Episode 8.
This is a brief episode about leadership.
I'd like to start the episode by describing two of my former colleagues.
First I was working for a school administrator who had recently begun their doctoral studies
and they had one complaint about their coursework.
They would say, I have to start every paper by explaining why the ideas we are studying
won't work for me in my current situation.
So that was a leader who rejected all the generalizations about schooling that they
were being taught.
A few years later I was working with a school administrator who was participating in a Leadership
Institute.
They would go for day long seminars and then return to the school to share what they had
learned.
Well, more accurately they shared what they had been told but they had not reflected on
it to understand it critically so I would say they really hadn't learned it.
So this is a story of a leader who blindly accepted and repeated all the generalizations
about schooling they were being taught.
If you've been working in education for more than a couple of years you probably have encountered
leaders who adopt both of these approaches.
In this episode I want to encourage leaders and my specific audience remember is school
leaders and school IT leaders but I think my message is appropriate for all leaders
to take a medium road.
The most effective leaders are those who closely look at the ideas they are being taught but
they are critical of them.
So they accept only those that make sense and they reject those that do not.
Now of course making sense is difficult to define.
For leaders have several factors that they must consider when deciding what makes sense.
First does this new idea align with your theory?
We all know that educators tend to reject the importance of theory but we all have assumptions
about learning and learners, teaching and teaching, technology and likewise all the
ideas you are taught have similar theories.
They are all grounded in theories.
If we articulate our theories and understand them, understand those assumptions then we
can better understand the decisions we make as leaders.
Consider will your system allow the change or the new idea that you are thinking about?
All systems and especially IT systems are contingent.
What we have done previously affects what we can do in the future.
Next do we have the capacity for it?
Students have limitations, budgets, personnel, skills.
These all determine what we can do and what we can't do.
There are other factors we have to consider when deciding what makes sense but these examples
illustrate the reality that some ideas, some things we are being taught are contrary to
what we believe the right thing to do is and some things are not possible given the situations
or circumstances in which leaders find themselves.
To be an effective leader, one must refine the ability to differentiate what makes sense
from what does not.
Reject the ideas that you should, accept the ideas you should, but be sure you know which
is which.
My advice is to take a few steps.
First again, know your theories, know your assumptions, articulate them, be familiar
with the folks who came before you who share your vision and understand their rationale
and understand the problems with their theories and with yours too.
Second, be critical of your situation and be critical of what you are being taught.
As leaders we must take advice from those who have more experience than we do but they
don't have the knowledge of the specifics of our situation.
Our situation is also the result of decisions that may not have been informed by the ideas
that are currently being taught.
The generalizations that we are being taught might be applicable to our situations or they
might not.
The only way to really know is to critically assess the ideas you are being taught and
critically assess your situation so you can accurately determine how appropriate new ideas
are for you and your situation.
Now third, take some time.
Leadership decisions are permanent.
Sure we can all roll back decisions but folks will remember the time wasted with bad decisions
and those memories will affect your ability to delete in the future.
So be critical of your ideas, take the time to truly understand what is a good idea for
your situation and what is a bad idea.
So the messages I would have for the two leaders I described at the start of this episode are
these.
To the doctoral student, be open to new ideas.
There is a reason why folks are advocating them.
Don't assume they don't apply to your situation just because they were developed in circumstances
that were ostensibly different from yours.
If you look deeply you might find more similarities than what you see on the surface.
To the institute attendee, not all ideas are good ideas.
So our effectiveness as leaders depends on our ability to find and use the good ideas
but only the good ones.