Teachers as Leaders

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Teachers as Leaders
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Opening Thought

• Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.It
  knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or
  it will be killed.
• Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must
  outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to
  death.
• It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a
  gazelle.When the sun comes up, you better start
  running.
• Who or what are the lions and gazelles in your
  work setting?

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Confront the Brutal FactsYet Never Lose Faith

• Whenyou start with an honest and diligent effort
  to determine the truth
• the right decisions often become self-evident.
• You absolutely cannot make a series of good
  decisions without first confronting the brutal
  facts.

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Brutal Facts

• School districts are struggling to attract and
  retain qualified candidates for leadership roles.
• There is a lack of qualified candidates coming
  from outside Frederick County.
• Employees in some classifications have been
  placed in leadership positions without adequate
  training.
• FCPS employee satisfaction survey indicated
  opportunities for advancement and promotion
  for field-based and support staff needed
  improvement.
• Professional development evaluations indicate the
  need for more leadership training.

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Objectives

• Determine
• if you consider yourself a leader?
• if you need to consider yourself a leader?
• Analyze
• how your school stacks up against some of the
  most successful organizations in the United
  States?
• how you stack up as a leader against some of the
  most successful leaders in the United States?
• recent research and literature analyzing how
  individuals and organization move from being good
  or effective to GREAT.

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What is Leadership

• Mobilizing others to get extraordinary things
  done in organizations.
• Its about the practices leaders use to
• transform values into actions,
• visions into realities,
• obstacles into innovations,
• separateness into solidarity,
• and risks into rewards. Kouzes and Posner

Leadership is a choice not a position Covey
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Review of Literature and Research

• Leadership is
• considered the single most important aspect of
  effective school reform.
• important in setting the tone in a school.
  Climate is the best predictor if a school will
  have high achievement.
• positively and significantly correlated to
  positive working conditions.
• cause for employees to have an overall increase
  in satisfaction.  
• a predictor of adequate yearly progress (AYP)
  status.
• a powerful predictor of whether a school was
  included in top school designation categories.

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Evaluation ofLiterature and Research

• These points demonstrate that
• each FCPS employee needs to recognize him or
  herself as a leader.
• Each employee needs to understand their
  importance as a valuable contributor in the
  education and achievement of our students.

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Why Some Organizations Make the Leap

• And
• Others Dont

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Common Threads

• Level 5 Leaders
• First Who, Then What
• Confront the Brutal Facts
• The Hedgehog Concept
• A Culture of Discipline
• Technology Accelerators
• The Flywheel and the Doom Loop

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Level V Leadership

• Plow Horse
• Or
• Show Horse?

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Level 5 Leadership

• Level 5 leaders channel their egos away from
  themselves and into the larger goals of making
  the company or organization great.
• These leaders are ambitious, but first and
  foremost about the cause, the company, the
  worknot themselves.

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Partner 1Application

• Are you a Level 5 leader?
• Amongst the leadership of your school/work site,
  how many Level V leaders would you say are within
  your setting?
• Think of a Level 5 you have known.
• How did he or she become Level 5?
• What can we learn from that person?

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First Who, Then What

• People are not your
• Most Important Asset
• Rather
• The right people are!

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5 Criteria of the Right Person

• Share core values
• Not a person you need to manage
• Key Positions Could they potentially be the
  best in that position?
• Understand having a job and holding a
  responsibility
• If it were a hiring decision all over again,
  having worked with this person, would you still
  hire him/her?

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Partner 2 Discussion

• Is your school setting aligned with these
  findings?
• How might you tell if someone is the right
  person?
• How might you tell if someone is simply the wrong
  person?

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Confront the Brutal FactsYet never Lose Faith

• There is no worse mistake in public leadership
  than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept
  away. Churchill

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Confront the Brutal FactsYet never Lose Faith

• Whenyou start with an honest and diligent effort
  to determine the truth of the situation, the
  right decisions often become self-evident. Not
  always, of course, but often.
• And even if all decisions do not become self
  evident, one thing is certain You absolutely
  cannot make a series of good decisions without
  first confronting the brutal facts.

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The Hedgehog Concept

• Know thyself
• Scribes of Delphi via Plato

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And Now a Story

• The Hedgehog

• The Fox

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The Hedgehog Concept

• A Hedgehog Concept is not a goal to be the best,
  a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the
  best, or even a plan to be the best.
• It is an understanding of what you can be the
  best at within your business. The distinction is
  absolutely crucial.
• The concept establishes unwavering focus around
  what a particular organization does better than
  anyone else.

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Partner 1 Application

• Are you engaged in work that fits your own three
  circles
• Does this concept have a place in education?
• What you are passionate about?
• Do you need to change?

Reflect, Write, Stand, Share
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A Culture of Discipline
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What is a Culture of Discipline?

• A culture built around the idea of freedom and
  responsibility within a framework.
• A culture filled with self-disciplined people who
  are willing to go to extreme lengths to fulfill
  their responsibilities. (They will rinse their
  cottage cheese)

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Technology Accelerators

• How do great organizations view technology?

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Technology Accelerators

• Great companies avoid technology fads.
• The key question about any technology advance is
  where does it fit within the Hedgehog Concept.
• Used technology as an accelerator of momentum,
  not a creator of it.
• 80 of the great executives didnt even mention
  technology as one of the top five factors.
• When they did, the median ranking fourth, with
  only two of 84 executives interviewed ranking it
  number one.

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Partner 2Discussion

• If technology cannot make or break a level of
  greatness, but only serves as an accelerator of
  greatness or demise already in progress, then why
  did everyone fall in love with technology for
  technology's sake during the 1990s?
• What role does technology play within your
  classroom?

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The Flywheel and The Doom Loop

• Revolution means turning the wheel. Stravinsky

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The Flywheel Effect

• Belief in tremendous power exists in the fact of
  continued improvement and the delivery of
  results.
• Point to tangible accomplishments (however how
  incremental) and show how these accomplishments
  fit into the overall concept.
• When done in such a way that people see and feel
  the buildup of momentum, they will line up with
  enthusiasm.

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The Doom Loop

• These companies pushed the flywheel in multiple
  directions.
• They would change, searching for the silver
  bullet.
• After years of lurching back and forth,
  comparison organizations fell into the doom
  loop rather than building and sustaining
  momentum.

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WholeGroup Discussion

• Can you think of a flywheel example at your
  school?
• Can you think of a doom loop example?

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From Effectiveness to GreatnessHow Individuals
Make the Leap

• And Why
• Others Dont

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The Pain, The Problem, and The Solution
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The Pain

• People face increasing expectations to perform in
  an increasingly complex world and are limited in
  their use and talent.
• People dont think they can change much within
  their organization.

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Execution Gap

• Individuals within an organization
• 37 said they have a clear understanding of what
  the organization is trying to achieve
• 20 were enthusiastic about the work
• 20 see how their work contributes overall to the
  work of the organization
• 50 were satisfied daily with their
  accomplishments
• 15 felt organization enabled them to execute
  goals
• 15 felt they worked in a high-trust environment
• 17 felt the organization fosters open
  communication
• 10 felt the organization held them accountable
  for results
• 20 trusted the organization
• 13 have highly trusted cooperative working
  relationships

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The Problem

• The main drivers for prosperity is materials,
  machines, and capital-
• Things
• Often, we manage people like things!
• When managing people like things, they stop
  believing that leadership is a choice.They think
  only those in authority can be leaders

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The Solution

• Learning and identifying our true nature and
  gifts
• Knowledge of our gifts lets us take initiative
  and take great understanding of the needs and
  opportunities around us.
• We meet needs that match our talents and tap out
  higher motivations and that allows us to make a
  difference.
• Covey calls this finding and using our voice.

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Voice

• Where would you like to make a difference?
• How will you know that you have made a
  difference?
• or
• Have you succumbed to traditions of the past
  and took the road to mediocrity?
• How do you get everyone in an organization
  speaking with a single voice?

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A Third Alternative

• Leaders do not avoid, repress, or deny conflict,
  but rather see it as an opportunity.Bennis
• What do you think? Do you?
• The third alternative is not my way, or your way,
  but rather our way.
• What would your staff say was the environment of
  your work setting?
• Complete application three

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LeadershipFinding Your Voice and Inspiring
Others to Find Their Voice
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The Leadership Challengeis Inspiring Others
to Find Their Voice
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Four Roles of Leadership

• Each role directly or indirectly affirms peoples
  worth as whole people and empowers the unleashing
  of their potential.
• Modeling (individual, team) Inspires trust
  without expecting it. Modeling produces moral
  authority.
• Pathfinding Creates order without demanding it.
  Pathfinding produces visionary moral authority.
• Aligning Aligning structures, systems, and
  processes the spirit of trust, vision, and
  empowerment. Aligning produces institutionalized
  moral authority.
• Empowering Unleashes human potential without
  external motivation. Empowering produces
  cultural moral authority.

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In everyones life, at some time, our inner fire
goes out. It is then burst into flame by an
encounter with another human being. We should be
thankful for those people who rekindle the inner
spirit. Albert
Schweitzer
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Thank you!

• For completing your evaluations and leaving them
  on the table.
• For your time
• For being a learner
• For the work you do everyday!!!!!!!

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• Leaders are not born, they are made!
• Lombardi
• An opportunity to soar
• Leadership Development

L
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Bibliography

• Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great. New York
  Harper Business.
• Covey, S. (2005). The 8th Habit From
  Effectiveness to Greatness. New York Free Press.
• Kouzes, J and Posner, B. (2002). The Leadership
  Challenge. San Francisco Jossey Bass.