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.

Improve your Strengths, Not your Weaknesses

As a leader, are you focusing energies on improving your strengths or your weaknesses?

It's annoying to work on our weaknesses: Who wants to spend energy trying to move from slightly below average to slightly above on a particular skill?  Consider focusing on your strengths instead. Make what you're already good at an even greater asset. After all, if you really want to make a difference in your school/organization, it's your strengths that will lead the way.  Of course, it's more challenging to move from well above average to even more above average, but you'll enjoy it more since your strengths are things you likely already take pleasure in doing. And don't worry about having too much of a good thing. Have you ever worked with a leader who possessed too much character or was too strategic? Probably not.  And when it comes to your areas of weakness.  Are you anxious about not having the necessary skill set in the school/organization?  If so, look around.  There is always someone on staff who has the very skills you lack.  Draw on their expertise....and watch them blossom.

Adapted from "Become an Extraordinary Leader" by Scott Edinger.

The Right People in the Right Seats

As a leader, how do you get the right people in the right seats?

Performance reviews tell you how well someone is doing their job, but they fail to reveal whether people are in the right jobs. This is especially problematic for average performers—those not yet skilled and knowledgeable enough to be high potentials, but not poor enough to need focused supports or even to be let go. Don't let these 'middle of the roadl' folks limp along in roles that are not right for them. Instead, consider "fit tests" at regular intervals that compare people's strengths and interests with their current job descriptions. For example, is someone in your school teaching a regular grade 5 class, but better suited for a special education role?  Is someone teaching older students who would be more effective with younger students because their talents could really help young children?  Trust your instinct if you sense there's a mismatch, and be honest.  Discuss it with them and get their perspective. You might help average employees become stars.

Adapted from "The Challenge of the Average Employee" by Anthony Tjan.

As a leader, are you thinking strategically?

As a leader, are you thinking strategically?


Leaders need to think.  We need to think all the time.  It’s one of the reasons we need to be engaged in continuous learning.  But for what purpose do we need to do all of this thinking? 

Leaders need to think strategically.  If you are leading a school/organization, you have a significant level of responsibility to ensure that you are leading for continuous improvement.  People are placed in roles as leaders not to maintain the status quo but to bring about improvement.  But improvement doesn’t happen simply because we want it to.  It happens because we have thought strategically about all of the factors that influence a school/organization.  One by one, we analyze these factors in terms of how they contribute or distract from the important work that needs to be done.  Furthermore, we analyze how these factors relate to each other.  Factor X is important.  Factor Y is important.  But what is the relationship between these two factors.  Are they mutually supportive or mutually exclusive? 

As a leader, you need to think strategically so that your thinking serves the best interest of your school/organization.  But how do you know if your thinking is strategic or not?  Think of it this way.  Strategic thinking leads to decisions that bring about improvement.  Ask yourself, Will my decision make a positive difference to our work?  Will my decision make a change in what we are hoping to accomplish?  Will my decision maintain the status  quo – and is that a good thing?  

Truly skilled leaders engage others in discussions that benefit from strategic thinking.  Engaging others in strategic thinking is an indication of your strength as a leader.  You call on the best thinking available to help guide decisions.  There is always wisdom in the building if you allow it to surface in a safe conversation.

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.