Developing Leadership #SAVMP Week 5

Week 5 – Developing Leadership #SAVMP

How do I develop leadership? I must say this is one of my favorite things to do. However, at the last three schools where I have been able to lead, it was not a natural part of the culture of the school for teacher leadership to succeed. This was a culture that had to be developed over time. Actually, I am involved in year two of creating such a culture at my current school, and nothing pleases me more than watching a teacher begin to lead others. It is vital to distribute the leadership across the entire school or else we will exhaust those few who have been the engine of the school. They will run out of gas, and morale will dip. To prevent this from happening, avoid using an elite few to impact change and rely on every faculty member and their abilities to make the whole team stronger.

How do I do this?

1. Look for those with natural leadership penchants and begin to tap into their talent. At our school, we had no Talented and Gifted program. Weeks after arriving on campus, I identified several teachers who were innovative in their approach to teaching. They also were fearless in their desire to try new things if they believed they would help their students learn. AND, they were highly organized. These teachers began their gifted endorsement coursework, and today the two I challenged are now part of a very successful fledgling enterprise in our new Chee-TAG program! Each of them demonstrates their talents to the faculty at faculty meetings. One recently held two separate sessions on grant writing and earning money to support innovative programs in the classroom. The other is a technology tester, and she recently demonstrated Classroom Dojo to the faculty as a behavior management system. Teacher Leaders Rock!

2.  Look for those who are not leading at all in any way and think of ways to draw them into leadership roles. This tactic is the most fun to watch develop because you have to get teachers to believe in themselves. One of the strongest leaders on campus this year has been a teacher who was so modest she never promoted her own skill sets. She felt this was boastful and was uncomfortable sharing her expertise. Now, she has accepted a role as grade chair, and she is mentoring three new teachers to our school. This teacher was always strong, but she liked to work in the background unnoticed. This may have been a more comfortable existence for her; however, it did not benefit the other teachers on campus. Now, she is leading, and she is a shining star. She is in the kitchen, and she is cooking with gas! 

3. Create systems of teacher leadership. This is critical for leadership development. A Principal needs teams to carry out the vision across the campus. For me, it has been a year-in-the-making developing my leadership teams. I have relied on our grade chair team and our school improvement team. The grade chair team and I will soon engage in a professional learning community where we begin with a book study and conclude with taking our vision of common assessments to the rest of the faculty. Our school improvement team will meet with me once a month to take a status check on all of our improvement initiatives and how they are impacting our students and their learning. I could easily be frustrated trying to push all of these initiatives using a top-down model, but I have locked arms with a strong group of teacher leaders who will fan out and monitor the vision with me.

4. Develop the leadership strengths of those closest to you. The inner circle that surrounds a Principal can bolster or can harm the leadership style of the instructional leader. To ensure they are supporting the leader, I believe it is important to share my vision with those around me and allow them opportunities to practice supporting and investing in the vision. As these leaders maneuver through the growing pains of pseudo leadership roles, I must be careful to monitor progress and protect them from the frustrations that can exasperate developing leaders. This means I will dole out responsibility to those capable of managing it, and I must protect those who carry this heavy load--which sometimes means I need to let them work through their own development of leadership style, even when it gets messy. But when it gets too messy, I have to help these new leaders reflect and regroup.

I could write for ages on this topic because I love to watch new leaders grow. Distributed leadership is, in my humble opinion, the most effective leadership style. I am always analyzing new personnel and thinking about long-term plans for how they will work and lead on our campus. Everyone has talents, and if we repeatedly share our strengths, our system will be STRONG.