We are off to a great start everyone! This week's blog is about "Inspiring A Shared Vision"---one of my favorite practices. It communicates to others what we believe and motivates colleagues to "get in the game".
Review The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership by Kouzes and Posner. Blog a response to the approach leaders practice, "Inspire A Shared Vision". Read the description provided to you in the handout during our first class. The website link below, "The Leadership Challenge" can be used as a guide. Click under "About the Leadership Challenge" then "Approach" to find a description of each leadership practice. I look forward to reading your blogs!
The idea this week and last week really aren't that different from what good teachers do with their students: modeling and inspiring. I believe that the shared vision requires "buy in", which is something that we have heard many times in our classes. Students can be expected to show better behavior if they have some say in setting the class rules. Wouldn't it be the same for teachers and other staff members?
ReplyDeleteBeing an inspiration sounds really overwhelming to me. I am at the point where I am almost done with this program and now I'm getting cold feet, thinking that maybe I don't want to be in administration after all... I should stay in the classroom for a while longer. I think part of the reason is that I haven't worked in a school where these aspects of the Leadership Challenge were a reality. I feel really lost. How can I be these things when I've never seen an administrator who exhibits them? For example, rather than being in a school where a vision is shared, I am in a school where the teachers honestly don't know our vision or mission. They are just a bunch of words on the letterhead. Recently our principal went on the school website and added a school motto he just made up himself... "More than just test scores." I think a lot of us were shocked and somewhat turned off by this statement that we had no say in creating.
Mary, I appreciate what you wrote about feeling lost & overwhelmed. I think throughout this program we have had a few really good teachers & some mediocre, but the theme is that it isn't easy to be a good administrator. It not only takes a lot of work, but there can be a significant amount of resistance. Last week Kotis talked about "have-it-ness" and I think that even if you "have it" it is still a job that requires you to be on your game all of the time. All of that being said, great administrators can have such an amazing impact on students and staff; enriching careers and developing future administrators. It is unfortunate that you have had the experience of working for someone who just doesn't get it, but luckily your Type 75 will enable you to be a leader in a CPS school and do great things. :)
ReplyDeleteThe practice this week of "Inspiring a Shared Vision" makes me think of the way that I am united with all of my colleagues and all of you-a desire to educate, support and foster the growth of students. It makes sense that school leaders have shown this commitment to educating, supporting and fostering students and this has laid the groundwork for their leadership positions. It also makes sense that leaders would see the connection between what they needed to do for students to be successful and will now need to do for their staff. Yet many leaders seem to lose this along the way. How do leaders keep the passion that is necessary to inspire others and manage all of the other bureaucratic responsibilities?
ReplyDeleteThe balance between having your staff feel heard and involved and the need to take the school in a direction that may feel uncomfortable seems like a difficult one. I think it goes back to creating a healthy school culture and ensuring that you are doing what you are asking your staff to do. Being authentic, having integrity and following through are important aspects of being able to inspire a shared vision.
Inspire a Shared Vision: The belief that we can make a difference has probably been the main reason that most of us work with children. It separates us from our money seeking peers and allows us to sleep a bit better a night knowing that our days are spent helping and educating children that desperately need this type of support. We all also have an idea about what this type of passion looks like in terms of the development of maintenance of a school community that fosters such values. And finally, we all believe that we, in some way, can spread this vision through our own passion and hard work.
ReplyDeleteOne of the greatest challenges for a school leader, however, has to be how to maintain this same passion and spirit once you have taken on a leadership role. I know that this is possible, but I have seen too many great and passionate educators step in to a leadership role and seem to lose some of this "vision". In speaking with these people, it is clear that they are still the same people with the same spirit, but many experience the demands of the leadership position to take away from time to "breathe life into their visions." Finding this balance cannot be easy.
I can imagine that a school administrator feels like he or she is juggling multiple balls at the same time. I remember my first teaching job where I was preparing for 4 classes every night. I was so overwhelmed, and felt like I was not able to do anything well because there were too many irons in the fire. This is where inspiring a shared vision comes in. The great administrators are able to balance the day to day operations, but also look down the road and create a vision of making the school better. Back to the teaching analogy, after a few years of teaching, I was much better able to manage the day to day operations of the classroom and focus more on the long range curriculum...not to mention I got to enjoy teaching much more. As I embark on an administration path, I see it like starting teaching all over again. Juggling a lot of balls in the beginning, too many irons in the fire, but looking forward to a day when I can create a vision and then draw others to that vision and work towards making it a reality.
ReplyDeleteMary, I really appreciated your openess and from what I understand, you certainly have not seen a school leader model the way or inspire their faculty. Have no fear, because over the last year and a half, I have seen these characteristics in you. You are very dedicated to your work and not only do you work hard, but you work well. I have also seen the passion you have for helping your students become better readers. You've got it!, and it's only a matter of waiting for people to realize that you've got it and put you in a position where you can get teachers to acheive their potential.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn every class that we have had so far we have been challenged to develop our vision as a leader. I beleive that each one of us have a strong idea about what our vision is for our selves and what we hope to achieve as "effective leaders". I beleive through our many class discussions that our open and honest communication, our ability to challenge each others ideas, and the collaberation we have exhibited as a cohort speaks to our ability to inspire vision with what ever group we work with.
ReplyDeleteInspiring a vision must first start with good self reflection on a leaders own strengths and weakness. What can they do to create a vision and in what areas do they need the strengths of others to see it through. A geniune vision, one we truely believe in, generates an excitement and a motivation that is easy to communicate with others. The harder part I believe is to allow time for others understand and to take ownership of the vision. As a leader it is important to help each person understand there role or part in the vision and the value they bring to the change process. In practice I have seen this process to be very difficult and experience many set backs. I agree with those above who have stated that some administrators come in with great vision and are quickly overtaken by the many other complexities of management to never fully see it through. I hope I am right is thinking that this is the reason it is so important to have the support of the staff to carry the vision to completion, since an effective leader is one who is supported by the staff.
I think that sometimes bad examples of leaders are almost better than good examples, Mary. I have also had (and have) some really poor leaders during my career. I think that all of us in our cohort came into the program with pretty good ideas of what good leadership is even if it was from experiencing poor leadership even though we didn't know all the fancy terms. I wasn't really surprised by anything we have learned throughout our courses. It is pretty much just common sense. Unfortunately, many leaders may lack that common sense or are so overwhelmed that they take the easy way out.
ReplyDeleteSharing A Vision is one of those topics that has been coming up over and over and just makes sense. Having a usable Mission Statement and Vision Statement are an important guide or roadmap. In order for anything to get done there has to be a plan. Being a science person, I like to think in analogies. The Sharing A Vision standard reminds me of swarming ants. An individual ant or small groups of ants can't accomplish much, but the swarm with a common purpose can kill elephants and devour acres of crops. The leader must not only have a vision for the future but must be able to communicate that vision and be the chief cheerleader for it. The "sharing" part of that standard is the most important.
This past week has been really tough for science teachers at Maine East. In the middle of everything else that was going on, we had our annual science awards which is a big deal at our school. In the midst of the chaos, these awards forced us to take the time and really think about what our vision for the Maine East science dept. really was and to truly have a common course. Unfortunately, I felt that there really wasn't that vision coming from our leader, it was all of the teachers coming together and "sharing our vision" with each other and with the community.
On the other hand, our principal does a really good job of sharing his vision for the school and pushing us all forward. Our school is applying for an ISBE grant to be used to bolster our freshman program, among other things. In order to be considered for this grant, 80% of faculty and staff had to physically sign off on it to demonstrate unity and a shared vision, which happened. Even though we had a very short amount of time (1 day) to read through the proposal, our principal has built up enough trust and has shared his vision, that almost everybody saw this as just another step along the road and signed on without very much discussion.
Enough rambling! Have a great weekend all!
Great discussion everyone. Reading through the comments is so interesting. It is clear this group really has a clear view on the importance of Inspiring a Shared Vision - I agree with so many of comments and share in the concern for how administration can be overwheleming.
ReplyDeleteA few people mentioned how this program really emphasized how important all the aspects of Vision are. I always knew that a leader needed to have a clear vision on what they wanted to acheive and that their job was to make sure everyone knew what the goals were (took part in creating them), helped create the path needed to achieve them and had a clear understaning of what thier part is, etc. What our classes have helped me see is the importance of the leader's PASSION for the vision, in everthing you do as a leader your attitude shows excitment & committment towards the vision. I liked how the Leaderhship Challenge says "they breathe life into thier vision" and believing as an administrator you can make a difference. In administration I can see how difficult this can be because the work load can eliminate the passion, as Brent said too many irons in the fire. But, if you truly stay committed to the Shared Vision, you'll experience success.
"Create an ideal and unique vision of what the organization can become." Reminds me of Google's Code of Conduct's Dog Policy-- "Google's affection for our canine friends is an integral facet of our corporate culture. We like cats,
ReplyDeletebut we're a dog company, so as a general rule we feel cats visiting our offices would be fairly stressed out. For more on this, see our Dog Policy." (http://investor.google.com/conduct.html#II).
Their code of conduct is short, to the point, has some tongue-in-cheek humor and is inherently different than most other corporate cultures-- and by most accounts considered to be one of the best places to work. They have found good people and have created this positive and highly functioning environment that is evident even in their Code of Conduct. I think that Sergey and Larry are not only creating a unique and ideal vision for their company, but I think the effects it is having on other organizations is phenomenal.
Doug, why do you think that some leader's visions are quickly accepted and integrated and others' aren't?
Courtney said….
ReplyDeleteAfter reading everyone’s comments, I have to say that I share several of your opinions on this practice of “Inspire a shared vision”. I feel that both good leaders and bad leaders can help us open our eyes to what works and what also fails to work. There are leaders that are very successful, but at one time or another they too have also learned from their own mistakes. When we look at this practice, we need to reflect on those we have seen in a leadership position and reflect on our own personal strengths and weaknesses. We are not perfect people and with experience we will learn how to inspire those we lead.
What is key about this practice is the part where it is a “shared” vision. As a leader, you need to first share the vision. You must get everyone to see your vision clearly and for him or her to feel that they share that same vision. They must feel as passionate about the vision and also believe that through this vision they see a much brighter future. A good leader will use different ways to get each person to “get on board”. Once a principal gets their staff to share the same vision, a team is formed. This team will share the same goal in mind and will want to reach it. However this is only the beginning. A good leader needs to keep the “ship on course”. A principal needs to help and encourage the team to keep the same vision. This is very difficult, as team members will not always agree on how to reach a goal or on how to maintain a vision. The principal will need to find ways to keep the team working together and to keep them passionate about that vision. A good leader will need to keep the passion alive and also resuscitate those that might need a “breath of fresh air” to get back into it.
I feel that this sort of practice is seen in many military leaders. They have to get their men and women to work as a team for the same purpose and for the same vision. When they go to war, they have to find a way to keep all their soldiers strong and ready to move forward. This is hard as there will be people that will be injured or may die. There will be those who are overwhelmed with the task they are being asked to complete, killing other human beings. There will be soldiers who can’t handle the pressure or their environment. Military leaders need to have this practice in order to win a war and bring back as many soldiers as they can alive. This can also be said for teachers. Educators need a good leader so they can keep a school “alive”. They need to “win the war” every year.
What does a school do when their leader doesn’t have a clear vision? What happens when a school doesn’t share the vision? How does it stay “alive”?