Teach Boldly

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.

VISION

The term “tool” implies use and practicality and the majority of the tools that are in the “Leader’s Toolbox” are utilitarian. A leader encounters a problem. A leader grabs and uses the correct tool.

Vision is different.

A tool that is just as important as the more practical ones, vision is employed by good leaders to connect and inspire those they lead. Leaders with a clear and legitimate vision for their schools are, in my experience, few-and-far between. And that is a shame because schools need vision. They need to see what is coming next, what is over the horizon, what needs to change.

Vision anticipates what is to come and clearly articulated vision asks people to be a part of the journey to get there. 

A strong vision is inclusive of the past, the present and the future. It validates what has come before and points to where a school needs to be. It engages. It unifies. It inspires. 

I strive to be a better visionary for my school…

I tell teachers with whom I journey that they inspire their students all the time but they rarely know it. Too infrequently, our students tell us that we have changed their minds, their days, their lives.

It is not their fault. Students do not often process the effect we have on them until weeks, months and years after they depart our orbit.

Glenn Holland never wanted to be a teacher but his school became his life. His family grew up in it. His story became its story. How true is that of many of us?

I wish we all could have the experience Glenn Holland has at the end of the (most admittedly) simplistic and overwrought Mr. Holland’s Opus. I wish all teachers might know that the work of their lives is an opus, that – no matter the reason they went into teaching and no matter the time they have spent in the work – they have inspired and impacted someone. 

Mr. Holland’s Opus may be emotionally manipulative, but I am so here for it!

Thank you, all you Mrs., Ms. and Mr. Hollands!

We never know the influence we have… While culture tends to promulgate the “those who can, do, those who cannot, teach” idiocy, there are hundreds of examples of brilliance and impactful teachers in reality and in pop culture. Every-other-week this year, I will share my brief reflections on Smart People Doing Smart Things be they in literature, in film, in music or in real life. Many will be teachers, but not all. Many will be fictional, but some will be real. All will be inspiring. Welcome to IntelliPop!

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.

ORGANIZATION

The strengths people bring to leadership are many. Their ability to lead well rests in these strengths. The weaknesses that can short circuit their efficacy do not have to be as numerous. One or two significant gaps can put their work at risk.

A lack of organization is one of these.

Organization might be both the most oblivious and the most overlooked tool I have written about thus far in this volume of Teach & Serve. 

Many of the tools are difficult to learn. Some may argue that leaders have innate talents which are not tools at all, but are personality characteristics. That is an interesting thought I will delve into at some point. My belief is that most of the tools of leadership can be taught. I spent years trying to do so. 

Organization is one of those. It requires planning. It requires discipline. 

Leaders who are organized tend to develop structures and workplaces that are, likewise, organized. Despite what some believe, organization is not the enemy of inspiration. Organization allows inspiration to flourish and gives it space to take root. When systems are not organized and the basic functions of the community are not addressed in a timely and routinized manner, there is no space for inspiration. There is only space for chaos and putting out fires. 

Organization from the top of the system provides structure and confidence. It is a tool most good leaders possess. And it can be learned, sharpened and honed.

I have worked with leaders who were not particularly organized. I found them to be not particularly successful.

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.

PARTNERSHIP

 In my years-long pursuit of formal leadership (and it was years long and intentional – I am not a person who was not looking to be a principal, I absolutely aspired to the job), I am almost certain that one of my motives for the goal was wanting to be Captain Kirk – the person in the center seat who makes all the decisions for everyone. I am in education and a teacher and I find that desire for control is a unifying trait among many of us. This is not to say that I anticipated being a dictator, benevolent or otherwise. No, I imagined I would be a collaborator and I would build consensus but, at the end of the day, it would be my call.

There are times that those sorts of leadership are needed. They have their place. Top-down decision-making has its place. 

But the tool that I most rely on in this work is building partnerships – equal partnerships. No matter the idea or its source, no matter the issue or its roots, no matter the initiative or who developed it, moving forward in a human system with partnership is, far-and-away, the best way to proceed.

Good leaders do not fake building partnerships. They build them. They build them intentionally. They build them to last. They build them to share the responsibility of leadership.

Good leaders are good partners and they invite others in.

Heck, even Kirk had Spock and McCoy, right?

If we are inspired by teachers who know their mission and stick to it, Snape’s the man.

If we are inspired by teachers who are unafraid to do what it takes to see that their students succeed, Snape’s the man.

If we are inspired by teachers who put the needs of their students ahead of their own, Snape’s the man.

If we are inspired by teachers who will simply not stop until their students have learned all they need to know, Snape’s the man.

If we are inspired by teachers who simply do not care what others think of them, Snape’s the man.

If we are inspired by teachers who love their students so much that they would do anything for them, Snape’s the man.

If we are inspired by teachers who would give their lives for their vocation, Snape’s the man.

Loyal. Fearless. Unafraid. Loving.

Snape’s the man.

We never know the influence we have… While culture tends to promulgate the “those who can, do, those who cannot, teach” idiocy, there are hundreds of examples of brilliance and impactful teachers in reality and in pop culture. Every-other-week this year, I will share my brief reflections on Smart People Doing Smart Things be they in literature, in film, in music or in real life. Many will be teachers, but not all. Many will be fictional, but some will be real. All will be inspiring. Welcome to IntelliPop!

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.

STRATEGIC THINKING

“Every action has an equal and opposite reaction” – Hamilton (but someone else said it first!)

Frequently, leaders are expected to be experts on the “next big thing” before the next big thing is even a  thing. Because they lead groups and are, likewise, expected to sustain them, leaders must be able to anticipate what is to come if they are to be in their positions long-term. Leaders must be able to look forward while living in the moment, they must be able to envision the outcome of each lever they pull and each choice they make as it impacts both the short and the long-term future.

This is not an easy thing. It may be one of the most difficult tools to wield.

Often, this tool is referred to as “strategic planning.” But planning implies a start and a stop. One makes a plan. When the plan is made, it is done. Enact it and move on. 

Strategic thinking is an ongoing process. It does not stop. Every action is intended to move the group being led forward. Every choice has purpose. Every decision, meaning. Leaders who are effective at strategic thinking are seeing the whole chess board. They are ten moves ahead.

It is important to note, however,  that one of the knocks on leaders can be that they are manipulative. That they are moving people around their institutions as they enact master plans. Strategic thinking can be misread in this manner. If you are a science fiction fan or a comic book media fan, you are very familiar with the idea of a multiverse. To me, the best strategic thinkers are, too. They are considering many possibilities – good and bad – in any given moment. They are anticipating multiple outcomes. They are Schrodinger and his cat (though nothing bad can happen to the cat!). They bet the odds when they think and they are right more often than they are wrong.