Allan Walker

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Footprints or Fingerprints What marks a leader?

• Allan Walker
• The Chinese University of Hong Kong

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The work of education leadership should be work
that is simultaneously intellectual and moral an
activity characterised by a blend of human,
professional, and civic concerns a work of
cultivating an environment for learning and that
is humanely fulfilling and socially
responsible.(Starratt, 2003).
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Your signaturewhat marks you?

• What are you known for as a leader?

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Signature - what marks them?
An internationally recognized Northern
Californian chef and specializes in wine country
cuisine. He has authored books like 'American
Game Cooking A Contemporary Guide to preparing
Farm-Raised Game Birds and Meats'. Cream Almond
Fresh Oysters and Chocolate Truffle Trot are some
of his delicacies that enjoy international
acclaim.
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Your signature

• What are you known for as a leader?
• What would you like to be known for?
• What mark do you want to leave as a leader?

WHY?
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Leader development Framework
E T H I C S
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Framework
E T H I C S
LEADERSHIP SIGNATURES
What marks you as a leader?
WHY?
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Framework
What marks you as a leader?
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Outline

• Leadership fingerprint and/or footprint
• Pointing the finger
• The fading footprint
• Putting the foot down (or embedding the imprint)

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Fingerprints

• We leave our fingerprints in the heads and on the
  hands of students and our society

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Footprints
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(No Transcript)
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Leader Footprints

• On minds, hearts, conscience and souls
• Encoded in authentic relationships, caring
  communities, social justice.
• As such that are about morals and ethics.

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Leader
Footprint

• Fingerprint
• Head
• Hand
• ability, competence, skills

• Heart
• Mind
• Conscience
• Soul
• relationships, beliefs, generativity

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The work of education leadership should be work
that is simultaneously intellectual and moral an
activity characterised by a blend of human,
professional, and civic concerns a work of
cultivating an environment for learning and that
is humanely fulfilling and socially responsible.
(Starratt, 2003)
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• Why are we in the game?
• Why did we become school leaders?
• What do we want to achieve? (and WHY?)
• What does it all mean?

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Pointing the finger

• That teachers give greater attention to tested
  content and decrease emphasis on non-tested
  content. This narrows the content and skills
  taught and learned within a discipline.
• A high-stakes test pre-empts time and coverage
  from disciplines not tested. This narrows the
  curriculum across subject fields.
• There is a trickle down effect. The content and
  skills covered on the high-stakes tests at the
  upper grades displaces the content and skills of
  non-tested lower grades, altering the curriculum
  across grades.
• (Madaus, Russell Higgins, 2009)

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Pointing the finger

• IS IT ETHICAL?
• What do you as a leader want to be know for?
• What do you want your signature dish to be?
• Do you want to be marked only by an indelible
  academic fingerprint and a barely visible
  footprint. Or is your purpose as a leader more
  than this? Does leaving a fingerprint alone allow
  us to fulfill our purpose?
• What does it mean to be a leader?

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Putting the foot down
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Footprints

• Footprints dont appear from nowhere.
• Footprints cant be manufactured from boxes,
  books or bank accounts.
• Footprints are not something we leave when we
  retire
• Footprints come from the day-to-day and big
  things we do they are cumulative
• Footprints are about generativity.

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Putting the foot down

• Leaders are marked by and model moral purpose and
  alignment
• Leaders are marked by how they manage dilemmas
• Leaders are marked by and model moral literacy
• Leaders are marked through the relationships they
  build, mobilise and sustain
• Leaders are marked by their passion, energy and
  integrity
• Leaders are marked by the multiple tastes they
  champion
• Leaders are marked by the networks they inhabit,
  build and stimulated
• Leaders are marked by their authenticity.

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Putting the foot down everything works together
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Putting the foot down
Moral Purpose
effective (school) cultures establish more and
more progressive interactions in which demanding
processes produce both good ideas and social
cohesion. A sense of moral purpose is fuelled by
a focus on value-added high expectations for all,
raising capability, pulling together, and an
ongoing hunger for improvement. (Fullan, 2005)
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Ethical Dilemmas
Putting the foot down

• Individual
• Care
• Truth/justice
• Long-term
• Development

• Common Good
• Rules
• Loyalty
• Short-term
• Status Quo

right
right
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Putting the foot down
Moral Literacy

• Involves complex skills and abilities
• To recognize moral problems and to assess the
  complex issues that they raise
• To evaluate moral problems from many
  perspectives
• To assess disagreements on and proposed responses
  to these problems
• To choose to act with wisdom and responsibility.
• (Tuana, 2007)

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Putting the foot down
Moral Literacy

• Ethics Sensitivity
• The ability to recognize moral problems and
  appreciate the full significance of an ethical
  situation.
• Ethical Reasoning Skills
• The ability to evaluate moral problems through an
  understanding of the major ethical frameworks
• Moral Imagination
• The ability to understand and analyze a wide
  range of disagreements about and proposed
  responses to these problems.

(Tuana, 2007)
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Putting the foot down
Relationships

• The art of calling others to seek the truth as to
  what it means to be human to explore the essence
  of being, to discover the spiritual chemistry of
  relationships, to make judgments about
  significance, rightness, wrongness. (Duignan,
  2007)

• What relationships flourish in my school, my
  life?
• Do I trust those I work with? Do they trust me?
• Do I know those I work with, even if they are
  from a different place?

Openness, trust, affirmation, invitation,
freedom, consensual
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Putting the foot down
Passion, energy Integrity

• Leadership is passion. Without passion, a person
  will have very little influence as a leader. I
  believe passion provides an individual with the
  light of leadership and creates an undeniable
  drive to make a difference.

What are you passionate about? What keeps you
awake at night? What will you fight for? What do
you bore people with? What will you argue with
your boss about? Are you resilient and fit to
lead?
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Putting the foot down
Champion
What do you champion? Are you seen as a
champion? Why do you champion that?
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Putting the foot down
Inhabit, build stimulate
What learning networks are you in? Why are you in
them? What do you contribute to them? Which
networks should you be in? Do you help others get
into worthwhile networks?
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Putting the foot down
Authenticity

• Respects others
• Serves others
• Shows justice
• Manifests honesty
• Builds community

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Footprints or Fingerprints What marks your
leadership?

• We have found a strange footprint on the shores
  of the unknown. We have devised profound
  theories, one after another, to account for its
  origins. At last, we have succeeded in
  reconstructing the creature that made the
  footprint. And lo! It is our own. "Arthur
  Eddington

Take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but
footprints
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Footprints or Fingerprints What marks a leader?

• Allan Walker
• The Chinese University of Hong Kong

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