Saturday, September 15, 2012

What A Great Principal Must Have

Anyone who turns on the news today is inundated with commentary about the 2012 American presidential candidates. Political analysts, newscasters, and citizens question each man’s ability to lead the United States of America out of recession, despair, and fear and into a state of happiness, peacefulness, and prosperity. The responsibilities of America’s leaders are similar to those held by modern school leaders: they are held accountable for outcomes by taxpayers and investors, they must abide by mandates set by lawmakers and government officials, and they must rely on the strengths of their followers and colleagues to achieve the promises made in their goals and visions. Just as a president cannot run an entire country alone, a principal cannot individually shoulder every task involved in successfully operating a school. Distributed leadership, a leading style in which everyone involved in an organization in shares responsibility for leading in a particular area, is essential for successfully operating any institute, whether it is an entire nation or a school. In order for a leader to be prosperous with this particular leadership style, he or she must display strengths in the following: character, competence, focus, and communication. As a by-product of effectively establishing, displaying, and empowering others to use these abilities, leaders breed the most important leadership characteristic of all- trust. 

A person without the competence to fulfill the requirements of his or her job most likely does not last long in that particular occupation, and human resource personnel and other executives must search for other individuals to fill those vacant positions; a leader who cannot fulfill the requirements of his or her position has farther reaching consequences for an organization than a non-leader. The reign of an ineffective leader can diminish an organization’s profitability, structure, and morale. Therefore, those seeking to hire effective leaders must seek personnel with competence, which in an excellent leader, exists in perfect harmony with good character. According to Stephen M. R. Covey, a renowned expert in organizational leadership, “Character includes your integrity, your motive, your intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, your results, your track record. And both are vital” (Covey, Merrill & Covey, 2008). When a school leader does not have character, the school will falter because teachers, parents, and students are not motivated to work for and with a person who cannot be trusted to uphold the morals and ethics of the practice. A school leader who has a notably strong, positive character provides an environment where informed risks for the betterment of the organization are safe for teachers, students, and parents to take, and so the school continues to grow in a positive direction- towards a common vision for success. 


People who are used to the traditional model of hierarchical leadership for school administrators operate under the assumption that the principals have all of the answers, which determines the principal’s competence. This is not the case today in a world so driven by information that one person cannot possibly ever know all there is to know about a particular topic (though principals must have a strong background in many areas including school law, curriculum and instruction, and purposeful assessment). Today, a key component to a distributive leader’s competence is operating through an inquiry-based system to seek solutions to an organization’s obstacles. It is not enough for only a school principal to embrace inquiry; he or she must encourage all stakeholders involved to embrace it as well. Linda Lambert, an expert in the concept of teacher leadership, maintains that “…inquiry-based activities can offer powerful motivation for involvement in leadership” (Smith & Piele, 2006). For example, “Confronting teachers with data about student performance can trigger curiosity or create enough dissonance to prompt them to actively pursue the question further” (Smith & Piele, 2006). Encouraging a universal paradigm of inquiry-based problem solving not only expounds upon the strengths of all individuals so that the best possible solutions are presented, but it also builds a system of trust as teachers, students, and parents are allowed to take professional risks and authentic ownership of their work. Within a safe environment where this level of trust and solution-seeking thrives, no limits to the victorious possibilities a school could experience exist.

Although a leader may be chosen to lead because of his or her strength of character and competence, he or she must also possess a reputation of “getting the job done”. When operating a complex organizational structure such as a school, where many lives directly depend on solid results, an intense focus on the tasks at hand are crucial for leaders. The single most important focus in a school should be student learning and achievement. Preparing students with twenty-first century skills has become a cliché for educators nation-wide; nonetheless, today’s generation must have a specific skill set in order to be globally competitive. According to Alvin Toffler, a writer known for his works discussing the information age and technology revolution, accurately portrayed how today’s students should be prepared: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn” (Covey, Merrill & Covey, 2008). School leaders must keep the focus on instruction, and it must be done with a sense of urgency: “The real expertise of teachers- and the real needs of students- is teaching and learning, and that is the area where their leadership can make the most difference” (Smith & Piele, 2006). If this focus is maintained and communicated throughout the school and community, students will trust that their instructors have their best interests at the forefront and will be more motivated to learn, grow, and achieve. 

In order for an intense focus on student learning to be shared among a school and its community, the school leader must be able to not only effectively communicate this focus, but also clear expectations for how it should be implemented. Not only will effective communication about a leader’s expectations result in positive achievement results, but it will also deter many struggles that poor communicators often experience: “Almost all conflict is a result of violated expectations” (Covey, Merrill & Covey, 2008). Randall B. Parsons, a leader in research on principalships, maintains, “If I had to cite one proficiency as being the most important to the success of a principal, it would be the skill of communicating” (Smith & Piele, 2006). In order to clearly and effectively communicate the focus and expectations, a distributive leader, whether in a school or larger setting, must be skilled and confident in holding intensive dialogue with investors and team members. Operative communication requires “leadership built on intensive dialogue and “sense-making” aimed at helping members of the organization understand the complex environment in which they work and determine a sense of direction for the organization” (Smith & Piele, 2006). A school leader who communicates well builds a sense of trust with his or her students, teachers, and parents because everyone involved knows and understands the goals and evaluation system for goal attainment. This system of trust allows these stakeholders to further take ownership of their work because they can relax in knowing exactly what should happen, how it should happen, and how their work will be evaluated.

A great leader can come in many different shapes, sizes, and personality types; just as no two individuals are exactly identical, no two leaders have exactly the same leadership style. However, all great leaders share the common traits of high moral character and competence, an ability to maintain and spread an intense focus, and effective communication skills. Every great leader in history has become so because of the sense of trust his or her followers felt in his her abilities to lead make strong decisions to not only strengthen the organization, but also in the capacity to develop and empower the followers; these elements of leadership which breed trust not only make an organization prosperous, but they also positively impact the lives of others, and what else on earth is there to strive for? Jim Burke, former Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, one of the world’s most successful companies, concludes it best:

"You can’t have success without trust. The word trust embodies almost everything you can strive for that will help you succeed. You tell me any human relationship that works without trust, whether it is a marriage or a friendship or a social interaction; in the long run, the same thing is true about business, especially businesses that deal with the public” (Covey, Merrill & Covey, 2008).


References

Covey, S. M. R., Merrill, R. R., & Covey, S. R. (2008). The speed of trust, the one thing that changes everything. New York: Free Press.

Smith, S. C., & Piele, P. K. (2006). School leadership, handbook for excellence in student learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Pr.




Youtube Video Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ  Retrieved on September 15, 2012
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