Trust Your Gut When Challenging Authority

As a leader, how comfortable are you challenging line authority or the authority of tradition? 

Most of us are taught to defer to authority in our organizations.  This is true of line authority as well as the authority of 'how we've always done things here'.  As a result, we can often tend to disregard our internal compasses. But your instincts are often right. Here is how to counter your conditioning and question authority:

• Listen to your inner voice. Take a moment to breathe and consider what is going on. Ask yourself, "Are there other ways to approach this work?"
• Constructively question. Ask your boss, or important stakeholders: Why do we do it this way?  Can we - as a school/organization be open to different ways? Can we experiment?
• Reflect. Whether you've followed along or pushed for an alternative, think about what happened. Remember what it felt like to go against authority - or popular will - and think about how you might handle it differently in the future.

Adapted from "Learn to Trust Your Gut" by Ron Ashkenas.

Are People Born Leaders or Do They Learn Leadership?

As a leader, do you continue to 'practice' the art of leadership? 


Leadership is not an innate trait that you're born with. It can be learned. The key is to practice before you have the official title.  In fact, even leaders in the role need to continue to practice.  Start by focusing on the choices you make now, such as who to put on your team or who needs to participate in your projects. Recognize that you likely don't know everything. Making decisions based on incomplete information is a skill that every leader must master. Once you've acted, ask yourself: Was that the right decision? Could you have done something differently? This will get you comfortable with making decisions, acting upon them, and reflecting on their outcomes. Then, learn from your inevitable mistakes. You will build knowledge and skills as you work up to the larger decisions with broader consequences that all leaders have to make.






Adapted from "Wilderness Leadership—on the Job" by John Kanengieter and Aparna Rajagopal-Durbin.

Reducing Fear of Public Speaking

As a leader, how effective are you when speaking in public?

All leaders need to speak to groups small and large.  Good preparation reduces performance anxiety. Next time you need to present to an audience, follow these four steps:

• Be confident in your topic. Your audience already believes that you're the expert, so don't try to bluff. If the people you're presenting to feel you're unsure of your material, they'll lose trust in you.
• Imagine questions people might ask. Construct answers before you give your presentation. Either incorporate the answers into your presentation or be ready to provide them during Q&A.
• Memorize the first minute of your presentation. You experience your greatest anxiety at the beginning of a presentation. Knowing the opening of your presentation will give you a good start.
• Once done, look back.  Once you're done, reflect on what you accomplished.  What went really well that you can do again another time?  What might you change next time you need to speak?

Adapted from Guide to Persuasive Presentations (HBR OnPoint Collection).

Leading Meetings When No One Wants to Talk

As a leader, how do you handle meetings when participants don't want to speak up?

Discussions during meetings can be feast or famine. Either you can't get a word in edgewise or no one speaks up. Next time your meeting falls silent, try these tactics:

• Let it be. Wait a moment before breaking the silence and offering a suggestion. The group may need time to reflect on an idea.
• Name it. Call out what's happening, and ask the group about it, "It seems we've gone quiet. Does anyone want to talk about what's going on?"
• Take a break. Sometimes a short break gives people the chance to refocus.
• Think facilitation.  Rethink the processes used in your meetings.  Do your meetings included facilitated discussions?  If not, this might be just what you need to balance the amount of conversation.

Adapted from Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter (HBR OnPoint Collection).

How are You Unique as a Leader?

As a leader, what is it that makes your leadership unique?

To be successful as a leader, you need to know your strengths and what special skills and qualities you bring to your role. If you can't articulate them, you can't expect others to see them either. Here's a four-step process to identifying what makes your leadership great:

• List your strengths. Include skills and knowledge you've acquired through experience and education as well as softer intrinsic strengths, such as insightfulness or empathy.
• Ask for input. Ask colleagues for honest feedback - either directly or anonymously.  Just be sure to hear from those you lead.
• Revisit past feedback. Reread old performance appraisals or think back on coaching experiences.  Have you grown in these areas?  How? 
• Modify your list. Adjust your original list to reflect what you've learned. Make sure the strengths are specific so that they are credible and useful.

Adapted from "Five Steps to Assess Your Strengths" by Bill Barnett.

What is it about your leadership?

As a leader, what is it about your leadership that makes a difference?

Each of us is an individual.  We have unique knowledge, experience, stories, and skills.  The same can be said of us as leaders.  We each lead in different ways based on our knowledge, experience,and skills.  The important question each leader needs to ask himself or herself then is: What is it about your personal leadership that makes a difference in your workplace?

This question causes you to reflect on yourself as a person and as a leader.  What is unique about you and your leadership that makes your school/organization successful?  It's more than bringing together a great team of people.  Leaders add value.  What is your value added to your school/organization?  If this isn't an easy question to answer, it probably calls for some thinking/reflecting on your part. 

Here are just a few questions that might help guide your thinking:

• What are my unique knowledge, experiences, and skills?
• How do I use these as a leader in my workplace?
• Do I make conscious decisions to enact certain leader behaviours?
• Do I rely on 'gut reaction' (unconscious decision-making) in order to lead? 
• Is my school/organization doing well, at least in part, thanks to my leadership?  How do I know?
• Could I be replaced by another person and the school/organization would do just about as well?
• What value do I add as leader? 

Go Slow to Go Fast

As a leader, are you able to 'go slow to go fast' when bringing about change?

When bringing about change in your school/organization, it's essential to know the staff you work with and how they manage change.  If your staff is typical, you'll have early adopters, the reluctant/resistant, and everything in between.  This can seem incredibly challenging when you want to move things along and it seems that everyone is all over the place in terms of their ability and willingness to change.  Keep the old phrase - Go Slow to Go Fast - in mind.  You want to be sure that the pace of change is manageable and that as change occurs, you have helped to create depth of understanding of the new practices and not just superficial adoption of what appears to be updated practice.

Going slow to go fast ensures that you respond to the willingness and ability of your staff to build understanding of the new practices as well as giving them time to try out the new practices.  Here's what's likely going to happen...and what you need to do to support it....

• Early Adopters - they'll be all over the change.  They'll want to learn all about it, try it out, and chat it up.  Support these folks because they'll potentially become your resident experts.
• The reluctant/resistant - they'll hold back, watch others, possibly speak negatively about the change.  Keep these folks close to you.  Listen, watch, listen more, and build strong working relationships with them.  They may be resistant/reluctant for reasons you don't even know.  Get to know them.  You might just uncover some gems.  If not, at least you'll be well-positioned to help them along when the new practices become mandated practice.
• Everyone else in between - these are the trickiest ones.  Some will appear willing to adopt new practices but they're just muddling about or engaging superficially.  Others may adopt some aspects of the new practices - enough to get you to believe they're doing it - but secretly hoping it all goes away.  These are the staff members for whom you need to build structures for learning, practice, and reflection on the new work.  These folks will come around but they need lots of support and lots of reflecting.  If you manage the support/reflection piece well, you've got them well on their way.

What are you planning to learn this year?

This post is a revised version of the Dec 22/11 post - with a view to the future....

As a leader, what are you planning to learn this year?

Michael Fullan (2008) reminds us that "Learning is the work."  As leaders, we aren't effective if we aren't learning - just as we want our staff members to be learning.  So....what are you planning to learn this year?  What will be your learnings as a leader this year?  You'll likely need to take a bit of time to think about it.  You'll probably have to reflect on what you might want to change. 

In order to identify what your leader learning could be for this new year, you might want to use some of these questions to prompt your thinking:

• What went well last year?
• What didn't go so well last year?
• If I were to do something from last year over again, what might I do differently?
• What would I not change in my leader practices for this year?  Why?
• Of my leader practices, which do I feel are really solid?
• Of my leader practices, which need some attention?
• As a leader, am I accomplishing the things I want to accomplish?  If yes, why?  If no, why not?
• As a leader, what knowledge do I still wish to gain? 
• As a leader, what skills do I still wish to gain?

What did you learn this year?

As a leader, what did you learn this year?

Michael Fullan (2008) reminds us that "Learning is the work."  As leaders, we aren't effective if we aren't learning - just as we want our staff members to be learning.  So....what did you learn this year?  What were your learnings as a leader this year?  You'll likely need to take a bit of time to think about it.  You'll probably have to reflect on what went well and what didn't go so well. 

In order to identify what your leader learning was this year, you might want to use some of these questions to prompt your thinking:

• What went well this year?
• What didn't go so well this year?
• If I were to do things over again, what might I do differently?
• If I were to do things over again, what would I not change?  Why?
• Of my leader practices, which do I feel are really solid?
• Of my leader practices, which need some attention?
• As a leader, am I accomplishing the things I want to accomplish?  If yes, why?  If no, why not?
• As a leader, what knowledge do I still wish to gain? 
• As a leader, what skills do I still wish to gain?

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?

Conscious or Unconscious?

As a leader, do you lead consciously or unconsciously?

Many of us have the good fortune to work with leaders who are exemplary and make leadership appear effortless.  We wonder what it is that makes them such great leaders.  It may be that they lead consciously.

As leaders, we can lead consciously or unconsciously.  Unconscious leadership is when we behave in ways that just seem like the right thing to do or are behaviours we've used in the past that have helped us get by.  Conscious leadership is when we select from a personal toolkit of leader behaviours that we know - not by 'gut feeling' - are the right choices for any particular situation. 

Unconscious leadership can get us into difficulty.  Sometimes our decisions or actions simply don't work well.  We end up paying the price by having to struggle with situations that don't go well with the added burden of the stress that accompanies these struggles.  Conscious leadership, on the other hand, is when we have a broad repertoire of leader behaviours that we consciously choose in order to respond to whatever situation we are facing.  Conscious leadership means we act in an informed way based on a set of personal skills that can help us through many of the situations we may find ourselves in. 

One of the ways to know if we are conscious or unconscious leaders is by asking this question: Do I know why I lead in the way that I lead and make the leadership choices that I make?  If you can answer yes and provide a sound rationale for your actions, you're likely a highly conscious leader.  If you have difficulty answering this question and you tend to lead spontaneously or rely more on 'gut feeling', then you're likely an unconscious leader. 

How do you build conscious leadership?  It's not that difficult.  It just requires some reflection on your leader behaviours.  On a regular basis, look back on situations you've dealt with.  Ask yourself some reflective questions like these:

• Why did I choose to respond in that way? 
• What worked?  What didn't work?  Why?
• How would I handle that differently if I were to do it again?
• What might I say differently next time?
• What was the impact on those I was dealing with?  Was this the impact I hoped for?
• What have I learned about myself as a leader? 
• Do my actions align with my values and beliefs?
• How might a leader I really admire have handled this?
• What do I need to learn that would help me be more successful another time?

Reflecting on your own actions as a leader, leads you to a state of greater consciousness about your leadership and why you lead in the way that you do.

Leading Meetings

As a leader, how do you lead open, honest, productive meetings?

Meetings without outcomes are a waste of time. Yet, many meetings fail to produce results because the conversation circles around the issues rather than focusing on them. To make sure decisions happen and people take action, you need to have a productive dialogue. Here are five things every meeting
should be:

1. Open. The outcomes of your meeting should not be predetermined. Questions like, "What are we missing?", "Who else needs to be here?", "What voices are not represented at this table?" signal honest searching for a range of perspectives and more broad-based thinking.
2. Candid. Encourage people to air conflicts. When people express their real opinions, productivity increases.  A quick 'go round' of the table to ask "What;s working for you and what isn't?" can help surface issues that need to be tabled. 
3. Informal. Keep it loose. Conversations should be unscripted with honest questions and spontaneity...yet with meeting processes in place so that it's not unending.  This in itself takes lots of practice as the leader of meetings.
4. Conclusive. Everyone should leave knowing exactly what they are expected to do.  A quick check-in helps.  Again, a quick 'go round' of the table to ask, "What's your action coming out of our meeting?" helps solidify the actions and confirms that the meeting had purpose. 
5. Reflective - a few days after the meeting, check in with a few people to ask how it went.  Are meetings helping us accomplish what we want to accomplish?  Being sincere in seeking this input helps staff know that you're serious about their opinions and that you value both their opinions and their work.  

Adapted from Harvard Business Review on Making Smart Decisions.

Comfort the Distressed and Distress the Comfortable

As a leader, how do you bring about change in the best interest of your school/organization by both 'comforting' and 'distressing' your staff?

Last year, an educator I greatly respect used the phrase, "Comfort the distressed and distress the comfortable."  I liked it very much at the time and as I've reflected on it, I have come to realize how very important it is for leaders to do this very thing.  We need to distress the comfortable.  If we don't we're likely supporting the status quo and there aren't many places where the status quo is truly accomplishing what we need to accomplish. 

Equally, as leaders, we need to comfort the distressed.  One of our key roles is to support and nurture learning and growth - not only for ourselves - for those we lead.  Learning happens when we are out of our comfort zones and that can be a distressing place for people to be.  However, if we never go there, we really can't learn and become more effective in our practice.  As a leader, you need to take people out of their comfort zone and simultaneously comforting them as they move away from what is familiar.  

How do you balance comforting and distressing?  That's part of the art of leadership.  If that idea could be captured in a blog post, it probably wouldn't be a skill much worth cultivating.  Leading is artistry when it is done well because we can 'distress' people and 'comfort' them at the same time.....and it all works out well.  In fact, when done well, people seek out this apparently paradoxical state because they see how it helps them learn and grow....and people like to grow professionally. 

Receiving Negative Feedback

As a leader, what skills do you use to receive negative feedback?

On October 12, I did a post about encouraging pushback.  The intent of that post was to stimulate thinking about how we encourage a range of thinking among those we lead.  Today, though, I want to address receiving negative feedback that is about you or the school/organization that you lead.  When you receive negative feedback, what skills do you use to process it and respond to it?  There is always a tendency to get defensive when the feedback is personal or when it addresses something that is important to us.  How you respond to negative feedback demonstrates to others much about who you are as a leader.  Do you come across as defensive and protective?  Do you accept negative feedback passively and appear to 'give in' easily?  Or do you accept it and process it in a way that demonstrates you have the skills to receive it? 

What are these skills?  Here is the start of a list that might be helpful....

• listen carefully to what is being said to you
• relax - as best you can - and breathe regularly
• seek to truly understand what is being said to you
• paraphrase concisely what you've heard
• paraphrase the content of the messages
• paraphrase the emotion in the messages
• try to get to the heart of the matter - what is the essential issue?  - what are the peripheral issues?
• agree or concur with whatever points you can
• if you have specific information (e.g. a letter, an email, an announcement) that could shed light on the issue in question, bring it forward. 
• When you bring forward information that supports your position, do it as helpful information, not as a way of providing 'proof' that you are right
• clarify the points where there is disagreement or a gap in information
• plan - with the person providing the feedback - a plan to resolve the issue
• ensure that your plan has at least one opportunity to revisit the issue with the person
• reflect - Think about how you worked through the process of receiving feedback.  Did you do it with the intent to 'win' or did you do it with the intent to use the information for growth?  Think about this carefully and use your new thinking to inform the next time you need to receive such feedback.

Receiving negative feedback can be very difficult.   None of us likes it but we can benefit from it and grow from it.  It depends on how we receive it and process it.  The skills mentioned above are simply suggestions about how to receive and respond to feedback.  You will likely need to practise.  You could ask trusted colleagues to help you build these skills.  Most probably, they'll be happy to help and you'll be demonstrating that you're preparing yourself to engage with others in positive ways to work though issues.

Mentoring or Coaching - Part 2

As a leader, do you engage in coaching? Do you support your staff in receiving coaching?

As mentioned in the previous post, the terms 'mentoring' and 'coaching' are often used interchangeably but research literature differentiates between the two.  The difference between mentoring and coaching needs to be understood if we wish to use the terms correctly.

It's coaching if:

• the coach has been trained in a specific style of coaching and uses it at all times while coaching
• the coachee has a learning plan which forms the basis of the coaching conversations
• the coaching conversations are intended to support the coachee in the development of identified skills
• the coach mediates the thinking of the coachee
• reflective thinking is routinely incorporated into the coaching conversations to deepen the learning
• the coaching conversations are focused on the growth of the coachee
• the coach does not talk about him/herself.  It's always about the coachee.
• there is a time limit to the coaching relationship

Adapted from 'Coaching For Learning' - York Region District School Board

Reflection

This blog exists as a way for leaders - in any type of organization - to read a short piece and then to reflect on it.  My hope in providing these short pieces of writing is simply to stimulate the metacognitive level of leadership.  As I was reflecting on the blog, it occurred to me that the blog is designed for leaders to reflect on their practice.  However, I have not yet asked leaders how they stimulate reflective thought in others.

So.....as a leader, how do you stimulate reflective thought in those you lead?  If there is value in reflecting on our work as leaders, how do we support those with whom we work in reflecting on their practice?  There is ample research evidence to support reflection as a growth process for learning.  Do we, as leaders, know how to stimulate reflective thought in others? 

A few favorite questions that stimulate reflection are:

• If you were to do it again, how might you do it differently?
• What do you believe you did that led to such a successful outcome?
• Why do you think he/she might have reacted like that?

If you have some suggestions for great questions that stimulate reflective thought, please post them in the Comments section for this posting. 

Habits of Mind & Leading

As a leader, do you invoke the habits of mind in your leadership? 

Habits of Mind:  modelling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection, exploration

Modelling - Modelling of leadership behaviours.  If we want others to be leaders, we need to demonstrate what leadership looks like.

Coaching - Helping others to think through what they are trying to do.  Teachers raise questions with each other rather than telling others what to do.

Scaffolding - Providing the content bridges necessary for the task, raising the necessary questions, and giving others, particularly new teachers, the opportunities to explore and perform the task.

Articulation - Explaining what you are thinking about so that thinking is visible to colleagues, parents, and students.

Reflection - Being reflective and thoughtful about the work.  Raising evaluation questions:  What went well today?  Why?  If I did this again, how would I do it differently?

Exploration - Modelling risk taking so others understand that uncertainty is involved in all new learning.



From:  Leadership Capacity for Lasting School Improvement by Linda Lambert
Published by: ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)

Reflective Practice

As a leader, do you engage in reflective thought for the purposes of learning? 

Learning is the foundation of individual and organizational improvement.  Learning requires reflection.  From an individual perspective, "It can be argued that reflective practice...is the process which underlies all forms of high professional competence."  From an organization perspective, reflective practice is a powerful norm that is required for continuous improvement of teaching and learning practices that results in high levels of student achievement.  Reflective practice is the means by which learning, renewal, and growth continue throughout the development of career educators. ...

Most educators - both teachers and administrators - experience a continuously hectic pace in their daily and professional lives.  Such a pace is not conducive to reflection and learning.  The dominant culture in many schools is one of doing, with little or no time for reflection and learning.  ...

Educators routinely juggle multiple tasks, process information on many levels, manage a continual stream of interruptions, and make on-the-spot decisions to meet the changing needs and demands in the teaching environment.  ...

To change our practices, to change our beliefs, and to alter our own theories of change, we must slow down and have reflective conversations that allow us to think through possible changes.  ... Shifting from a culture of doing to a culture of learning and doing, however, is not easily accomplished.  ...

Reflective practice cannot be done in the fast lane.  Although much of educational practice occurs in the fast lane, educators must locate a rest area to reflect on past practices and to determine adjustments for future practice.

...the seeds of reflective practice begin first within individuals and then, with continuous nurturing, spread and take root in the broader educational community. 

From:  Reflective Practice to Improve Schools by Jennifer York-Barr, William A. Sommers, Gail S. Ghere, and Jo Montie
Published by: Corwin Press

Capacity Building

As a leader, how do you build the necessary capacity in your staff to meet the demands of the work that needs to be done?

Two key principles should permeate your capacity-building work:

1. Minimize blame and focus on improvement.  If people fear blame, there will be less transparency and less insight into the root causes of problems, which will inhibit capacity-building.  Instead, build a culture in which struggles or challenges are viewed as opportunities to learn and further improve delivery.  It is important to communicate that people are being judged in order to strengthen performance and not for the sake of laying blame.  In practice, a culture of no blame needs to exist alongside a culture of taking responsibility, so plain speaking and honesty will be crucial.  As Michael Fullan (2008) explains in his book The Six Secrets of Change, "This doesn't mean that you avoid identifying things as effective or ineffective.  Rather it means that you do not do so pejoratively."

2. Create a culture of continuous learning.  To truly sustain the capacity to implement change, all system actors responsible for delivery must be constantly going through the cycle of acting, reflecting, making adjustments, and trying again, each time refocusing their efforts on the actions that are found to be most effective.  In this culture, all contributors to delivery are constantly increasing their effectiveness.  As Michael Fullan (2008) put it, "Learning on the job, day after day, is the work".

From: Deliverology 101 by Michael Barber
Published by: Corwin Press, EDI - U.S. Education Delivery Institute, OPC - Ontario Principals' Council

The Three R's of Leadership

As a leader, how well would you say you have mastered the 'Three R's'? 

• RESILIENCY - the ability to recover quickly from a change or misfortune or to resume original shape after being bent, stretched, or compressed
• RENEWAL - the act of becoming new again, of replenishing, restoring, or regaining physical or mental vigor
• REFLECTION - the act of taking time for careful consideration, contemplation, and meditation

From: Survival Skills for the Principalship by John Blaydes
Published by: Corwin