Building Capacity by Giving Away Responsibility

As a leader, do you build capacity by giving things away?

Entrusting the responsibility for a project to someone else can be tough. But if you don't rely on others, you'll always end up doing everything yourself...and you don't build capacity within your school/organization.  Essentially, you'll shortchange those who could learn by taking on new tasks. Once you delegate something, don't be tempted to micromanage the process. Agree on the expected outcomes and just let go. If you've asked a team member to take care of an important presentation, don't spend endless time on edits and corrections. Be clear on the parameters and remove yourself so she can do it her way, not yours. This is much more efficient than taking over, and the end product will likely be better.

Remember.....great leaders are always trying to do themselves out of a job.



Adapted from "Be More Productive by Making Better Daily Choices" by Ana Dutra.

When 'It All Becomes Too Much'

As a leader, do you know what to do when 'it all becomes too much'?

As leaders, we are subject to many demands, responsibilities and stresses in our roles.  From time to time, things can start to feel overwhelming and it feels as if the demands on us are 'too much'.  At times like this, it's too late to figure out what your response will be.  It's when you're feeling good about yourself and your work that you need to figure out your plan for how to respond when the demands and the stresses become overwhelming. 

Here are a few questions to guide your thinking about developing a response to challenging times:

• With whom can I safely share my worries/concerns/frustrations?
• Who might I call on to lend a hand with the work that needs to get done?
• Can I delegate some of my work to trusted others?
• Do I alert people now that I may need to call on them from time to time to lend a hand?
• What is urgent and must be attended to now?
• What is less urgent and can reasonably be put aside for a few hours, days, or even weeks?
• How will I communicate - and to whom - that some work was not completed as first hoped?
• Do I have a supervisor who needs to know?
• Do I need to share - or hide - this state from those I lead?

Equally important to developing a response to times when work seems overwhelming is the need to reflect on the situation.  If you don't reflect, you run the risk of allowing times like this to become cyclically repeating.  Some questions to guide your reflections:

• Is there anything I might have done differently that would have prevented this overwhelming state to develop?
• How do I manage 'work flow' - for myself and for those I lead?
• Do I need to bring others into a discussion about 'work flow' at our site?
• What have I learned about myself and how I react to stressful times?
• What do I need to learn in order to be ready for stressful times?
• What did I learn from my last experience with stressful times?  Was there something actionable?

Leader or Manager?

As a leader, do you characterize yourself as a leader, a manager, or a combination of the two?

Over time, the concept of 'leadership' vs. 'management' has somehow evolved into a pejorative view of management skills as a set of low-level, mundane and inferior set of skills when compared to the loftier instructional leadership skills.  The intention here is not to enter into a qualitative debate, but rather to demonstrate that an effective instructional leader needs to have well-developed management skills in order to lead effectively.  A poor manager will be hampered by broken relationships, mounds of unfinished paperwork, unmet deadlines and missing or unspent school funds. 

What follows is a synopsis of the key management skills whose absence have caused difficulty for some school leaders.

The article goes on to describe:

• communication skills
• time management
• delegation
• dispute resolution
• fiscal responsibility
• self-management

From:  Instructional Leadeship vs. Instructional Management by the OPC Professional Services Team
Published in: OPC Register - Spring 2011, Vol 13, No. 1