WHAT MAKES A GOOD LEADER The Dispositions to Lead

1
WHAT MAKES A GOOD LEADER? The Dispositions to
Lead

• M. Mark Wasicsko, Ph.D.

2
Creating the best place to learn, work and play.

• The Mission of the Educational Leader

3
The Effective Leader as Effective Person

4
WHAT MAKES A GOOD LEADER

• Knowledge
• Skills
• Disposition (attitudes, perceptions)

5
Knowledge

• Dynamic, ever-changing knowledge base
• The human brain as knowledge synthesizer vs.
  storage facility for facts
• Problem-based approach to use of knowledge

6
Skills

• Communicating
• Motivating
• Empowering
• Delegating
• Assessing

7
Disposition

• Attitudes, values, beliefs
• Perceptions the cause of behavior
• Perceptions of effective leaders

8
PERCEPTIONS OF SELF AS Identified

• IDENTIFIED
•  
• The leader feels a oneness with all mankind.
  He/she perceives him/herself as deeply and
  meaningfully related to persons of every
  description.

• UNIDENTIFIED
• The leader feels generally apart from others.
  His/her feelings of oneness are restricted to
  those of similar beliefs.

9
PERCEPTIONS OF OTHERS AS ABLE

• ABLE
• The leader sees others as having capacities to
  deal with their problems. He/she believes others
  are basically able to find adequate solutions to
  events in their own lives.

• UNABLE
• The leader sees others as lacking the necessary
  capacities to deal effectively with their
  problems. He/she doubts their ability to make
  their own decisions and run their own lives.

10
PERCEPTION OF PURPOSE AS LARGER

• LARGER
• The leader views events in a broad perspective.
  His/her goals extend beyond the immediate to
  larger implications and contexts

• SMALLER
• The leader views events in a narrow perspective.
  His/her purposes focus on immediate and specific
  goals.

11
A PEOPLE FRAME OF REFERENCE

• PEOPLE
• The leader is concerned with the human aspects
  of affairs. The attitudes, feelings, beliefs,
  and welfare of persons are prime considerations
  in his/her thinking.

• THINGS
• The leader is concerned with the impersonal
  aspects of affairs. Questions of order,
  management, mechanics, and details of things and
  events are prime considerations in his/her
  thinking.

12
Wasicskos Top Ten

• Strategies for Effective Leaders

13
Its Not About You.

• The whole purpose of educational leadership is to
  do what is necessary for kids.
• Balancing Ego with Service

14
THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISION A LEADER MAKES WHO
YOU HIRE

• Hire for disposition, train for success.
• Be religious about hiring the right people. If
  you make the wrong hiring decision, make the
  tough decision and say good-bye.
• Few fail for lack of knowledge, a few more for
  insufficient skills (discipline in particular),
  but most fail because they lack the right
  dispositions.

15
Offer a Hand of Reconciliation

• It is always the place of the person in authority
  to ensure that folks feel needed, respected,
  listened to, and, when a disagreements takes
  place, to be the first to offer the hand of
  reconciliation.
• Most Powerful Words Im sorry.

16
Have Reasonable Work Expectations

• The leader has to ensure that folks have a
  reasonable job expectation that allows them to
  have a life in addition to a job.
• Lead by example go home and have a life.

17
Keep the Long View

• How will what I am doing today make the place
  better three years from now?
• How will what we do today impact on student
  growth, development, and learning?

18
Select Priorities Carefully

• If its worth doing, its worth doing but only
  important things are worth doing well.
• There is only so much time in a day and energy to
  burn. Use both on important rather than just
  urgent things.

19
Be Human, Laugh a Lot

• Its okay to not be perfect and to show people
  that you can make mistakes and not take yourself
  too seriously.
• Show people that you can laugh at yourself.

20
HAVE FUN AT WORK

• Being an educator is more than a job but less
  than a life
• celebrate often, keep a sense of humor
• Having a job thats fun is worth holding onto
  people are more likely to accept ownership of
  their responsibilities, and much more inclined to
  go the extra mile and do whatever it takes.

21
Share the Credit

• Better yet, give it away
• Youll be amazed at what can be accomplished when
  you dont care who gets the credit.

22
Communicate, communicate,

• High frequency, low impact communications is best
• Short, action-oriented meetings with as few
  people as possible
• The best leaders spend one third (or more) of
  their time out of their offices, walking around
  talking to people.

23
EMC2

• Energy applied to do work commitment to
• Mission X
• Celebrating successes X Compensations (monetary
  and non-monetary)

24
Non-monetary Compensations

• Recognition of the importance of personal and
  family time.
• Direction in which the organization is heading
• Opportunities for personal growth
• Ability to challenge the way things are done
• Satisfaction from everyday work
• Employee participation in planning organizational
  change

25
Leadership is

• Building strong, caring, long-term relationships
• Being a faithful, hard-working servant of the
  people you lead and participating with them in
  the agonies and ecstasies of life.
• Being learners who teach and lead by example.
• Getting people to WANT to do what you want them
  to do because they share your purpose, vision and
  values. (Herding butterflies is simple if they
  all want to go there.)

26
Great spirits have always encountered violent
opposition from mediocre minds.

• Albert Einstein

27
IMPLICATONS FOR YOU Future Leader Fitness
Program

• Begin becoming a more Effective Person today.
• Perceiving, Behaving, Becoming

28
Constantly Expand and Update Your Knowledge and
Skills

• Read books, journals and magazines
• Join a professional leadership organization
• Attend workshops and professional materials
• Find a mentor
•  

29
Improve Dispositions About Self and Others

• Treat yourself kindly.
• Find something you like about everyone.

30
Homework Three Unanticipated Acts of Kindness

• Observe the results in others and yourself

31
Wasicskos Reading List

• Great books for future educational leaders

32
NUTS! Southwest Airlines Crazy Recipe for
Business and Personal Success

• Kevin and Jackie Freiberg

33
GUNG HO! Turn on the People in Any Organization

• by Kenneth H. Blanchard, Sheldon Bowles

34
The CONTRARIANS GUIDE TO LEADERSHIP

• Steven B. Sample

35
BECOMING AN INVITATIONAL LEADER A New Approach to
Professional and Personal Success

• William W. Purkey, Ed.D.
• Betty L. Siegel, Ph.D.

36
LEADING WITH SOULAn Uncommon Journey of Spirit

• Lee G. Bolman,
• Terrence E. Deal

37
HEROIC LEADERSHIPBest Practices from a
450-Year-Old Company that Changed the World

• Chris Lowney

38
Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute

• Ken Blanchard,
• John P. Carlos, Alan Randolph

39
The One Minute ManagerThe Quickest Way to
Increase Your Own Prosperity

• Kenneth Blanchard, Ph.D.
• Spencer Johnson, M.D.

40
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective PeoplePowerful
Lessons in Personal Change

• Stephen R. Covey

41
www.educatordispositions.org

• Join the National Network for the Study of
  Educator Dispositions (NNSED)