The Noble School Leader

The Five-Square Approach to Leading Schools with Emotional Intelligence

Matthew Taylor

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781119762874
• eBook ISBN: 9781119762928
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

A practical guide for school leaders and managers seeking concrete strategies for professional improvement

Leading a learning community is a challenging endeavor that rewards those who build social-emotional and adaptive leadership competencies. In The Noble School Leader, veteran school leader and leadership coachMatthew Taylor delivers an inspiring and enlightening exploration of the mindsetsthatsupport leaders to thrive, as well as those that just get in the way. It is a field guide to creating learning conditions that make transformative growth happen in schools.

In this book, readers will:

• Uncover the most common internal obstacles that holdallschool leadersback, from teacher leaders to superintendents
• Applythe core domains of emotional intelligenceand create personal growth plansusingthe invaluable 5 Squaretool
• Surface core values and drivers that shift mindsets and behaviors
• Set goals and plans for challenging leadership moments

Written for school leaders and managers seeking concrete techniques for building social-emotional and adaptive leadership competencies, The Noble School Leader is also an indispensable resource for any K-12 teacher, administrator, or professor with an interest in education and emotional intelligence.

II
Working the 5-Square

Chapter 4: The Transactional Leader

Chapter 5: The Unintended Enabler

Chapter 6: The Negative Controller

Chapter 7: The Pacesetter

Chapter 8: The Doer

Chapter 9: The Imposter

Chapter 10: The Implementer

4
The Transactional Leader

In this chapter you will deeply explore the first of this book's seven self‐limiting mindsets. Each of the ensuing chapters will be a self‐guided journey of one mindset. You will decide within the first two pages whether that chapter's mindset is a challenge for you, and then choose to keep reading or move on to the next chapter. Transactional leadership is the mindset you will consider in this chapter.

Transactional leadership assumes a simple agreement: the leader tells you what to do, and you do it because you want to be successful. This assumption rests on the belief that the world is a mostly rational place, that adult human beings are rational creatures that receive clear (to me) information, process it (like I do), and then behave according to the expectations I have communicated: a simple transaction. Consider Isabel's story:

Isabel traveled up the ranks of leadership from teacher to assistant principal to principal because of her ability to build and manage schoolwide systems and her strength as an instructional coach. The administrative tasks that she owns all turn to gold. Her teacher portfolio consistently makes the most growth as measured by teacher taxonomy (skill) data. However, now that Isabel is a principal, new leadership challenges arise. It doesn’t occur to her to question how people will feel about changes to the school schedule to make space for an intervention block. She doesn’t ask anyone for feedback or share any details about her plan until unveiling it in a Friday staff meeting. On Monday she is surprised to hear gossip about how she treats people and how arrogant she is to just “take over” the schedule. Hurt and disoriented, Isabel did not see this coming. She feels like she has been ambushed. Isabel has a new appreciation for those who say that leadership is a lonely path.

Meanwhile, people are pushing back on expectations that Isabel feels are no‐brainers. She is shocked, frustrated, and disappointed by people when this happens. When she steps up to the challenge of holding the line on her expectations, Isabel gets feedback that she comes off as cold and uncaring, she never listens, and people feel disconnected from her. Isabel is now hurt, angry, and perplexed. What is there to listen about when people are not complying with basic‐level expectations?

Does Isabel's story resonate with you? Read this chapter if you:

• Focus most of your time and energy on managing structures and systems.
• See learning as mostly a process of acquiring skills and knowledge.
• Believe that sharing one's personal self is not appropriate at work.
• Believe that emotions have no place in leadership.
• Do not spend much time considering the feelings of others when you make decisions.
• Are often surprised to discover that your decisions or people's interactions with you personally have evoked negative reactions.
• Feel frustrated and impatient with others when they have these negative reactions.
• Highly value control when it comes to managing your team.

Transactional Leadership and Its Costs in Learning Organizations

There are forces in our sector that encourage transactional leadership, and for noble reasons. When transactional leadership works, goals are accomplished quickly. We see it in our sector's “better faster” mindset that assuages our urgency to close the opportunity gap. Better faster leads to expedited skill and knowledge breakthroughs for the majority of our students. It has also led us to prioritize transactional adult learning and transactional leadership approaches. Many of us reading this book learned everything we know about teaching and leading in these transactional school systems. We were likely selected to lead because our skills and mindsets matched institutional approaches and culture. However, as we rise through the ranks of leadership, the work becomes increasingly adaptive and we discover the downsides of an overly transactional approach.

Smart, passionate, ambitious young adults do not respond well to transactional leadership, which is largely about control and compliance. Transactional leaders take away space for creativity and true ownership over one's work. The approach seeks to create an external locus of control that replaces internal motivation with fear of consequences. People with transactional bosses tend to become dependent on them and do not feel comfortable making decisions without consulting them first. Smart, passionate, and ambitious young adults do not tend to stay in these kinds of environments. If they do, they internalize the approach and excel at it, becoming transactional teachers and transactional middle managers themselves, thus perpetuating the cycle. It probably goes without saying, but the conditions I describe here are not those that support most people—kids or adults—to reach their full potential. The effects of these conditions are amplified for marginalized groups, as overly transactional leaders reinforce the exclusion and disempowerment already endemic in society's systems of structural racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression. Keep reading for more on equity implications later in this chapter.

The Work Ahead

If you know that transactional leadership is getting in your way, keep reading. If you do not see yourself in the preceding checklist or case study, then maybe this chapter is not for you. Ask for feedback from your manager and a few trusted staff before making that decision. If others confirm your opinion, then skip ahead to the next chapter.

This chapter is a self‐contained learning journey. If you take it on, you could spend several months focusing on changing deeply engrained habits and building new adaptive muscles. Use the 5‐Square shown in Figure 4.1 and download a 5‐Square learning plan template from www.noblestorygroup.com to build your plan. You will also need a journal to explore new ideas.

Let's get started.

Figure 4.1: The EI 5‐Square.

Step 1: Start with the End in Mind

This journey starts by thinking about what success will look like when you are leading as an effective adaptive leader. Use your imagination to envision what you wil...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Introduction
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• I: Preparing to Do Mindset Work
• II: Working the 5-Square
• III: Staying Focused Over Time
• Appendices Introduction
• Appendix A: Transactional Leader Sample 5‐Square Development Plan
• Appendix B: Unintended Enabler 5‐Square Development Plan
• Appendix C: Negative Controller Sample 5‐Square Development Plan
• Appendix D: Pacesetter Sample 5‐Square Development Plan
• Appendix E: Doer Sample 5‐Square Development Plan
• Appendix F: Imposter Sample 5‐Square Development Plan
• Appendix G: The Implementer Sample 5‐Square Development Plan
• Index
• End User License Agreement