Years ago, I was blessed to be in a position to hold seminars with groups of educators designed to discuss and build leadership skills both informally and formally, internally – for the individual and externally for the school. As we discussed leadership skills and qualities, we would talk about new tools being put in our toolboxes as leaders. This year in Teach & Serve, I have decided to talk about many of those tools.
TAKE RISKS
For an organization to grow, it has to change. Stagnation is the enemy of growth and the only way to push through it is to challenge the manner in which things have been done in the past and to find new ways to do things in the future. Discovering new modes of proceeding and adopting new approaches are necessary to the health of a school.
Leaders, therefore, must be willing to take risks. These risks should be calculated. They should be considered. They should be prudent. But leaders who never take a chance or risk failure are likely to find their communities uninspired in falling into ruts more readily than not.
Pushing a school forward involves risk. Having a growth mindset invites risk. Healthy organizations incorporate risk.
Leaders who never take a risk will, in the long run, find their schools stagnating around them and they will have to bear much of the blame for that.