Leading For Results

Current leaders can learn so much from the leaders that have come before us.  We all benefit from knowing what has worked for other leaders and getting insights into the question, "If you can only use a few leadership practices, what is likely to have the greatest results?"  For example, what leaders do in schools can have a significant impact (positive or negative) on student learning.  In a meta-analysis of 30 years of research on leadership, Waters, Marzano, and McNulty (2002) identified 21 leadership practices that enhance student achievement.  Savvy leaders actively seek to use these practices:

1. Building culture by fostering shared beliefs and a sense of community and cooperation.
2. Maintaining order by establishing a set of operating procedures and routines.
3. Protecting teachers from distractions that will take away from their teaching time or focus.
4. Providing resources such as professional development and materials to support staff to do their jobs.
5. Directly involving themselves in the design and implementation of curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices.
6. Establishing clear goals and keeping the focus on meeting them.
7. Being knowledgeable about curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices.
8. Having quality interactions with staff and students and being visible.
9. Recognizing and rewarding individual accomplishments.
10. Communicating effectively with staff and students.
11. Reaching out to stakeholders and being a strong advocate for the school.
12. Seeking input and involving staff in decisions and policy making.
13. Recognizing school accomplishments and acknowledging failures.
14. Building strong relationships with staff.
15. Being change agents willing to challenge the status quo.
16. Providing leadership and inspiration for new and challenging innovations.
17. Taking action based on strong ideals and beliefs about education.
18. Monitoring and evaluating effects on student learning.
19. Adapting leadership style to the situation and being tolerant of dissent.
20. Knowing the school context and using your understanding of people and situations in your context to solve problems.
21. Ensuring that staff have opportunities for intellectual stimulation around the work of teaching and learning. 

From:  Leading Every Day by Joyce Kaser, Susan Mundry, Katherine E. Stiles, & Susan Loucks-Horsley
Published by: Corwin Press

Doing the right work

Are you leading people to do the 'right work'?

"...the downfall of low-performing [organizations] is not their lack of effort and motivation; rather, it is poor decisions regarding what to work on.  So the problem in low-performing [organizations] is not getting people to work, it is getting people to do the 'right work'."

from: School Leadership that Works by Marzano, Waters, & McNulty
(ASCD - Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and McREL - Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning)