Are You Asking the Right Questions?

As a leader, do you ask the right questions to move forward the work of your school/organization?

As a leader, you have responsibility to set direction, sustain the vision of your school/organization, develop the people within the organization, lead and manage your core business, and secure accountability.  It's a tall order for anyone.  All skilled leaders know that facilitated processes are the most effective to build depth of understanding of issues, to create strategies for moving the work forward, and for ensuring buy-in on the part of staff.  It's a lot to do but this picture is a common one for knowledgeable leaders who get results. 

But something's missing.  Even if we demonstrate these behaviours, we may miss the mark with our facilitated processes if we don't ask the right questions during the processes.  This became painfully evident for me very recently at a facilitated session.  Without the right questions even the most dedicated members of staff can take your school's/organization's work off in different directions. 

Next time you call people together for a facilitated process - regardless of the purpose - be absolutely certain that you're working with the right questions.  If your question isn't finely tuned to your school's/organization's needs, you'll end up with high-quality work......but it won't be the work you need. 

It just might be time to brush up on your facilitation skills or to invest in the skills of a well-experienced outsider.  A misguided facilitation can get you going quickly in the wrong direction.

WAIT - Why Am I Talking?

As a leader, do you ask yourself to WAIT?

Last week, I heard a great little acronym - WAIT - Why am I talking?  It struck me as a great message to use as a blog post.  As leaders, we need - often - to ask ourselves this question.  We need to think about why we are talking and when.  When we're speaking, we're not listening....and listening is likely a much more valuable skill for leaders than talking. 

Think about the five leadership competencies proposed by Ken Leithwood.  Leaders:

• set direction and sustain vision
• build purposeful relationships
• develop people and the organization
• manage core business
• secure accountability

Think about these 5 competencies.  For leaders to enact them, which is more important, listening or speaking?  If you believe listening is more important you're likely more inclusively minded in your leadership.  If you believe speaking is more important, you're likely more directive in your work.  Each of us chooses our own styles.  Does your style align with what you say you believe in? 

Bottom line.....ask WAIT.  A bit more listening and a lot less talking can help you know your school/organization better.  Ultimately, that will help you as a leader.

Setting Direction for Your Staff

As a leader, how do you set direction for your staff?

Persuading people to believe in your ideas or the direction you set is a critical leadership skill. But too many leaders don't know how. Here are three things to try next time you need to gain consensus or set direction:

• Don't make the hard sell. Setting out a strong position at the start gives potential opponents something to fight. It's better to present your position with reserve, so you can adjust it if needed.  You might find that input from others will actually improve your ideas.
• Don't resist compromise. Compromise is not surrender. People want to see that you are flexible enough to respond to their concerns and incorporate their perspectives.  And they might well be introducing thinking that you hadn't even considered.
• Don't assume it's a one-shot deal. Bringing people on board is a process. You'll rarely arrive at where you want to be on the first try. Listen, test your position, and then refine it based on both the group's input and initial efforts.

 Adapted from Guide to Managing Up and Across (HBR OnPoint Collection).

Do as I Say, Not as I do

As a leader, do your words match your actions?

As leaders, one of our roles is to set direction for those we lead.  We articulate the vision and mission of our schools/organizations and then sustain the focus of the work that flows from the vision and mission.  On a day-to-day basis, our role is to ensure that everyone in the school/organization sustains their commitment to the work, engages in learning to support the work, and demonstrates continuous improvement in doing the work and delivering results. 

This is all well and good for our staff.  But what about us as leaders?  Do we actually do what we say we believe in?  Do our words align with our actions. It's very easy to inform others of their work responsibilities, their need to commit to ongoing learning, and to demonstrate ever-improving results.  But do we do the same?  Are we willing to do what we ask of our staff members?  If not, our words ring hollow - and people see through them. 

Remind yourself every once in a while - especially when you are providing direction to your staff - to ask yourself these questions:

• Am I willing to do this work too?
• How do I demonstrate in tangible ways the commitment that I wish to see in all staff members?
• Do my words align with my actions?
• Do I model what I profess to believe in?
• If I pause at any moment in time, could I honestly say that what I am doing aligns with the direction I've set and the mission and vision I espouse? 

Knowing what to do when you don't know what to do

As a leader, do you know what to do when you don't know what to do?

As leaders, we have a significant role to play in leading our organizations especially when challenging situations emerge.  People look to you for direction, for comfort, for reassurance, and for strength.  This can be incredibly difficult if you aren't feeling completely in control of the situation or if you feel you might not have the skills you need to navigate something really challenging.  Nonetheless, your staff are watching you and what they are seeing is important. 

We don't usually get warning about challenging situations in the workplace.  Things happen.  As leaders, we need to be able to respond to the 'things' that happen.  A great phrase to keep in mind is: I know what to do when I don't know what to do. In other words, when these challenging situations arise, I know that I need to develop a response.  I know I need to communicate with everyone affected.  I know I may need to seek help or support from others.  Your staff will watch you especially closely in such situations.  Knowing what to do when you don't know what do - that is, developing a response, communicating, and drawing on outside knowledge and skill - will demonstrate that you are managing the situation in the best way possible.  This is reassuring to your staff.  They can't attend to their work if they're worried about what's going on.  By being prepared to handle challenging situations at a moment's notice, you ensure that your staff can keep their focus on the important work they do and not channel their energies into a focus on what's going wrong.

Now that you have the position

You now have the leadership position.  But do you have the skills?

As a leader, you have a formal leadership role.  But formal leadership roles demand a set of skills that you may not necessarily have.  People frequently are promoted because they were exemplary in their position.  However, this doesn't automatically translate into having the skills required in a leadership role.  As a leader, can you identify the necessary skill sets for your position?  When that's done, can you then identify which of these skill sets you have, which skill sets you don't have, and which ones you are developing?  Once this 'gap analysis' has been done, you have some important thinking to do about how you will build the skills that you need in your role.  In other words, what do you need to learn and how will you learn it?  Every great leader is also a great learner.  Leadership demands learning and continual refinement of the skills of leadership.  What is your plan to be a great leader? 

Here is a list of just some of the skill sets that great leaders have:

• setting direction for the work of your staff
• building purposeful, authentic relationships...and then sustaining them
• knowing how to motivate people
• knowing how to handle difficult conversations while maintaining the integrity of staff members
• problem-solving
• supporting each member of your staff in building their capacity to do the work
• coaching and mentoring.....and knowing the difference
• planning for succession and ensuring that there are always others who can carry on the work
• being accountable
• taking responsibility
• identifying the focus of the work and supporting staff in keeping the focus
• dealing with distracters so that they don't impact on your staff
• distributing / sharing leadership with others
• ...and the list goes on....