time, which brings us to the second hazard.
A second critical hazard to avoid is not honoring the shorter meeting times. Running over the scheduled huddle end time is highly problematic. Research suggests that running late may negatively affect attendees more than starting late. It negatively affects any scheduled activities post-meeting. The meeting is breaking an implicit time contract of sorts with attendees. Breaking this “contract” results in stress, dissatisfaction, and frustration among attendees, which affects them personally and can spill over to how they interact with others.
Beyond this benefit, the increased sense of urgency from a short meeting, with a hard stop time, will decrease rambling and unproductive, off-topic conversation.
There are many reasons to leverage shorter meetings. The meeting leader should never be afraid, no matter the length of a meeting, to end a meeting early when it looks as if the meeting goals have been met (no need to drag it out) or when the attendees seem to be just spinning their wheels and being unproductive. Sometimes, stopping and regrouping later or using a different communication medium (e.g., email) can be just what is needed to ultimately turn a losing effort into a winning one.
Parkinson’s and Meetings
Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to whatever time is allotted. Keep this in mind about meetings and take the time to conscientiously choose the length of your meetings (based on the goals, agenda, attendees, etc.). Perhaps even consider a nontraditional meeting length or start time, like the forty-eight-minute meeting, to push the envelope.
Consider shortening your regular meetings by five to ten minutes (instead of thirty or sixty minutes, try twenty-five or fifty). Not only will this create a little added pressure, which is shown to make attendees more effective, but it will also reduce lateness to meetings and allow for breaks between meetings.
Consider the idea of implementing daily or weekly short meetings or huddles. These ten-to-fifteen-minute meetings should have a focused agenda, involve lots of concise interaction among attendees, and be facilitated effectively using some of the key questions. (See questions)
Although short meetings or huddles can be very effective, it is important to keep two things in mind: (1) specific emergent topics may need their own dedicated meeting time outside the huddle context, and (2) always start and end these quick meetings on time to maximize their effectiveness and attendees’ satisfaction.
Summary
This chapter emphasizes the importance of adhering to the designated meeting time to prevent stress and dissatisfaction among attendees. In an article by Steven Rotenberg shares the idea of a huddle instead of a sit-down meeting. Additionally, it highlights the benefits of shorter meetings, including increased urgency, reduced off-topic discussions, and the ability to end meetings early when goals are met.
Five Tricks to Maximizing Meetings
You should never go to a meeting or make a telephone call without a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve. Steve Jobs
“People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.”
Meetings are an essential part of every organization. Whether they’re team check-ins or department updates, the routine meetings held every week, or every month are the hardest to get fired up about. Engaging, productive, and valuable meetings require a clear goal, open dialog, and a strong leader to manage the meeting effectively.
Set the Goal or Purpose of the Meeting. Unfortunately, many meetings don’t have a clear purpose. Not only should every meeting have a stated purpose, but you should be concise enough to tweet. Too many meetings try to accomplish too many things. There may be various topics, but the meeting should always have a single purpose. Often, the purpose of the meeting is something that only requires a meeting. An email may suffice. Make sure to state the purpose of the meeting in the invitation and again verbally at the start of the meeting. This way, everyone knows why they’re there and where their focus should be directed.
Invite Only the Relevant Stakeholders. Few meetings involve people who are optional to the purpose or outcome of the meeting. Think of every potential invitee as someone you are “hiring” for this event. Is their time more valuable in the meeting or is it better spent working on something else? If the meeting involves decisions, then invite only those who have a key role in the decision-making process.
Prepare an agenda and schedule. Only schedule a meeting if you have an agenda and a time schedule. Otherwise, you risk wasting time. All action items should be in a question format. Should we . . . ? This informs the members what the discussion is and what action needed. A visual meeting agenda is a proven method for planning, conducting, and tracking meeting progress. It’s a good idea to share this visual agenda with all attendees in advance of the meeting. Map out discussion topics and decisions to be made and keep discussions on track and focused on the meeting’s purpose.
Get productive Input before building the agenda. A meeting is designed for open communication, so getting honest input from those attending is critical. The meeting leader’s responsibility is to make sure everyone is heard. To encourage open discussion, avoid wearing your opinion on your sleeve—it is quite easy for a leader to stifle a discussion if everyone assumes the outcome is already determined.
Make sure that key ideas and decisions are written down. Do this visually so that everyone can see the developments as they occur. The leader of the meeting or someone else should be designated to do this. It limits miscommunication and misunderstanding and promotes accountability.
Close with a plan of action for each item. Conclude the meeting by briefly summarizing the decisions and outcomes. Follow up with a written meeting brief. Make sure that decisions and action items are added to the next meeting agenda. This document now serves as a starting point if a follow-up meeting is necessary.
Summary
This chapter emphasizes the importance of closing the meeting with a plan of action and follow-up to ensure that decisions and action items are addressed promptly and effectively.
Six Ways to Improve Virtual Meetings
An organization’s greatest asset is a leader’s ability to turn meetings into a thinking environment – Nancy Kline
While there are multiple challenges to ensuring virtual meetings succeed, one of the biggest issues is low accountability. Distractions are very high for attendees when they are sitting in front of a computer screen without the accountability of being in front of the presenter. Attendees check emails, text, or surf the internet during online presentations. Communication in virtual meetings can be difficult, and participants can have difficulty knowing when it is their turn to speak.
Six Tips to Improve Virtual Meetings
One: Don’t Forget the Basics of Meetings.
Be prepared for a virtual meeting just as you would for a face-to-face meeting. Determine the purpose, goals, and objectives of the meeting. Create and agenda to help guide attendees through the meeting to meet the determined goals. Send an invitation stating the involvement of the attendee expected the time and date.
Two: Appoint a Tough Facilitator
Since communication can be difficult and interruptions can occur, designate a meeting facilitator to help control the communications. This person acts like the “traffic cop” of the meeting. The facilitator lays out the rules of engagement and calls on participants when it is their turn to talk to avoid participants talking over each other.
Three: Promote accountability by (1) clarifying the issue or problem to be undertaken, (2) who is responsible for the action taken, (3) by when, (4) the resources needed, and (5) the format of the report or event expected when finished.
Four: Practice Careful Communication. Careful communication is necessary since no senses are engaged during virtual meetings. Miscommunications often occur due to the lack of facial expressions and hand gestures. Use active listening, restate and ask clarifying questions, and confer with the group to reach a consensus.
Five: Be Prepared for Technical Issues. As we all know, technology — no matter how innovative and convenient — can always have issues that can derail the entire event, causing many problems for the presenter and quite a bit of frustration and annoyance for the attendees or viewers.
Sixth: The Two-Minute Rule. Distractions come easily during virtual meetings; therefore, they require attendees to touch the keyboard or computer every two minutes or so. This can be achieved by hosting live polls for attendees to answer questions and see the results immediately.
In the Appendix, a form can be used to evaluate your meetings. It is titled, “The Tool Meeting Quality Assessment—Calculation of a Wasted Meeting Time Index.”
Summary
These strategies presented by Steven Rogelberg aim to address common challenges faced during virtual meetings, such as distractions and communication difficulties, to ensure more productive and successful online gatherings.
Minutes at a Board Meeting
Meeting minutes are part of an organization’s communication efforts and summarize the outcome of a meeting. – Neville
Taking minutes at a board meeting is an important and fulfilling role. School board meeting minutes are more than a general accounting of board discussions; they serve as an official and legal record of the meeting of the Board of Directors. Minutes are used in various ways, including tracking progress, detailing future, and serving as a reference point. Among other things, your meeting minutes should reflect a record of motions, votes, and abstentions.
Taking Board Meeting Minutes – Step by Step
In your role as secretary of the school board, you’ll have four steps involved with recording effective meeting minutes. You’ll need to spend a little time planning before the meeting, take notes during the meeting, and write a formal report after the meeting. You’ll also be responsible for filing and sharing the minutes of each meeting.
Preparation for the Board Meeting: Every district records its minutes slightly differently. Meet with the board president about any current or expected formats you are expected to use. Review past meeting minutes to use as a template. Provide the board president with a copy of the meeting agenda, including the names of all attendees, guests, or speakers.
Taking a Record of the Board Meeting: Unless your by-laws require you to type notes at the meeting, you can either type them out or write them longhand. The two most important things to know when taking the record of the meeting is what information to record and how to present it.
Meeting minutes should include:
• Date of the meeting
• Time the meeting was called to order.
• Names of the meeting participants and absentees
• Corrections and amendments to previous meeting minutes
• Additions to the current agenda
• Whether a quorum is present
• Motions taken or rejected.
• Voting-that there was a motion and second, and the outcome of the vote.
• Actions taken or agreed to be taken. Who is to do what by when?
• Next steps
• Items to be held over.
• New business
• Next meeting date and time
• Time of adjournment
As a footnote, either to yourself or an addendum to the minutes, for each item that requires someone to do something because of the meeting, list the following:
1. The expected outcome, report, or product of the action taken.
2. The lead person is responsible for reporting on the progress or completion of the item.
3. The resources needed and provided to complete the item.
4. The date of the progress report and the expected completion date of the item.
How you detail the discussions during a board meeting is as important as making sure to include all the information in the bullets shown above. For each agenda item, please write a short statement of each action the board took, along with a brief explanation of the rationale for their decision. If there are extensive arguments, write a succinct summary of the major arguments.
Record discussions objectively, avoiding inflammatory remarks and personal observations. A good way to do this is by avoiding adjectives and adverbs whenever possible. Check, your language to be sure that it is clear, unambiguous, and complete.
As noted earlier, minutes are an official and legal board meeting record. In a legal arena, meeting minutes are presumed to be correct and can be used as legal evidence of the facts they report. Document board discussions to accurately reflect the actions and intentions of the board directors. Boards have legal liability, so keep information basic and language simple to avoid any legal complications that place the organization at a disadvantage in any legal proceedings. Use names only when recording motions and seconds.
After the meeting, you will want to write the formal record when everything is still fresh in your mind, so prepare the record as soon as possible.
Writing the Official Record of Board Meeting Minutes. Review the agenda to gain the full scope of the meeting. Add notes for clarification. Review actions, motions, votes, and decisions for clarity. Edit the record so the minutes are succinct, clear, and easy to read.
It’s better to attach meeting handouts and documents referred to during the meeting to the final copy, rather than summarizing the contents in the minutes.
Signing, Filing, and Sharing Minutes. Once your meeting minutes are fully written, you are responsible for making them official by having the board president sign them.
Follow your district’s by-laws and protocols for storing minutes. It’s a good idea to have backup copies either in print, a hard drive, or (in the best case) a board portal.
The secretary also has the responsibility for sharing minutes. Ensure the president has approved the minutes before sharing them in print or online.
Helpful Tips for Taking Board Meeting Minutes
• Use a template.
• Check off attendees as they arrive.
• Do introductions or circulate an attendance list.
• Record motions, actions, and decisions as they occur.
• Ask for clarification as necessary.
• Write clear, brief notes-not full sentences or verbatim wording.
• Maintain the same verb tense.
Common Mistakes in Taking Board Meeting Minutes
• Failure to document a quorum.
• Ambiguous description of board actions
• Including information that could harm the board in a legal sense.
• Lengthy delays in providing minutes after a meeting.
• Delays in approving minutes from past meetings mistakes
• Failing to file and manage documents.
• Failing to get documents signed so they serve as an official and legal record.
Always be mindful that the purpose of taking meeting minutes is to reflect the true intentions of the board and that they are an official and legal record. Given the breadth of detail and complexity of the process associated with proper documentation of meeting minutes, many organizations find using a tool, such as board portal software, helps make this work easier and more efficient and can ultimately elevate performance.
In promoting transparency, a suggestion would be to create “Board Highlights.” The “Board Highlights,” as an unofficial summary of the meeting actions, could be shared via the district’s newsletter and other media.
Summary
The chapter emphasizes taking minutes at a board meeting, highlighting their significance as an official and legal record. It provides a step-by-step guide to effectively fulfill this role, from preparing and recording to writing and sharing the formal minutes. The importance of clear, concise, and legally sound documentation is stressed, along with helpful tips and common mistakes to avoid.
School Board Meeting and Protocols
There should be a visual separation between the board members and the superintendent, other administrators, and staff. The President leads the meeting, not the superintendent.
A school superintendent plays a major role in building a board meeting agenda, often serving as the school district’s leader. Building an effective agenda involves careful planning and collaboration. The following steps should be discussed in a board-superintendent work session to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the people involved.
Here are the suggested steps a superintendent could take to build a school board meeting agenda:
Understand the Purpose and Goals: Start by understanding the purpose of the upcoming board meeting. Is it a regular meeting, a special meeting, or a work session? Define the specific goals and objectives for the meeting.
Consult with the Board President: Collaborate with the board president or chairperson to determine the agenda items and priorities. Discuss any specific issues or topics they want to include.
Collect Input from Board Members: If part of the agenda protocols, contact individual board members for input. This ensures that the concerns and interests of all board members are considered. The preference of how the Board President and other members should be determined as part of the board-superintendent protocols.
Review Ongoing Initiatives and Issues: Review the progress of ongoing district initiatives, projects, and issues. Determine if any of these require updates or discussion at the board meeting.
Include Required Items: Include standard agenda items typically part of every board meeting, such as approval of minutes, financial reports, and superintendent’s reports.
Identify New Business Items: List any new business items that must be discussed or decided upon. This may include budget proposals, policy changes, personnel matters, and curriculum updates. Word each item in a question format to guide the board toward answering the question.
Consider Committee Reports: Consider reports and recommendations from various board committees, such as finance, curriculum, or facilities. These reports may lead to specific agenda items.
Incorporate Community Input: If specific community concerns or input need to be addressed, include them on the agenda. Public comments or presentations can be scheduled as appropriate. Most have the community input before the meeting, some afterward, and some do both.
Allocate Time Wisely: Determine the estimated time needed for each agenda item and allocate time accordingly. Ensure that the meeting remains within a reasonable timeframe.
Organize the Agenda: Arrange agenda items logically, starting with routine matters like approval of minutes and progressing to more issues that are substantial. Use clear headings and item numbers for easy reference.
Include Supporting Documents: Attach relevant documents, reports, and presentations to the agenda items. Board members should receive these materials well in advance of the meeting to prepare adequately.
Share the Draft Agenda: Distribute the draft agenda to board members a week or more before the meeting. Encourage feedback and revisions as needed.
Finalize the Agenda: Make any necessary adjustments based on board feedback and finalize the agenda in consultation with the board president or chairperson.
Publish the Agenda: Share the final agenda with board members and the public by open meeting laws and district policies. Post it on the district’s website or at a physical location accessible to the public.
Prepare for the Meeting: Work with staff to prepare any presentations, reports, or materials required. Ensure that all logistical details are in place.
Facilitate the Meeting: Follow the agenda closely during the meeting, keeping discussions focused and on track. Be prepared to answer questions and provide context on agenda items.
Building a school board meeting agenda, protocols at the meetings, and communications with board members is a collaborative and transparent process. Of course, some of these tips must be discussed with the board members. These tips and hints need to be put into the context and culture of your new school district. Following are tips based on the wisdom of experienced and successful superintendents nationwide from large and small school districts. (See a list of contributors at the end of this chapter.)
Remarks for the Good of the Schools: Community comments should be noted and referred to the superintendent and staff for further action, if appropriate. Seldom, if ever, should the board respond to the comments, only acknowledging the comments at the meeting. In handouts at board meetings, there should be a section about the time allowed per person and the appropriateness of criticism of employees.
Meeting of the School Board: Often, there needs to be a better understanding of a school board meeting. The meeting is a business meeting of the board, not a meeting involving a dialogue with the audience. People attending are observing board members doing business. The audience is not intended to have a role during the business meeting. The exception is the “citizen comment” part of the agenda. It is a meeting held in public, but not a public meeting.
Board Seeks Input: Use a Public Hearing for topics where the Board seeks input from diverse community perspectives. Sometimes, the hearing may be incorporated into the regularly scheduled meeting date. Still, it must be separately noted, opened as a hearing, and then formally closed for the start of the business meeting. Such a process may be useful before adopting the annual operating budget, for capital construction plan under consideration, school attendance boundary changes, or other major decisions where community input is valuable prior to the Board’s action.
Board Meeting Routine: The school board meeting should have a structured routine – formality, following the agenda, essential discussion, and decision-making, and in a relatively business-like manner.
Meeting Handout: The meeting handout should spell out a procedure for resolving issues involving employees – visiting with the employee to resolve the concern. If not resolved, then the supervisor, then the next level up to the superintendent. The school board should only be involved if the procedural steps have not resolved the issue.
Positive Start: A purposeful intent is to start the meeting on a positive note. Many superintendents have found it worthwhile to have the first event be a recognition of student accomplishments, faculty or staff achievements, or a citizen’s efforts to help students.
Building the Board Meeting Agenda: A week before the board meeting, the board president, and other members, on a rotating basis, and the superintendent meet to build the agenda. The “draft” board meeting agenda is shared with the other board members for input and consensus before the final draft is made public. As part of the protocols, in some districts, this responsibility might be the board president rather than all board members.
Implications of Agenda Items: Certain agenda items require discussion and a decision. Some superintendents include background facts and implications of a “yes” or “no” decision.
Action Items in a Question Format: Word the action items in a question format. For example, “Should the School Board approve the proposed policy statement on graduation requirements?” some include a suggested motion on a particular item.
Annual Calendar of Featured Programs and Services: The school board should develop an annual calendar of the programs and topics they would like a board meeting presentation. These “once a month” presentations can include faculty, staff, and students involved.
Communications with the Board: A strategy to have board members aware of current and potential issues is a weekly “Friday Notes to the Board.” This memo updates the Board on the superintendent’s activities of the week, sharing articles for their background and introducing issues or items likely to be coming forward in the next weeks or months. It is a valuable tool for keeping all aligned and rowing in the same direction. But remember, it is a document that might be accessible as a public record.
Friday Board Member Sessions: Some superintendents have a scheduled block of time, perhaps on Friday, to check in with each board member, ask for their input, and seek an update on the issues they might be interested. Use these calls to refine your relationship with each board member.
Board Work Sessions: To augment the board’s work, use off-weeks to schedule board work sessions. Work sessions provide an avenue for more informal engagement with staff on issues. To a degree, they may allow audience members to ask questions of professional staff in the presence of board members. Ground rules are necessary, but this process allows for examining issues, options for resolution of policy questions, and information sharing.
Meeting Seating Arrangements: There should be a visual separation between the board members and the superintendent, other administrators, and staff. The President leads the meeting, not the superintendent.
Superintendent’s Role: The superintendent and staff are an available resource for the school board. All questions and comments go through the president. And, when the president asks questions of available administrators, all are directed through the superintendent.
Attendance of Administrative Team members: Attendance of District Team members: There are two sides to consider when asking the administrative to attend school board meetings. On one side, some have the team members be available to answer board questions. Conversely, only team members with related items on the agenda would need to attend. A point for not attending and being available would be that team members would have time to prepare more thoughtful responses to questions of the board.
Attendance of Building Principals: Superintendents should carefully assess whether building principals should attend, considering their regular time-consuming responsibilities during the week, particularly other evening events. However, having building principals attend board meetings allows them to understand the board’s work, the dynamics of the board-superintendent relationship, the board’s philosophies, and community interests. Attendance would not be for every meeting but encouraged. Of course, the size of the district, past practices, and “astuteness” would need to be considered. Particularly in small districts, having principals attend board meetings (3 or 5 buildings) is good practice, particularly secondary principals because those areas (6 -12) were always the hot spots. In larger districts, a representative of the principals attended so they could report back to their colleagues. An alternative to consider about principals attending board meetings is to invite them to “Board Study Sessions.” This practice allows a more informal engagement between board members and building principals.
Transparency and Integrity: An expectation is that all correspondence of the superintendent could eventually be made public. All correspondence and utterances may be taken out of context and reshaped to meet the needs of the detractors. Even in a time of conspiracy theories and questionable beliefs, the facts and the truth will sustain integrity-the superintendent’s integrity. Interestingly, the facts may never matter or be heard. Rather the process used will be the target of questioning transparency and integrity.
Ssummary
This chapter provides comprehensive guidance for school superintendents on preparing for school board meetings and protocols. It emphasizes the importance of collaboration between the superintendent and the board in building an effective meeting agenda. It highlights the importance of communication and transparency between the superintendent and the board while sharing valuable tips and insights from experienced superintendents. Additionally, the chapter discusses the role of principals, meeting attendance, and the importance of integrity and transparency in the process.
Contributors:
Brian Benzel, former Superintendent of the Mead, Edmonds, and Spokane School District (WA) Martha Bruckner, former Superintendent of the Council Bluffs Community School (IA) and professor of school leadership.
Jeanne Collins, former Superintendent of the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union Superintendent (VT), and Executive Director of the Horace Mann League of the USA
John Erickson, former Superintendent of the Salem (OR) and Vancouver School District (WA)
Kevin McKay, Current Superintendent of the Selah School District and former Superintendent of the Zillah and Sunnyside Districts (WA)
Dennis Ray, former Superintendent of the Walla Walla and Northshore School District (WA), school leadership professor, and currently a superintendent search consultant.
Part Five: The Plans, Decisions, Changes, and Politics
The Six-Month Plan
Culture eats Long-term Planning for Lunch and Believes eats Truth for Dinner. – Jack McKay
Visibility
1. Out of the office. Visit every school and visit as many classrooms as possible in the district. Have a “Meet and Greet” scheduled at every site to gather input from staff members.
2. Interview Community Leaders – Interview critical stakeholders in civic clubs, city government, and other vital positions in the community. What are the strengths? What are the weaknesses? What are the opportunities? What are the challenges?
Listen to the stakeholders:
1. Listen to parents, teachers, students, administrators, parent-teacher organizations, booster organizations, teacher and support unions, faith-based groups, chamber of commerce, city government, community members, and retired school administrators.
2. Visit with students and student groups is often left out of the evaluation process, but I will make sure they have a voice. It is essential to listen to understand.
Review Data – Data will help understand the current reality of the school district.
1. A review of all student achievement data will be critical in making decisions.
2. Review the financial records, workflow analysis, and internal controls to ensure the.
3. Interview District Administrators – Ask for a debriefing from all administrators in the.
4. If not in place, form an administrative team to evaluate the significant areas of the school district. Ask each team member for a detailed report from their respective departments.
Board Operational Beliefs – Learn about the operational beliefs of the Board of Education and how they correlate to the policies they have created.
Conduct an internal review to see if our employees appropriately follow the policies and regulations.
1. Set up a meeting with each board member to input all issues and opportunities.
Review Student Programs –
1. Review all student programs to understand their functionality and capacity. The internal staff
2. Assess every decision to ensure it is in the best interest of students.
The Check List
The following is a checklist relating to the goals for the entry plan:
Goal 1: Develop Positive Board/Superintendent Relations “The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.”
1.1 Understand the operational beliefs of the Board of Education. How do they correlate with the policies created for the district?
1.2 Establish a clear understanding of roles, responsibilities, expectations, and systems of mutual accountability.
1.3 Develop consistent forms of communication with all board members about weekly emails, newsletters, and calls.
1.4 Schedule individual meetings with each Board member to begin developing relationships and trust with the board.
1.5 Ask the Board of Education to commit time for bonding activities. Help build relationships and trust between the Board and the Superintendent. Schedule a retreat to prioritize and set goals.
1.6 Work out a strategy with the school board that identifies leaders from within the community.
1.7 Ensure (or find ways to ensure) that school board and leadership team members understand and share similar beliefs.
1.8 Create a self-evaluation system that informs the board members what your priorities/goals are for the first six months and the first year.
1.9 Ask for access to the Superintendent Search documents used to establish the specifications used to evaluate candidates. This document includes the results of focus groups of staff, students, parents, and community members. This document may provide the priorities for the district are for superintendent.
1.10 When speaking anywhere, formally or informally, never speak ill of the past efforts of the former superintendents, community members, or association leadership. Likewise, avoid negative comments about a previous school district.
Goal 2: Interview Key Stakeholders “The Superintendent must maintain unwavering faith that they can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. ”
2.1 Identify the key stakeholders: teachers, site principals, parents, students, parent-teacher organizations, central office staff, civic clubs, chamber of commerce, city council, and faith-based groups.
2.2 Survey the faculty and staff to find out the organization’s current reality. This process will be the first step in moving the organization forward.
2.3 Meet with teachers and the local education association leadership. Listening to these groups will give insight into the critical issues
2.4 Meet with students and student groups. Make sure that students have opportunities to be included.
2.5 Identify the key leaders in the community and set up meetings to hear their concerns and recommendations.
2.6 Provide open, honest communication and positive relationships.
Goal 3: Review Current Data and Evaluate Programs “True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.”
3.1 Utilize financial and personnel data to understand the current reality of the district.
3.2 Review all financial records and financial procedures. Review the ending fund balance to determine stability.
3.3 Ensure the district staff follows state law and board policy in hiring, purchasing, and competitive bidding. Review all bond funds to ensure that funds are on the projects advertised in the previous bond issues.
3.5 Review the internal controls to ensure the district is being fiscally responsible.
3.6 Review all critical documents such as organizational charts, employee handbooks, and employee negotiated agreements.
Goal 4: Review of Student Achievement and Programs “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”
4.1 Review the district strategic plan and the process of its development.
4.2 Review the mission and vision and all student achievement data. Include all instructional data such as curriculum guides, benchmark assessments, and state achievement data.
4.3 Review the site improvement plans to ensure these are consistent with the mission and vision.
4.4 Identify those schools/programs that may not be performing to expectations and review to understand the reasons for performance levels.
4.5 Request the administrative team to analyze programs in their respective areas.
4.6 Review all student programs and grant-funded projects to understand the functionality, capacity, and the current philosophy of title programs.
4.7 Review with the administrative team the perceived successes and challenges of the current student programs.
Notes:
Goal 5: Review of Technology, Operations, and Support Functions “The most serious mistakes are not being made due to wrong answers. The perilous thing is asking the wrong question.”
5.1 Review the support functions: technology services, transportation services, child nutrition, custodial, and maintenance services.
5.2 Request the team members in the support areas to review programs in their respective departments.
5.3 Review the infrastructure of the technology services. Analyze the number of computers-to-student ratios and where the computers are accessible to students.
5.4 Review the effort for using technology as a tool in the classroom. Do teachers receive appropriate professional development for technology? Do teachers receive the proper hardware and software for classroom use?
5.5 Review the process of technology usefulness at all levels of the district. Analyze the outcomes from these efforts.
5.6 Review transportation services to ensure safety and student needs.
5.7 Analyze how child nutrition needs. Have federal school lunch regulations been followed? Identify how maintenance and custodial services are across the district?
Goal 6: Balance Family and Work Activities “Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.”
6.1 Eat a healthy diet every day and set aside time daily for exercise to maintain a healthy body.
6.2 Make time for my family.
6.3 Take time to enjoy my hobbies to refresh myself each week.
Goal 7. Report on the Progress of the 6-month Plan
7.1 Create a format that conveys progress made for each goal of the six-month plan.
7.2 Create a set of suggestions and recommendations, based on the visits, listening, and analyzed data, that relate to each original goal and other goals, if needed.
7.3 Create a plan to communicate suggestions and recommendations. Include what was said and progress made.
7.4 Repeat the process of visiting, listening, and analyzing data for the next six months, the following year, and three years ahead.
7.5 Finally, avoid surprising the school board. Anticipate issues and opportunities, Be inspirational in working with others, and be visible in the classroom, at school events, and in the community.
Summary
The first six months on the job will be critical to setting the tone and direction for the school district. The six-month timeline will allow the new superintendent to listen to internal and external stakeholders, evaluate the various programs, and develop relationships. The appendix has a formatted checklist-rating form to measure the progress.
Options When Decisions Are Needed
In any decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. – Theodore Roosevelt
Making decisions is the primary task of a superintendent. Typically, it is not the decision but rather the process used to make the decision that makes or breaks the superintendent. As highlighted in previous chapters, leaders, particularly superintendents, face the possibility of not being renewed, not because of a wrong decision, but by not deciding promptly. The following are three decision-making choices: individual, group, and advisory.
An Individual Makes the Decision
The individual has ultimate decision-making power and can choose to involve others as little or as much as they desire. The upside of individual decision-making is that it can be fast and simple, has clear advocacy, frees others from ownership, is good in crises, and is a faster resolution to issues.
On the downside, individual decision-making limits others from having influence, limits other team members’ sharing experience, causes others to feel unheard and uncomfortable in sharing solutions, and reluctance to step up and take responsibility for the outcomes. Finally, the decision maker is seen as unable to listen and resistant to sharing power.
Another consequence is that others rally around how more people can be involved in decision-making, like restructuring organizations, unionizing, and ousting leaders. While this rallying can lead to positive transformation, in some cases, it can become a toxic work environment.
The Group Makes the Decision
This can be a team deciding together or an entire organization making a decision together. The approach to making the decision can range from voting to the consent principle to full consensus.
The upside to Group Decision-Making is that everyone has a seat at the table and there are higher levels of buy-in to the decision from all participants. Diverse perspectives directly inform the decision, resulting in a better decision than one person deciding in isolation. There is a greater possibility for creative solutions from group conversations with many decision-makers. Disagreeing voices are seriously listened to, not dismissed, which deepens understanding of diverse perspectives and builds community. Finally, there is ownership and support when involved.
On the downside, group decision-making is time-consuming; responsibility is diffused and needs more accountability that is specific. Disagreements and tensions can slow down decision-making or even result in decisions never being made. Deciding whether to change the status quo or express dissent can take time. Expertise can be overruled by the larger group, which may not fully understand the decision’s implications.
The Advice Process
This approach focuses on how the decision is made instead of requiring the “who” to be an individual or a group. One person is responsible for a decision. But before that person decides, they seek advice from everyone whom this decision will significantly impact. Finally, there is the option of the person responsible to decide or ask a group of people to make the decision together.
The upside of the advice process is that it is a responsibility to the whole since individuals are not allowed to make decisions without directly engaging with those most impacted. There is clarity regarding the decision-making’s who, what, and when since the person responsible must ideally state the decision-making process upfront. It can be fast and simple, particularly with day-to-day decisions since members can make decisions themselves instead of going up the chain of command for approval.
On the downside, those who don’t have good decision-making skills have a big learning curve to make decisions which can be particularly challenging for new team members. With so many options for deciding, it can be overwhelming/confusing to figure out the best process. It can be very time-consuming. Finally, it relies on members building trust and engaging in generative conversations about disagreements to give challenging feedback directly to the decision-maker.
A common theme across all three decision-making cultures is a healthy and trusting relationship. Trust in each other enables an individual decider to enlist others in executing decisions, allows a group to share and reconcile different opinions, and supports organizations using advice processes to be flexible and emergent. Taking time as an organization to develop their decision-making culture intentionally is a dynamic process. Changing a decision-making culture becomes a healing process and rebuilds trust.
Summary
The chapter explores three primary decision-making choices available to school superintendents: individual, group, and advisory. It emphasizes the significance of the decision-making process rather than the decision itself and discusses the pros and cons of each approach.
Making Changes Immediately
People don’t resist change. They resist being changed! – Peter Senge
Conventional wisdom suggests that when a new superintendent is chosen to make significant changes, s/he must be thoughtful, strategic, and measured. But other veteran superintendents suggest that one of the surest ways to be non-renewed is by leaping ahead without understanding the culture and support needed to make long-term significant progress. Following are suggestions from an article in the Harvard Business Review by Nicki Roth that is adapted to the school superintendent.
The mandate for change must be clearly understood by the entire school district, even if there are pockets of resistance. The leader must understand that change does not occur “because I said so” but rather through the engagement of those whose lives will be altered (supporters and naysayers).
Real organizational change that gets fully implemented can only happen when the superintendent forms productive alliances and relationships with key constituents and influencers. This requires lots of listening and learning about what has been asked to change. Too often, however, new leaders charge full steam ahead, thinking that ramping up in the first 100 days only means taking urgent action.
A balance between learning the culture, people, and key relationships with some early winning steps is the key to success. After all, pronouncing several directives usually leaves the leader with few followers. Building those connections early on is necessary for all subsequent efforts to be met with (at best) skepticism or (worse) resistance. No change.
The school board may hand the new leader a specific agenda, such as improving student achievement, weeding out incompetent staff, building a larger cash reserve, or improving extracurricular programs. These concerns must be more than implied. These desired changes need to be clearly stated by the school board, part of the annual goals of the board, and part of the annual review of the superintendent’s performance. This advice is made because many a superintendent has embarked on the implied changes to have later the school board claim that they didn’t mean “those changes.”
Faculty, staff, and community leaders may not be aware of these school board concerns, so early communications that balance what needs to be fixed with a desired better future need to occur. Big meetings, small gatherings, one one-on-ones. Lots of explaining in hopes of gaining early support for the new direction.
Learn, learn, learn. Each school district is unique. The culture, how things formally and informally get done. The departments, the early adopters, the institutional wisdom, the pent-up potential, the wisest advisors, the old ways of doing things, the hiring practices… all of it must be listened to and engaged. Appreciating the “what is” before making changes is essential to being a credible leader.
In most school districts, there can be “felt” needs and “actual” needs. Both are valid, but the superintendent must see the data to assess the need for changes. Feelings can be a warning sign of problems but are insufficient for decision-making. They will be seen as erratic if s/he makes emotional or impulsive decisions.
Select 2-3 early wins. Bite off small pieces that are doable in the beginning. The superintendent may telegraph that a big change is coming but start with something with a high probability of success. Even better, pick something that the people impacted would feel is a good thing rather than a threat.
Form an extended leadership council that helps to shape, lead, and implement the bigger initiatives. Tap the informal leaders lower in the organization for responsibilities in the change efforts. It may be necessary to remove “nay-sayers” to move forward.
Conduct ongoing conversations (listen) with all levels of the district to uncover the biggest pains and empower them to fix them. In short, make the change agenda “our” agenda rather than the superintendent’s agenda.
Take the long view. The most sustainable and high-impact organizational changes take place over an extended period. It is important to understand the pieces, how it will affect the staff, what is flexible or not, and how fast you need to move. The best-laid plans usually get altered. Not a sprint.
There isn’t a good superintendent who takes a new position and doesn’t want things to happen. We wish we could say that we followed this advice to a tee, but we seem to have a habit of wanting to “improve” things immediately. By proving how brilliant the school board was, we could get great things done quickly.”
Improving anything worthwhile takes time to cultivate good connections in the organization, even if it doesn’t look like a flurry of activity. As the new leader who is expected to make significant changes, take the time to get to know the faculty and staff and how things work. You will gain much more traction, support, and respect.
Summary
This chapter discusses the common pitfalls of making immediate changes when a new superintendent takes office in a school district. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the organizational culture, building relationships, and effectively communicating the mandate for change.
A Solid Transition Process
A good transition attends to what it means for an organization and its people and how the leader organizes the process. – William Bridges
Whether they came from outside the district or were promoted from within, most superintendents gave their boards a “100-day plan and spent the summer engaging with internal and external stakeholders. This is typical, writes Joshua Starr, a veteran leader who offers wisdom to the new superintendent.
Starr suggests that superintendents who are new to a position need to spend some time getting to know the school district. Even when they’re expected to make bold, transformational change, they still need to get comfortable with the view from the top seat.
These first 100 days are about entry, when the leader and stakeholders get to know each other, their values, and their stories. This entry period is essential to building the foundation for transition, which is about the entire organization moving from one state of being to another.
Transition and entry may coincide, but the former takes much longer than the latter. However, too many leaders focus on entry and fail to engage in a thoughtful and comprehensive transition process.
According to William Bridges’ book Managing Transitions, the basic tenets of a good transition attend to both what it means for an organization and the people in it and how the leader organizes the process.
Understanding the landscape
The first thing that leaders need to understand about transition is that not all people are in the same place. Psychologically, transition is made up of three phases: letting go, the neutral zone, and the new beginning.
A school board will likely be much ahead of the rest of the district, as it has been planning for a new superintendent for months and is ready to move forward. District employees may take a wait-and-see attitude or be attached to the outgoing leader. And families and community members may only pay attention once something catches their interest. Meeting people where they are in the transition is important when beginning a new job.
Since transition is all about a school district taking on a new form, loss is inevitable. Transition isn’t just about change. Yes, some old business ways will cease, and new ones will begin. However, an organizational transition is also specifically about how people act differently in the face of changed circumstances.
Even if the faculty and staff are ready and eager to embrace the new beginning, they still lose their old way of doing business. For those who resist the new or are just unsure of what it means for them, their sense of loss can manifest in active opposition to a leader’s new ideas.
The District’s Culture
Consider what might happen when a new superintendent tries to change the district culture to be less top-down and more collaborative.
The previous superintendent was dictatorial and ruled by fiat and fear. Folks in schools and the community needed more say in decision-making and ownership of actions and results. Transforming this district’s culture requires creating new structures, processes, and practices.
Advisory groups must be established to gather input in curriculum and budgeting decisions. Teachers should be organized into professional learning communities (PLC) to increase their professional learning and leverage their expertise.
During all of this, the superintendent spends a lot of time in the community and in schools, talking to folks about what they want and getting buy-in to a vision of collaboration and engagement. People feel good about the new direction and espouse their support for working together on behalf of young people.
Then something happens. Teachers now in PLCs realize that they are losing some autonomy to decide what to teach and how to assess. Principals who clamored to be part of district-level decision-making but followed the previous superintendent’s lead and made top-down decisions are now expected to engage their teachers, parents, and students in the process.
Central office leaders must be more transparent about their programmatic and resource allocation decisions. All these people wanted to feel more a part of the team and collaborate with one another, and many decried the previous leader’s approach. But they’re also experiencing a sense of loss over their old practices. Moreover, they may find learning new practices difficult and uncomfortable.
In this situation, the new superintendent must focus on the value of the new approach and recognize that even if people voice their commitment to and desire for it, they’re losing something in the process.
Organizing for change
In addition to understanding the psychological aspects of transition, a new superintendent must also organize a strategy to manage the process. I’ve seen and experienced a few key components of effective strategies. Transparency is an important part of an effective transition strategy.
Leaders must be clear about what they’re doing, with whom, and when. They need to be clear about the problem they’re trying to solve, the criteria for who’s going to help in the process, who’s going to be spoken to, what data will be reviewed, and what the timelines are for gathering information, meeting with people, and reporting out. A transition team of inside stakeholders and outside experts should be established to collect data and create a change plan.
The team should be divided into committees with a clear charge to focus on the district’s critical issues, such as operations, teaching and learning, community engagement, and equity.
Data collection can be a sensitive process for a transition team, as many participants will have different perspectives about the district’s challenges and will want to find the data that supports their beliefs. Ideally, an independent data team or local university partner will gather quantitative and qualitative data to inform team decisions. It’s essential that focus-group input — which is a key part of the data that needs to be collected — is seen as reliable and valid. If the transition team collects the data rather than analyzes it, the results might not be seen as legitimate.
Each transition team committee should produce a report, which then gets aggregated into one document. For clarity and consistency, have one person write the final document, which is then presented to the superintendent and their cabinet. Formal heads of employee associations, family, community and student leaders, or other key players should be given a chance to preview the report before it’s publicly presented to the board. The media should be given an embargoed copy just prior to public release, and a copy needs to be posted on the district website as soon as it’s presented. And that’s just the end of the beginning. Once the report is public, the superintendent needs to ensure that every decision and recommendation (within reason) can be mapped back to the transition plan. It can form the basis of a strategic planning process, and the budget should be aligned to the report.
Transition team members should be brought back, formally and informally, during the first year — and even the second — to check progress and gather feedback. Because they were part of the work and felt ownership of it, they can become some of the greatest allies and supporters of the new leader’s agenda. Good leaders will leverage that spirit as they go forward.
A solid transition process enables a leader to unpack the organization’s issues and chart a clear course as we advance. Good leaders will use it as the foundation for the new work that they’re called to do.
Summary
This chapter emphasizes the significance of a well-structured transition process for new superintendents in school districts. It outlines key insights and strategies for navigating the initial 100 days and the subsequent transition period effectively.
The Superintendence and Politics
The essence of political leadership is the ability to articulate what you are doing, to be clear about it, and to stick to it. – Chris Patten
School superintendents often face various challenges in navigating the community’s politics. Here are some suggested ways to deal with the politics of leading a school system.
Building relationships: Superintendents invest time in building relationships with key stakeholders in the community, including parents, teachers, students, school board members, local officials, and community leaders. By fostering open lines of communication and trust, superintendents can better understand the community’s needs, and concerns, and work towards finding common ground. This implies visibility in the community be being involved in a service organization or other community events.
Effective communication: Superintendents prioritize clear and transparent communication to ensure the community is well informed about important decisions and initiatives. They often use various channels such as newsletters, social media, community meetings, and regular updates to engage with the public, address concerns, and provide rationale behind their decisions. This implies regular and consistent messages via “Key Communicators and utilizing social media.
Collaborative decision-making: Engaging stakeholders in decision-making can help superintendents mitigate potential conflicts. They may form committees or task forces comprising representatives from different groups within the community. This collaborative approach allows for a diverse range of perspectives to be considered, fostering a sense of ownership and reducing the likelihood of contentious disagreements. This implies setting up and facilitating study groups and community-wide ad-hoc groups.
Understanding local context: Superintendents must familiarize themselves with the unique characteristics and values of the community they serve. By understanding the cultural, socioeconomic, and political dynamics, they can tailor their strategies and decisions to better align with community expectations. This implies understanding and appreciating the unique characteristics and cultures of the community.
Advocacy and diplomacy: Superintendents often find themselves in the role of an advocate for their schools and students. They may need to diplomatically articulate their positions on various educational issues while considering the diverse perspectives within the community. It’s crucial for superintendents to balance their responsibilities to students and the district with the concerns and priorities of the community. This implies the necessity to be the advocate, speaking and writing editorials about the value of strong public school system.
Long-term vision and strategic planning: Superintendents focus on developing a long-term vision for the school district and articulating it to the community. By highlighting the district’s goals, objectives, and the rationale behind their strategies, they can help community members understand the broader educational mission and how specific decisions align with it. This implies the building of a relatively large diverse coalition of public-school supporters.
Responding to concerns and conflicts: Superintendents need to be prepared to address concerns and conflicts that arise within the community. They should be accessible, approachable, and willing to listen to different perspectives. When conflicts arise, superintendents strive to find solutions that balance the needs of the community with the best interests of the students and the district. Again, this implies being visibility and accessible, as well ass, forthright in promptly providing accurate information.
Summary
This chapter guides school superintendents on effectively navigating the complexities of community politics. It underscores the importance of several key strategies.
The Art of Decision-Making
If speed and decisiveness are required, it will likely point you toward an autocratic process. If collaboration is needed, it will nudge you toward a more democratic process. – Vroom and Yetton
The Vroom-Yetton-Jago Normative Decision Model
Once you understand the concepts embedded in this streamlined model, you’ll have one more tool you can use to decipher which decisions can be made independently and which need a team. Developed by Victor Vroom and Phillip Yetton, with additional collaboration from Arthur Jago, this model dictates that you involve other people in the decision if one or more of these elements are present: a high-quality decision is critical, you need everyone to buy into the decision once it’s made, and you have sufficient time to involve others before you make the decision. The decision model slows the process down to allow us to refine the problem statement and consider the amount of preferred engagement.
Imagine your decision-making on a spectrum from the most solitary form (you decide alone) to the most engaging (you bring others in). The Vroom-Yetton-Jago Normative Decision Model offers five options:
Autocratic I: Decide independently.
Autocratic II: Gather additional information from others to inform your decision, and then decide independently.
Consultative I: Share the details of your situation with a small number of others to gather high-quality opinions and then decide independently.
Consultative II: Facilitate a group to generate ideas, share impressions and weigh in on the decision, and then make the decision independently.
Collaborative: Facilitate a group toward a consensus decision without regard for your opinions.
Understanding the Model
The Vroom-Yetton model is designed to help you to identify the best decision-making approach and leadership style to take based on your current situation.
No single decision-making process fits every scenario. Instead, Vroom-Yetton offers several different processes and directs you toward the best one for your situation. For example, if speed and decisiveness are required, it will likely point you toward an autocratic process. If collaboration is needed, it will nudge you toward a more democratic process.
Researchers have found that leaders are more effective and their teams more productive and satisfied when they follow the model. The simplicity of Vroom-Yetton also means that anyone – from the boardroom to the factory floor – can use it.
Although a little long-winded at times, it can be beneficial in new or unusual situations. Practice using it, and you’ll quickly get a feel for the right approach, whether deciding about a day-to-day issue or dealing with a more complex problem.
Before you start using the model, you’ll need to consider these three factors:
Decision quality – Sometimes, making the “right” decision is critical, and you’ll need to use many resources (people, time, information, and so on) to ensure that the action you take has been well thought through and is of high quality.
Team commitment – Some of your decisions will impact your team, while others will go unnoticed. A collaborative process is best when a decision will likely impact your team. This will improve the quality of the decision, and you’ll likely deliver a successful result faster.
Time constraints – When the issue at hand isn’t time-sensitive, you have more “space” to research your options and to include others, which will help to boost the quality of your decision. If your time is limited, however, including others or undertaking thorough research may not be feasible.
Let’s put it to work with a few examples of how you might use it:
You’ve been invited to plan an upcoming retreat for your team of 12 in order to help new colleagues integrate into the group and get everyone focused on the same objectives. The quality of the decision and team commitment are both important. Yet you likely don’t have enough information to make the decision, nor is the problem well-structured. This would suggest you use either the Consultative II or Collaborative approach to make the decision.
You’d like to make a procedural change to how your program is run, and the quality of the decision is important. You’d like others on your team to support what you decide, but you also know they’ll trust you to make the decision yourself. Using the visual guide, you learn that your best approach is Autocratic II. You gather basic input from the two other people who will have to adjust their workflow, and then you decide on your own.
You have thoughts about strategic changes that could be made to your colleague’s program. Hold on! Common sense and this decision-making model dictate that this is not your decision, and you need to use the Collaborative method (or instead, share this model and your specific strategic idea with your colleague and let them decide).
One nuance of the model is that you’ll need to lean into collaboration if you think the decision will be met with disagreement from the group. For those who tend to avoid conflict, it’s a nerve-wracking—though important—reminder of the need for consensus building. Another caution is that other decision-making tools might be more appropriate when a large group is involved.
Tying it all back to Leadership
Why is this tool important to you as a leader? It gives a concrete guide to help you decipher when to involve others in decision-making. Rather than simply guessing or what someone else wants you to do, the Vroom-Yetton-Jago method can bring more clarity and efficiency to your work. Take it out for a spin next time you’re faced with a decision that feels a bit complex and see what you learn!
Summary
The chapter introduces the Vroom-Yetton-Jago Normative Decision Model, a valuable tool for decision-making. This model, developed by Victor Vroom, Phillip Yetton, and Arthur Jago, helps individuals determine when to involve others in decision-making. It outlines five decision-making options on a spectrum from solitary to engaging.
Leadership Traps in Decision-Making
Making decisions is the most critical job of any executive. It’s also the toughest and the riskiest. – John Hammond
You may be at the mercy of your mind’s strange decision-making workings. An article by John Hammond and others explains some common errors in decision-making before they become judgment disasters.
Making decisions is the most important job of any executive. It’s also the toughest and the riskiest. Bad decisions can damage an organization and a career, sometimes irreparably. So, where do bad decisions come from?
In many cases, they can be traced back to how the decisions were made—the alternatives were not clearly defined, the right information was not collected, and the costs and benefits were not accurately weighed. But sometimes the fault lies not in the decision-making process but rather in the decision-maker’s mind. The way the human brain works can sabotage our decisions.
Researchers have studied how our minds function in making decisions for half a century. This research, in the laboratory and in the field, has revealed that we use unconscious routines to cope with the complexity inherent in most decisions. These routines, known as heuristics, serve us well in most situations. In judging distance, for example, our minds frequently rely on a heuristic that equates clarity with proximity.
The clearer a problem appears, the closer we judge it to be. The fuzzier it appears, the farther away we assume it must be. This simple mental shortcut helps us to make the continuous stream of distance judgments required to navigate the day. Yet, like most heuristics, it could be better. On days that are hazier than normal, our eyes will tend to trick our minds into thinking that things are more distant than they are. Because the resulting distortion poses few dangers for most of us, we can safely ignore it. For airline pilots, though, the distortion can be catastrophic. That’s why pilots are trained to use objective measures of distance in addition to their vision.
Researchers have identified a series of such flaws in how we think in making decisions. Some, like the heuristic for clarity, are sensory misperceptions. Others take the form of biases. Others appear simply as irrational anomalies in our thinking. What makes all these traps so dangerous is their invisibility. We fail to recognize them because they are hardwired into our thinking process—even as we fall right into them.
The psychological traps are especially dangerous for superintendents whose success hinges on the many day-to-day decisions they make or approve.
While no one can rid his or her mind of these ingrained flaws, anyone can follow the lead, understand the traps and compensate for them. It is important to remember that the best defense is always awareness. Leaders who attempt to familiarize themselves with these traps and the diverse forms they take will be better able to ensure that their decisions are sound and that the recommendations proposed by subordinates or associates are reliable.
The Anchoring Trap.
There is the commonly known as anchoring. When considering a decision, the mind gives disproportionate weight to the first information it receives. Anchors take many guises. They can be as simple and seemingly innocuous as a comment or insidious as a stereotype about a person’s skin color, accent, or dress.
One of the most common types of anchors is a past event or trend. A leader attempts to project the events by looking at similar activities in the past. They become anchors, which the leader then adjusts based on other factors. This approach tends to give too much weight to past events and not enough weight to other factors.
What can you do about it? No one can avoid their influence, but being aware of the dangers of anchors can reduce their impact by using the following techniques:
Try using alternative starting points and approaches rather than sticking with the first line of thought that occurs to you. Think about the problem on your own before consulting others to avoid becoming anchored by their ideas. Be open-minded. Seek information and opinions from a variety of people to widen your frame of reference and to push your mind in fresh directions.
The Status-Quo Trap.
We all like to believe that we make decisions rationally and objectively. Decision makers display, for example, a strong bias toward alternatives that perpetuate the status quo. The source of the status-quo trap lies deep within our psyches, in our desire to protect our egos from damage. Breaking from the status quo means taking responsibility, thus opening ourselves to criticism and regret. The status quo exerted its power even though it had been arbitrarily established only minutes before. The more choices you are given, the more pull the status quo has. “Let’s wait until the situation stabilizes.” Leaders are stuck with the status quo, having failed to seize the occasion when change would have been expected.
What can you do about it? First, remember that maintaining the status quo may be the best choice in any given decision, but you don’t want to choose it just because it is comfortable. Remember your objectives and examine how the status quo would serve them. Never think of the status quo as your only alternative. When comparing alternatives, always evaluate them in terms of the future and the present. Force yourself to choose. If you have several alternatives superior to the status quo, do not default to the status quo just because you’re having a hard time picking the best alternative.
The Sunk-Cost Trap.
Another deep-seated bias is making choices that justify past choices, even when the past choices no longer seem valid. Our past decisions become what economists term sunk costs—old investments of time or money that are now irrecoverable. They are unwilling, consciously or not, to admit to a mistake. Acknowledging a poor decision in one’s personal life may be purely private, involving only one’s self-esteem.
The sunk-cost bias shows up with disturbing regularity, where it can have particularly dire consequences. If the decision does have a good chance of coming together, that’s a wise investment of time and money. Otherwise, it’s just throwing good money after bad. Acknowledging that some good ideas will fail, leaders will encourage people to cut their losses rather than let them mount.
What can you do about it? Seek out and listen carefully to the views of people who need to be more involved with the earlier decisions and are unlikely to be committed to them.
Examine why admitting to an earlier mistake distresses you. If the problem lies in your wounded self-esteem, deal with it head-on. Remind yourself that even smart choices can have bad consequences through no fault of the original decision maker and that even the best and most experienced managers are not immune to errors in judgment. Don’t cultivate a failure-fearing culture that leads others to perpetuate their mistakes.
The Confirming-Evidence Trap.
Imagine you’re the superintendent and considering whether to call off a planned building expansion plan, thinking that your district won’t be able to sustain the rapid pace of growth.
Before you stop the building project, you call up an acquaintance, the superintendent who recently called off building plans, to check her reasoning. She presents a strong case that enrollment growth has weakened significantly. What do you do? You’d better not let that conversation be the clincher because you’ve probably just fallen victim to the confirming-evidence bias. This bias leads us to seek information that supports our existing instinct or point of view while avoiding information that contradicts it.
What did you expect your acquaintance to give other than a strong argument for her decision? The confirming-evidence bias affects where we go to collect evidence and how we interpret the evidence we receive, leading us to give too much weight to supporting information and too little to conflicting information.
There are two fundamental psychological forces at work.
The first is our tendency to subconsciously decide what we want to do before we figure out why we want to do it.
The second is our inclination to be more engaged by things we like than by things we dislike. We tend to subconsciously decide what to do before figuring out why we want to do it.
What can you do about it? Always check whether you are examining all the evidence with equal rigor. Avoid the tendency to accept confirming evidence without question. Get someone you respect to play devil’s advocate. Better yet, build the counterarguments yourself. And if you find that an adviser always seems to support your point of view, find a new adviser. Don’t surround yourself with yes-men.
The Framing Trap.
The first step in deciding is to frame the question. It’s also one of the most dangerous steps. The way a problem is framed can profoundly influence the choices you make. The framing trap can take many forms, it is often closely related to other psychological traps. A frame can establish the status quo or introduce an anchor. It can highlight sunk costs or lead you toward confirming evidence. Frames as gains versus losses. A poorly framed problem can undermine even the best-considered decision. But any adverse effect of framing can be limited by taking the following precautions: Don’t automatically accept the initial frame, whether it was formulated by you or someone else. Try posing problems in a neutral, redundant way that combines gains and losses or embraces different reference points. Think hard throughout your decision-making process about the framing of the problem. At points throughout the process, particularly near the end, ask yourself how your thinking might change if the framing changed.
The Estimating and Forecasting Traps.
While leaders continually make such estimates and forecasts, they rarely get clear feedback about their accuracy. That would require a great deal of data, carefully tracked over a long period.
Another set of traps can have a particularly distorting effect in uncertain situations because they cloud our ability to assess probabilities. Let’s look at three of the most common of these uncertainty traps:
The Overconfidence Trap.
We need more confidence in our accuracy. Think of the implications for organizational decisions. Much time and money has been wasted on poorly planned projects because leaders must accurately account for the possibility of failure.
The Prudence Trap.
Another trap for forecasters takes the form of over cautiousness or prudence. When faced with high-stakes decisions, we tend to adjust our estimates or forecasts to be on the safe side. An extreme example is the methodology of “worst-case analysis. Worst-case analysis added enormous time with no practical benefit (it often backfired), proving that too much prudence can sometimes be as dangerous as too little.
The Recall Ability Trap.
Even if we are both confident and prudent, we can still fall into a trap. A dramatic or traumatic event in your own life can also distort your thinking. Anything that distorts your ability to recall events in a balanced way will distort your probability assessments.
What can you do about it? The best way to avoid the estimating and forecasting traps is to take a disciplined approach to making forecasts and judging probabilities.
To reduce the effects of overconfidence in making estimates, always start by considering the extremes, the low and high ends of the possible range of values. This will help you avoid being anchored by an initial estimate. Then, challenge your estimates of the extremes. To avoid the prudence trap, always state your estimates honestly and explain to anyone who will be using them that they have yet to be adjusted. To minimize the distortion caused by variations in recall ability, carefully examine all your assumptions to ensure your memory does not unduly influence them.
Forewarned Is Forearmed.
There’s rarely such a thing as a no-brainer when it comes to organizational decisions. Our brains are always at work, sometimes, unfortunately, in ways that hinder rather than help us.
The traps reviewed can all work in isolation. But, even more dangerous, they can work in concert, amplifying one another. A dramatic first impression might anchor our thinking, and then we might selectively seek confirming evidence to justify our initial inclination. The best protection against all psychological traps—in isolation or combination—is awareness. Forewarned is forearmed. Taking action to understand and avoid psychological traps can have the added benefit of increasing your confidence in the choices you make.
Summary
The chapter explores common errors in decision-making that can lead to detrimental outcomes, highlighting the role of human psychology in these errors. It discusses various decision-making traps. These traps are attributed to inherent cognitive biases and tendencies in human thinking, which can compromise the quality of decisions. Emphasis is on recognizing and mitigating these traps, particularly for leaders and superintendents who regularly make critical decisions.
Approaches to Leading Organizational Change
Too often, a leader is focused on the what of change — such as a new organization strategy or operating procedure— not the how —they will approach such changes. – Deborah Rowland
Leading a long-term, complex, large-scale change has a reputation for failing to deliver the anticipated benefits. A primary reason for this is that leaders generally need to consider approaching change in a way that matches their intent. An article by Deborah Rowland and others provides some wisdom about a leader’s mindset when contemplating change.
Too often, a leader is focused on the what of change — such as a new organization strategy or operating procedure— not the how — the way they will approach such changes. Any unquestioned, “default” approach to change may lead to a lot of busy action but not genuine system transformation.
Here are four approaches to change that steer leaders through their choices, helping them assess their current model and decide the optimal approach. This often requires a shift in leadership attitude and skill.
Directive change: A tightly controlled series of steps and recipes are prescribed by the leader, who alone decides on the direction of the change (the what) and the way to get there (the how). The predominant leader mindset is “I can manage change.” To Ling Yen, this sounded familiar.
Self-assembly change: While the leader clearly defines the change direction, implementation is largely delegated to others. In this approach, you see a proliferation of tools, templates, and workshops to launch change, and while these activities are closely tracked, their impact is overlooked. The dominant leader mindset is “launch enough, and something will stick.”
Masterful change: Change direction is led through a leader and held consistently across the organization, and the leader spends extensive time and energy on high-quality engagement and dialogue with multiple stakeholders to refine it. “I trust my people to solve things with me.”
Emergent change: Leaders have a guiding intention and a loose direction, but within this expansive frame, only a few “hard rules” govern the actions of those involved in the change. The leader focuses their action on a few hot spots and leave room for experimentation and learning from rapid feedback loops. The dominant leader mindset is “I can only create the conditions for change.”
Start by determining your change intention. What will the change look like? How complex will this change be? Use the change-approaches framework to diagnose the current and past approaches and what might be needed now. Suppose your change requires a deep transformation in underlying beliefs and new ways of working in complex contexts. In that case, it’s more than likely that a combination of masterful and emergent change approaches will be the most successful. Communicate your conscious decision about the change approach clearly and consistently to your organization. How you plan to go about the change is of equal importance to what the change will be about. Get feedback from your organization as you implement change to keep you and your team honest.
The chapter discusses the importance of considering the approach to organizational change, emphasizing that leaders often focus on “what” needs to change rather than “how” to implement it effectively. It introduces four distinct approaches to change.
Leading Change in a School District
The sinkhole of change is communication and motivation. It’s where change projects go to die. – Nancy Rothbard
An essential part of the superintendent’s leadership is creating change. But, like many leadership efforts, there is the dilemma of moving too fast, too slowly, understanding the prevailing culture and history of previous attempts, let alone the emotional and political costs. Developing a change strategy capable of flexibility to withstanding the traditions and customs of the school system is critical to the future of the credibility and career of the superintendent.
John P. Kotter, a renowned leadership and change management expert, developed an eight-step model for organizational change. This model, known as Kotter’s Eight-Step Process for Leading Change, provides a structured approach to guide organizations through significant transformations. Here are the eight steps slightly adapted to the school district environment.
Establish a Sense of Urgency: In this first step, the superintendent must create a compelling reason for change. They should communicate the need for change by highlighting the risks of maintaining the status quo and the benefits of moving forward. This helps to generate a sense of urgency among team members, faculty, support staff and the school board.
Form a Powerful Coalition: Building a strong and influential team of leaders and others is crucial. This coalition of representatives from the different groups should have the skills and credibility needed to guide the change effort effectively. They serve as champions for the change initiative.
Create a Vision for Change: The superintendent needs to develop a clear and concise vision that outlines the organization’s desired future state. This vision should be inspirational, easily understood, and align with the district’s culture and long-term goals.
Communicate the Vision: Effective communication is essential to ensure that everyone in the school district understands the vision and the reasons behind the proposed change. Communication should be ongoing and tailored to various groups within the district.
Empower Others to Act on the Vision: To enable district staff to take action in line with the vision, the superintendent should remove obstacles and provide the necessary resources and support. This step involves fostering a culture that encourages innovation and problem solving.
Generate Short-Term Wins: Celebrating small, early successes is crucial for maintaining momentum and building confidence in the change process. Short-term wins demonstrate that the organization is on the right track and motivate everyone involved to continue their efforts.
Consolidate Gains and Produce More Change: After achieving some initial successes, it is important to build on them and continue making further changes. This phase involves reinforcing the changes by integrating them into the organization’s culture and processes.
Anchor New Approaches in the Culture: The final step is to ensure that the changes become a part of the organization’s culture. This involves reinforcing the new behaviors, values, and practices until they become the norm. It may require adjustments to the organizational structure, policies, and procedures.
Kotter’s model emphasizes the importance of a systematic and engaging approach to change, including the district’s faculty and staff engagement. It also underscores the need for strong leadership, effective communication, and a long-term commitment to the proposed change.
It’s worth noting that while Kotter’s eight-step process is a valuable framework for guiding organizational change, the specific implementation of each step may vary depending on the unique context and challenges of the school district. Additionally, there is the need to incorporate elements of agility and flexibility to adapt to rapidly changing environments.
Summary
Superintendents must balance the speed of change, cultural awareness, emotional needs, and political dimensions. To address this challenge, John P. Kotter’s Eight-Step Process for Leading Change emphasizes creating urgency, building strong coalitions, crafting a compelling vision, effective communication, empowerment, celebrating early successes, ongoing change, and embedding new practices into the culture.
Why Do Change Efforts Fail?
Communication comes in words and deeds, often the most potent form. Nothing undermines change more than behavior by essential individuals inconsistent with their words. – John Kotter
Efforts to change a school system have gone under many banners: total quality management, reengineering, rightsizing, restructuring, cultural change, and turnaround.
First, in almost every case, the basic goal has been to make fundamental changes to help cope with a new, more challenging environment. The most general lesson to be learned from the more successful cases is that the change process goes through a series of phases that, in total, usually require a considerable length of time. Skipping steps creates only the illusion of speed and never produces a satisfying result.
A second very general lesson is that critical mistakes in any of the phases can have a devastating impact, slowing momentum and negating hard-won gains. Perhaps because we need more experience renewing organizations, even capable people often make at least one big error.
Error 1: Not Establishing a Great Enough Sense of Need.
Most successful change efforts begin when some individuals or groups look hard at a district’s situation, community support position, technological trends, and financial performance. They find ways to communicate this information broadly and dramatically, especially concerning crises, potential crises, or great opportunities that are very timely.
This first step is essential because just getting a transformation program started requires the aggressive cooperation of many individuals. Without motivation, people won’t help, and the effort goes nowhere. Compared with other steps in the change process, phase one can sound easy. It is not.
What are the reasons for that failure? (a) Sometimes leaders underestimate how hard it can be to drive people out of their comfort zones. (b) Sometimes they grossly overestimate how successful they have already been in increasing urgency. (c) Sometimes they lack patience: “Enough with the preliminaries; let’s get on with it.” (d) In many cases, leaders become paralyzed by the downside possibilities.
They worry that faculty with seniority will become defensive, that morale will drop, that events will spin out of control, that short-term business results will be jeopardized, that the stock will sink, and that they will be blamed for creating a crisis. A paralyzed team often comes from having too many leaders and needing more leaders. The leader’s mandate is to minimize risk and to keep the current system operating.
Change, by definition, requires creating a new system, which in turn always demands leadership. Phase one in a renewal process typically goes nowhere until enough real leaders are promoted or hired into senior-level jobs. Transformations often begin, and begin well, when an organization has a new head who is a good leader and who sees the need for a major change. If the renewal target is the entire organization, leadership is key.
If change is needed in an organization, leadership is key. Phase one can be a huge challenge when these individuals are not new leaders, great leaders, or change champions. Bad results are both a blessing and a curse in the first phase. On the positive side, losing support does catch people’s attention. But it also gives less maneuvering room. With good results, the opposite is true:
Convincing people of the need for change is much harder, but you have more resources to help make changes. But whether the starting point is good performance or bad, in the more successful cases, an individual or a group always facilitates a frank discussion of potentially unpleasant facts about the new competition (e.g., home schooling, private schools), shrinking community support, a lack of student growth, or other relevant indices of a declining base of community support.
Because there seems to be an almost universal human tendency to shoot the bearer of bad news, especially if the leader is not a change champion, the purpose of all this activity is “to make the status quo seem more dangerous than launching into the unknown. Some leaders have manufactured a crisis. On the surface, such a move can look challenging. But there is also a risk in playing it too safe: When the urgency rate is not pumped up enough, the transformation process cannot succeed, and the organization’s long-term future is jeopardized.
Error 2: Not Creating a Powerful Enough Guiding Coalition
Major renewal programs often start with just one or two people. In successful transformation efforts, the leadership coalition grows and grows over time. But whenever some minimum mass is not achieved early in the effort, nothing much worthwhile happens. It is often said that major change is impossible unless the superintendent is an active supporter. In successful transformations, the leader, plus another five or 15, or 50 people, develop a shared commitment to excellent performance through renewal. In the most successful cases, the coalition is always pretty powerful—regarding titles, information and expertise, reputations, and relationships.
In districts of any size, a successful team may consist of only three to five people during the first year of a renewal effort. Because the guiding coalition includes members outside the leadership team, it tends to operate outside the normal hierarchy. This can be awkward, but it is necessary. If the existing hierarchy were working well, there would be no need for a major transformation. But, since the current system is not working, reform generally demands activity outside formal boundaries, expectations, and protocol.
A high sense of urgency within the leadership team helps form a guiding coalition. But more is usually required. Someone needs to get these people together, help them develop a shared assessment of their company’s problems and opportunities, and create a minimum level of trust and communication.
Schools that fail in phase two usually need to pay more attention to the difficulties of producing change and, thus, the importance of a powerful guiding coalition. Sometimes, they need a history of teamwork at the top and therefore, undervalue the importance of this type of coalition. Sometimes they expect the team to be led by a staff executive from human resources, quality, or strategic planning instead of a key line manager. Efforts that don’t have a powerful enough guiding coalition can make apparent progress for a while. But, sooner or later, the opposition gathers and stops the change.
Error 3: Lacking a Vision
In every successful transformation effort, the guiding coalition develops a picture of the future that is relatively easy to communicate and appeals to. A vision always exceeds the numbers typically found in five-year plans. A vision says something that helps clarify the direction in which an organization needs to move.
Sometimes the first draft comes mostly from a single individual. It is usually a bit blurry, at least initially. But after the coalition works at it for three, five, or even 12 months, something much better emerges through their tough analytical thinking and a little dreaming. Eventually, a strategy for achieving that vision is also developed.
One central idea in the final version—getting out of low-value-added activities—comes only after a series of discussions over several months. Without a sensible vision, a transformation effort can easily dissolve into a list of confusing and incompatible projects that can take the organization in the wrong direction or nowhere at all. In failed changes, you often find plenty of plans, directives, and programs but no vision. A useful rule of thumb: If you can’t communicate the vision to someone in five minutes or less and get a reaction that signifies understanding and interest, you are not yet done with this phase of the transformation process.
Error 4: Under Communicating the Vision by a Factor of Ten
Three patterns concerning communication are all very common. First, a group develops a good transformation vision and then communicates it by holding a single meeting or sending out a single communication. The superintendent spends considerable time making speeches in the second pattern, but most people still don’t get it. In the third pattern, much more effort goes into newsletters and speeches, but some very visible leaders still behave in antithetical ways to the vision. The net result is that cynicism among the troops goes up while belief in communication goes down.
Transformation is only possible if most people are willing to help, often to the point of making short-term sacrifices. People will only make sacrifices, even if they are unhappy with the status quo, if they believe useful change is possible. With credible communication, and a lot of it, the hearts and minds of the troops are captured. Gaining understanding and support is tough when downsizing is a part of the vision. For this reason, successful visions usually include new growth possibilities and the commitment to treating anyone laid off.
Superintendents who communicate well incorporate messages into their hour-by-hour activities. In a routine discussion about a business problem, they discuss how proposed solutions fit (or don’t) into the bigger picture. Successful superintendents use all existing communication channels to broadcast the vision in more successful transformation efforts. They turn boring, unread company newsletters into lively articles about the vision. They take ritualistic, tedious quarterly management meetings and turn them into exciting transformation discussions. Perhaps even more important, most leaders in successful cases of significant change learn to “walk the talk.” They consciously attempt to become a living symbol of the new culture. This is often not easy. Communication comes in words and deeds, often the most potent form. Nothing undermines change more than behavior by essential individuals inconsistent with their words.
Error 5: Not Removing Obstacles to the New Vision
Successful transformations begin to involve large numbers of people as the process progresses. Superintendents are told to try new approaches, to develop new ideas, and to provide leadership. Their only constraint is that the actions fit within the broad parameters of the overall vision. The more people involved, the better the outcome.
A guiding coalition empowers others to take action simply by successfully communicating the new direction. But communication is never sufficient by itself. Renewal also requires the removal of obstacles. Too often, an employee understands the new vision and wants to help make it happen, but an elephant appears to be blocking the path. Sometimes, the challenge is to convince the individual that no external obstacle exists. But in most cases, the blockers are very real. Sometimes the obstacle is the organizational structure: Narrow job categories can seriously undermine efforts to increase productivity or make it difficult to think about customers.
Sometimes the performance-appraisal systems make people choose between the new vision and their self-interest. Perhaps worst of all are managers who refuse to change and make demands inconsistent with the overall effort. School districts need to have the momentum, power, and time to eliminate all obstacles. But the big ones must be confronted and removed. If the blocker is a person, he or she must be treated fairly and, in a way, consistent with the new vision. Action is essential to empower others and maintain the credibility of the change effort.
Error 6: Not Systematically Planning for and Creating Short-Term Wins
Real transformation takes time, and a renewal effort risk losing momentum if there are no short-term goals to meet and celebrate. Most people won’t go on the long march unless they see compelling evidence in 12 to 24 months that the journey produces the expected results. Short-term wins are necessary for too many people to give up or actively join the ranks of those people who have been resisting change.
Quality is beginning to rise on certain indices or decline in others one to two years into a successful transformation effort. But whatever the case, the win is unambiguous. The result is not just a judgment call that those opposing change can discount. Creating short-term wins is different from hoping for short-term wins. The latter is passive, the former active. In a successful change, superintendents actively seek ways to obtain clear performance improvements, establish goals in the yearly planning system, achieve objectives, and reward the people involved with recognition, promotions, and even money. Commitments to produce short-term wins help keep the urgency level up and force detailed analytical thinking that can clarify or revise visions.
Error 7: Declaring Victory Too Soon
Superintendents may be tempted to declare victory after a few years of hard work with the first clear performance improvement. While celebrating a win is fine, declaring the war won can be catastrophic. Until changes sink deeply into a company’s culture, a process that can take five to ten years, new approaches are fragile and subject to regression. Typically, the problems start early in the process: The urgency level needs to be more intense, the guiding coalition needs to be more powerful, and the vision needs to be more precise. But it is the premature victory celebration that kills momentum. And then, the powerful forces associated with tradition take over.
Ironically, combining change initiators and resistors often creates a premature victory celebration. The initiators go overboard in their enthusiasm over a clear sign of progress. They are then joined by resistors, who quickly spot any opportunity to stop change. After the celebration, the resistors point to the victory as a sign that the war has been won and the troops should be sent home. Weary troops allow themselves to be convinced that they won. Once home, the foot soldiers are reluctant to climb back on the ships. Soon thereafter, change stops, and tradition creeps back in. Instead of declaring victory, leaders of successful efforts use the credibility afforded by short-term wins to tackle even bigger problems. They go after systems and structures inconsistent with the transformation vision and have not been confronted before. They pay great attention to who is promoted and hired and how people are developed. They understand that renewal efforts take not months but years.
Error 8: Not Anchoring Changes in the Corporation’s Culture
In the final analysis, change sticks when it becomes “the way we do things around here” when it seeps into the bloodstream of the corporate body. Until new behaviors are rooted in social norms and shared values, they are subject to degradation as soon as the pressure for change is removed.
Two factors are particularly important in institutionalizing change in corporate culture. The first is a conscious attempt to show people how the new approaches, behaviors, and attitudes have helped improve performance. People who are left alone to make connections sometimes need more links that are accurate. Helping people see the right connections requires communication. Time was spent at every major management meeting to discuss why performance was increasing. The second factor is taking time to ensure that the next generation of top management personifies the new approach. If the requirements for promotion don’t change, renewal rarely lasts. One bad succession decision at the top of an organization can undermine a decade of hard work. Poor succession decisions are possible when boards of directors are not integral to the renewal effort.
People still make more mistakes, but these eight are the big ones. In reality, even successful change efforts are messy and full of surprises. But just as a relatively simple vision is needed to guide people through a major change, a vision of the change process can reduce the error rate. Fewer errors can spell the difference between success and failure.
Summary
This chapter explores why change efforts in school systems often fail. It highlights several key factors that contribute to the failure of transformation initiatives, including not establishing a strong sense of need for change, lacking a powerful guiding coalition, not creating a clear and compelling vision, under-communicating the vision, failing to remove obstacles to the new vision, not planning for and celebrating short-term wins, declaring victory prematurely, and not anchoring changes in the organization’s culture.
Ten Ways Great Leaders Make Changes
Any change, even for the better, is accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts. – Arnold Bennett
All kinds of changes are taking place. Superintendents are helping people transition to new focus areas as conditions shift in the coming year. All kinds of changes require outstanding leadership for success. As a superintendent, sometimes, it felt like we were flying an airplane while, at the same time, trying to fix the wings. It’s a dangerous endeavor. Following are some suggested steps to improve the chances of success.
Be Authentic. People don’t trust what they don’t understand, creating resistance. Leaders who seek to hide their feelings and reactions aren’t doing themselves any favors and will erode trust.
Be inspirational. One of the most important elements of successful change is people who share a vision of the future. Great leaders paint a compelling picture of the future, why it is important, and how it will be positive. People need to feel optimistic about where they’re going and how they fit.
Be visible. Successful change starts at the top, and successful change leadership requires the active, visible, and committed involvement of senior leaders. Sociologically speaking, people are heavily influenced through modeling—watching other people—so the actions of leaders are critical to reinforcing the message of change.
Be inclusive. In the same way, you should ensure the involvement of yourself and other senior leaders and be sure you’re also creating opportunities for mid-managers, frontline leaders, and individual contributors to engage. People are more likely to accept change when they feel a sense of ownership. In short, engage and empower people.
Be clear. Clarify your expectations for new behaviors. Any change requires shifts in behaviors, and people need to understand the differences between what they were doing before and how that’s different from what you’re requesting tomorrow. In addition, confirm plans and communicate regularly.
Be proactive. People need different kinds of information at different times. Be intentional and proactive about providing the right communication at the right times. At the beginning of the change, provide contextual information (the why and the conditions driving the change) and personal (what’s in it for people).
Be educational. One of the primary reasons people resist change is because they worry their performance will be negatively impacted. Ensure you create the conditions for success and give people additional training or orientation as necessary.
Be measured. Learning and reflection are critical to success, but we can skip them in our rush to keep things moving forward. Be intentional about reflection by setting up evaluation processes to measure pre-change and post-change.
Be reinforcing. Leading change is not for the faint of heart; it will take endurance. At the same time, you’re communicating a sense of urgency; you’ll also need patience as change unfolds. Sustain change by reinforcing success and celebrating both small steps and big wins.
Be evolving. Change is rarely a start-to-finish endeavor. “We’re always learning, and it’s always going to change.” Let people know you’ll continue to learn, improve, and move forward. When people realize change isn’t final, it takes the edge off and reduces the stress that can come from a desire for perfection.
Change leadership is a core competence of leadership, and it will distinguish great leaders from those who are simply mediocre.
Summary
This chapter offers valuable insights into how great leaders drive successful change in educational settings. It emphasizes ten fundamental principles: authenticity, inspiration, visibility, inclusivity, clarity, proactivity, education, measurement, reinforcement, and adaptability.
Part Six: The Superintendent’s Career
“If you are being run out of town … get to the front and make it look like a parade.” A veteran school superintendent
The Search Process
“Defining how to have a successful search for a new superintendent is difficult, but boards seem to “know it when they see it.” I try to point out that they will spend many, often difficult, hours together, so they best selection is someone they feel they would enjoy doing that with.”
Dennis Ray, Search consultant
The Application Letter
An example of an application letter for a school superintendent vacancy. The letter may be addressed to the search consultant, the board president, or the chair of the local search committee chair. Refer to the vacancy brochure. While not essential to an interview, the cover letter can be a deal breaker if not carefully written.
Dear
I am excited to apply for the position of School Superintendent at [School District Name]. As an experienced educator with [number of years] years in the field, I am confident in my ability to lead and inspire the school district to new heights of academic achievement and excellence.
I have demonstrated a strong commitment to student success and academic excellence throughout my career. As a teacher, I consistently exceeded expectations for student learning outcomes and received recognition for my dedication to student success. As an administrator, I have implemented innovative programs and initiatives that have improved academic performance and increased student engagement.
As Superintendent, I would bring my experience and skills to bear to build upon the district’s existing strengths and develop new areas of excellence. I am deeply committed to providing a high-quality education to every student in the district, regardless of their background or circumstance. I believe that with the right leadership and vision, every student can achieve their full potential and contribute meaningfully to their community and society at large.
In addition to my experience and dedication, I possess the skills necessary to successfully lead your school district. I have a proven track record of working collaboratively with teachers, staff, and parents to create a positive and supportive learning environment. I am a skilled communicator and have experience managing complex budgets, implementing strategic plans, and ensuring compliance with state and federal regulations.
My experience, dedication, and skills make me an excellent candidate for the position of School Superintendent at [School District Name]. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my qualifications further and to learn more about your vision for the district.
Thank you for considering my application.
Sincerely,
The second section of the Application Letter is a review of how you, as the candidate, match the required and desired qualifications listed in the recruitment announcement. Depending on the level experiences and the level on interest in the position, you will need to address each of the required and desired qualifications. The second section needs to be the point by matching their desires and your talents and skills. As indicated in a previous chapter, modesty dilutes self-confidence when sending the message about being the best candidate.
For example:
Required and Desired Qualifications for the Superintendent Vacancy
Qualifications for an urban school district superintendent vacancy:
1. Education: Master’s degree as a minimum
2. Certification: Active and valid state School Superintendent License Required
3. Required Experience: Five years of related supervisory experience, including experience in serving as an educator in a public PreK-12 district.
4. Leading in public school, state, or local government, nonprofit or a business of similar size and complexity.
5. Facilitating community, student, family, stakeholder and/or board relationships
6. Demonstrated ability to develop policy, strategic plans, and related initiatives to advance student learning, on-time graduation, and college and career readiness.
Preferred Experience: (A comprehensive list.)
Experience serving as a Superintendent or other central office administrative position for a school district of similar needs, size, and demographics.
1. Demonstrated experience working effectively with communities during the pandemic in a manner that built trust and confidence.
2. Familiarity with state education laws and regulations.
3. Multilingual, ideally with fluency in one or more major languages of the district
Skills and Qualities: The ideal candidate will possess many of the following key skills and qualities, and be able to demonstrate the knowledge, experience, and mindsets needed to lead this school district.
1. Demonstrates the ability to eliminate opportunity and achievement gaps and to improve educational outcomes for all students from early childhood to college and career readiness, as well as vocational and life skills development.
2. Demonstrates deep experience and knowledge of serving multilingual learners and multilingual students with disabilities.
3. Has experience implementing system-wide policies, programs, and practices designed to eliminate achievement and opportunity gaps for students, including adjusting existing policies and executing necessary systemic reforms.
4. Demonstrates the ability to cultivate an organizational culture where every person in every department is responsible and accountable for improving educational outcomes for all students at every school and devoted to eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps.
5. Displays the cultural competency needed to foster a district that embraces culturally sustaining beliefs and practices that honor differences and intersectionality in race, ethnicity, language, ability, culture, gender, and sexual orientation.
6. Demonstrated authentic commitment to cultivating an anti-racist organization and reviewing policies and practices with an anti-racist lens.
Possesses a strong understanding of the challenges of public education and
Understands local history of desegregation, as well as its current student population with a high proportion of low-income students, multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and multilingual students with disabilities.
1. Possesses a record of accomplishment of positive results in improving the performance of low-income students, Black and Latinx students, students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and multilingual students with disabilities.
2. Solid experience in educating multilingual learners and evidence of success such as program development, adequate staffing for native language literacy, efficient pace of English language development and native language literacy.
3. Demonstrated ability to lead strong and urgent efforts related to multilingual learners, including meeting the district’s legal obligations to provide adequate educational services to English learners, ensuring adequate and appropriate services for multilingual students with disabilities, strengthening programming development in alignment with state laws, recruiting culturally aligned and linguistically-skilled staff, bolstering community and family engagement, and ensuring multiple pathways for all students to graduate with the state’s graduation requirements.
4. Proven effectiveness in executing programs that ensure the academic, socio-emotional, and physical development of the whole child.
5. Values and relies on data when making decisions and in the development and implementation of comprehensive monitoring and accountability systems for the academic, personnel, operations, and fiscal management of the district.
6. Displays tolerance for risk-taking, when appropriate, to better meet the needs of students and/or the district.
7. Knowledgeable of best practices in preK-12 instruction, school-based transformation, state turnaround practices, and garnering public support for expansion of early childhood, transforming special education, and updating facilities, with priorities based on need.
8. Has professional success in advancing student skills and knowledge related to critical thinking, the use of technology, and the ability to participate fully in society.
9. Has effectively addressed the specific types of academic challenges facing the schools:
Codifying and improving literacy instruction in adherence with the science of reading by providing equitable access and differentiated learning for high achievement and to close gaps among marginalized students.
Creating safe, welcoming, and inclusive school environments that support student learning and consistently implement restorative justice practices.
1. Successfully educating a high proportion of multilingual learners with diverse native languages including a system-wide shift from English immersion to bilingual education and access to native language instruction.
2. Successfully educating a high number of students with diverse disabilities, especially Black and Latinx male students.
3. Providing differentiated programming to support a wide variety of skill building and interests of students, including a focus on developing strong vocational education programs as well as exceptional alternative education programs.
Transforming district-led and research-based practices and student outcomes for students.
1. Providing professional development for school-based and central office leaders and staff and resulting in sustained and measurable improvements in classroom instruction and related student outcomes.
Management and Operations:
Capable of effectively and efficiently leading a system of schools operating under a variety of structures with varying degrees of autonomy and flexibility in decision-making.
1. Has demonstrated leadership in system-wide change to promote better learning outcomes through the effective use of available resources.
2. Possesses a proven record of attracting, developing, and retaining employees at all levels who reflect the diversity of the district, who are sensitive to the mosaic of cultures in each school community, and who believe that academic success is achievable for all students.
3. Experienced with capital and operational needs to ensure students are attending schools in state-of-the-art facilities by garnering the requisite community and political support to reach this goal.
4. Capable of transforming transportation service to ensure excellent transportation that meets the needs of all families and students, especially students who rely upon specialized transportation to attend school.
5. Experienced with creating positive and collaborative relationships with unions/professional associations and effectively and efficiently managing contract or labor agreements to enact needed reforms.
6. Success in leading managerial and operational endeavors, such as implementing effective systems that result in a safe learning environment.
7. Ensuring reliable, efficient, and fiscally sound transportation and food services that are received with high satisfaction.
Bolstering educator and staff diversity in recruitment, hiring, development, and retention; o Improving student assignment and school choice policies to address concerns related to equity and coherence.
1. Leading major capital facilities planning for 21st-century school buildings to be designed and implemented to increase equity, expand access to quality, and reduce transitions for families.
2. Redesigning the high school experience to prepare every young person for postsecondary, career, and life-long success.
3. Refining approaches to funding and budgeting; and
4. Developing central office support and accountability in a system of schools with differentiated autonomy and accountability determinations.
Family and Community Engagement:
1. Committed to authentic community engagement.
2. Views families, students, and community members as assets, and is prepared to implement decision-making processes that seek community input in formulating the right problems to solve and in developing solutions.
3. Capable of building an engagement infrastructure that promotes shared decision-making, seeks out historically marginalized voices, and enables the district to effectively collaborate with all stakeholders about the potential impacts of decisions before they are made.
4. Possesses the excellent communication, listening, and management skills necessary to work collaboratively with the school board and appropriate stakeholders in the development, refinement and periodic review of the District’s mission, vision, and comprehensive strategic plan to ensure that they provide the District focus and guidance in short- and long-term planning and decision-making.
5. Track record of and commitment to being visible and actively engaged in the schools and community to address issues that are deemed as important to families and communities’ values and cultures.
6. Displays the ability to develop effective and authentic partnerships with varied community organizations, caregiver and family groups, not-for-profit agencies, businesses, foundations, institutions of higher education, faith-based communities, public officials, and other groups.
7. Has demonstrated success in engaging caregivers and families as full partners in the education of their children, informed by a co-constructed definition of a well-rounded student.
8. Displays ability to be successful in developing respectful working relationships to genuinely engage with key stakeholders, including students, families, teachers, school leaders, staff, bargaining units, community advocates, foundations, partner organizations, media, elected officials, the school board, and the other government leaders.
Professional Culture:
1. Displays courage in decision making that will always put the needs of students first, regardless of conflict and criticism; engages in regular, direct conversation and dialogue with students and families.
2. Has proven outstanding leadership skills that demonstrate effective, deliberate, and culturally respectful communication.
3. Has an ability to passionately motivate others to carry out their roles and responsibilities associated with the district vision and mission and policy.
4. Maintains an openness to innovative ideas from all stakeholders—including students, families, and union partners—to advance the vision and mission of an organization with an annual budget comparable in size to this school district.
5. Demonstrates a collaborative leadership style that is open-minded, inclusive, and decisive.
Creates a collaborative culture among teachers, and central office staff members that focuses on supporting the work of teaching and learning in the classroom and throughout schools.
1. Demonstrates strong leadership skills to guide systemic improvement in other institutions and champion public education in our community, including broad collaboration with other school districts for the benefit of all children within the region, while ensuring acquisition of adequate resources and attracting students to the school system.
2. Displays knowledge and understanding of the historic political environment of our city, including the structure of a school governance, and strong family and community organization involvement.
3. Has effective interpersonal and communication skills—verbal, written, and listening—including the demonstrated ability to communicate with key stakeholders in a variety of public and private forums.
4. Shows self-awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses and has a documented professional record in building teams of education and management leaders to effectively meet the full range of challenges needed for successful, systemic, and institutional change in a diverse school district.
5. Exhibits a proven track record in managing school systems, including the application of and use of current technology to improve efficiency and responsiveness.
Qualifications and desired experience for small school district (less than 2000 students) superintendent vacancy. By Dennis Ray
Professional Qualifications
1. A high level of integrity and professional conduct.
2. A passion for serving students, families, staff, and community.
3. Demonstrated ability to embrace, encourage and facilitate change.
4. Strong communication skills and willingness to establish and maintain systems that provide for transparency in decision-making.
5. The ability to build trust across the district.
6. Ability to build capacity within the organization and everyone through shared leadership and accountability.
7. Demonstrated understanding of financial and legal aspects of the district.
8. Understand the dynamics and needs of small, rural schools.
9. Strong communication skills and willingness to establish and maintain systems that provide for transparency in decision-making.
10. Personable, approachable, and willing to become an active member of the community.
11. Willing to commit to spending time in classrooms throughout the district.
12. Good Listener, Team Builder, Collaborator, Honesty, Integrity, Positive Thinker, and High Energy level.
13. It is preferred that the Superintendent resides within the boundaries of the school district.
Most vacancy notices have a section to list the “Desired Experience” to address the Challenges and Opportunities of their school district. Examples of the desired experiences are:
1. Creatively expand opportunities to enhance and increase students educational and co-curricular outcomes that support and prepare all students for meaningful pathways into careers, post high school training and college.
2. Hold high expectations for students’ academic achievement and continue to develop supports to ensure students success.
3. Establish high expectations and supports and hold self and staff accountable for high levels of performance.
4. Balance academic achievement and extracurricular and athletic program development needs.
5. Embrace a diverse student body and ensure that educational programs and support services are tailored to meet students’ academic, as well as their social emotional needs.
6. Restore a 6% fund balance in district General Fund
7. Continue to work with Citizens Advisory group to address projected enrollment growth and the need for additional facilities.
8. Continue to foster and enrich the district’s partnership with the other community agencies.
9. Provide the instructional leadership necessary to take the schools to the next level.
10. Continue professional development to increase inclusion and the sense of belong for students and staff.
11. Develop strategies for transparency in decision-making and increased communication with community and staff.
12. Provide leadership in the community by being visible at community events, participating in community organizations and working closely with other community leaders.
Following is a sample letter created to match the required and desired qualifications for a school district superintendent.
[Your Address]
[City, State, ZIP Code
[Your Email Address]
[Your Phone Number]
[Date]
[School District Name]
[School District Address]
[City, State, ZIP Code]
Dear Search Committee,
I am writing to express my strong interest in the position of Superintendent for [School District Name]. With a deep commitment to education and a proven record of accomplishment of effective leadership in small, rural school districts, I am eager to contribute my skills, experience, and passion to support the growth and success of your students, staff, and community.
Reviewing the qualifications and desired experiences outlined in the vacancy announcement, my background aligns seamlessly with your district’s needs and priorities.
Professional Qualifications:
High Level of Integrity and Professional Conduct: Throughout my career, I have upheld the highest ethical standards, fostering an environment of trust and accountability.
Passion for Serving Students, Families, Staff, and Community: My unwavering dedication to the well-being and success of all stakeholders is at the core of my leadership philosophy.
Demonstrated Ability to Embrace, Encourage, and Facilitate Change: I have a proven record of accomplishment of leading successful change initiatives, fostering innovation, and adapting to evolving educational landscapes.
Strong Communication Skills and Transparency: Effective communication is a cornerstone of my leadership style, and I am committed to establishing systems that promote transparency in decision-making.
Ability to Build Trust Across the District: I understand the importance of building trust and collaborative relationships among all school community members.
Capacity Building and Shared Leadership: I have a strong history of empowering individuals and teams, fostering a culture of shared leadership and accountability.
Financial and Legal Expertise: My comprehensive understanding of financial and legal aspects ensures sound fiscal management and compliance within the district.
Rural School Dynamics: I have firsthand experience working in small, rural schools, which has given me a deep understanding of their unique challenges and opportunities.
Personal Engagement and Community Integration: I am highly personable, approachable, and committed to becoming an active and visible community member.
Classroom Presence: I believe in spending time in classrooms to gain insights into the learning experience and connect with students and educators.
Leadership Qualities: I am a good listener, team builder, collaborator, and possess honesty, integrity, a positive mindset, and high energy levels.
Residency: I am open to residing within the school district’s boundaries to strengthen my connection with the community.
Desired Experience:
I have a track record of creatively expanding opportunities to enhance students’ educational and co-curricular outcomes, aligning them with career, post-high school training, and college pathways.
My leadership consistently focuses on holding high expectations for academic achievement and developing support systems to ensure student success.
Accountability for high-performance standards, balanced with program development for extracurricular and athletic activities, is central to my approach.
In previous roles, I have successfully managed the delicate balance between academic achievement and the development of extracurricular and athletic programs.
Embracing a diverse student body and tailoring educational programs to meet academic and social-emotional needs is integral to my leadership philosophy.
I have a strong history of financial stewardship, including restoring fund balances in district General Funds.
Working collaboratively with community advisory groups and addressing enrollment growth and facility needs has been a key aspect of my previous positions.
Building and enriching partnerships with community agencies is a strength I bring.
Providing instructional leadership to drive schools to higher levels of achievement is a core competency I have honed over my career.
I am committed to ongoing professional development to promote inclusion and a sense of belonging for all students and staff.
Strategies for transparency in decision-making and enhanced communication with the community and staff are central to my leadership approach.
I am dedicated to being a visible presence in the community, actively participating in community events and organizations, and collaborating with other community leaders.
I am excited about the opportunity to lead [School District Name] toward continued success and growth. I look forward to discussing how my experience and leadership philosophy align with your district’s goals and how I can contribute to the positive future of your educational community.
Thank you for considering my application. I welcome the opportunity for further discussion during the interview process.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Observations of a Search Consultant
Phrases like “I can contribute …” and “I will offer…” show that you are positive and confident in the skills and talents you bring to this school district.
As a former superintendent and leading search consultant, Dennis Ray brings vast knowledge and in-depth experience in assisting school boards in selecting the right person to lead a school district. Following are some observations and suggestions for aspiring and veteran superintendent seeking a new leadership position.
“What school board members think and say they are looking for in a new superintendent at the outset of the search are common, but, what they end up basing their hiring decision on is not well-reflected in these statements. It seems that the real criteria for the board’s ultimate decision is more contained in the following qualifications:
Experience. A baseline understanding, based on practical experience, of how their districts function and how they are different from smaller and larger districts. There is a natural and understandable skepticism of those whose experience has been solely in districts that are different in size than theirs.
Human relations. An ability to relate with and appreciate the folks who lived and worked in their community. A willingness and ability to interact with the community and staff formally and informally in various settings. An obvious mindset is that the bus mechanic is as important as the high school principal.
A willingness to “do what needs to be done,” which might mean putting away the chairs after a community event, sweeping the gym floor at half-time of the basketball, telling the community that a favorite program needed to be cut, or trekking to state capital to lobby the legislature for additional funding.
A feeling that “we would enjoy working with you, and you would enjoy working with us.” Defining how this is determined is difficult, but boards seem to “know it when they see it.” It needs to be emphasized that they will spend a lot of difficult hours together, so they selected someone they feel they would enjoy doing that with.
Summary
In this chapter, Dennis Ray, a former superintendent and experienced search consultant, shares valuable insights into the qualities and criteria that school boards often prioritize when selecting a new superintendent. While initial statements from school board members may articulate certain expectations, the true determinants of their hiring decisions tend to revolve around practical experience, human relations, and a willingness to engage actively with the community.
Reversing the Interview Process – Questions
The smartest person in the room is not the one with the answer but the person asking the question.
A different approach to the interview process is to reverse the process. Instead of starting the interview with the typical “Tell us about yourself,” the candidate is asked to present questions of the school board. This approach will show the candidate’s interest, preparation, and willingness to be curious, engaged, unafraid, interested, and ready to explore a new domain without answers.
An article by Frank, Magnone and Netzer in the Harvard Business Review explains that the nature of their questions, they demonstrate observation, analysis, inference, interrogation, interpretation, and explanation.
Critical thinkers are curious. Innate curiosity is associated with the following eight traits — avid learners, problem solvers, active listeners, self-driven, high productivity, growth mindset, overachievers, and strong at stakeholder management.
Still, while answers to these questions will analyze a candidate’s
problem-solving skills, ability to deal with ambiguity and creative thinking, it will not indicate if they are curious, self-starters, or passionate about the school district.
If the school board is looking for a person that is versatile and has a compelling mix of critical thinking and curiosity, then boldly flip the interview process.
The oldest and still the most powerful tactic for fostering critical thinking is the Socratic method. The Socratic method uses thought-provoking question-and-answer probing to promote learning. It focuses on generating more questions than answers, where the answers are not a stopping point but the beginning of further analysis. School Boards selecting their next superintendent can apply this model to create a dialogue with candidates.
The Flip Interview
Let the candidate interview you. The flip interview is an alternate method to uncover a candidate’s intrinsic strengths, preferred ways of working, and how they think.
The interview will showcase the candidate’s thinking and decision-making process and indicate if the candidate exhibits leadership traits. The interviewer comes to the discussion with an understanding of relevant information and an invitation for the candidate to guide discovery through a series of questions.
The candidate may use four types of questions, which are increasing in complexity and involvement.
Factual questions: Questions with straightforward answers based on facts or awareness.
Convergent questions: Close-ended questions with finite answers. Typically, these questions have one correct answer.
Divergent questions: Open-ended questions that encourage many answers. These questions are a means for analyzing a situation, problem, or complexity in greater detail and stimulate creative thought.
Evaluative questions: Questions that require deeper levels of thinking. The questions can be open or closed. Evaluative questions elicit analysis at multiple levels and from different perspectives to arrive at newly synthesized information or conclusions.
Conducting the Flip Interview: A Four-Step Process
Framing: Briefly describe a scenario. State upfront that the school board is the source of information for the scenario and ask the candidate to drive the next 8-12 minutes with a straightforward “How would you start this discovery?” When they inevitably get stuck, prompt them with a branch of the decision tree that opens the discovery further. Invite them to ask questions.
Linking: Once they define the problem, invite them to ask questions about context. “Given how they framed the scenario, what other information would they like to know to work towards a recommendation?”
Interpretation: Based on the original scenario, combined with what they learned, ask, “What is the essential decision that is needed?” or “How has their understanding of the situation shifted?” Proceed: In this final step, ask, “What immediate next steps would you take?”
Using a flip interview, you can evaluate the candidate’s logic and passion for them role based on their questions.
Are the questions superfluous or consequential? Are the questions generic or specific?
Do they ask not only factual or convergent but also divergent and evaluative questions?
Does the candidate pivot, dive deep, and revisit a topic from different angles?
Are the questions grounded in the context of the problem and its environment? As they ask you questions, it will enable you to determine if they are actively listening by adjusting their questions in real-time, pivoting, and probing.
A skilled questioner creates a cooperative dialogue to elicit new learning through questions. They engage the other person. Their questions should lead to inferences, connections, and open viewpoints that need to be more apparent. This exploration mindset encourages trial and iteration; unexpected learning may originate from the discussion. Successful candidates in the flip interview will demonstrate a critical thinking mindset. This is different from knowing analytic tools and methods.
A critical thinking philosophy is a skill that almost every leader seeks, and many teams have in short supply. Thinking analytically includes being transparent about the purpose of the essential question rather than wandering in the forest of data, being interested not from a statistical perspective but questioning the initial face value, being able to connect the dots via synthesis, and eventually being able to tell an informed story that is based on deeper truths, judgment, and context, not just restating the initial facts.
Reactivity, insight, and ingenuity are needed for a school system to thrive. You seek agile thinkers who can be growth champions, truth-tellers, customer stewards, and insight creators. The candidate who can conceptualize the problem, frame the situation, and ask more thoughtful questions will outperform those relying on textbook answers. Hiring talent to ask thoughtful questions is the key to building successful teams.
An entire organization with a growth mindset that embraces questions and curiosity can reframe challenges as opportunities and move more freely to adjust to business conditions.
This article proposes a novel approach to the interview process, suggesting that candidates be asked to present questions to the school board instead of answering traditional interview questions. By adopting the Socratic method, known for promoting critical thinking, this “Flip Interview” aims to assess a candidate’s ability to ask thoughtful and relevant questions, demonstrating their curiosity, problem-solving skills, and leadership traits.
Be Prepared for Your Next Interview
A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory – Arthur Golden
Preparing for the First Interview
The Superintendent Search Committee has narrowed down the field of applicants, and you have made the first cut. This phase may be between four and ten candidates. To be a viable candidate, do the homework to prepare for the initial interview with the search consultants and the school board. Usually, this takes place to narrow the finalists to a feasible number (two to four candidates) to meet with faculty and community representatives.
Investigate the school district via the local and regional newspapers, the school district’s website, and social media to get a perspective of the strengths, weaknesses, historical issues or challenges, and the school board members. Based on your findings, develop a list of your questions about the district.
Compare your skills and qualifications to the job requirements. What is the school board and community looking for, and how does your background match the qualifications? There is only one first impression. Dress in casual business, but if in doubt, error on the formal side. Be aware of nonverbal behaviors, project confidence, smile, eye contact, and a firm handshake.
And, finally, be yourself.
Following are possible interview questions that you may be asked – formally or informally- during your visit. When reviewing the questions, think about why these questions might be asked. For example, if they asked about your typical day, they may have heard the axiom – “tell me what you do each day, and I tell you what you value.”
Some Questions a Superintendent might ask in the interview Process.
You can make a great impression upon a school board by coming to the interview with wise, thoughtful questions. Unfortunately, boards tend to leave too little time for you to ask questions, especially in the initial interview. The degree to which the interview allows you such time indicates the Board’s style and culture. Still, it is essential to be prepared with several questions.
A second board interview is likely for the finalist candidates. That opportunity provides more in-depth and sometimes informal conversations with the Board. Understanding the Board’s answers is essential for deciding if you will accept an offer to become their superintendent.
When that time comes in the interview, your questions can help demonstrate that you’ve done your homework and are engaged and interested. You’ll also learn more about the job, the district’s culture, and the people you’ll work with if you are selected, especially the school board members.
Questions about the Superintendent’s Role
Use these questions to learn about the superintendent’s position value and status in the district.
What do you expect to be a typical day for the superintendent of this district? What do you perceive to be the normal routine?
What primary superintendent responsibility should be the priority item within the next year?
Are there any skill gaps on the administrative team you hope to fill with this new person?
Define the primary challenges that must be addressed in the first year and in three to five years.
How does the board plan to provide feedback to me about emerging issues or concerns?
Has the Board examined or developed operating principles relating to complaints from the faculty and citizens?
How might you describe the culture of the district’s administrative team?
Questions about the performance and development of the Superintendent. This questions section can provide insight into the district’s professional development and advancement opportunities.
How will my performance be assessed?
How often does the Board intend to conduct performance reviews?
What kind of professional development opportunities are available for the principals and teachers?
Will you expect the superintendent to participate in professional development activities at conferences in the future?
Is the Board prepared to invest in the superintendent’s professional development?
What does the district offer to help the new superintendent achieve a work-life balance?
Describe the Questions to ask about the school board as a board and individually. Turning the focus onto the school board, you can discover the workings of the board.
most satisfying experience you’ve had as a school board member.
Describe your most disappointing or difficult experience as a school board member.
What’s motivated you to run for a seat on the school board? Why have you stayed?
What gives you satisfaction about being a part of the school board?
What is the hardest thing about being on the school board for you?
What’s the most interesting/important skill this position has taught you?
What brings joy into your life as a school board member?
Questions about the district and community culture. This allows you to ask about the culture the Board wants to project. You can find out whether the district’s values align with your own.
How would you describe the district and community culture?
What recent challenges has the school board dealt with?
How has the district changed during your time on the Board?
What are the favorite district traditions or celebrations?
What do you see as the district’s branding or image?
How would you say this district’s culture differs from other school districts in the area?
How does the Board handle disagreements? With each other? With the superintendent?
What are two features or reasons why parents should enroll their children in this district?
Questions about the Support of the Superintendent. How will the school board support the ongoing growth of their next superintendent?
How will the Board assist the new superintendent in being successful?
Is there any information about myself I haven’t already volunteered that you would like me to share?
What does the district offer to help the new superintendent achieve a work-life balance?
Questions that may lead to discovering why the previous superintendent left and what the school boards want to solve with the new Superintendent.
Of the past superintendents, what was the difference between those who were okay and those who were great?
What would be the two or three comments you would like to hear that describe the current superintendent two years from now?
Finally, there may be a few questions seemingly unrelated to the role of the superintendent. These questions may be informal and even side conversations at a dinner. Be prepared. For example:
What are the recent novels you have found interesting?
What are your hobbies or avocations?
In your travels, what cultures did find most interesting?
What do you think about the future of public education?
Summary
This article provides valuable advice for candidates preparing for an interview with a school board for the position of Superintendent. It emphasizes the importance of thorough research on the school district, aligning skills with job requirements, and presenting oneself confidently. The article also offers a comprehensive list of questions candidates should consider asking the board, covering topics ranging from the superintendent’s role and performance assessment to the culture of the district and the board’s support.
The Job Interview Answers
Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your powers, you cannot be successful or happy. Norman Vincent Peale
The following interview questions come from various sources, including the article, The Ultimate Guide to Job Interview Answers by Bob Firestone. The following questions, adapted to the superintendency, will likely be available to the interview team, be it the school board, the search consultant, the faculty staff, and community members.
So … Tell me about yourself. What would you like us to know about you that we have not already seen on your resume?
What have you learned from your mistakes?
Describe a time when you were faced with unreasonable deadlines at work. — What did you do? What was the outcome?
What would your last school board president say about you?
Tell me about a time you had to establish a new partnership or build new relationships to get something done. How did you go about that?
What are your long-range career objectives and what steps have you taken toward obtaining them?
Describe a situation when working with a team produced more successful results than if you had completed the project on your own.
Have you ever had problems with a supervisor or a coworker? … Describe the situation.
What do you do when people disagree with your ideas? Describe sometimes when you had to resolve a conflict with an individual or guide others to compromise.
What did you like best and least about your last position? (see example below.)
What is the worst mistake you made in your last leadership position? (see example below)
Describe a situation where you had to deal with someone who didn’t like you as a person.
Tell me about an important written document you were required to complete.
What motivates you to go the extra mile on a project or job?
Do you consider yourself to be a leader? What are the attributes of a good leader?
Are you good at delegating tasks? Tell me about your process.
Give me an example of a time when you tried to accomplish something and failed. Were you discouraged by this? What did you do about it?
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
What does it mean to be successful? … Then how successful have you been so far?
What’s the last book you read?
Tell us about who has influenced your leadership, names of authors or mentors.
What are your expectations regarding an extension of your contract?
You don’t have the right kind of experience.
You may be overqualified or too experienced for the position.
Why did you leave your last job?
Have you ever been fired or forced to resign?
Why have you had so many jobs in such a short period of time?
Can you explain this gap in your employment history?
Why should we hire YOU? — What can you do for us that someone else cannot?
What would you hope to accomplish in your first 90 days here?
Give me an example of a problem you faced on the job and tell me how you solved it.
Tell me about a time when you had to use your presentation skills to influence someone’s opinion.
Walk me through the steps you took to reach an important long-term goal.
What’s your biggest weakness? Give some examples of areas where you need to improve.
Share some examples of how you’ve been able to motivate other people.
Describe a decision you made that was unpopular, and how you handled implementing it.
What was your role in your school district’s most recent success?
How do you feel about parent choice? Compare parent choice with parent responsibility in the education of their children.
Share your beliefs regarding gender inclusiveness and the use of pronouns with students.
How do you feel about arming the staff in schools?
What is your belief about developing high-performing teams and give some examples of how you have done this successfully?
Describe your relationship with unions and what role should the superintendent play in union relations.
Describe the ideal Board/Superintendent relationship.
What type of governance model do you prefer and why?
What is your preference for a theory of leadership? How would you model that theory?
Some typical questions with some advice:
What did you like best and least about your previous job?
This is potentially a trick question. You want to indicate that what you liked best about your last job are things that will appeal to the search consultant. Show that your last job allowed you to demonstrate many of the positives and desirable. Give specific examples of how your last job allowed you to show your skills and maturity.
When answering about what you liked least, keep it short and do not be negative.
Show that you can learn from your mistakes, but don’t offer any negative examples of your past performance. Show that you have been successful but that you have the maturity it takes to examine your behavior so you can learn and grow and be a better employee. Be brief. The consultant wants to learn more about your thought process and how well you can form examples to answer this teamwork-related question. You will want to show your ability to solicit ideas from others, listen carefully, and persuade people to your point of view.
Tell us about a time when you faced problems or stresses at work that tested your coping skills. What did you do? Workplace stress is an issue for everyone. Don’t pretend that you never get stressed out. Show you can deal with stress and cope with difficult situations in a fast-paced environment. Give examples of how you’ve been calm under pressure, and how you avoid stress in the first place through planning and time management.
What was your role in your school district’s most recent success?
You’ll want to be very specific here and frame your answer regarding how you saved time and resources. Use your personal “measures of success” — these are simple numbers you write down and remember before the interview, like the hours and the resources you saved. Remember, creating your own “measures of success” numbers based on your past work experience is a must-have for your interview.
(Be aware of the pronoun ‘I.” Someone may take a count of the “I” and “We” you used during the interview. Too many “I” may indicate a self-centered and narrow leadership style.)
Other common questions in the interview will be: What are your strengths and weaknesses?
“Tell us about yourself,” “Why do you want to work here?” and “What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?”
The typical answer to the “strengths-and-weaknesses” question is usually something like “Creativity! Problem-solving! Collaboration!”
“My weakness is Perfectionism! I work too hard! I care too much!”
Although true, they may also come across as trite and not genuine.
Regarding your strengths:
Focus on a strength that is listed in the job description. Look for the skills listed under the “preferred qualifications” and “required skills” part of the job description. Reframe your skills to make your response as specific as possible, like communication skills could be public speaking and presentation skills. People skills could be team management skills. Give examples to support how you leverage your strengths.
Regarding your weaknesses
The key to sharing is being authentic but not self-sabotaging. An interview team may remember your weakness and hold it against you even subconsciously, so you must limit any potentially harmful impressions.
Think of the “weakness” as a “challenge,” even replacing the word “weakness” with “challenge” in your answer. A weakness implies more permanence than a challenge. Mention the skills that are easy to correct through training or commitment. Work skills like data analysis and presentation skills are typically learnable. Leadership challenges like impatience, not listening, or insecurity are difficult to correct. Avoid clichés like “perfectionism” and “being a workaholic,” and other weaknesses that are just strengths in disguise.
Choose a challenge that is not core to the job’s responsibilities. You don’t want to appear weak where you need to be good. Keep the consequences short, simple, and minor so you can focus on overcoming the challenge more than on the challenge itself.
The interview team isn’t as concerned about your biggest strengths and weaknesses. Rather, they want to know what kind of person you are and how you can contribute to their district’s future. Are you the kind of person who can improve the team, be honest about your abilities, and take advantage of opportunities to improve and grow, both as an individual and as part of a team? They ultimately see you as not merely the sum of your skills but someone they can trust to work together to lead the district into a future of challenging decisions.
Summary
This chapter is a comprehensive guide to interviews and offers various interview questions and strategies for effectively responding to them. It covers typical questions that candidates may encounter during interviews for leadership positions, particularly in the education sector. The questions are organized into clusters, including typical questions, strategies for responding, and suggested responses.
Signals in the Life of the Superintendent
It is not whether you get knocked down. It is whether you get up. – Vince Lombardi
During the superintendent’s career, there are times when gestures and messages are sent, sometimes quietly and at other times very loud and clear. The intuition and skill to handle those signals are essential to one’s sanity and career.
I asked colleagues, all experienced and successful in their professional careers, about what they did and what they would suggest a colleague listen for to make a timely decision about working harder to improve board superintendent relations or moving on to a different district. What are those signals?
Following is a “checklist” of the signals that may be telling you it’s time to update the resume. Of course, these signals may not apply to you, but one may be just enough.”
Signals from the board or board president:
1. Board meetings are excessively long, unproductive, and/or politically charged.
2. Board members ask questions that border on questioning your trust and wisdom.
3. The board president allows longer periods of public comment about your work and then not defending you.
4. The board president reminds you that you are gone out of the district to too many meetings.
5. The board members that hired you make up less than half of the current board.
6. Board members are split between the desire for you to have you improve your technical skills or human relations skills.
7. Board members having a secret or executive session without you present.
8. Board members hanging around after board meetings in the parking lot.
9. Board members have an increase in split votes, especially if split by the same members
10. Board members ask more critical questions about your recommendations or don’t take actions on your recommendations.
12. Board members disagree with you publicly at meetings and on social media.
13. Board members disagree or hedge on considering your salary, benefits, or other contract terms.
14. Board members talking to other school administrators without including you.
15. Board members change the indicators of success for the district or you.
16. Board members delay or stop evaluating your performance.
17. Board members question your vacation days or travel expenses.
18. Board members violate their protocols about speaking with staff and administrators.
19. Board members change from civil to disrespect amongst themselves.
20. One board member begins to wield disproportionate sway over the others.
21. Board members start micro-managing administrative matters.
22. Board members entertaining complaints about your performance from staff and then not telling you.
23. Board members have special interest or issues that seem to be unresolved.
24. Board members recruiting board candidates who are openly opposed to your leadership.
25. Board members wanting to be involved in approving administrative appointments.
26. Board members failing to police their members for disrespectful behavior.
27. Board members rejecting your decisions, even when evidence is clear and compelling to approve them.
28. Board members calling on other staff regarding issues, rather than going through you first.
29. Board members question policy issues at the board meeting without prior notice to you.
30. Board members listening to complaints and not referring them to you
31. Board members are inconsistent about the informal and formal comments or complaints about your performance.
32. Board members rely on email, rather than phone calls or face to face meetings with you.
33. Board members elect a chair that is critical of your performance.
34. Board member(s) asks to speak with the district’s attorney-legal counsel without you present.
Signals from the Community:
1. Lots of candidates running for the school board vacancies
2. Current board members being asked to not run for re-election.
3. Narrow victories for board members or the incumbents are not re-elected.
Signals to yourself:
1. On most days, you dread going to work or the board meeting?
2. Your family wonders if you ever come home to dinner anymore.
3. You are tempted to intentionally keep bad news from the board until after a school tax election.
4. You have accomplished what you set out to do in the first three or four years.
5. Your intuition tells you it is time to move on.
6. You realize you are not in sync with the local politics or culture of the community
There is an old axiom about the life of the superintendent.
The current superintendent is leading the local community parade. A bystander remarked. “I can’t tell if he is actually leading the parade or being chased out of town.”
Some words of wisdom if you decide to move:
1. If possible, leave on a positive note about the school district, the community, and your own professional future.
2. Help your successor be successful by opening doors and helping or him or her be welcomed to the school district and community.
3. Be careful about reflecting on your experience with the school board and community. Whatever said will certainly get back to everyone.
4. Build on your experiences and talents and carry them forward while taking on the challenges of you next superintendency.
by Martha Bruckner, Larry Dlugosh, John Erickson, Charles Fowler, Terry Grier, and Frank Hewins. Edited by Jack McKay
Summary
The chapter discusses various signals that superintendents should know during their careers. These signals encompass indicators from the board or board president, the community, and personal reflections. The chapter emphasizes the importance of recognizing these signals and making informed decisions regarding board-superintendent relations and potential career moves. Additionally, it offers advice for superintendents who transition to a new district, encouraging them to leave on a positive note and support their successors.
Responding to the Signals
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. – Charles Swindoll
First, how to delay or avoid the Signals.
To avoid the signals, one superintendent suggested:
Each week,
I would reflect on what my staff and I did last week to help meet the one or two BIG goals the organization had set for the year. I would take time each day to meditate or engage in a physical workout session. I would ask key questions of my associates and assistants about their work in progress and roadblocks. I would visit schools and ask teachers whether the administrative staff was visiting their classrooms and providing them with needed support. I would review attendance data (especially for the primary grades) and dropout data from middle and high schools. I would commit not to be at evening events for more than two nights. I’d delegate attendance at others to staff (putting the job ahead of family and faith will cause you to lose both). I would meet with the board president and hold a separate meeting with another member of the board. It would be a breakfast meeting to save time. I would always end the meeting with the question, “How do you think I’m doing?”
Another superintendent suggests that a facilitated annual retreat/goal-setting meeting is an effective way to deal with many of these issues. It really should be facilitated by a neutral party to address the most sensitive issues effectively. Another approach would be through the superintendent evaluation process, trying to avoid or at least minimize the use of a “checklist” in favor of open-ended questions which can become the focus of discussion (e.g., “One change which the superintendent could make in his/her leadership style/approach this year that I would favor would be. . .” The Superintendent should also be given the opportunity to post a similar question about the Board (e.g., “One change which the Board members could make in their work with me which I feel could make me more effective, would be. . .”).
Another superintendent’s response was “I have entered every one of my jobs the same way I existed them, fired with enthusiasm.” This statement was not true, but their point was well taken that as a school leader it is healthy for your career and well-being and that of your school district for you to strive to be a positive person. What you say and what you do is very important. How you say it, and how you do it is of equal or even greater importance.
Realistically the “Signals” are the challenges that all superintendents will experience to some degree. It is simply a part of the job. Given this reality, the superintendence is not a wise career choice if thin-skinned.
Some leadership advice:
Look for ongoing professional development experiences that will aid you in building the skills needed to navigate the turbulent waters of the superintendence.
The position of a school superintendent is two-fold. One is to administer the functions of the school system. The details of executing the task by doing the right things promptly. This is, of course, necessary.
Be a leader. A leader who passes on retributive actions in favor of actions that protect the good things happening in the school system, restore positive happenings that have been lost, and initiate happenings that will establish a positive learning environment, a positive environment for the students, the faculty, and staff as well as the community it serves.
A veteran superintendent suggested that sometimes the thing to do is count to three. Then, call your lawyer and negotiate a graceful departure. The board and you should agree to say nice things about each other and want the district to move forward positively.
An old axiom: “If you are being run out of town … get to the front and make it look like a parade.”
Finding a way back: Another suggestion would be to leave the region, get a new start, and work your way back.
Family: The first response in this situation would be to talk frankly with your spouse or partner. No matter how a superintendent’s departure occurs, there’s the potential for complete upheaval in family relationships, and those loved ones must be informed about the coming changes.
It is always a good idea to have your resume updated, some letters of reference handy and a list of persons ready to speak well of you – the latter two items can be done regularly, so as not to suggest you are leaving.
Some advice about your style:
First, however, reassess your behavior and determine if you are the problem rather than the board. If it is you, adjust. Determine what you can do to turn things around. Count your supporters, calculate their influence, and how long they will be on the board. Identify the degree to which you want to stay vs leave.
Try to slow everything down.
This will enable you to make fewer decisions, which will lessen the criticism and pressure. By slowing things down, you will present the board or others with fewer reasons to react negatively to you. You want to buy time.
And some sage advice from a retired superintendent:
Buy a packet of gold stars and stringently pass them out for exceptional work — as if they were the Medal of Honor.
Lavish praise on leaders and staff for less exceptional work. Do not leave any group feeling left out.
Go to road races, football games, painful music concerts, etc.
Think macro, carefully and wisely.
Hire good people and give them latitude. This multiplies your effectiveness.
Be the learner. Be the lighthouse. Write articles for the weekly shopper, study, read, speak, and convey the most important and significant research and knowledge about education.
Be the leader. Be active and visible in a professional venue (association, politics, etc.).
Finally, a bit of humor. Some would call “gallows” humor.
“Write three Letters” to the new superintendent.
The new superintendent was hired to replace an outgoing superintendent. The outgoing superintendent met with the incoming superintendent for an exit interview. During the discussion, the departing superintendent stated he had placed three very important letters in his drawer just as his predecessor had done for him. He explained that the new superintendent would find opening the letters in order most useful when a serious event took place. He also stated the letters left for him had helped him over his tenure.
Several months passed before a major event came up.
The new superintendent now remembered the letters and noticed they were numbered 1, 2, and 3. The former superintendent had instructed they be opened for maximal benefit. The new superintendent opened letter #1 and the paper inside had the words “blame it on your predecessor.” The new superintendent did as the letter stated and amazingly, he was able to avert serious problems and keep his job.
Several months passed before the next serious event took place. This one was growing in magnitude, and things were getting ugly. There were even calls for the superintendent to step down. In desperation, the superintendent opened the drawer and pulled out letter #2. With great fear, he opened it carefully to read the word “blame it on the school board.” He followed the instructions, and just as before, he was saved. The school district quieted down and went back to business as usual.
After about a year, a third serious event took place, and it was much worse than the rest. The superintendent knew how to get out of the mess because he had a third letter to open. With a smile, he reached for the letter #3 and opened it to read, “write 3 letters.”
The point is that as a superintendent in a school district, you know that you will get tapped on the shoulder to leave sooner or later. You may screw up big time, but this is not always true. The district may be transitioning from one growth stage to another, and the Board of Directors feels a different skill set would be better. Many superintendents see signals for a change over a four or five-year period. Some stay much longer, some shorter, but no one stays forever. It is hard not to take these events personally, but you can’t; it’s a profession.
So, what is the point of this chapter? You are that good! It is just that there is so much diversity of thought and talent; others may feel better by having someone else with a different skill set. Sometimes it is not your call to leave, but do not take it personally.
Some additional thoughts by the contributors:
Of course, sometimes there is no warning; even the unanimous approval of a new long-term contract offers no protection from an unexpected buyout. A buyout is better than nothing and the board may provide a grace period to find another position without the public clamor. Some board members want public recognition for forcing the superintendent out, even if it costs a fortune. –
This is a vexing problem, especially for ‘place-bound” superintendents. There are lots of challenges and considerations when a superintendent wants to move.
One colleague asked me how to respond to a new board chair who presented a list of more than a dozen items he wanted addressed. When you work more and enjoy it less … it may be time to update the resume.
When a super takes a job, he/she needs to determine his/ her mission or goal in that district. The goal may revolve around the district’s strategic plan or other self-set goals to accomplish. Determining why you were placed there may take a year in the district. It may take just a few years to accomplish the mission or goals, or it may be longer. When you think it is accomplished that may be the signal. Or else you re-set the mission or goals and start over.
I was thinking about a call I received from a long-time friend. I was having a bad week with a couple of problem board members, and he must have sensed it. He asked, “Do you feel like you need a friend?” I replied that I certainly did. He said, “Get a dog” and hung up!
Summary
This chapter provides insights and practical advice for school superintendents on dealing with challenges and signals that may arise during their tenure. It emphasizes the importance of proactive strategies to delay or avoid these signals.
About the contributors:
Dr. Martha Bruckner, most recently, Superintendent of the Council Bluffs Community Schools, Iowa.
Dr. Larry Dlugosh, most recently, Department Chair of Educational Administration at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Nebraska.
Dr. John Erickson, most recently, Superintendent of the Vancouver School District in Vancouver, Washington.
Dr. Charles Fowler, most recently, President of School Leadership Inc. a superintendent search firm in Exeter, New Hampshire.
Dr. Terry Grier, most recently, Superintendent of the Houston Independent School District in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Frank Hewins, most recently, Superintendent of the Franklin Pierce School District near Tacoma, Washington
Why School Superintendents Get Dismissed
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. Albert Einstein
As indicated many times in this book, the superintendent is at best, a challenging career. While there are many real successes in the leadership position of a school district, there are probably an equal number of not-so-successful events that result in a buy-out, immediate dismissal or a non-renewal vote by the current board majority. Following are some common mistakes made by superintendents.
Poor Performance: School superintendents are responsible for the overall success of the school district, and if they are not meeting the expectations of the school board, they may be terminated. Poor performance can include failing to improve student achievement, financial mismanagement, or lacking leadership skills.
Ethical Issues: School superintendents are expected to adhere to a high standard of ethical behavior, and any violations of ethical codes can result in termination. Examples of ethical issues can include conflicts of interest, misuse of funds, or inappropriate relationships with staff or students.
Personality Conflicts: Sometimes, conflicts can arise between the superintendent and the school board or other stakeholders in the district. These conflicts can result in a breakdown of communication and trust, and ultimately lead to the termination of the superintendent’s contract.
Change in Board Leadership: A change in school board leadership can sometimes lead to a change in priorities or direction for the district. If the new board members have different expectations for the superintendent, they may choose to terminate their contract and hire a new superintendent who aligns more closely with their goals.
Political Factors: In some cases, the termination of a school superintendent may be influenced by political factors such as a change in state or federal education policy or a shift in public opinion.
The Superintendent’s Career: It’s difficult to point to a single major cause of school superintendents getting fired, as the reasons can vary depending on the specific circumstances of each case. However, poor performance is a common reason for termination or non-renewal of a superintendent’s contract. Superintendents are expected to be influential leaders who can improve student achievement, manage finances responsibly, and work collaboratively with stakeholders such as teachers, parents, and community members. If a superintendent fails to meet these expectations, it can lead to a breakdown in trust and a decision to terminate their contract.
Summary
This chapter explores the various reasons behind the dismissal of school superintendents, highlighting common mistakes made in their roles. These reasons encompass poor performance, ethical breaches, personality conflicts, shifts in board leadership, and even political influences.
The Successful School Superintendent
One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. – Andre Gide
Research suggests that successful school superintendents exhibit various key qualities and characteristics. Here are some of the most common traits:
Visionary Leadership: Effective superintendents articulate a clear vision for the district and inspire others to work towards shared goals.
Strong Communication Skills: Superintendents must be able to communicate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, including teachers, parents, community members, and board members.
Strategic Thinking: Successful superintendents think strategically and make data-driven decisions that improve student outcomes and the overall health of the district.
Collaborative Approach: Superintendents who build strong relationships and work collaboratively with others are more likely to be successful in their role.
Financial Acumen: Superintendents must be able to manage budgets and resources effectively, ensuring that funds are allocated in a way that maximizes student success.
Commitment to Equity: Effective superintendents are committed to ensuring that all students have access to high-quality educational opportunities, regardless of their race, socioeconomic status, or other factors.
Continuous Learning: Superintendents who are committed to ongoing learning and professional development are better equipped to adapt to changing educational environments and improve their own performance over time.
The Perfect Fit: No one-size-fits-all formula for success as a school superintendent. The best approach will depend on the specific needs and context of the district, as well as the unique strengths and qualities of the individual superintendent.
Summary
According to research, successful school superintendents possess diverse crucial qualities and traits. These include visionary leadership, adept communication skills, strategic thinking driven by data, a collaborative mindset, financial acumen, a dedication to equity, and a commitment to continuous learning.
About the Author
Jack McKay is an educator with over 50 years of experience in K-12 and higher education. McKay started his teaching career as a middle school history and science teacher, then as a high school history teacher and football and basketball coach. After five years of teaching and coaching, he started his administrative career as a high school principal. After five years as a principal and graduate school for the doctorate, he started his first superintendency in Washington State.
With 15 years at the superintendent level, he became an associate professor and department chair while teaching leadership, school law, and research design. While in higher education, he was involved in designing and implementing joint doctoral programs between departments of educational administration and the logistics and politics, leading to approval from faculty senates and boards of regents in California and Nebraska.
With over 30 articles, several refereed journal articles, and two books, he earned full professor status, an endowed professorship, and, on retiring, was awarded emeritus status from the University of Nebraska system. McKay also served as an Associate and Interim Dean for the College of Education at Central Washington University.
Overlapping McKay’s career in higher education, he served as the Horace Mann League’s Executive Director for 30 years. The Horace Mann League is a national honorary association of school superintendents and professors of educational leadership who believe that the public school is the cornerstone of the community and promotes the democracy of our nation.
As Executive Director, McKay had the opportunity to work with and lead outstanding educational leaders and researchers involved in the growth and improvement of public education.
McKay is married to Judy, an outstanding educator, having taught in the primary grades through the community college. They have two children and four grandchildren. My hobbies are photography, writing, and gardening. Golfing was a primary hobby for many years, with a handicap in the high teens, most of the time.
References
Avolio, B. J., Gardner, W. L., Walumbwa, F. O., Luthans, F., & May, D. R. (2004). Authentic Leadership Theory, The Leadership Quarterly, 15(6), 801 – 823.
Bass, B. M. (1990). Bass & Stogdill’s Handbook of Leadership: Theory,
Research and Managerial Applications. Free Press.
Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations. Free Press.
Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness. Paulist Press.
Bennis, Warren (2004) The Seven Ages of the Leader. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2004/01/the-seven-ages-of-the-leader.
Benzel, Brian L., and Hoover, Kenneth E. The Superintendent and the CFO: Building an Effective Team, Second Edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
Benzel, Brian L., Hoover, Kenneth E., and Parla, James. The Business Side of School Success: What Superintendents and Other School Leaders Need to Know, Amazon.com, 2022.
Booher, Dianne. (2011). 7 Tips for Powerful Sit-Down Presentations. https://www.presentationxpert.com/7-tips-for-powerful-sit-down-presentations
Botelho, Elena, Kim Rosenkoetter Powell, Stephen Kincaid, and Dina Wang. (2017). What Sets Successful Corporate Leaders Apart? Harvard Business Review.
Brown, B. (2018). Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Penguin Random House.
Bridges, William, and Susan Bridges (2017) Managing Transitions Making the Most of Change. Hachette Books
Bryant, Adam. (2023). The Leap to Leader: How Ambitious Managers Make the Jump to Leadership, Harvard Business Review Press. https://hbr.org/2023/07/the-leap-to-leader
Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. Harper and Rowe, Publisher.
Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t. Harper Business.
Covey, S. R., Collins, J., et al. (2020). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 30th Anniversary Edition (The Covey Habits Series).
Frank, Christopher, Paul Magnone, and Oded Netzer. (2023). Critical Thinking is Fundamentally a process of Questioning https://hbr.org/2023/09/how-to-evaluate-a-job-candidates-critical-thinking-skills-in-an-interview?autocomplete=true
Genard, Gary. (2022). The Ideal Way to Prepare a Great Speech or Presentation. https://www.genardmethod.com/blog/the-ideal-way-to-prepare-a-great-speech-or-presentation
Graen, G.B. and Uhl-Bien, M. (1995) Relationship-Based Approach to Leadership: Development and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Leadership Quarterly, 6, 219-247.
Grant, Adam, and Dean Erika James (2012). Want to Become a Better Leader? Question Your Assumptions. Knowledge at Wharton.
Hersey, Paul., & Blanchard, Ken. (1969). Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources. Prentice Hall.
Hersey, Paul (1985). The Situational Leader. Leadership, Management.
Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. H. (1982). Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources. Prentice-Hall.
Hill, Linda, Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards, Jason Wild, and Karl Weber. (2022). What Makes a Good Leader? Harvard Business Review.
House, R. J. (1971). A path-goal theory of leader effectiveness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 16(3), 321-339.
Hammond, John S., Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa. (1998). The Hidden Traps in Decision Making. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/1998/09/the-hidden-traps-in-decision-making-2
Johnson, Patrick. Key Communicators.\: Beat the Rumor Mill with a Trusted Network of Truth-tellers. (2019). NSBA.
https://www.nsba.org/ASBJ/2019/April/Key-Communicators
Klocko, Barbara A., Riley J. Justis, Elizabeth A. Kirby (2019), Leadership Tenacity and Public-School Superintendents. Journal of Leadership Education, Vol. 18, Issue 1.
Kotter, John P. (2012). Leading Change. Harvard Business Review Press
Lathan, Joseph (2020). Traits of Successful School Leaders. University of San Diego.
https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/USD-10-Traits-of-Successful-School-Leaders.pdf
Mind Tools Content Team. The Vroom-Yetton Decision Model: Deciding How to Decide https://www.mindtools.com/adamhmy/the-vroom-yetton-decision-model
Nasher, Jack. (2019) To Seem More Competent, Be More Confident. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2019/03/to-seem-more-competent-be-more-confident
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and Practice (8th ed.)
Pink, Daniel. (2009) Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Riverhead Hardcover.
Rogelberg, S. G. (2019). The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance. Oxford University Press.
Rowland, Deborah, Michael Thorley, and Nicole Brauckmann. (2023). The Most Successful Approaches to Leading Organizational Change. Harvard Business Review.
Schwartzberg, Joel. (2023). How to Answer: what are Your Strengths and Weaknesses? Harvard Business Review, May 02, 2023.
Sinek, S. (2017). Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t. Penguin Press.
Smith, J. A. (2022). What is leadership? Meaning, key elements, and why we are all better off knowing the answer. Journal of Leadership Studies, 8(2), 45-60.
Starr, Joshua (2022). A Solid Transition Process Helps New Leaders. Kappan Journal.
A solid transition process helps new leaders chart a clear course forward
Velasque, Luis and Gleitsman, Kristin (2023). What are the Ways to Become a More Collaborative Leader? Harvard Business Review, July 6, 2023.
Vroom, V. and Yetton, P. (1973). Leadership and Decision-Making. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Attachments
The Patron’s Tour
Opening the Schoolhouse Door for Patrons
By Dr. Jack McKay, Executive Director of the Horace Mann League (former School Superintendent and Professor of Educational Administration)
The Patron’s tour.
How do we attract people from our local community into their public schools during the school day? One successful method is the “Superintendent’s Patrons Tour.”
The tour is based on ideas:
(1) people support the activity in direct ratio to their understanding and appreciation of the activity’s purpose and complexities;
(2) the operation of a school district’s delivery system for educating children is an activity that requires public understanding and support; and
(3) most adult’s knowledge of the school experience is based on the schools they attended as students.
The “Superintendent Patrons’ Tour” helps citizens become more aware of the purposes, responsibilities, and operations of their schools. The tour brings a representative group of citizens into the schools for a half day to have a firsthand look at the inner workings of both the supportive and instructional activities during a typical school day.
Who to invite: The tour group could include representatives of the business community, e.g., real estate, banks, merchants, chamber of commerce staff, parent groups, and booster clubs. You might also consider inviting a school secretary or other support staff within the district.
Welcome: The Patron’s Tour has a basic format that can be easily tailored to the size and complexity of most school systems. The format has been successfully used in school districts ranging from 1,000 to 30,000 students.
Size of Group: The touring group size generally is about 25. This size allows the entire group to be comfortable on a school bus transporting people from one school to the next. Also, the group can be divided into smaller groups when visiting classrooms.
Agenda: The suggested agenda starts with guest gathering in the district’s boardroom for refreshments. Either the board president or the superintendent, welcome the group and provide a printed brochure and itinerary.
Itinerary: At around 8:45 am, the group is randomly divided into two groups of about 12 each. These smaller groups then visit the offices of the central office administrators, (e.g., instruction, maintenance, transportation, finance, etc.) for a brief presentation on what their responsibilities are in supporting teachers and staff in carrying out the day-to-day functions of a major community employer.
Traveling: Around 9:00 am, guests take a drive or walk-through tour of the bus maintenance and warehouse facilities. Guests then travel by bus to three schools; an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. The purpose of visiting three levels of instruction is to show how a curriculum strand, for example math or reading, is organized from the elementary grades through high school.
Visiting the Schools: At each school, the building principal greets the tour group as they come off the bus. He or she explains the general information about the school, grades, size, etc. Usually, two students also greet the guests and present the group with a brochure about their school and what they will visit during the tour. The principal leads the tour and explains the general activities that are taking place in the classrooms. The teacher will welcome the visitors and briefly explain what the learning activity being observed. The visitors are also encouraged to visit with the students to find out what they are doing. Guests visit two or three different classrooms for about 10 to 15 minutes each with the school visit about one hour.
Since the tour group will be visiting three different grade level schools and seeing one curriculum strand, for example, math, the classroom visited should illustration what is being taught and how it relates to the instructional activities of the district-wide math curriculum.
After visiting an elementary school, the tour group will visit a middle school. Again, the building principal will lead the tour and encourage group members to visit with the teachers and students while in the classrooms. Again, the guests will be transported by school bus to a high school.
After the tour group visits the high school classrooms, we had a luncheon hosted by the school administrators. School board members, building principals, and central office administrators are invited to be available to answer questions and thank the guests for taking the time to visit the schools. Sometimes, students cater the luncheon. The tour ends with a bus ride back to the district administration building around noon.
Obviously, the superintendent sets the tone and accompanies the guests during the entire tour. The logistics (busing, classroom visits, lunch arrangements, etc.) needs to be well planned. Although the tour format is structured, it must be credible. Building principals and teachers must be prepared for the visitors, but they are encouraged to not alter the classroom and school schedule of normal activities.
As the superintendent, I would use this special opportunity to showcase what we are so proud of doing every day – working with young people. Equally rewarding are the comments from our administrators and teachers about parents and business people being in their classroom seeing what they do as professional educators every day.
The “Patron’s Tour provides an opportunity for citizens see their public schools in action, see the youth of their community actively learning, and a glimpse of the complexity of organizing their school system operate effectively every day. Even more important is the opportunity for school administrators, teachers, and support staff to strengthen the personal bond with the citizens.
Following is a typical itinerary of a Patron’s Tour
8:00 am: Set up for coffee and pastries in the school board room
8:30 to 8:45: Welcome and introductions of administrators and patrons
8:45 to 9:00: Tour of the Central Office with visits to offices
9:00 to 9:20: Load bus and tour bus maintenance and warehouse facilities
9:20 to 9:30: Travel to elementary school
9:30 to 10:10: Tour school and visit classrooms
10:15 to 10:25: Travel to middle school
10:25 to 11:05: Tour middle school and visit classrooms
11:05 to 10:15: Travel to high school
11:20 to 11:45: Tour high school and visit classrooms
11:45 to 12:05: Working lunch at high school with board members and administrators. (This is an opportunity to answer questions and thank the people for taking the time to visit their schools.
12:05 to 12:15: Travel to the Central Office
The Key Communicator Network
by Patrick Johnson on the NSBA site. The original idea is from the National School Public Relations Association. This event was adapted from an article published by the Washington State School Directors Association.
Real change doesn’t happen without personal interaction. “Publics, or groups, don’t act en masse. They follow leaders who are pacesetters. These persons jump-start behavior within the group.
1. Left to their own devices, the public may choose to be led in any direction. The choice is whether or not to influence this direction.”–Patrick Jackson, editor of PR Reporter People talk to people … those people talk to other people. And that is how a lot of school news gets around.
2. One problem is that this communication system could be more reliable and usually one-way. Bits of information filter outward from the schools into the community along informal channels without accuracy or completeness. Thus, rumors form, spread, and become difficult to counteract.
3. When the misinformation filters back to school officials, it is often too late for a meaningful response and sparks that could have been quickly snuffed out become major fires. School board members and administrators from every school district can cite examples in which rapidly spreading rumors caused misunderstandings to multiply.
4. What? To control this grapevine system of communications, set up an active key communicator network. Essentially, a key communicator network is a group of opinion leaders who establish solid two-way communications among organizations and the public. These opinion leaders talk to lots of people who tend to listen to what they have to say.
5. Key communicators agree to disseminate accurate information and correct misinformation about the school system. They keep in touch with school officials and immediately report misperceptions and inaccuracies.
6. A key communicator network allows a school district to get accurate news out to the staff and community quickly. It enables school officials to intercept potentially harmful rumors. And it costs very little to set up and maintain.
7. Why? Research shows that people believe in their friends and neighbors more than they believe in the media. Marketing research supports this view, revealing that people make major purchases based on what others tell them about a product or a service.
8. It is reasonable to assume that people make decisions about schools the same way. Thus, school officials must spend time cultivating relationships with key employees and community members and keeping them informed if they want to gain understanding and acceptance of their school programs.
9. Studies have found that mass communication generally does not change minds but only reinforces existing positions, activating opposition as well as support. One-on-one communication, on the other hand, is quiet and speaks directly to the target audience.
10. The aim of key communicators is to build support, deflecting any effects of criticism. The media rarely launch crusades; they usually report the ideas of others. A well-organized, campaign targeting opinion leaders discourages attacks by going straight to the people who bring issues to the media.
11. Benefits of a Key Communicator Network Being person-to-person in nature, the program enables school officials to establish two-way communication and get a quick pulse of the community.
12. The program helps to bridge the distance between school officials and the community – the community gets to know school officials as people, not distant figureheads.
13. Regular communications with key opinion leaders offer more opportunities to convey the many successes of positive accomplishments in the schools.
14. A major benefit of the program is rumor control or a controlled grapevine whereby volatile issues or confrontations are quickly communicated to these opinion leaders. Communicating negative news or problems to this group also establishes candor and openness and ultimately will establish credibility between school officials and the citizenry.
Who? Key communicators are adults and students who have credibility in the community. They may or may not be in positions of authority or officially recognized leaders.
1. They may be barbers, beauticians, or bartenders. They often are dentists, gas station owners, firefighters, post office clerks, and news agency owners.
2. Within a school, they are often secretaries or custodians. In one way or another, however, these opinion leaders have an interest in their community schools.
3. Interestingly, opinion leaders who make up a successful key communicator network are seldom the loudmouths who complain at every school board meeting.
4. More likely, they are the people who only speak when they feel it is important and when they have a valid statement to make. They are the people others ask “What do you think about …?”
5. Key communicators should represent the different demographic segments of the community as well as the various segments of the school district staff. Having good two-way communication in place internally is extremely important.
6. Employees resent hearing school information first from community residents. Key communicators are everywhere, but even though they are highly influential, they may not be highly visible. Their distinguishing characteristics are that they are well respected and people trust their opinions.
7. Critics should definitely be invited. In a group of 10 people, one or two critics usually add credibility to the undertaking. Experience has shown that after involvement in a key communication process, critics frequently become supporters.
8. Where? The work of key communicators is carried out in churches, homes, businesses, organization meetings, clubs, or schools. Only one meeting of all the key communicators is usually necessary, and it should be brief and to the point. Much of the two-way communication between a key communicator and school officials is by phone, brief mailings, or in person.
9. To better communicate with your key communicator network, you may want to set up a telephone system to record 30-second messages relaying the facts of the situation and telling callers to dial another number for more information. If a crisis develops in one school, the system allows calls to the key communicators serving that school.
When? While key communicators are most helpful in a time of trouble or turmoil, you need to establish mutual trust and credibility before you can depend on them to call you when they hear a rumor or to set someone straight who’s spreading misinformation.
1. Once key communicators are identified, it is critical to communicate with them regularly on a personal, one-to-one basis. Their phone calls to school officials should be returned immediately, and their requests for information answered promptly.
2. If you expect them to share the good news about the schools, they must have that information in a timely and understandable fashion.
3. In addition, school officials should contact key communicators whenever there is a need to get information out quickly in order to counteract rumors or to defuse a potential crisis.
4. The key communicators can then make a point of getting the information to the people they meet in the course of their normal activities. Key communicators should, in turn, contact school officials when they hear rumblings, rumors, questions, or ideas from people in the community. They provide a quick, informal reading of the pulse of the community when a major decision must be made or when a sensitive issue is about to erupt.
How? It’s really not difficult to set up a key communicator system, but it does take some effort.
1. Begin by contacting members of your staff and others from your community that represents various churches, clubs, civic associations, occupations, and so on. Be sure to include all socioeconomic levels.
2. Explain that you are compiling a list of people in the community who are not necessarily visible leaders, but who are respected and listened to and/or who interact with a number and variety of people.
3. Ask them to survey their friends and neighbors for the names and addresses of people they feel fit this description.
4. Give those names and addresses to your key communicator organizer. The names that appear most often will become the nucleus of your key communicator system.
5. Study the list to be sure that all identifiable groups are covered. Since students and employees are prime relayers of information about the schools, be sure that the key communicators from within the schools are part of this list. In addition, analyze each person in terms of the district or specific school or area impact.
6. Send a letter to each person on the list to explain the concept and point out how they can assist the district. Assure them it will entail only one meeting and ask them to attend that brief meeting (at a specific time and place) to discuss the program. Point out that you are not asking them to do anything that they aren’t already doing but that you want to be sure they know some important information about the schools.
7. Follow up with a personal phone call. Letters alone attract only about half of those invited to meetings. A call by the principal or superintendent usually will generate a larger turnout.
8. Hold the meeting at a school or in the district office. Keep the tone informal. Explain the key communicator concept and illustrate how it might work by sharing specific examples of things that have happened in your district. (Most schools and districts already have small, informal key communicator groups working for them, and explaining how such a group has helped your district is a solid argument for setting up a slightly more formal system.)
9. Caution: Don’t structure the group. Never appoint a chairperson or committees.
10. Emphasize that the key communicator program is built on two-way communications. You will keep them informed about what’s going on, and you want them to tell you about rumblings in the community, questions that many people seem to be asking, or rumors that are flying.
11. Keep them informed. Send them a monthly letter, background reports, school board agendas, and minutes – anything that will help them help you.
12. Return their calls promptly. Nothing will turn off key communicators more quickly than not getting your attention when they have something to report or a question that needs answering.
13. As the year progresses, track your contacts with key communicators to help you evaluate the program. Ask them to assess the program, too.
14. Periodically review the list to make sure it continues to represent the community.
The Theories of Learning
Following are nine leading theories of learning. Each theory has its strengths and limitations. Educators should consider using a number these theories, depending on the topic, the student, and desired outcomes. These theories should not be exclusive or independent, but rather blended into an approach to planning an instructional unit.
Learning
Theory
• Positive Aspects • Negative Aspects • Theory to Practice
Behaviorism:
Behaviorism is a theory that emphasizes the role of environmental factors in shaping behavior.
Learning occurs through the interaction between a stimulus and a response, with reinforcement being the key.
It might be used around 20-30% of the time, usually in early childhood education. • Emphasizes the importance of reinforcement in shaping behavior.
• Provides a clear and measurable approach to learning.
• Can be applied to a wide range of contexts, from education to animal training. • Does not account for mental processes or internal factors that may influence behavior.
• Ignores the role of individual differences in learning.
• Can be overly simplistic in its approach to complex human behaviors.
• Positive reinforcement: Use positive reinforcement to increase the likelihood of desired behaviors.
• Use negative reinforcement to increase the likelihood of desired behaviors.
• Use punishment to decrease the likelihood of unwanted behaviors.
• Ignore the person’s unwanted behaviors.
• Removing a previously rewarding stimulus when a student displays an unwanted behavior.
Cognitive learning theory
Cognitive learning theory emphasizes the importance of mental processes in learning, such as attention, memory, and problem-solving.
According to this theory, learning involves the acquisition of knowledge and skills that can be applied to new situations.
It might be used around 30-40% of the time, usually in science and social studies.
• Emphasizes the importance of mental processes in learning.
• Provides a framework for understanding how people process and retain information.
• Can be applied to a wide range of contexts, from education to problem-solving in the workplace.
• Can be overly focused on individual cognitive processes and ignore the social and cultural context in which learning occurs.
• May not fully account for the influence of emotions and motivation on learning.
• Can be difficult to measure or observe mental processes directly.
• Activate students’ prior knowledge by connecting new information to what they already know.
• Break down complex information into smaller, more manageable pieces.
• Provide feedback that is timely, specific, and focused on the process of learning.
• Encourage students to elaborate on their thinking by asking open-ended questions that require them to explain their reasoning.
• Promote metacognition by encouraging students to reflect on their thinking processes and monitor their own learning.
• Incorporate multimedia and technology to provide students with opportunities to visualize and interact with the content.
Constructivism:
Constructivism is a theory that emphasizes the active role of the learners in constructing their own understanding of the world.
Learning occurs through a process of inquiry, in which the learner engages with new information and constructs their own meaning from it.
It might be used around 20 to 30%, usually in language arts and the humanities. • Emphasizes the active role of the learner in constructing their own understanding.
• Recognizes the importance of prior knowledge and experience in learning.
• Encourages critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Can be difficult to apply in contexts where there is a clear body of knowledge that needs to be transmitted.
• Can be overly reliant on group work and collaboration, which may not work for all learners.
• Can be difficult to assess or measure the effectiveness of this approach to learning.
• Creating a learning environment that encourages active student participation, inquiry, and exploration.
• Provide opportunities for students to explore and discover knowledge on their own.
• Encourage students to work together in groups to share their ideas, perspectives, and knowledge.
• encourage students to reflect on their own learning by asking questions that prompt them to think about how they constructed their understanding.
• provide students with choices in how they learn and demonstrate their understanding.
• connect new knowledge to students’ prior experiences, interests, and perspectives.
Social learning theory:
Social learning theory emphasizes the role of observation and social interaction in learning.
People learn by observing the behavior of others and the consequences of that behavior.
Used around 10-20% of the time, particularly with the growing importance of social and emotional development.
• Emphasizes the role of observation and social interaction in learning.
• Can be applied to a wide range of contexts, from education to workplace training.
• Can account for individual differences in learning styles and preferences.
• Can be difficult to observe or measure social interactions directly.
• Can be overly reliant on imitation and repetition of observed behaviors.
• May not fully account for the influence of individual cognition and motivation on learning.
• Encourage students to work together in groups to share their knowledge and skills.
• Provide opportunities for students to observe and model the behavior of others.
• assign students to teach or mentor their peers.
• Create a positive classroom culture that promotes mutual respect, trust, and collaboration.
Humanistic learning theory:
Humanistic learning theory emphasizes the role of personal growth and self-actualization in learning.
Learning occurs when people are motivated by their own interests and goals, rather than by external rewards or punishments.
Used around 5-10% of the time, in alternative or experiential learning settings. • Emphasizes the importance of personal growth and self-actualization in learning.
• Encourages a learner-centered approach to education.
• Can be empowering and motivating for learners.
• Can be difficult to apply in contexts where there is a clear body of knowledge that needs to be transmitted.
• May not fully account for the influence of external factors on learning, such as social and economic factors.
• Can be difficult to assess or measure the effectiveness of this approach to learning. • Create a learning environment that is focused on the needs and interests of the students.
• Emphasize personal growth and development by providing opportunities for students to reflect on their own learning,
• Encourage self-directed learning by providing opportunities for students to explore topics that interest.
• Create a supportive learning environment that promotes mutual respect, trust, and empathy.
• Emphasize intrinsic motivation by creating learning activities that are inherently interesting and challenging.
Information processing theory: Information processing theory emphasizes the role of mental processes in learning, such as attention, perception, and memory. According to this theory, learning involves the processing of information, which is stored in memory and can be retrieved and applied in new situations.
• Provides a framework for understanding how people process and retain information.
• Can be applied to a wide range of contexts, from education to cognitive psychology research.
• Emphasizes the importance of prior knowledge and experience in learning.
• Can be overly focused on individual cognitive processes and ignore the social and cultural context in which learning occurs.
• May not fully account for the influence of emotions and motivation on learning.
• Can be difficult to measure or observe mental processes directly.
• Break down complex information into smaller, more manageable chunks to help students process and remember.
• Help students focus their attention on important information by highlighting key concepts, using visual aids, and encouraging active engagement.
• Use repetition and practice to help students reinforce their learning and transfer new information.
• Encourage students to use problem-solving strategies to tackle challenging tasks and engage with complex information.
• Encourage students to engage in metacognitive processes, such as monitoring their own learning, setting goals, and evaluating their own progress.
Wasted Meeting Time Index
Instructions
Reflect on your meetings. In this assessment you are asked to indicate the percentage of time that certain “negative things” happen or are present in your meetings. Rounding to the nearest 10 percent is totally fine (e.g., 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent). There is no need to overthink a response.
Section 1: Consider the following about the design of meetings (i.e., pre-meeting activity) and indicate the percentage of time it was true for the meetings you had over the last month.
MEETING DESIGN % of Time This Occurred
1. Goals of the meeting were not clearly defined.
2. Attendees did not provide input for the agenda.
3. No agenda was provided to attendees in advance of the meeting.
4. Necessary materials were not distributed in advance of the meeting.
5. Not all relevant persons were invited or present at the meeting.
6. Too many individuals were invited to the meeting.
7. Persons not needed, given the meeting goals, were present at the meeting.
8. The meeting room and technology were not conducive to a quality conversation.
Total, combined percentages of these eight items % Average percentage of these eight items (divide total by eight) % 100%
Section 2: Provide ratings about the meeting itself from three perspectives: time dynamics, interpersonal dynamics, and discussion dynamics, and indicate the percentage of time it was true for the meetings you had over the last month.
THE MEETING ITSELF: TIME DYNAMICS % of Time This Occurred
1. The meeting started late.
2. Attendees came late to the meeting.
3. Attendees did not come to the meeting prepared.
4. The meeting leader did not come prepared.
5. The time allotted to the meeting was more time than was actually needed.
6. Time was not used effectively in the meeting.
7. The meeting felt rushed.
8. The meeting ended late.
9. The meeting was not really necessary.
Total, combined percentages of these nine items % Average percentage of these nine items (divide total by nine) % 100%
THE MEETING ITSELF: INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS % of Time
1. The diverse perspectives of attendees were not taken into consideration.
2. Attendees did not seem to really listen to one another.
3. Some attendees dominated the meeting at the expense of others.
4. Disagreements among attendees were counterproductive.
5. Attendees did not treat each other with respect.
6. Attendees did a lot of complaining.
7. Attendees were not open to new ideas or thinking.
Total, combined percentages of these seven items % Average percentage of these seven items (divide total by seven) % 100%
THE MEETING ITSELF: DISCUSSION DYNAMICS % of Time This Occurred
1. Attendees seemed to hold back their candid thoughts.
2. Attendees were not encouraged to participate.
3. Attendees rambled on and thus did not move the discussion forward.
4. Discussion strayed into irrelevant topics.
5. Distracting side conversations occurred among small groups of attendees.
6. Attendees multitasked during the meeting (e.g., were on their phones).
7. Meeting attendees were not engaged in the topic.
8. Critical and thoughtful decision-making did not occur.
Total, combined percentages of these eight items % Average percentage of these eight items (divide total by eight) % 100%
Section 3: The following concerns activities at the end of the meeting or in response to the meeting. Indicate the percentage of time it was true for the meetings you had over the last month.
POST-MEETING % of Time This Occurred
1. When the meeting ended, it was not clear what the action items were and who was responsible.
2. When the meeting ended, there was no effort to summarize what was resolved and decided on.
3. The leader did not follow up on what all were supposed to do.
4. Attendees did not follow up on what they were supposed to do.
5. No effort was made to evaluate the quality of the meeting.
Total, combined percentages of these five items % Average percentage of these five items (divide total by five) % 100%
Now let’s calculate a grand average percent by plugging in the average percentages above.
Section 1: MEETING DESIGN
Section 2: THE MEETING ITSELF: TIME DYNAMICS
Section 2: THE MEETING ITSELF: INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS
Section 2: THE MEETING ITSELF: DISCUSSION DYNAMICS
Section 3: POST-MEETING
Total, combined percentages of the five categories % Grand average percentage of the five categories (divide total by five) %
Rogelberg, Steven G.. The Surprising Science of Meetings (pp. 150-151). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
The 101 Leadership Axioms and Quotes
Quotes on Leadership – edited by Jack McKay
1. You should always introduce yourself by saying “I am the current superintendent of … .”
2. Even if you can successfully swim against an angry tide as a school leader, you will be criticized for not walking on water.
3. All will be right with the world when the military has to hold bake sales to buy bombs and schools have all the money they need.
4. Don’t mistake the edge of the rut for the horizon.
5. You are only as good as your teaching staff.
6. Being a superintendent is a fine line between leading a parade and being run out of town by an unhappy mob.
7. The key to leading a public-school system is hiring great people and remove everything that might prevent them from doing their job and then stay out of the way.
8. Don’t tell me what you value, tell me what you do, and I will tell you what you value.
9. You are what you do. Not what you say, not what you believe, not how you vote, but what you spend your time on.
10. In leadership, particularly as a superintendent, friends seem to come and go, but enemies seem to accumulate.
11. If you have no enemies, success has surely passed you by.
12. As a school superintendent, there are usually two ways to be remembered. One being that you made too many changes. The other is that you didn’t change anything.
13. “A wise prince must devise ways by which his citizens will always have need for the state and for him in every circumstance. Machavelli
14. Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. – William Butler Yeats
15. “Education is the Great Equalizer … The balance wheel of the social machinery” – Horace Mann
16. “When failure is expensive, plan carefully. When failure is cheap, act quickly.”
17. “The person who learns the most in any classroom is the teacher.
18. If you really want to learn a topic, then “teach” it.
19. The act of making something will force you to learn more deeply than reading ever will.”
20. “Do not wait. If there is something you wish to do, go do it.
21. “Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”
22. “One secret of leadership is that the mind of a leader never turns off. Leaders even when they are sightseers or spectators, are active; not passive observers.” —James Humes
23. “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” —Winston Churchill
24. When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” —Helen Keller
25. “Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.” —Roy T. Bennett
26. “Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” “Your success depends on the risks you take. Your survival depends on the risks you avoid.”
27. “The way to attract good luck is to be reliable in a valuable area. The more you repeatedly deliver value, the more people seek you out for that value.
28. Your reputation is a magnet. Once you become known for something, relevant opportunities come to you with no extra work.”
29. “It is better to start as a fool and learn from your mistakes than to fake being a genius and ignore your errors.”
30. Action forces prioritization. If you’re stuck deciding between options, force yourself to act. You can only act on one thing at a time, which means you will have to make something the top priority. Even if you pick wrong, you’ll learn something.” James Clear
31. “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.” ANDREW CARNEGIE
32. No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.” RALPH WALDO EMERSO”
33. Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes and denies us the present by promising the future.”SENECA
34. “The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.” CONFUCIUS
35. Enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points.
36. Always demand a deadline. A deadline weeds out the extraneous and the ordinary. It prevents you from trying to make it perfect, so you have to make it different. Different is better.
37. Don’t be afraid to ask a question that may sound stupid because 99% of the time everyone else is thinking of the same question and is too embarrassed to ask it
38. Able to listen well is a superpower. While listening to someone you love, keep asking them “Is there more?”, until there is no more.
39. A worthy goal for a year is to learn enough about a subject so that you can’t believe how ignorant you were a year earlier.
40. Gratitude will unlock all other virtues and is something you can get better at.
41. Pros are just amateurs who know how to gracefully recover from their mistakes.
42. Extraordinary claims should require extraordinary evidence to be believed.
43. Don’t be the smartest person in the room. Hangout with, and learn from, people smarter than yourself. Even better, find smart people who will disagree with you.
44. Rule of 3 in conversation. To get to the real reason, ask a person to go deeper than what they just said. Then again, and once more. The third time’s answer is close to the truth.
45. Don’t be the best. Be the only.
46. Everyone is shy. Other people are waiting for you to introduce yourself to them, they are waiting for you to send them an email, they are waiting for you to ask them on a date. Go ahead.
47. Don’t take it personally when someone turns you down. Assume they are like you: busy, occupied, distracted. Try again later. It’s amazing how often a second try works.
48. Promptness is a sign of respect.
49. Trust me: There is no “them”
50. The role of the superintendent to hire the best educators, provide the best resources, and then stay out of their way and bask in their glory as outstanding administrators, teachers, and support staff.
51. The more you are interested in others, the more interesting they find you. To be interesting, be interested.
52. To make something good, just do it. To make something great, just re-do it, re-do it, re-do it. The secret to making fine things is in remaking them.
53. The Golden Rule will never fail you. It is the foundation of all other virtues.
54. To make mistakes is human. To own your mistakes is divine. Nothing elevates a person higher than quickly admitting and taking personal responsibility for the mistakes you make and then fixing them fairly. If you mess up, fess up. It’s astounding how powerful this ownership is. up.
55. Keep showing up. Somebody successful said: 99% of success is just showing up
56. Perhaps the most counter-intuitive truth of the universe is that the more you give to others, the more you’ll get. Understanding this is the beginning of wisdom.
57. Friends are better than money. Almost anything money can do, friends can do better. In so many ways a friend with a boat is better than owning a boat.
58. This is true: It’s hard to cheat an honest man.
59. There is no limit on better. Talent is distributed unfairly, but there is no limit on how much we can improve what we start with.
When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation.
60. Before you are old, attend as many funerals as you can bear, and listen. Nobody talks about the departed’s achievements. The only thing people will remember is what kind of person you were while you were achieving.
61. Anything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the universe, and a skill you can get better at. It’s the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows.
62. When you get an invitation to do something in the future, ask yourself: would you accept this if it was scheduled for tomorrow? Not too many promises will pass that immediacy filter.
63. Don’t say anything about someone in email you would not be comfortable saying to them directly, because eventually they will read it.
64. Acquiring things will rarely bring you deep satisfaction. But acquiring experiences will
65. How to apologize: Quickly, specifically, sincerely.
66. When someone is nasty, rude, hateful, or mean with you, pretend they have a disease. That makes it easier to have empathy toward them which can soften the conflict.
67. Experience is overrated. When hiring, hire for aptitude, train for skills. Most really amazing or great things are done by people doing them for the first time.
68. Following your bliss is a recipe for paralysis if you don’t know what you are passionate about. A better motto for most youth is “master something, anything”. Through mastery of one thing, you can drift towards extensions of that mastery that bring you more joy, and eventually discover where your bliss is.
69. Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist you don’t have to ignore all the many problems we create; you just have to imagine improving our capacity to solve problems.
70. The universe is conspiring behind your back to make you a success. This will be much easier to do if you embrace this pronoia.
71. “What looks like a talent gap is often a focus gap.
72. The ‘all star’ is often an average to above average performer who spends more time working on what is important and less time on distractions. The talent is staying focused.”
73. A few things you need to achieve exceptional results: 1) Quantity: You take lots of shots. 2) Quality: You take thoughtful shots. 3) Consistency: You keep shooting for a long time. 4) Feedback. You take better shots over time. 5) Luck: You get a few favorable bounces.”
74. Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.” Wilma Rudolph
75. “Life is like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.”
76. The key—if you want to build habits that last—is to join a group where the desired behavior is the normal behavior.”
77. It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.”
78. Optimism is usually defined as a belief that things will go well. But that’s incomplete. Sensible optimism is a belief that the odds are in your favor, and over time things will balance out to a good outcome even if what happens in between is filled with misery. And in fact you know it will be filled with misery. You can be optimistic that the long-term growth trajectory is up and to the right, but equally sure that the road between now and then is filled with landmines, and always will be. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.” Morgan Housel
79. Most people think they lack motivation when they really lack clarity.”
80. What looks like talent is often careful preparation.” What looks like skill is often persistent revision.”
81. Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.”
82. An expert is a person who has found out by painful experience all the mistakes that one can make in a very narrow field.” Niels Bohr
83. Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.”
84. Telling a person to calm down is about like baptizing a cat.
85. Prayer is the original wireless communication.
86. Being an adult is the dumbest thing I have ever done.
87. I’m a multitasker. I can listen, ignore and forget all at the same time!
88. When you can’t find the sunshine…be the sunshine.
89. Some people are like clouds; once they disappear it’s a beautiful day.
90. Some people you’re glad to see coming; some people you’re glad to see going.
91. Common sense is not a gift. It’s a punishment because you have to deal with everyone who doesn’t have it
92. “The math of success… Results = (Hard Work*Time)^Strategy Working hard is important, but working on the right thing is more important. A great strategy can deliver exponential results. Of course, the best strategy is worth nothing if you never get to work. Zero to the millionth power is still zero.”
93. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
94. “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” ~ Warren Buffet 179.
95. “We become what we think about.” ~ Earl Nightingale
96. “Knowing where you’re going is all you need to get there.” ~ Frederick Carl Frieseke
97. “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” ~ Henry Ford
98. “You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
99. “Remember, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ~ Eleanor
100. “If you wait till halftime to make adjustments, it’s too late.” ~ Bill Belichick
101. “There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.”
102. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
103. “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the people who are doing it.” ~ Unknown
104. “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” ~ Unknown
105. “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
106. “Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.” ~ Grandma Moses
107. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” ~ Benjamin Franklin 198. “Change comes about from the inside out.” ~ Dr. Kriner Cash
108. “Ships are safe in harbor…But that’s not what ships are for.” ~ Anonymous
109. “Organizations move at the speed of trust.” ~ Steven Covey
110. “When the organization expects a frown, be sure to smile. When the organization is
111. “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”~ Albert Einstein
112. “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~
113. “You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” ~ Warren
114. “The line between failure and success is so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.”~ Sam
115. “He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.” ~ Edmund
116. “People look like what you see in them.” ~ Dr. Kriner
117. “A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new.” ~ Albert
118. “Have utmost concern for what’s right rather than who’s right.” ~ John Wooden 211. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr
119. “The state with the smartest skilled workforce wins. That is the economy of tomorrow.” ~ Gov. Andrew M.
120. “Be tough on the work, gentle with people.” ~ Dr. Kriner Cash
121. “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” ~ W. Edwards
122. “The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example.” ~ John Wood
123. “I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.” ~ Florence
124. “Everything is ok in the end, if it’s not ok, it’s not the end.” ~ Unknown“I’ve learned that people will forget what you’ve said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~ Maya
125. “If you can’t deliver the message in 5 minutes or less, you don’t know what the message is.” ~ Dr. Kriner
126. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” ~ Aristotle
127. “If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.” ~ Latin
128. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” ~ Confucius
129. “When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’” ~ Lao
130. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. – President John Quincy Adams, USA
131. Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. – Jack Welch, former GE chairman and CEO
132. No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you’ve come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself. – Madonna
133. Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do. – Mother Teresa
134. A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be. – Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady,
135. Leadership is the capacity to transform vision into reality. –Warren G. Bennis, founding chairman of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California
136. To lead people, walk beside them. As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence … When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’ – Lao Tsu, Chinese philosopher
137. A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit. – Arnold Glasow, humorist and
138. The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there. – John Buchan, novelist, historian and politician.
139. Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others. – Robert Louis
140. I have three precious things, which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men. – Lao Tsu, Chinese philosopher.
141. Great leaders harness personal courage, capture the hearts and minds of others and empower new leaders to make the world a better place. – Maxine Driscoll, Founder Think Strategic.
142. You have to be unique, and different, and shine in your own way. – Lady Gaga 236.Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world. – Nelson Mandela, former President South Africa.
143. You can’t lead anyone if you can’t lead yourself! – Maxine Driscoll, Founder Think Strategic
144. This is how it is today: The teachers are afraid of the principals. The principals are afraid of the superintendents. The superintendents are afraid of the board of education. The board is afraid of the parents. The parents are afraid of the children. The children are afraid of nothing! Melton Beerle
145. “It’s usually more important to be in the right room than to be the smartest person in the room. A person with great judgement and average intelligence will usually beat someone with great intelligence and average judgment. Judgment is knowing what room to be in.”
146. “What they call you is one thing. What you answer to is something else.” Lucille Clifton
147. “Greatness is consistency. Meditating once is common. Meditating daily is rare. Exercising today is simple. Training every week is simply remarkable. Writing one essay rarely matters. Write every day and you’re practically a hero. Unheroic days can make for heroic decades.”
148. “There is a wonderful, almost mystical, law of nature that says three of the things we want most—happiness, freedom, and peace of mind—are always attained when we give them to others. Give it away to get it back.” John Wooden
149. The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible. George Burns
150. Money can’t buy you happiness . . . But it does bring a more peasant for misery. Spike Milligan
151. “Repetition unlocks value. The value of your first workout increases the more you exercise. The value of your first article increases the more you write. The value of your first conversation increases the longer you stay in the relationship. Day One continues to compound.”
152. “Books are more likely to change minds than conversations. There is too much happening internally during conversation: Did that sound stupid. What do they think of me? Will I lose the friendship over this opinion? Books can let you chew on an idea without social risk.”
153. “If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. …whatever it is, do not be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.” Mary Olive
154. “Whenever you are stuck searching for the optimal plan, remember: Getting started changes everything.”
155. (Share this on Twitter)
156. “The desire to improve does not have to come from a place of self-loathing.”
157. “The teacher learns more than the student. The author learns more than the reader does. The speaker learns more than the attendee does. The way to learn is by doing.”
158. “We are in the habit of imagining our lives to be linear, a long march from birth to death in which we mass our powers, only to surrender them again, all the while slowly losing our youthful beauty. This is a brutal untruth. Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.” Katherine May
159. “How did you accomplish that?” “Same as everything else. Gradually, then all at once.”
160. On friendship: The dynamic of friendship is almost always underestimated as a constant force in human life: a diminishing circle of friends is the first terrible diagnostic of a life in deep trouble: of overwork, of too much emphasis on a professional identity, of forgetting who will be there when our armored personalities run into the inevitable natural disasters and vulnerabilities found in even the most average existence.The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness … to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.” David Whyte
161. “The most reliable way to change your life is by not changing your entire life.
If you try to change everything all at once, you will quickly find yourself pulled back into the same patterns as before. But if you merely focus on changing one specific habit and work on it until it becomes part of your normal day, you will find your life changes naturally as a side effect.
Improve the whole by mastering one thing.”
162. “The best index to a person’s character is (a) how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can’t fight back.” Abigail Van Buren
163. “Saying no saves you time in the future. Saying yes costs you time in the future. No is like a time credit. You can spend that block of time in the future. Yes is like a time debt. You have to repay that commitment at some point. No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility.” James Clear
164. “Most of the excuses I made…
– not enough time
– not enough money
– not enough knowledge
– not the right connections
…were just ways to avoid the real bottleneck: Not enough courage.
165. There was always a small step I could have taken—if I had the guts to take it.”
166. “You can either be judged because you created something or ignored because you left your greatness inside of you. Your call.”
167. “The list of mistakes you can never recover from is very short.
But you likely realize your life will not be destroyed if your book doesn’t sell or if a potential date turns you down or if your startup goes bust. It’s not the failed outcome that paralyzes us. It’s the possibility of looking stupid, feeling humiliated, or dealing with embarrassment that prevents us from getting started at all.
The first step to being courageous is being willing to look foolish.”
168. “If you think you can learn a lot from reading books, try writing one.”
169. “Convincing someone to change their mind is really the process of convincing someone to change their tribe. If they abandon their beliefs, they run the risk of losing social ties. You can’t expect someone to change their mind if you take away their community too. You have to give them somewhere to go.
170. “Patience is a competitive advantage. In a surprising number of fields, you can find success if you are willing to do the reasonable thing longer than most people.”
171. “Motivation often comes after starting, not before.
Action produces momentum.”
172. “We spend a lot of time talking about everything we have to do.
You have to finish 10 things at work. You have to exercise today. You have to cook dinner for your family.
Now, change one word in each sentence. You don’t “have” to. You “get” to.
You get to finish 10 things at work. You get to exercise today. You get to cook dinner for your family.
The right perspective transforms your burdens into opportunities.”
173. “Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.” John Kenneth Galbraith
174. “You can increase your surface area for good luck by taking action.
The forager who explores widely will find lots of useless terrain, but is also more likely to stumble across a bountiful berry patch than the person who stays home.
Similarly, the person who works hard, pursues opportunity, and tries more things is more likely to stumble across a lucky break than the person who waits.”
175. “We cannot predict the value our work will provide to the world. That’s fine. It is not our job to judge our own work. It is our job to create it, to pour ourselves into it, and to master our craft as best we can.”
176. “More effort is wasted doing things that don’t matter than is wasted doing things inefficiently.
Elimination is the highest form of optimization.”
177. I.”You only need to know the direction, not the destination. The direction is enough to make the next choice.”
178. “If you want to find a better path, you have to be willing to explore a different path. That sounds simple, but how often do you try something different?”
179. “How to build a career in 7 steps: 1. Do great work. 2. Share it publicly. 3. Cold email people 2 steps ahead of you.,.4. Talk about your work and trade ideas. 5. Host events and meet in-person. 6. Become friends. 7. Rise together.”
180. “The world rewards you for value provided, not time spent.”
181. “The important thing is not to keep winning, but to keep reaching.”
182. “Always leave room for the unexpected. A buffer of time, a little extra money, a reserve of goodwill.
183. You won’t be maximizing every opportunity or squeezing out every last dollar, but what you lose in reward, you gain in safety. Survival is the highest return of all.”
184. “Double down on your best relationship.
185. It’s the investment with the highest return.”
186. “People who jump from project to project are always dividing their effort, and producing high quality work becomes easier with intense effort.
187. Meanwhile, your average work day can be leisurely and productive if you return to the same project each day.
188. Do one thing well and watch it compound.”
189. “Life is easier when you know what you want—but most people don’t take the time to figure out what they want.
190. Toni Morrison on the measure of success: “For me, success is not a public thing. It’s a private thing. It’s when you have fewer and fewer regrets.
191. André Malraux on courage: “Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one’s better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk—and to act.”
192. “Big things start small, but not every small thing can become big.
193. You need to be on the right trajectory. Choose the right playing field and success comes more easily.”
194. “When failure is reversible, act quickly., When failure is irreversible, think carefully.”
195. “Friendship happens on the way to something else.
196. If you “try to meet new people” it feels weird and forced. The more you aim for friendship, the more it eludes you. But if you aim to learn or achieve something with others, friendship happens naturally during the shared pursuit.”
197. “Double down on your best relationship. It’s the investment with the highest return.”
198. “Many people wish they started sooner. Almost nobody wishes they started later.”
199. “Failure is most useful when you give your best effort. If you fail with a lackluster effort, you haven’t learned much. Perhaps you could have succeeded with a proper focus. But if your best effort fails, you have learned something valuable: this way doesn’t work.”
200. “Nobody is rooting for you to fail. You may succeed. You may fail. But, for the most part, nobody cares one way or the other. This is good. The world is big and you are small, which means you can chase your dreams with little worry for what people think.”
201. “Always be prepared to absorb a big hit. Always be focused enough to create a big win. ,Diversified enough to survive, concentrated enough to matter.”
202. “Being yourself is a continuous effort. There is always another expectation placed upon you, another person pulling you toward their preferences, another nudge from society to act a certain way., t’s a daily battle to be yourself, not merely what the world wants you to be.”
203. “A small act is worth a million thoughts.” Ai Weiwei
204. “When in doubt, just say thank you. There is no downside. Are you honestly worried about showing too much gratitude to the people in your life?”
205. “Most lucky events in life are opportunities, not outcomes.
The value of an opportunity changes depending on how it is treated. Without effort, good luck becomes a missed opportunity. With effort, good luck can become a life-changing event.
You need luck and hard work. It’s not either/or. It’s both/and. The result will not walk through the door on its own.”
206. “You should know that when a message you convey to another person is not understood by him, at least one of the following things is true: what you have said is not true, or you have conveyed it without kindness.” Leo Tolstoy
207. “Not every problem needs to be overcome, just the ones stopping you from getting where you want to be.”
208. “Your entire life happens inside your body. It’s the one home you will always occupy and can never sell.
But you can renovate it.
If you can only pick one habit to build, exercise might be the one. Everything is downstream from how your body is functioning.” James Clear
209. “Think of many things. Do one.”
210. “The secret to feeling great about yourself is not to be found in searching for people who are less than you and then show yourself superior to them, but in searching for people who are more than you and then show yourself worthy of their company.” Erik Naggum
211. “If you know where you want to go in life, people tend to help or get out of the way. Both of those are useful.”
212. “People follow incentives, not advice.”
213. “The best arguments in the world won’t change a single person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.” Richard Powers
214. Am I willing to look foolish today so I can learn something that will make me better tomorrow?
215. Sometimes we are too hard on ourselves and criticize our mistakes to an unhelpful degree. Sometimes we are too easy on ourselves and let excuses run our lives. Which way are you leaning right now? How can you pull yourself back to center?
216. “Speed is important. Work fast and iterate. People rarely remember the first draft, but everyone remembers the final draft. Speed is unimportant. People rarely remember how long it took you to do the job, but everyone remembers how well you did the job.”
217. “Formal education is not nearly as important as an unquenchable thirst to learn.”
218. “Nearly everything awesome takes longer than you think.
Get started and don’t worry about the clock.”
219. “Regard yourself as a cloud, in the flesh, because you see, clouds never make mistakes. Did you ever see a cloud that was misshapen? Did you ever see a badly designed wave? No, they always do the right thing. But, if you will, treat yourself for a while as a cloud or a wave and realize that you can’t make a mistake whatever you do. Because even if you do something that appears totally disastrous, it will all come out in the wash somehow or another. Then through this capacity you will develop a kind of confidence. And through confidence you will be able to trust your own intuition.”
220. “Do not confuse things that are hard with things that are valuable.
Many things in life are hard. Just because you are giving a great effort does not mean you are working toward a great result. Make sure that mountain is worth climbing.”
221. Danusha Laméris on the value of small kindnesses:
“I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other. We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile, at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder, and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here, have my seat,” “Go ahead — you first,” “I like your hat.”
222. “The more an idea is tied to your identity, the more you will ignore evidence it is false. To continue to grow and learn, you must be willing to update, expand, and edit your identity.”
223. “One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.” Paulo Coelho
224. Is it better to delay getting started by weeks or months so I can be fully prepared? Or is it better to start right now with little to no preparation?
225. “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.” Grace Hopper
226. “Focus starts with elimination, improves with concentration, and compounds with continuation.”
227. “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” Epicurus
228. “The sucker’s trap is when you focus on what you know and what others don’t know, rather than the reverse.” — Nassim Taleb,
229. Leadership is always about serving people, not just exercising power over them.
230. A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. — Lao Tzu
231. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. —Max DePree
232. Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. — Warren Bennis
233. Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. — Jack Welch
234. A leader is a dealer in hope. — Napoleon Bonaparte
235. My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence. — General Montgomery
236. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. — Peter Drucker
237. The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born. — Warren Bennis
238. Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position. — Brian Tracy
239. I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. — Ralph Nader
240. Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes. — Peter Drucker
The New Superintendent’s Rating Form
Edited by Jack McKay. Contributions: Martha Bruckner, Charles Fowler, Gene Sharratt, Larry Nyland, and John Erickson
The first six months of initial efforts to grasp the culture and challenges by the first-time superintendent and the veteran moving to a new district are critical.
The following is a suggested list of activities and a rating format for your ” Plan.” The rating scale is designed to provide a progress report on activities intended to help you, as the new superintendent, succeed in school board relations, faculty and staff credibility, and longevity in the position.
Part 1. Visibility:
The following will help determine the strengths and challenges of the school district:
1.1 Visit every school and visit as many classrooms as possible.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
1.2 Have a “Meet and Greet” scheduled at every site to gather input from staff members.
Not Started 1, 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
1.3 Interview critical stakeholders in civic clubs, city government, and other vital positions in the community. What are the strengths? What are the weaknesses? What are the opportunities? What are the challenges facing the school district?
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
1.4 Listen to parents, teachers, students, administrators, parent-teacher organizations, booster organizations, teacher and support unions, faith-based groups, chamber of commerce, city government, community members, and retired school administrators.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
1.5 Visit with students and student groups.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
1.6 Awareness of using pronouns when speaking to individuals or making presentations. Emphasize “We” and very few “I” did this or that.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
Part 2. Review Data –
Data will help me understand the current reality of the school district.
2.1 Review all student achievement data will be critical in making decisions.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
2.2 Review the financial records, workflow analysis, and internal controls to ensure the district is fiscally responsible.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
2.3 Interview District Administrators – Ask for a debriefing of all administrators in the district. What are their challenges and opportunities?
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
2.4 If not in place, form an administrative team to evaluate the significant areas of the school district. Could you ask each team member for a detailed report from their respective departments?
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
2.5 Equity should look at disaggregated data and meetings with historically marginalized stakeholders.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
Part 3. Board Operational Beliefs –
The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.
3.1 Learn about the operational beliefs of the Board of Education and how they correlate to the policies they have created.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
3.2 Conduct an internal review to see if our employees follow the policies and regulations appropriately.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
3.3 Set up a meeting with each board member to input all issues and opportunities.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
3.4 Positive Board/Superintendent Relations
Please take a look at the operational beliefs of the Board of Education. How do they correlate with the policies created for the district?
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
Part 4. Review Student Programs –
4.1 Review all student programs to understand their functionality and capacity. The internal staff will be the crucial source of information about the perceived success of these programs.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
4.2 Assess every decision to ensure it is in the best interest of students.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
4.3 Establish a clear understanding of roles, responsibilities, expectations, and systems of mutual accountability.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
Part 5. Meetings with Stakeholders
5.1 Develop consistent communication with all board members about weekly emails, newsletters, and calls.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
5.2 Schedule individual meetings with each Board member to develop relationships and trust with the Board.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
5.3 Ask the Board of Education to commit time for bonding activities. Help build relationships and trust between the Board and the Superintendent. Schedule a retreat to prioritize and set goals.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
5.4 Work out a strategy with the school board that identifies leaders from within the community.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
5.4 Ensure (or find ways to ensure) that school board and leadership team members understand and share similar beliefs.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
5.6 Create a self-evaluation system informing the board members of their priorities/goals for the first six months and the first year.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
5.7 Please request access to the Superintendent Search documents to set the specifications for evaluating candidates. This document includes the results of focus groups of staff, students, parents, and community members. This document may provide the priorities for the district for the Superintendent.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
5.8 When speaking anywhere, formally or informally, please don’t tell ill of the past efforts of the former superintendents, community members, or association leadership. Likewise, avoid negative comments about a previous school
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
5.9 Establish a practice with the school board to channel all questions or concerns from employees, citizens, and students to the superintendent.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
Part 6 Interview Key Stakeholders
The Superintendent must maintain unwavering faith that they can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
6.1 Identify the key stakeholders: teachers, site principals, parents, students, parent-teacher organizations, central office staff, civic clubs, chamber of commerce, city council, and faith-based groups.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
6.2 Survey the faculty and staff to determine the organization’s current reality. This process will be the first step in moving the organization forward.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
6.3 Meet with teachers and the local education association leadership. Listening to these groups will give insight into the critical issues
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
6.4 Meet with students and student groups. Could you make sure that students have opportunities to be included?
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
6.5 Identify the key leaders in the community and set up meetings to hear their concerns and recommendations.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
6.6 Provide open, honest communication and positive relationships.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
Part 7. Review Current Data and Evaluate Programs
True genius resides in evaluating uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
7.1 Utilize financial and personnel data to understand the current reality of the district.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
7.2 Review all financial records and financial procedures. Review the ending fund balance to determine the sustainability.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
7.3 Ensure the district staff follows state law and board policy in hiring, purchasing, and competitive bidding. Review all bond funds to ensure that funds are on the projects advertised in the previous bond issues.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
7.4 Review the internal controls to ensure the district is fiscally responsible.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
7.5 Review all critical documents, such as organizational charts, employee handbooks, and employee-negotiated agreements.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
Part 8. Review of Student Achievement and Programs
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.
8.1 Review the district strategic plan and the process of its development.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
8.2 Review the mission and vision and all student achievement data. Include all instructional data, including curriculum guides, benchmark assessments, and state achievement data.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
8.3 Review the site improvement plans to ensure these are consistent with the mission and vision.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
8.4 Identify those schools/programs that may not be performing to expectations and review to understand the reasons for performance levels.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
8.5 Request the administrative team to analyze programs in their respective areas.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
8.6 Review all student programs and grant-funded projects to understand title programs’ functionality, capacity, and current philosophy.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
8.7 With the administrative team, the perceived successes and challenges of the current student programs.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
Part 9. Review of Technology, Operations, and Support Functions
9.1 “The most serious mistakes are not being made due to wrong answers. The hazardous thing is asking the wrong question.” Review the support functions: technology services, transportation services, child nutrition, custodial, and maintenance services.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
9.2 Request the team members in the support areas to review programs in their respective departments.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
9.3 Review the infrastructure of the technology services. Analyze the number of computers-to-student ratios and where the computers are accessible to students.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
9.4 Review the effort for using technology as a tool in the classroom. Do teachers receive appropriate professional development for technology? Do teachers receive the proper hardware and software for classroom use?
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
9.5 Review the process of technology usefulness at all levels of the district. Analyze the outcomes of these efforts.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
9.6 Review transportation services to ensure safety and student needs.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
9.7 Analyze how child nutrition needs. Have federal school lunch regulations been followed? Could you identify how maintenance and custodial services are across the district?
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
Part 10. Balance Family and Work Activities
10.1 “Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than outward circumstances.” Eat a healthy diet every day and set aside time daily for exercise to maintain a healthy body.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
10.2 Make time for my family. Take time to enjoy my hobbies to refresh myself each week.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
Part 11. Report on the Progress of the 6-month Plan.
11.1 Create a format that conveys progress made for each goal of the six-month plan.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
11.2 Create a set of suggestions and recommendations, based on the visits, listening, and analyzed data, that relate to each original goal and other goals, if needed.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
11.3 Create a plan to communicate suggestions and recommendations. Could you include what was said and the progress made?
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
11.4 Repeat visiting, listening, and analyzing data for the next six months, the following year, and three years ahead.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
11.5 Finally, avoid surprising the school board. Anticipate issues and opportunities, Be inspirational in working with others, and be visible in the classroom, at school events, and in the community.
Not Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Completed
Calculation of a Wasted Meeting Time
Instructions
Reflect on your meetings. In this assessment you are asked to indicate the percentage of time that certain “negative things” happen or are present in your meetings. Rounding to the nearest 10 percent is totally fine (e.g., 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent). There is no need to overthink a response.
Section 1: Consider the following about the design of meetings (i.e., pre-meeting activity) and indicate the percentage of time it was true for the meetings you had over the last month.
MEETING DESIGN % of Time This Occurred
1. The goals of the meeting were not clearly defined.
2. Attendees did not provide input for the agenda.
3. No agenda was provided to attendees in advance of the meeting.
4. Necessary materials were not distributed in advance of the meeting.
5. Not all relevant persons were invited or present at the meeting.
6. Too many individuals were invited to the meeting.
7. Persons not needed, given the meeting goals, were present at the meeting.
8. The meeting room and technology were not conducive to a quality conversation.
Total, combined percentages of these eight items % Average percentages of these eight items (divide total by eight) % 100%
Section 2: Provide ratings about the meeting itself from three perspectives: time dynamics, interpersonal dynamics, and discussion dynamics, and indicate the percentage of time it was true for the meetings you had over the last month.
THE MEETING ITSELF: TIME DYNAMICS % of Time This Occurred
1. The meeting started late.
2. Attendees came late to the meeting.
3. Attendees did not come to the meeting prepared.
4. The meeting leader did not come prepared.
5. The time allotted to the meeting was more time than was actually needed.
6. Time was not used effectively in the meeting.
7. The meeting felt rushed.
8. The meeting ended late.
9. The meeting was not really necessary.
Total, combined percentages of these nine items % Average percentage of these nine items (divide total by nine) % 100%
THE MEETING ITSELF: INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS % of Time
1. The diverse perspectives of attendees were not taken into consideration.
2. Attendees did not seem to really listen to one another.
3. Some attendees dominated the meeting at the expense of others.
4. Disagreements among attendees were counterproductive.
5. Attendees did not treat each other with respect.
6. Attendees did a lot of complaining.
7. Attendees were not open to new ideas or thinking.
Total, combined percentages of these seven items % Average percentage of these seven items (divide total by seven) % 100%
THE MEETING ITSELF: DISCUSSION DYNAMICS % of Time This Occurred
1. Attendees seemed to hold back their candid thoughts.
2. Attendees were not encouraged to participate.
3. Attendees rambled on and thus did not move the discussion forward.
4. Discussion strayed into irrelevant topics.
5. Distracting side conversations occurred among small groups of attendees.
6. Attendees multitasked during the meeting (e.g., were on their phones).
7. Meeting attendees were not engaged in the topic.
8. Critical and thoughtful decision-making did not occur.
Total, combined percentages of these eight items % Average percentages of these eight items (divide total by eight) % 100%
Section 3: The following concerns activities at the end of the meeting or in response to the meeting. Indicate the percentage of time it was true for the meetings you had over the last month.
POST-MEETING % of Time This Occurred
1. When the meeting ended, it was not clear what the action items were and who was responsible.
2. When the meeting ended, there was no effort to summarize what was resolved and decided on.
3. The leader did not follow up on what all were supposed to do.
4. Attendees did not follow up on what they were supposed to do.
5. No effort was made to evaluate the quality of the meeting.
Total, combined percentages of these five items % Average percentage of these five items (divide total by five) % 100%
Now let’s calculate a grand average percent by plugging in the average percentages above.
Section 1: MEETING DESIGN
Section 2: THE MEETING ITSELF: TIME DYNAMICS
Section 2: THE MEETING ITSELF: INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS
Section 2: THE MEETING ITSELF: DISCUSSION DYNAMICS
Section 3: POST-MEETING
Total, combined percentages of the five categories % Grand average percentage of the five categories (divide total by five) %
• Abuse of Power, 72
• accountability, 41, 56, 90, 108, 115, 151, 155, 156, 170, 177, 217, 219, 222, 224, 309
• Adam Bryant, 52
• Adam Grant, 71
• Adapting proactively, 88
• Agenda-setting theory, 129
• analogies, 86, 137, 145
• annual calendar, 107, 165
• Antonakis and Day, 14
• Arrogance, 58, 66
• Art Stellar, 9, 175
• Ascendancy to Nurture, 66
• aspirations, 41, 56, 83, 92, 112, 117, 126, 131
• aspiring leaders, 52
• assumptions, 62, 102, 107, 108, 197
• Attendance of Administrative Team members, 166
• Attendance of Building Principals, 167
• Attendance of District Team members, 166
• attributes, 10, 12, 23, 24, 87, 91, 111, 238, 306
• Audience-Centered, 138
• audit, 101, 102, 107
• authentic, 211
• Authentic leaders, 30, 66
• Authentic leadership, 30, 42
• avoid the signals, 247
• Avoiding Conflict, 113
• axiom, 70, 233, 246, 248
• Behavioral theory, 28
• benefits and shortcomings, 81
• Bernard Bass and Bruce Avolio’s, 40
• board interview, 234
• Board Meeting, 158, 160, 162, 165
• Board Meeting Minutes, 158
• Board of directors, 85
• Board President, 162
• Board/Superintendent relationship, 239
• Bob Firestone, 237
• Botelho and others, 87
• Brene Brown, 56
• Brené Brown, 18
• Brian Benzel, 2, 9, 101, 168
• bridger, 59, 60, 61
• budget parameters, 107
• Burnout, 73, 76
• business affairs, 104
• Captain and Crew, 85
• career phases, 92
• catalyst, 59, 60, 61
• challenging career, 253
• Change Agent, 48
• change agents, 8, 48, 50
• characteristics of school superintendents, 79
• Charisma, 11
• charismatic leader, 44
• Charles Fowler, 9, 175, 246, 252, 307
• checklist relating to the goals for the entry plan, 170
• chief business officer, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106
• Choose your battles, 49
• civility, 120, 121
• coaching, 29, 62, 113, 257
• collaboration, 21, 30, 31, 35, 41, 42, 49, 73, 81, 82, 86, 118, 162, 167, 183, 188, 189, 191, 221, 275, 276
• Collaborators, 49
• Communicating the Vision, 206
• communication, 11, 12, 13, 20, 28, 31, 41, 81, 86, 90, 96, 105, 115, 118, 119, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 140, 147, 151, 152, 155, 156, 157, 167, 170, 172, 186, 201, 202, 203, 205, 206, 207, 209, 212, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 226, 241, 253, 256, 267, 268, 269, 290, 309, 311
• Communication, 11, 124, 127, 156, 202, 203, 207, 224, 255
• Communities of Practice, 78
• Community comments, 164
• Community Input, 163
• compassion, 52, 116
• competence, 69, 70, 109, 119, 212
• Conclude the meeting, 155
• Confidence, 11
• Confirming-Evidence Trap, 195
• Conflict Resolution, 86
• consistent, 54, 106, 170, 172, 186, 208, 309, 312
• Conventional wisdom, 179
• correspondence and utterances, 167
• creating change, 201
• credibility, 31, 44, 49, 90, 113, 114, 131, 132, 138, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 201, 208, 209, 268, 269, 307
• Credibility., 138
• Critical Entry, 64
• culture, 17, 22, 23, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 36, 46, 49, 51, 53, 59, 60, 65, 73, 90, 96, 97, 99, 100, 115, 116, 123, 164, 178, 179, 180, 181, 183, 195, 201, 202, 203, 207, 208, 209, 210, 216, 220, 224, 234, 235, 245, 276, 307
• Daniel Pink, 18
• Deciding with Speed, 88
• Decision quality, 189
• decision-making, 11, 12, 20, 26, 28, 31, 32, 37, 40, 44, 54, 72, 73, 75, 82, 88, 89, 90, 92, 98, 113, 114, 127, 154, 176, 177, 178, 180, 186, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 196, 197, 218, 219, 222, 223, 224, 226, 281, 317
• Declaring Victory Too Soon, 208
• Definition of leadership styles, 37
• definitions of leadership, 13
• Delivering Reliably, 90
• Dennis Ray, 9, 168, 213, 221, 227, 228
• DeRue and Ashford, 14
• Desired Experience, 222
• Dianna Booker, 136
• Directive change, 199
• Disengagement, 73
• dismissal of school superintendents, 254
• dispute resolution, 123, 124
• Dissension, 119
• District’s Culture, 183
• Douglas Otto, 9, 175
• Downsides, 75
• effective agenda, 147, 162
• effective persuader, 142
• Effective persuasion, 140
• effective presenter, 140
• Effective superintendents, 104, 255
• Emergent change, 200
• emotional commitment, 145
• emotional resilience, 60
• Empathy, 53
• Empowering leadership, 41
• Engagement, 40, 89, 219, 225
• Engaging for Impact, 89
• enthusiasm, 136
• entry period, 182
• Estimating and Forecasting Traps, 196
• Ethical leadership, 42
• Experience, 78
• External factors, 119
• Facts need interpretation, 137
• Fear of Exposure, 109
• feedback, 24, 49, 51, 73, 104, 109, 113, 115, 116, 117, 121, 141, 163, 178, 185, 196, 200, 234, 274
• finance, 101, 108, 163, 264
• First Impressions, 64
• first-time leaders, 90
• fiscal leadership, 104, 105
• Followers, 22
• Framing Trap, 196
• Frank Hewins, 9, 175, 246, 252
• Friday Board Member Sessions, 166
• Friday Notes to the Board, 166
• Fund Balance, 103
• Gary Genard, 134
• Gene Sharratt, 9, 175, 307
• givers of hope, 125
• Golf, 121
• good fit, 82
• Graen and Uhl-Bien, 23
• grand expectations, 118
• Gratifications theory, 128
• grit, 94, 95, 111
• Group Makes the Decision, 176
• Groupthink, 72, 73
• Guiding Coalition, 205
• Harvard Business Review, 59, 87, 179
• hierarchy of leader, 46
• huddle, 150, 151, 152, 153
• humble, 47, 70, 99
• humility, 17, 30, 46, 47, 94, 294
• Impactful Presence, 11
• Imposter Syndrome, 109, 110, 111
• Impulsiveness, 114
• inclusive, 211
• Inclusive Learning, 99
• Individual Makes the Decision, 176
• influence, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 31, 33, 42, 44, 49, 50, 53, 60, 65, 81, 82, 92, 99, 108, 128, 129, 138, 176, 193, 196, 197, 239, 249, 267, 273, 274, 276, 277
• Influence, 11, 13, 14, 21, 22, 75, 138
• Information theory, 127
• Inspiration, 11
• inspirational, 211
• integrity, 12, 23, 27, 28, 30, 39, 91, 104, 120, 143, 167, 168, 221, 225
• interview questions, 120, 233, 237
• interview team, 237, 241
• Jack Nasher, 69
• James MacGregor Burns, 20
• Jeanne Collins, 2, 9, 168
• Jim Collins, 16, 46
• Jim Sutfin, 84
• Jinger Haberer, 9
• John Erickson, 9, 168, 174, 246, 252, 307
• John Hammond, 192
• John P. Kotter, 201
• John Sweet, 9, 175
• Johnson and Hackman, 13
• Joseph Lathan, 98
• Joshua Starr, 182
• Judgment, 78, 295
• Kenneth Blanchard, 21
• Kevin McKay, 9, 168
• Kevin Riley, 9
• Klocko, 94
• know it when they see it., 227
• Lack of Privacy, 76
• laissez-faire leadership, 41
• Larry Dlugosh, 2, 9, 174, 246, 252
• Larry Nyland, 9, 175, 307
• Lasting change, 50
• lasting impression, 133
• Laurie Barron, 83
• lead by example, 99
• Lead by Example, 99
• Leadership, 8, 10, 13, 14, 16, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 33, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 46, 52, 55, 59, 62, 64, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 94, 98, 119, 175, 191, 192, 224, 225, 241, 252, 253, 255, 258, 259, 261, 283, 294, 305
• leadership advice, 248
• leadership style, 22, 27, 29, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 47, 48, 49, 92, 116, 189, 220, 224, 240, 247
• leadership styles, 8, 18, 27, 29, 33, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 146
• Leadership styles, 33, 37
• leadership theories, 20, 21, 23, 28, 32
• Leadership theories, 27, 33
• Lee Shulman, 77
• Legitimacy Theory, 31
• Length of Tenure, 79
• Level 5 leadership, 47
• leverage, 21, 27, 50, 98, 152, 183, 185, 241
• Liabilities to Fund Balance Ratio, 103
• Lifelong Learners, 99
• Linda Hill, 59
• Listening, 58, 65, 171, 311
• listening skills, 113
• Lussier and Achua, 13
• Making decisions, 176, 192
• management, 24, 36, 82, 90, 119, 201, 203, 207, 209, 212, 217, 219, 221, 224, 240, 241
• Management, 35
• mandate for change, 179
• marriage, 85
• Martha Bruckner, 9, 168, 174, 246, 252, 307
• Masterful change, 199
• meeting facilitator, 156
• meeting handout, 165
• Meeting Seating Arrangements, 166
• Meetings, 9, 147, 149, 152, 154, 156, 282, 309
• mentor, 64, 67, 68, 113, 114, 276
• Micromanagement, 73
• Modesty, 70
• modesty dilutes self-confidence, 214
• monthly fiscal review, 106
• Motivations, 75
• Napoleon Bonaparte, 10
• Opening the Schoolhouse Door for Patrons, 263
• operating budget, 102, 164
• Operating Efficiency Ratio, 103
• Organizing for change, 184
• Overconfidence, 72, 196
• Owner and Coach of the Team, 85
• Parkinson’s law, 150, 152
• Passion, 75, 99, 224
• passionate advocates, 81
• Paul Hersey, 21
• Perfect Fit, 255
• Perfectionism, 109, 116, 241
• Persevere, 99
• Personality traits, 38
• persuader, 140, 142, 144, 145
• Persuasion, 131, 140, 141, 146
• philosophy of leadership, 62
• plan of action, 155
• politically charged, 82
• politicians, 82
• Power hunger, 116
• predictable, 48, 54, 90
• Prepared for Technical Issues, 157
• presentation strategy, 142
• profession is service, 77
• pronoun ‘I.”, 240
• Prudence Trap, 196
• psychological traps, 193
• Public Hearing, 164
• Public speaking, 131, 132
• Purpose of the Meeting, 154
• purposely out of step, 77
• Questions about the Superintendent’s Role, 234
• racism,, 111
• Recognition, 75
• reference list, 122
• Regarding your strengths, 241
• Regarding your weaknesses, 241
• Resiliency, 94
• Resistance, 72, 73, 119
• resource for the school board, 166
• Risk-Taking, 99
• Robert House, 21
• Robert R. Blake, 40
• Rodney Hermes, 3, 9
• Ruben and Gigliotti, 14
• sage advice, 249
• sample letter, 223
• school superintendent, 8, 79, 81, 87, 99, 101, 147, 162, 179, 213, 248, 253, 255, 283
• school-based assessments, 98
• Search Committee, 223, 233
• search consultants, 122, 233
• Self-assembly change, 199
• self-awareness, 16, 30, 44, 45, 52, 55, 58, 68, 71, 116, 221
• Self-awareness, 53, 110, 114
• Sense of Need, 203
• sense of urgency, 205
• Servant leadership, 30, 42
• Shared goals, 23
• Shortcomings, 30, 31, 37
• Signals from the board, 243
• Signals from the Community, 245
• Signals to yourself, 245
• silver bullet, 44, 91
• Simon Sinek, 17
• Situational theory, 29
• six-month timeline, 174
• Social exchange theory, 128
• Social learning theory, 128
• soft skill, 71
• speak well in public, 133
• speech preparation, 134
• Statesman, 67
• Status-Quo Trap, 194
• Stephen Covey, 16
• stereotype, 87, 193
• Steven Rogelberg, 150
• strategic planning, 27, 82, 92, 107, 185, 187, 205
• Stress, 76
• Subjectivity, 11
• successful school leader, 98
• successful school superintendents, 256
• Sunk-Cost Trap, 194
• superintendent entry plan, 102
• Superintendent’s Career, 254
• Team commitment, 189
• Tell me about yourself, 237
• Terry Grier,, 9, 175, 246, 252
• The Advice Process, 177
• The Anchoring Trap, 193
• The Sage, 67
• Theodore Roosevelt, 77
• theories of learning, 273
• theory, 78
• Theory, 21, 23, 26, 27, 31, 40, 258, 273
• Think → Speak → Write, 134
• Time constraints, 189
• toxic employee, 120
• traditional power, 60
• Trait theory, 28
• transformational leadership, 38, 40, 41
• Transformational theory, 29
• Transition, 62, 182, 183, 185, 261
• transition process, 182, 185
• transparency, 30, 31, 52, 73, 83, 106, 108, 125, 161, 167, 222, 223, 224, 226
• Troy Tornow, 2
• Troy Turnow, 9
• Two-Minute Rule, 157
• Understanding the landscape, 182
• unhappy people, 82
• unintended consequences, 72, 73, 74
• Unintended Consequences, 72, 73
• Unrealistic expectations, 118
• vacancy brochure, 213
• Velasques and Gleitsman, 48
• Victor Vroom and Phillip Yetton, 188
• Vigor, 111
• vision, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 20, 22, 24, 29, 35, 41, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 66, 83, 85, 98, 117, 118, 125, 127, 131, 132, 136, 172, 183, 187, 192, 201, 202, 203, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 214, 219, 220, 255, 294, 305, 312
• Vision for Change, 201
• visionaries, 59, 98
• visionary, 17, 29, 35, 41, 87, 256
• Visionary leadership, 41
• visual agenda, 155
• Vroom-Yetton-Jago Normative Decision Mode, 188
• Warren Bennis, 64
• William Bridges, 182
• Wise General, 66
• words of wisdom, 246
• Work-Life Balance, 76
• Write three Letters, 250
• Yammarino, 14
• Yukl, 13