Leadership for Growth

Recently I was a part of two interview committees for leadership roles in my building, principal and a division leader. We interviewed 12 candidates for those two positions, and I think hired some excellent people for two incredible leaders who are moving into new roles in our district. All 12 described themselves as "Servant Leaders." That sounds like a wonderful thing, and is wise to say in an interview in an educational setting, but that same term meant something different to all 12 candidates.

On my own team we have a leader who is really more of a manager. They make sure their people have what they need, but rarely push people or rock the boat. People have the autonomy to do what they want, which makes individuals happy but their aren't really teams working together. We have a leader who tells their team what they will or will not do. This leader will go to great lengths in some ways to help their staff, but in many ways creates their own problems through the very direct approach to professionals. Another leader truly acts as a servant, doing all things for their people. Their staff knows they can count on that person to do everything, and they are an amazing human. But in many ways this has conditioned their staff to depend on this leader to do everything for them. There are strengths in all of these approaches, but their are obvious weaknesses as well.

I am far from a perfect leader, and have plenty of successes and failures. I have learned from each of the aforementioned leaders of when these approaches can work. But I see my style as more Leadership for Growth. I believe in the "teach a man to fish" approach, and this is leading my division of teachers, teaching my students in class, or raising my own children. I certainly lead my staff, students, or children through their struggles, but I believe that handling their struggles for them is merely moving past the current problem. I believe that questioning and problem solving together allows them to own the solution, and hopefully learn how to avoid having the same issue happen again.

This to me goes back to kindness. I never leave whomever I'm leading at the time hanging on their own, and tell them it's their problem to deal with. But every concern is a time for them and me to grow. Grow in problem solving, leadership ability, empathy, compassion, understanding, knowledge of resources, communication skills, and much more. Leading for Growth not only helps overcome the current challenge, but makes future related ones less of a crisis and easier to overcome.

Comments

Vulnerability

I cannot claim to be an expert on vulnerability, that title belongs to Brene Brown. Through her work, I have learned that being vulnerable is key to major breakthroughs in life. The opposite of this is true as well. Being unwilling to take risks, fearing failure or embarrassment, leads to stilted growth and eventual regression. The unwillingness to struggle in the short term leads to eventual major disappointment. That struggle is unpleasant, painful, draining, aggravating, defeating, and necessary. As a teacher, vulnerability arises when teaching a new grade level or content area. It happens when a re-designed lesson is taught for the first time, a new resource is used, and when being observed. Leaders face vulnerability when launching a new initiative and taking questions from stakeholders. Coaches face vulnerability when they meet with a new client or a client who operates outside the coach's wheelhouse of knowledge or skills. Humans are adept at procrastinating, which is a phys...

Navigating Uncertainty

One thing most people can agree on in early April 2024 is that no one knows what to expect right now. Federal agencies are being closed at a record pace, tariffs are rocking global finances, AI is changing faster than most people can keep up with, everyone has an opinion on this, and no one can anticipate what might happen next. The stock market is a prime example of the uncertainty, and on the day I started writing this the Dow Jones surged by 800 points and ultimately fell by 600. Today as I continue writing, it rose by nearly 3000 points. There are countless ways to reach when life becomes chaotic. Some people "don't look up" as the movie's title states, because as long as you can't see the asteroid heading straight towards you it does not exist. Some like to lean into the chaos, acting like Loki, the Norse god of mischief and disruption. Others protest through marches, speeches, and boycotts. All of these are human reactions on which I place no judgment. Based...

Scheduling - A School's Heuristic Problem

Students learn about algorithms in Computer Science to solve complex problems in reasonable times. Some issues are too complex even for the best algorithms to perfectly solve, and those are known as heuristics. The example commonly used is the traveling salesman. While a little outdated, and I have updated the example to be the logistics of UPS delivering packages, the story goes like this. A traveling salesman arrives in a new town intending to get to each house in the most efficient path possible. They get a road map of all the homes they will visit and their hotel room and start mapping out paths. The math works out to show the following: Let's nerd out for a moment. Each number of possible paths is the mathematical factorial of the number of homes on the path. So 3 homes means 3*2*1 = 6 paths. 7 homes means 7*6*5*4*3*2*1 = 5040 homes. Just 10 homes, and we are at 10 factorial or 3,682,800 pathways! How can one possibly solve for the best route with that many choices? It is too...

Teacher Leader Coach

Search This Blog