Washington Post's "On Leadership" section

Ultimately, what matters most in leaders is not their raw talent or their personal style. What matters is how seamlessly their talent and style mesh with the organization they are leading. Great leaders in one setting would be terrible in another. Could you imagine Phil Knight at the head of Berkshire Hathaway? Or Warren Buffett running Nike?

The quote is from an article in a Washington Post section I just discovered called "On Leadership." The particular article isn't of great interest to me, it's just a comparison of the leadership between Tom Brady and Eli Manning--very pop, fluffy stuff if you ask me. But a quick look at the On Leadership homepage is promising.

I'm far more apt to respect leadership advice from newspaper columnists than I am from authors, researchers, or other self-proclaimed "experts" in the field. Folks in the latter grouping are too invested in making a profit from their advice, and so it undermines their credibility.

High School Experience

For the past week and a half, I have been a "substitute vice principal" at a high school in our District.  The real vice principal was struck by pneumonia and having to recuperate.  Fortunately for him, his recovery was faster than anticipated, and as I write this, I am back "home" to the elementary school where I have spent the entire school year.

My primary take away from the substitute opportunity is that in spite of my dearth of experience at that level (high school), I am confident that I could do a great job as a vice principal.  It seems that every job in public education eventually boils down to excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and fortunately that is one of my strengths.  I was also completely amazed by the head principal whose vast network of contacts is unlike any that I have ever seen in an educator.  For every situation or meeting topic, he had multiple stories to tell, each involving someone he knew from 10, 20, or 30  years ago.

I was at the high school mostly during exam week and the days leading up to it.  So things were quite slow.  The only incident of note was an off-campus fight among two girls that was caught on video.  As a school team, we scrambled the following day to find the source of the video to make sure that it didn't get uploaded onto YouTube.  Fortunately we succeeded, but not before interviewing at least ten kids.  The fight itself was just downright sad.  It seems that the most troubling fights at the high school level happen among girls--the whole "mean girls" thing.  Personally, I couldn't even watch beyond the first ten seconds of the video because it was just too disturbing.  Bullying among girls is a topic for another day.

Conference of State Administrators

Last week, I won a scholarship to attend a two-day retreat/conference, attended by administrators and superintendents of every school district in our state.  It was an exciting experience for a number reasons.  One, since entering public education, I'd never participated in anything like a "business trip," the kind that was routine for me when I worked in international marketing eons ago.  And two, I felt special standing among the "giants" in my state.  Here are my high level notes from the conference:

• There is a whole universe of relationships in public education beyond the district level.
• You can choose to have a vibrant, impactful life in public education, beyond retirement if you so choose.
• The socio-political realm of public education is much larger than what I had previously known.  This gives me an additional context from which to view the role of central office administrators.
• The superintendents' panel discussion caused me to reflect on how quickly a bank of goodwill (e.g. with the public) can erode.  Leaders should seek to strengthen their base of power at all times. 
• Once you've identified an excellent teacher, how do you recognize/leverage him or her in a way that is politically acceptable to a staff? 
• "The Implementation Gap":  We know what to do, but we just don't do it.  In loose relation to that, how do we encourage teachers (or administrators) to practice new skills, in the way that, say, athletes do? 
• PLC's are what everyone is talking about--I wasn't fully aware of the extent to which this is true. 

Advice from HR

I spoke with our District's HR director recently to ask for advice on how to go about designing the last five months of my internship.  These are my notes from our meeting: 

• Based on her oversight of internship programs, she feels that depth of experience at a single site is preferrable to brief experiences at multiple locations. 
• My focus on gaining instructional leadership skills is on-the-mark. 
• I should study and understand the 5-stages of the Professional Learning Community process ("PLC's").  
• One challenge that admins will face next year is steering a staff through budget reductions, being overworked, "survivor guilt", etc.  Skills/experience in this type of situation will be valuable. 
• Admin openings in our District will be scarce this year. 
• It would be unusual for a person of my experience level to be selected as an elementary principal right out of the gate.  (My District supervisor, however, doesn't feel it's out of the question.)

What kind of "parent" should I be?

It's a question that every educator (whether teacher or administrator) asks him or herself, when it comes to communicating with the classroom teachers of his/her own children.  I have a 2nd grade daughter who goes to school in my own school district--the one in which I work as an administrator-in-training.  And a full three months into the school year, I'm feeling that this is simply going to be a "lost year" for my daughter in terms of her school-based academic growth.  Most of the comments my daughter innocently shares with me about her every day, reflect a classroom environment where "management skills" are lacking.  Once when I mentioned this frustration privately to my wife, she reminded me that my daughter's class has 30 students--a terribly difficult condition for a teacher to be effective.

I am a parent.  But I've decided that for me (a fellow educator), I can not express my feelings with my daughter's teacher or school as freely as other parents would and should.  This has nothing to do with concerns for my career as a future principal--it only has to do with empathy for her teacher.  First of all, I know the difficulty of having a handful of challenging students in a classroom.  Classroom management is not always a simple matter.  But secondly, I don't want to be the kind of educator that wields "insider knowledge" to exert pressure or influence on another educator. 

Today, my daughter told me that her school counselor described her class as "horrible".  That's the kind of frustrating news that would prompt me to open up about a topic like this--one that I've been struggling with since the beginning of the school year.  I will simply have to supplement my daughter's education with as much home-based learning this year, and hope for a better classroom experience next year.

Strength Finders 2.0

My family spent a couple of nights at a hotel over Thanksgiving break.  As I flipped through a complimentary Wall Street Journal one morning, I noticed they had a special "best sellers" list of books focused on business.  And on the top of the list?  "Strength Finders 2.0" by Tom Rath. 

I was actually assigned to read this book a couple of months ago, but had no idea that it was such a popular book.  What it amounts to is a $25 personality inventory.  Each book comes with a sealed code that allows you to take a 30 minute questionnaire online.  What the questionnaire purports to reveal are your top five "talent themes" from among a list of 34. 

This isn't a recommendation necessarily.  But it's worth recording here what my top five talent themes appear to be (according to Strength Finders, and paraphrased by me): 

1. Context:  I analyze words and deeds through a historical perspective
2. Relator:  Others seek my advise, insights, and counsel
3. Harmony:  I follow procedures, get jobs done, and don't seek special treatment
4. Connectedness:  I pay close attention to what people think and do
5. Learner:  I am determined to broaden my knowledge and acquire new skills

I don't necessarily agree with the results entirely, especially after studying the other possible 29 talent themes.  But I think there's something insightful in the underlying philosophy of the book, that in any organization we should strive to develop people based off of the assets they bring to the table, as opposed to focusing so much on their deficits.  Strong teams are developed when members with complementing strengths are brought together. 

School Stamps of Approval

I was fascinated to learn last week that schools can buy-in to a variety of programs that result in something akin to a "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" or "Better Business Bureau Award".  And just like these famous honors from the business world, these school certification programs cost a lot of money.

For starters, I learned of an organization called "International Baccalaureate".  A number of schools in my district are already certified "I.B."  I'd heard of the nomenclature before, and merely assumed that it was some (free) designation based on curriculum.  How naive of me!  For a school to earn the "I.B." tag, there is a $10,000 process involved!  Similarly, another school in our district has adopted the "Expeditionary Learning" model of schooling.  There is a fee associated with this as well.

Two thoughts come to mind:

• Having an explicit and comprehensive philosophical model to follow is an ingenious way to drive change in a school community (staff, students, parents).  People rally around sports teams' colors, logos, and mascots.  A certification is likewise something to rally around.  
• On the other hand, it's a shame that a fledgling industry is developing around school certifications.  Isn't it enough to strive for simple academic excellence?  The answer may apparently be "no".  Specialization is the by-product of societal affluence, because specialization cannot occur without the money to pay for it.  Are schools being pressured towards special certifications for their public relations value? 

Meg Whitman

Having once worked at eBay, I'm neither a believer or fan of Meg Whitman. And even though I have no credentials as a business or financial analyst, I felt the same disbelief as many other commentators in reaction to her selection as CEO of venerable Hewlett-Packard.

But I try to keep an open mind, and so I read this CBS MarketWatch opinion piece with great interest. Amazingly and admirably, Whitman is changing the minds of her doubters. How someone who goes into a leadership position with no well of respect and manages to turn the tide is a process that I want to learn more about.  The opening paragraph of the piece is key:

"As most readers know, I’m not necessarily a fan of Meg Whitman’s appointment as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co.  My complaint, in brief, is that she does not have the core competencies needed to guide a massive hardware company."

Exactly.  And some day when I become an administrator for the first time, this same criticism about a lack of "core competencies" will certainly be leveled at me.  With her decision-making acumen, Whitman has managed to convince a prominent critic to say, "I’m impressed with her decisions so far." I can certainly learn something from my former boss.

Responses to the Penn State Tragedy

I've been consumed for an entire week by news coverage of the horrific scandal at Penn State University.  Many commentators have correctly noted that this is another depressing example of how absolute power corrupts absolutely.  I have no words of my own to offer that haven't already been expressed by countless others.  On the other hand, I always respect the comments of people who are able to offer something unconventional, courageous, and thoughtful. 

I think Penn State alumnus and former NFL star Franco Harris makes a solid observation on the topic of hypocrisy. Said Harris regarding a police commissioner's suggestion that Paterno had a "moral obligation" to go directly to the police:

"When I heard that it blew my mind. Why would they bring the moral into the legal? Now, everyone gets to interpret in their own way. That's what really bothers me: Joe did what was right for him to do. He forwarded the information to his superiors. That's the legal procedure at Penn State.  If I had to choose today between the moral integrity and character of Joe Paterno and the politicians and commentators criticizing him, I would pick Joe Paterno, hands down, no contest every time."

While everyone else within the coaching fraternity refused to openly question the basic integrity of Paterno, former NCAA and NFL coach Barry Switzer offered this blistering opinion:

“Having been in this profession a long time and knowing how close coaching staffs are, I knew that this was a secret that was kept secret.  Everyone on that staff had to have known, the ones that had been around a long time."

And finally, I was impressed by the honesty of former NFL player Jon Ritchie (who absolutely idolized Jerry Sandusky from the time he was a teenager).  His courageous comments, viewable in the video below, stood in singular contrast to the sanctimony of seemingly everyone else, who claimed with 100% certainty they could have easily defied Penn State's culture of silence to bring an end to the abuse:

Article: "The Fragile Success of School Reform in the Bronx"

Jonathan Mahler authors a gut-punching profile of struggling, yet successful South Bronx middle school.  It's a lengthy article, but one worth reading, just to remind myself of the relative comfort I enjoy working in a largely prosperous suburban school district.  A salient excerpt:

And yet even as school reform made it possible for González to succeed, as the movement rolls inexorably forward, it also seems in many ways set up to make him fail. The grading system imposed by Klein that has bestowed three consecutive A’s on González is based in part on how well 223 does on state tests. But the school's relative success on these tests and other measures also disqualifies him from additional state resources earmarked for failing schools. The ever-growing number of charter schools, often privately subsidized and rarely bound by union rules, that Klein unleashed on the city skims off the neighborhood’s more ambitious, motivated families. And every year, as failing schools are shut down around González, a steady stream of children with poor intellectual habits and little family support continues to arrive at 223. González wouldn’t want it any other way — he takes pride in his school’s duty to educate all comers — but the endless flow of underperforming students drags down test scores, demoralizes teachers and makes the already daunting challenge of transforming 223 into a successful school, not just a relatively successful one, that much more difficult.

Fellow NY Times columnist Joe Nocera also wrote a thoughtful response ("The Limits of School Reform") that I believe is spot-on.  My favorite passage:

The point is obvious, or at least it should be: Good teaching alone can’t overcome the many obstacles Saquan faces when he is not in school... Going back to the famous Coleman report in the 1960s, social scientists have contended — and unquestionably proved — that students’ socioeconomic backgrounds vastly outweigh what goes on in the school as factors in determining how much they learn. Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute lists dozens of reasons why this is so, from the more frequent illness and stress poor students suffer, to the fact that they don’t hear the large vocabularies that middle-class children hear at home. Yet the reformers act as if a student’s home life is irrelevant.