learning matters (nz)
Saturday, June 27, 2009
The Challenge of Leadership
My time as principal draws to a close and it has been interesting.
So much happens in a school, and it happens at pace. Large or small, the academic year is not long and the regular checkpoints such as reports home seem to come all too fast. In this environment, it is easy to see time slip away ... and to become reactive. Responding to the needs and agendas of others.
The challenge is to shift from the reactive to the proactive. The challenge is striking the balance between doing the more mechanical (and typically reactive) parts of the job, and doing the leadership (proactive) parts of the job. The challenge is getting the correct balance between serving the needs of others (reactive) and guiding the work and vision of others (proactive).
This can be hard. It is easy to assume the responsibility of others, when in fact your job is to ensure they are playing their part in the team. There is always someone with a monkey to place on your shoulders. There the multiple agendas to negotiate, and the different attitudes that exist within the team.
The challenge is to bring all this together to meld a team.
So much happens in a school, and it happens at pace. Large or small, the academic year is not long and the regular checkpoints such as reports home seem to come all too fast. In this environment, it is easy to see time slip away ... and to become reactive. Responding to the needs and agendas of others.
The challenge is to shift from the reactive to the proactive. The challenge is striking the balance between doing the more mechanical (and typically reactive) parts of the job, and doing the leadership (proactive) parts of the job. The challenge is getting the correct balance between serving the needs of others (reactive) and guiding the work and vision of others (proactive).
This can be hard. It is easy to assume the responsibility of others, when in fact your job is to ensure they are playing their part in the team. There is always someone with a monkey to place on your shoulders. There the multiple agendas to negotiate, and the different attitudes that exist within the team.
The challenge is to bring all this together to meld a team.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The Perimeter
The job of senior management is an interesting one. It is easy to think of the principal of a school and senior management as at the very core of the school, but in reality these people spend a large proportion of their time on the perimeter ... and teachers & students are at the core.
Think of managing student behaviour. By far and away the major proportion of interactions with or between students are positive. Or where they are negative, they are easily resolved. It is only when the matter gets significant or contreversial that they reach a senior manager.
It is the role of deputy principals to deal with and decide on these cases. And as with the development of law by the judiciary, the deputy principals are repeatedly enforcing and defining the expectations of a school. In this sense they work at the perimeter of the school.
The principal is even more so. Cases will only come to him or her when the situation exceeds the warrant of a deputy principal, or a final interpretation of rules or expectations is needed. The work of the principal is often at the perimeter of school systems and life.
And if the principal is at the perimeter, the Board of Trustees is also there ... but on the other side of the fence. The principal and the Board share a responsibility to collectively protect that perimeter ... in order to protect and promote the interests and wellbeing of staff and students inside the organisation.
The challenge to senior management is that whilst must of their work is at the perimeter, they do not live exclusively there. They must foray into the center of the organisation ... which in a school is the classroom. This is the chalkface. This is where most (not all) of student learning takes place, and as the best evidence synthesis of school leadership by Vivianne Robinson shows, principals must make this their primary focus.
Think of managing student behaviour. By far and away the major proportion of interactions with or between students are positive. Or where they are negative, they are easily resolved. It is only when the matter gets significant or contreversial that they reach a senior manager.
It is the role of deputy principals to deal with and decide on these cases. And as with the development of law by the judiciary, the deputy principals are repeatedly enforcing and defining the expectations of a school. In this sense they work at the perimeter of the school.
The principal is even more so. Cases will only come to him or her when the situation exceeds the warrant of a deputy principal, or a final interpretation of rules or expectations is needed. The work of the principal is often at the perimeter of school systems and life.
And if the principal is at the perimeter, the Board of Trustees is also there ... but on the other side of the fence. The principal and the Board share a responsibility to collectively protect that perimeter ... in order to protect and promote the interests and wellbeing of staff and students inside the organisation.
The challenge to senior management is that whilst must of their work is at the perimeter, they do not live exclusively there. They must foray into the center of the organisation ... which in a school is the classroom. This is the chalkface. This is where most (not all) of student learning takes place, and as the best evidence synthesis of school leadership by Vivianne Robinson shows, principals must make this their primary focus.
