Leadership - Safety

"People thrive in complex problem solving when they feel safe," and with that understanding good leaders create a safe working environment for the mind, body and spirit. As I consider my own philosophies towards leadership I must admit creating a safe work place was not in my top five, until now.  As stated in the book, bullies are everywhere and it is the moral responsibility of the teachers and specifically administration to create a safe environment for teachers and students to thrive.  

the lack of safety can manifest itself in many situations and in a variety of fashions.  It will be be my responsibility to keep my eyes, ears and heart open to relationships and behaviors that are blatantly or passively destructive to school safety.  it could be so easy to tell myself that the absence of violence demonstrates a safe school.  However, it is the passive or manipulative person that is permitted to continually generate a stressful and uncomfortable environment for the major of the staff that tolerate it, "to keep the peace."  professional and and deliberate action should be taken to prevent a bully's poison to infect the entire community. 

Leadership - Support

As classroom teacher for the last ten years one of the biggest attributes of an administrator that I found to be a necessity, is their ability to support students, parents, teachers, support staff as well as the culture of the school.  Support seems to be one of those characteristics that can be over looked when things start to get crazy on campus.   However, as chapter 2 indicates, setting up the support structures for teachers, office and support staff is an efficient and effective way of avoiding unnecessary roadblocks and pitfalls. Asking question, walking around campus, talk to people about their needs and everyday goings on seems like a no brainer, and yet some leaders miss it entirely.  A good leader builds genuine and authentic relationships with his/her staff, maintain constructive dialogue and know when to sweat the small stuff.  Most effective leaders will tell you that it’s the small stuff that can make or break a campus. 

Leadership - Communication

I once heard someone say," it is better to say nothing and be thought a fool, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt."  Wise words for anyone who doesn't want to be viewed as a fool or leader. 

The ability to communicate vision, passion, and a unifying goal to a team is a cornerstone to good leadership.  However, a good leader must first take time to listen to and understand the culture and personalities of his team.  From my experences and observations this is the differnece between good and great leaders. It is a great leader that understands the strenthgs and abilites of his team. This understanding can only come from keen observation of non-verbal communication, contanst dialoge and ability to relate to the entire staff at some meaningful level.

Another RSA Animation on Education

Drive-by Ideas

After watching the Drive animation clip from our first class together, I am intrigued by two things. The first being that the director/animator/drawing hand tapped into one of our most valuable resources/reward based systems, time. By summarizing 272 pages in 10 minutes the audience has no reason for not watching this amazing idea unfold. Which leads me to my next idea, the audience is captivated by these profound discoveries while watching someone else doodle. How many times have we sat in a cafe, airport or professional development seminar jotting down random ideas, phrases or doodles? As the video clip demonstrated, motivation can take many forms and may strike at any time. So take the ideas from the video and from your napkin doodles and create new ways to motivate your students, educational team and school site. It only takes one idea and someone crazy enough to pursue it to change the world.

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