School Leader

Less is More

Time management is an age-old challenge for leaders of all kinds of organizations, but the problem seems particularly acute for school administrators.  While educators have a strong sense of their core mission, constantly-changing policies, mandates, and curricular goals leave many teachers and principals grasping for a unified sense of purpose in their work.  The structure of schools and the school day contribute to a rushed, fragmented, and unsustainable pace of activity.

The result is not just stress and burnout, but also a loss of efficiency and effectiveness both for individual educators and for schools as a whole.  There is a surprising dearth of good resources on how to address this issue.  John C. Leonard's Finding the Time for Instructional Leadership is a notable exception, but most authors, including Leonard, focus primarily on better ways to delegate responsibility or manage one's calendar.

There's nothing really wrong with such a technical approach, but it overlooks a more fundamental aspect to the problem of our break-neck, harried, frenetic approach to work and life.  Working and living this way separates us from our deepest selves, cuts us off from our feelings, limits our relationships, and deprives us of opportunities for more fulfilling lives of purpose and joy. 

Marc Lesser's excellent little book, Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less, addresses the issue of time management from this kind of contemplative perspective.  Lesser, a former business executive who now consults world-wide, draws heavily from his ten years as a full-time student of Zen in offering a rich, thoughtful perspective on our unsustainable work habits and provides a wealth of practical, down-to-earth strategies for slowing down so that we can actually be more productive at the things that really matter.

Lesser (who acknowledges the irony of his name) starts by noting that as societies and individuals we have become addicted to our unrealistic agendas and ubiquitous digital distractions at least in part because we are convinced that our self-worth is tied up in the accumulation of our accomplishments.  In this era of Perpetual Recession we may not rely as much anymore on our wealth as a sign of our worth, but we have perhaps doubled down on the assumption that if our lives are to be useful and meaningful, we must be busy. 

The fallacy of this kind of thinking is nearly self-evident.  Our busyness does not result in a greater happiness or even a sense of accomplishment, but rather frustration and a feeling that, whatever we may have done today, there is twice as much to do tomorrow.

Less offers a way out of this cycle of frustration and fear by first emphasizing the power of sitting still to figure out what we really are seeing, hearing, feeling, fearing, and hoping for in this present moment.  The act of just sitting with ourselves is in itself a radical break with the busyness addiction, and open us up to a vast universe of self-awareness and new possibilities.  The author offers instruction on a variety of simple mindfulness techniques through which we can begin this journey of self-discovery.

The "Less Manifesto" is Marc Lesser's framework for what to do with this self-awareness when we begin to slow down and listen to our own hearts.  The author explores, through a series of straightforward exercises, how we can get in touch with the inner fears that motivate our incessant busyness (a direct link to the Enneagram of personality), and from a new place of openness begin to identify, test, and challenge our own (often unrecognized) assumptions (a strategy that perfectly echoes Argyris and Schon on the concept of theories of practice).

Such self awareness work does not come easily, of course, and Lesser also offers great wisdom on how we can come to recognize our patterns of resistance - the ways in which we flee from our own fears and aspirations, usually through some intentional distraction or through the busyness of work itself. 

By breaking through these layers of resistance and distraction, we can reflect on our work in light of three fundamental questions: 1) What is my purpose for being here on this planet? 2) How am I doing in relation to this purpose? 3) What steps do I need to take to align my purpose and my actions?  In slowing down to ask these questions, we build capacity to change our work habits so that we are investing our time in the things that really give us life and joy.  Lesser emphasizes that in the end we may appear just as active (and certainly more productive) before we began the less-is-more journey, but our activities will be farmore closely aligned with our values and life purpose.

Less is a book that is both philosophical and practical.  The perspectives and strategies offered could enrich the work of teachers and school leaders, especially since schools as workplaces seem to be so resistant to reflection and contemplation.  It isn't a silver bullet, however, even if a reader were to faithfully implement all of Lesser's recommendations (not that any silver bullet really exists).  One key source of our busyness is the relentless demand that others place on us to complete tasks associated with their key priorities.  The author doesn't address this challenge specifically, but it seems the key to meeting this problem is in first being perfectly aware of our own priorities and patterns, so that we might then more effectively work with the (often misplaced) priorities and frustrating patterns of others.

Self aware (contemplative) living is a journey and a lifestyle rather than a technique, and the recommendations of Less are a starting point for the reflective practitioner.  Consider this book for your personal and professional library.

You can get a sense of Marc Lesser's teaching and approach in this 50-minute video that summarizes key points from his book:

 

Note: This post originally appeared on the Contemplative Learning Solutions website.

Preparing for your principal interview, Part III

In the first two parts of this series, I discussed key aspects of leadership that aspiring school principals should consider when preparing for an interview, and the critical role of vision in integrating these aspects of leadership into a coherent picture of yourself as a leader.  I suggested that while vision is sometimes context specific, meaningful visions of school improvement have broad universal dimensions.

When it comes to an entry plan, however (the key priorities you'll pursue in your first months on the job), context matters a lot more.  Interview committees often want to hear about your entry plan, and here you have the opportunity to seamlessly unite your vision for school improvement with the specific needs of the school.

An excellent point of reference for entry plans is Marazano's classic book on the characteristics of effective principals, School Leadership That Works.  Marzano distinguishes First- and Second-Order change situations.  In First Order contexts, the school is already fairly high functioning and just needs some adjustments to continue on its path of improvement.  In Second Order contexts, the culture is weak and performance is poor.  These situations call for more sweeping changes.

I would argue that, given the near-obsolete structure of traditional schooling, most schools actually need transformative overhauls to make them far more student-centered.  But as a principal interviewee you may not have the luxury of presenting your most sweeping ideas for school renewal.  This may seem to contradict my previous post on vision, but this is where vision meets the reality of where your school is right now.  Vision only works when you can contrast it with a very clear picture of present reality, and then build realistic, meaningful steps toward closing the gap between what is and what might be.

Before your interview you'll want to study as much about the school as possible: its achievement history, its culture, and its place in the district's own renewal processes.   Then, once you are on the job, consider the following questions as guidelines for development of an entry plan:

1.  How is the school culture?  How does this culture support or hinder student achievement?

2.  What is the quality of instruction on a daily basis?

3.  What do teachers perceive as their number one need in helping them improve their practice?  What do they perceive as the number one obstacle?  (If they tell you student discipline or lack of parent involvement, take that and work with it, but push them to identify something else they have more direct control over; they do have control over discipline, of course, and so they need to be working on schoolwide Positive Behavior Instructional Supports or similiar initiatives if they aren't already).

4.  What do parents and students perceive as the greatest needs and obstacles for school improvement?

You get at all this through lots of conversations, both formal and informal, with teaachers, parents, and students.  It might be worth having a scheduled inteview with every staff member to explore the questions.  Use Danielson's framework for effective teaching (which is also embedded in Kentucky's new Professional Growth and Evaluation System), or Marzano's (which I like a little better), to establish the quality of teaching via lots of formal and informal classroom walkthroughs.  Instructional rounds are also an excellent tool.

Once you've answered these guiding questions (and you'll have to cut through a lot of contradictory information and useless static), you can establish your own understanding of where the school is, and then respond accordingly, always with an eye toward your long-range vision.

The last point I want to make on this topic regards how to prepare yourself psychologically for the interview process.  In truth, this is essential to your work as a person and a professional, and it is an ongoing process that begins long before you are ever called for an interview. 

In the hectic, frenetic pace of our work days, few of us take time to stop, breath, and reconnected our minds with our bodies, or our activities with our larger hopes, dreams, fears, and aspirations.  I am an advocate that every person regularly employ reflective practices to re-energize themselves and stay connected to what they are feeling and needing in each moment as well as uncover our underlying, unconscious assumptions and motivations that may be contributing to our success or failure.  A wide variety of mindfulness techniques are useful in this regard.  In coming weeks I'll be reviewing two books I've found very helpful on this topic, Michael Carroll's The Mindful Leader and Marc Lesser's Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less.  These are both excellent resources.

Mindfulness practices can help you become more calm, centered, and focused which is of course extremely useful in a potentially nerve-wracking situation like a job interview.  But ultimately these techniques are most helpful for developing a deeper self awareness.  And self-awareness is the best gift you can give yourself personally and professionally.  When you can compassionately recognize and embrace your strengths and weaknesses as a leader, then you are in much better position to develop a meaningful plan to improve your effectiveness. 

One of the best tools I've found for enhancing self awareness is the Enneagram personality typing system.  You can read more about the Enneagram on this blog, including a series of profiles exploring how each of the nine personality types described by the Enneagram tends to function in the role of school administrator.

As your self awarness grows, your capacity to lead also grows.  Get to know yourself starting today, and you'll be in a much better position when you present yourself as the potential leader of a school.

Previous posts in this series:

Part I: Consider your capacities as an instructional, managerial, and collaborative leader

Part II: Articulating a meaningful vision for school improvement

Preparing for your principal interview, Part II

In the first of this three-part series on how to prepare for your principalship interview, I offered suggestions on how to structure a professional portfolio around three key dimensions of leadership.  Principal candidates should thoughtfully consider their ideas and evidence for how they can present themselves as an instructional, managerial, and collaborative leader. 

But what ties all of these aspects of leadership together is the extent to which you can articulate a clear and compelling vision for school improvement.

The word "vision" gets a lot of use in leadership cricles, but rarely in a meaningful sort of way.  Ask a teacher or school leader about the vision of their their school and what you'll get instead is a slogan:  "Every child learning every day," or something to that effect.

There's nothing inherently bad about such slogans.  They serve as rallying cries that remind all stakeholders of the core values that motivate our work.  To the extent there are people in the organization who do not believe in equitable learning opportunities for all students (and they do still exist, in abundance), then these reminders are helpful.  But they are not a substitute for vision.

A vision is a specific, challenging articulation of what a school should be achieving at a particular time in the near future.  In The Learning Leader: How to Focus School Improvement for Better Results, Doug Reeves offers seven questions, the answers to which - if understood by every stakeholder - would offer the kind of vision I believe every aspiring school leader should have:

• Where are we headed as a school this year?
• Where will we be three to five years from now?
• What parts of our work will be the same, and what parts will be different?
• Will there still be a place for me here in the future?
• How will my work change?
• What will I need to learn in order to be more valuable to the school in the future?
• Why will I still want to be a part of this school in the future?

For a school principal to answer these questions, she must have a strongly-developed instructional and organizational leadership acumen.  She must have her own, independent vision of what schools can and should become that is not dependent on the ever-changing whims of politicians and education regulators.

To some extent a vision like this is context-specific, but elements might also be universal, applicable to any school or situation.  Certainly compelling visions that can answer these questions might different considerably from one leader to another.

And here let me state one of my biases: vision is, I believe, the leader's prerogative.  Far too much time has been wasted by leaders in the past trying to collaboratively establish a school's vision.  There is simply too much turf-protection, group think, and limited understanding of effective practice to subject a school's vision to a vote or even consensus.  The leader's responsibility is to understand the context, imagine new possibilities, and build a coalition to realize the vision. 

As Reeves emphasizes, buy-in is overrated.  What you need, rather than buy-in, is trust.  When people trust you, they will follow even when they don't fully understand or agree with your vision.  Building trust is far more important - and difficult - than building buy-in, which is usually a failing proposition.

A related concept here is the concern of many new principals to articulate an "entry plan" for their new assignment: what should be their major priorities for their new school in the first year?  Many would advise that this is where you should assess the school's needs and then develop that collaborative vision.  This isn't terrible advice, but I would just say that vision can't wait for your contextual analysis.  It must come first, even before you begin to interview for the position.

In my third and final post on this topic, I'll elaborate more on entry plans in light of this discussion on vision, and I'll offer some suggestions for how to psychologically prepare for the interview itself.

Preparing for your principal interview, Part I

Summer is the time of year for leadership transitions at schools, and so many practicing and aspiring school leaders are actively engaged in interviewing for new positions.  From time to time practitioner colleagues and current and former students ask me for advice on how to prepare for a principalship interview, what should go into a professional portfolio, and what to consider in terms of an entry plan should they be offered the job.  In this two-part three-part series of posts I'll share some ideas and recommendations.

I think there are three key dimensions of leadership that a principal candidate ought to consider when preparing for an interview.  These three aspects of leadership should inform the key points you should try to emphasize in your interview and the way you shape your portfolio.  Think about both what you believe about each of these aspects of leadership, but also what you've accomplished in the past and what evidence you could provide to support those accomplishments.

How can you show the ways that you are (or have the capacity to become) an instructional leader, a managerial leader, and a collaborative leader? 

1.  Evidence of your ideas, skills, and record as an instructional leader.  This is your number-one responsibility and priority as a principal.  In his excellent book (reading it should be part of your interview preparation and professional learning) Effective Supervision, Robert Marzano defines "supervision" (which, I believe, means the same thing as "instructional leadership") as those things a principal does that are meant to help teachers improve their teaching expertise.

Marzano identifies five conditions that are necessary for fostering teaching expertise: a) a well-articulated knowledge base for teaching (Marzano and Danielson both provide excellent frameworks), b) focused feedback and practice, c) opportunities to observe and discuss expert practice, d) clear criteria for improvement and a plan for success, and e) providing recognition of expertise.  Think about everything you have done previously or plan to do that supports these conditions, and be prepared to discuss and show evidence in your portfolio.

In Kentucky, as in some other states, principals are certified P-12.  If you are interviewing for a position outside your previous experience (say, you are a high school person by background but are interviewing for an elementary principalship) make sure you can stress any linkages in your previous work that would cross grade levels and study up on the curriculum and best practices for your desired grade range.

2.  Evidence of your ideas, skills, and record as a managerial leader.  This is the second of the three-legged stool of effective school leadership.  Even if you're a good instructional leader, you still have to make sure the school is safe and clean, budgets are balanced, bells ring on time, etc. 

3.  Evidence of your ideas, abilities and record as a collaborative leader.  This is the human dimension of the work, and it intersects with the other two dimensions of instructional and managerial leader.  How have you motivated people, brought them together around a common purpose, empowered and involved people in decision making and simultaneously pushed them to better their best?

In terms of structuring your portfolio, less is definitely more.  Keep these documents clearly organized and brief.  Most interview committees will only give your materials a cursory glance at best, and they'll be looking for evidence that supports what you talk about in your interview and what they glean from both formal and informal reference checks of your previous work.

In my next post, which will appear in a few days, I'll discuss the all-important role of articulating a clear vision for school improvement, which will tie together everything you can say about how you'll be an effective instructional, managerial, and collaborative leader.  And in my final post I'll also discuss an entry plan and how to psychologically prepare for your interview (hint: it starts long before you actually get called for the interview).

Part II: Articulating a compelling vision

Part III: Entry plan and preparing yourself psychologically