Good Leadership for Schools

Strong leaderS, according to Jim Collins in his heralded book "Good to Great" are those who serve the growth and strength of their organization, employees, and innovative culture by allowing change and development to happen without rigid control.

Organizations, such as large corporations and school systems are living, breathing organisms that are constantly changing, growing, failing, trying, and moving.  Change is a constant given and new directions for change must be chosen wisely.

Innovators see new possibilities and want to move things in that direction.  Maintainers are managers who try to keep the lights on, "Did everyone show up?  Does everyone have their name badge?  Are we all doing things the way I told them to?  Can we please minimize the changes?  I can't keep things steady and within established expectations if things are going to keep changing!"

Leadership is about moving the organization forward, and good leadership requires two important things - vision and servanthood.  First, the leader must have a great ability to see what is ahead, what will be "needed and best" tomorrow, and what can be done today to get everyone there.  Second, and most important, the good leader seeks to serve the organization's progress, its healthy desires, its needs, and its permitted processes of change.

The good leader serves the organization's progress by advocating for change, by wanting things to change - wanting things to be new and fresh - by looking for people who want to do new things in new ways and then releasing them to the task.

The good leader serves the organization's direction of change and forward progress by enabling the healthy desires to strengthen, and alternately, by deliberately starving the unhealthy desires.  New markets, new processes that work, and new cultural norms are all needed, but each can be unhealthy.  New markets can be disastrous, processes that work can become too dominant or expensive, and new cultural norms can include bullying, an erosion of ethics, sexual harassment, oppressive managers, and many more issues that can actually destroy morale, retention, and performance.  The good leader's job is to see where these changes are headed and where they are taking the organization.  Then they must prune off the bad and feed the good.

The good leader serves the greater needs of the organization.  These are things like - the excitement, the improvement, the wise permissions, and the pursuit of potential at the risk of failure.  One of the most important areas of need in any organization's growth and improvement is its learning.  Each individual chooses to learn, retain, and use vital information on a daily basis.  The good leaders serves this area of need by facilitating accurate and accelerated learning practices making their people the "best and most informed decision makers" in the industry.  The good leader serves his organization by making his people smarter.

The good leader serves the organization by paying attention to the "permitted processes of change" which are chosen by the people of the organization.  Smart and inspired people select dynamic ways to improve things and the good leader is not afraid to let them make important decisions.  The good leader allows them to tear off in new directions, venturing out into unknown territories like technology advancements, new behavioral practices, new engineering ideas, as well as hiring new talent, allowing new perspectives, and trying new motivational practices.  The good leader knows his people, the history of the organization, its needs, and its hopes.   When the people are wanting to move forward, giving them the "permissions of what is allowed" makes all the difference.

While each of these areas needs at least five thousand more words to properly unpack their meaning and specific aspects, the point here is that good leaders expect change, see how to inspire it, determine which changes are best, and allow the people to move toward it. Bad leaders don't.
Bad leaders worry about change and minimize it.  These people are managers and administrators, not leaders.  Most often, bad leaders try to force change upon people who don't want it.  This requires forced and coerced pushing - which is from behind, not from in front.

A wise old man once explained that the shepherd guides his flock from in front and the butcher from behind.  Seems a fitting way to describe the different ways people in power try to get things done.

The good leader may take the wheel of the bus, but then asks the passengers where they want to go.