Thursday, February 2, 2012

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.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

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.)