Enable Others to Act
Leaders foster collaboration and build spirited teams. They actively involve others. Leaders understand that mutual respect is what sustains extraordinary efforts; they strive to create an atmosphere of trust and human dignity. They strengthen others, making each person feel capable and powerful.
Leaders foster collaboration and build spirited teams. They actively involve others. Leaders understand that mutual respect is what sustains extraordinary efforts; they strive to create an atmosphere of trust and human dignity. They strengthen others, making each person feel capable and powerful.
We will meet for class this week on Wednesday, June 10th at 4:30 at Niles North HS.
The June 15th blog will focus on your "policy paper" or "community paper" depending on which course you are taking. Review your syllabus for details. Instead of writing a paper, post your blog and respond to another student's.
Enabling Others to Act, this is one that seems to take time and experience to master. I think it can be espeically challenging for a new administrator to feel comfortable delegating, even collaborating, and really allowing staff to get involved in decision making. Mutal respect is the key here and when I come across an administrator I like it's usually because I get the feeling that they can relate well to the classroom teachers and staff. It can be very difficult working with administrators that have that line drawn in the sand and some how manage to send you the message, verbal or non-verbal, that they are the higher power or that yes we are on the same team, but don't forget I'm the leader.
ReplyDeleteTom Lindsay, Change Class, taught us (and I'll never forgot this)...to surround yourself with staff that represent your weaknesses, this way you create a stronger team. In most of my experiences I've seen just the opposite because the leader / administrator is too proud or afraid of not having complete control, to have others around them that know more than they do in a particular area.
In the end it all comes back to the atmosphere and culture you create in your building. I just think everyone likes to feel empowered.
It seems that this is closely tied to the culture of a school. As you all know, I work in a school that does not have a culture of trust. I have found that the leaders I work for do not want their staff involved in a lot of the decision-making, and seem far removed to what's best for the students. They don't take many risks, and see teachers who have ideas as a threat that might undermine them in some way. In my old school, it was quite the opposite. We had a challenging population, and that made us more of a team. Our principal encouraged us to do what was best for the kids and would find the resources to make it possible. My current principal has a very tight control, and shows this by withholding information. I am lucky that at least I work with two other teachers with whom I feel like are a "team". We work together, make up for each other's weaknesses, and empower each other.
ReplyDeleteI know that in many ways I can be considered "controlling." But as I age, I have begun to realize that letting go can actually produce better results. I used to give assignments with very strict guidelines; now I give more freedom to my students and I have found that they often do BETTER than I could have doen myself because of their creativity and ability to see the assignment from a different perspective. I believe this holds true to administrators and their staff as well.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGetting the best out of those around you is certainly another great challenge for educational leaders. I definitely agree that with my cohorts that it is imperative that you surround yourself with good people, but we all would agree that the work, in some ways, is just beginning at that point. "Good people" are passionate about their jobs, conscientious about their work, and want to feel that they are making significant contributions to the students and the school community. They don't want to be stifled by a school culture that does not promote and support imagination, empowerment, and responsibility. It is the job of the educational leaders to avoid this type of culture, or the "good people" will be demoralized or will leave. The major question, then, becomes, "How does one do that?"
ReplyDeleteWhile I will not pretend that I have the answer, I can confidently speak of the difficulty in finding it. One problem that is different school staff members are not enabled in the same way. Some prefer coaching and cheerleading, others prefer a hands-off approach and confidence in their abilities. Some respond to leadership roles, others feel empowered when given a significant supportive role. Building the quality of relationships that allows the leader to provide opportunities for all staff to feel dignified, and initiating and maintaining a culture of empowerment, trust, collaboration, and teamwork are the directions that make the most sense to head toward. Doing this successfully, however, takes time, patience, strength, and humility. Come to think of it, this educational leadership stuff is too hard!!
Everybody has taken all the good ideas already! It does all come back to establishing the culture of the building where everybody feels valuable and a contributing member. A good leader is constantly working with team members to "flex their leadership" musscles. Debbie Lynch (enough with quoting Lindsay!)talked about the number of her teachers who went into administration because she tried to foster those skills. As was said above, good leaders figure out and use whatever motivates and enables each individual. For me, I will spend hours and hours working on something I like but will procrastinate with things I find useless or have no interest in (literature surveys). Putting together a team in which everyone is able to use their strengths and are allowed to use their strengths will greatly increase the chances that a change will be successfully instituted with as little pain as possible.
ReplyDeleteI too agree with what has been expressed. We must surround ourselves with good people who share our vision for the school. To me enabling others to act is creating a sense of empowerment among our faculty and staff. The majority of our faculty and staff does want to do the right thing and wants what’s best for the students. However, if we can give them that sense of empowerment I believe they will work even harder and with a stronger passion for the job. Creating an atmosphere of trust and human dignity is also very important. Unfortunately, along with Mary, this is not the case in my school. In fact it is quite the opposite. I believe this is a huge reason why my school does not seem to work. The atmosphere is one of distrust and faculty members feel they need to “watch their back”. This type of atmosphere takes a huge toll on the moral and it wears on the spirit of the teachers. Often teachers are less likely to “go the extra mile” because of it. It is sad to say but watching my principal operate has taught me what type of leader I don’t want to be. Fortunately I am surrounded by many good people with great ideas. Thanks guys.
ReplyDeleteOn paper it makes sense. The best leaders are able to make those around him or her feel that their work is valuable to the success of the organization, and that their opinion counts. I believe that Henry Ford said that a happy worker is a good worker. These leaders also realize that motivating the people around them will also make them better leaders. I recall from Lynche's class we talked about not only getting the right people on the bus, but also in the right seats. The tough part is getting those off the bus who don't like the direction that it is going. We all want to fell that our leaders trust us and value our work, and our leaders want to get the same feeling from their employees. Creating a sense of trust and dignity in the work environment is laying the groundwork for making changes as smoothly and effectively as possible.
ReplyDeleteJohnny mentioned fostering imagination in the facutlty. If the teachers feel that they can imagine a better way of doing things and then feel comfortable presenting the idea to the principal, then the teacher feels a sense of worth. The principal then gets to evaluate the idea and push it towards implementation or discard it in the good ideas that will never work box. By the way, who's this Kotis guy?
Sorry I'm late on this one guys, but it was great reading all of your thoughts on Enabling Others To Act. You all know I'm a big Lindsay fan (down with Lynch & her bad boundaries)and I appreciated Lori's memory of surrounding yourself with staff that represent your weakness. I had a similar experience in my last internship in which I was leading a committee and my principal gave me the advice of making sure I have people on the committee who are diverse in their thinking and will challenge me & each other. Being a leader with that thinking means you are inviting others to challenge you, encouraging them to join you in taking steps to make the school a better place. Ultimately, this all stems from having a positive school culture and trust in your leader.
ReplyDeleteThe ability to create an environment in which trust and respect lead to staff collaberation and build staff capacities has been shown through research to lead to an effective learning environment for all envolved. It is also one of the more difficult challenges to overcome. Creating such a climate takes time and leaders need to have more of a process orientation to allow for such an environment. As has been stated by many of my classmates finding the right people to support such a climate is the first step. The ability for leaders to feel comfortable with their own weakness and facilitate the strengths of others is very important, yet can put a person in a vulnerable position. I have been lucky to have worked with people who are both supportive and able to give and accept feedback in a manner that fosters collaboration. Even in such an environment it is difficult in reality to maintain such a climate without a few (or many) bumps in the road. I have learned that keeping these five leadership goals as the focus keeps you on track to get through the process of creating an effective learning environment.
ReplyDeleteCommunity Factors Blog:
ReplyDeleteThis is the perfect time in our district to see how such things as community support, community involvement, stakeholder participation, budget, local politics, building conditions, student make-up, and racial considerations profoundly affect school administration and educational leadership. As Bystedt, Schiller, and I have mentioned a few times, our member districts recently approved a new 17 million dollar building for its therapeutic day school, namely North Shore Academy where we work. This passed relatively easily despite much discussion about how the money costs would be split, given that not all member districts use North Shore Academy with the same frequency. While exciting for us, the passing of this vote, in my opinion, was the result of two major factors: 1) the member districts rely on us to serve their "difficult to educate" students; and 2) the building conditions are not ample or adequate enough to serve this population as well as we could given our other resources.
With regard to the former, I believe the member districts in our very affluent community want to reserve the right to "cast out" students that could potentially compromise the complexion of their aspiring student body and beautiful building. Though a bit cynical, my position is supported by the disproportionately high number of minority referrals from our member districts. While Special Education administrators are more sensitive to these issues, the board members of our local districts are quite effective at keeping their schools free from student behaviors (e.g., drug and gang related)that are stereotypically not "suburban." We serve these and other students happily but this brings up another issue that I will address a bit later.
With regard to the second reason, it is very clear that our building needed more than just a face-lift, but a total "tear down and re-build." Given our student population, larger and more accommodating work spaces and classrooms are necessary to preserve a safe and productive learning environment. While this is all well and good, the receipt of the new building has added another layer of pressure to our administrators. Specifically, given the costs incurred by the member districts, there is an unwritten commitment that we must meet the needs of the member districts without fail. Turning away students due to full capacity was once, but is no longer an option. Our staff has to be flexible in being able to take on additional students when needed. We are also obligated to offset our costs by maintaining a certain percentage of out-of-district students, from whom we receive 15% more in tuition.
In light of all the factors addressed, our district, and particularly our school, is trying to find a unique balance. We need to maintain our out-of-district enrollment for budgetary reasons, and also, in my opinion, for diversity reasons. But parents and school board members in the district have concerns about our student population being too discrepant from the member district's student body in terms of socio-economic and behavioral factors. Will there be an impact on our in-district referrals if the "word on the street" is that students from Evanston and Waukegan fill our hallways? Who knows? But it is a concern. On the other hand, being too selective with out-of-district placements for any reason, ethical or not, will certainly impact the budget in a negative way. We will keep you posted.
It's an interesting and exciting time in our district. Thanks for listening.
Courtney said...
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to creating a school culture that fosters growth, the concept of “team” is important. Good leaders should create teams that will help to improve the school. As we all know, there is no “I” in team. This means that a principal needs to help form good teams and keep them moving in a positive direction. These teams need to have members that respect each other. This is often where many teams break down. People will bring their personal issues to the team, those which delay or hinder the team’s progress/success. A good leader will help these types of team members to put those feelings aside and help them to find a ground of mutual professional respect for each other.
After attending a district QIT meeting, I had the opportunity to hear from a speaker that helps teams be more collaborative and work more cohesively together. Her name is Carol Scearce and she has spoken to many schools and published books on her team building skills/strategies. She helped the individual school QIT teams define what kind of team they were. She informed the teams that if they had new members, that they were a low trust group because not all members have worked together before. This is similar to a whole school staff. If there are new members, trust needs to be built with both old and new teachers. Carol also helped the teams understand what they would need to build trust and that they need to have a common goal that would unite them. This too applies to school communities. While there was a lot more to her presentation, the most important point was the result. The next day I observed my school’s QIT team in response to this presentation and it was completely positive. The tools that she gave the team, they used. They were working together and working towards a common goal. They were very productive and were eager to follow in the direction that Carol was trying to move them. I believe that all administrators and school teams should have the opportunity to learn from Carol Scearce and gain from her knowledge for team building and problem solving. What she focused on is what all school teams need to be successful and it was the first time I really saw something learned truly be put into action.
These types of classes/seminars/workshops are key to helping schools achieve success. Administrators cannot expect everyone to know how to work as a team. Administrators will need to look for those that are succeeding and struggling and make sure that they continue to move forward in a positive direction together. All educators need to feel that they are important to the process and that they are capable of anything they put their mind to. We often say these kinds of things to students, but adults need to hear it too!
p.s. take the chance to look up Carol Scearce…if I were an administrator I would have her come and speak with my staff!!