Essential Lessons for School Leaders

Tips for Courage, Finding Solutions, and Reaching Your Goals

Joseph Murphy

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781628737547
• eBook ISBN: 9781629141237
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

This gold mine of wisdom from top education researcher and the bestselling author of Turning Around Failing Schools and Connecting Teacher Leadership and School Improvement contains key tips and strategies every school leader should know. Award-winning professor and former school administrator Joseph Murphy's concise and instructive lessons will help you stay focused on what matters most as you navigate the hectic world of high-stakes testing and accountability: • It really is all about the kids
• Optimism is essential
• Caring counts a lot
• Listen—let people finish talking
• Don't confuse excuses and explanationsEach lesson is coupled with context in a few sentences taken from Murphy's extensive real-world experiences. This collection is ideal for use in daily reflections, speeches, staff meetings, presentations, or as a gift to anyone who works with children.

YOU ONLY GET ONE HAND TO COUNT WITH

Educators are adept at expansion. If we can find 5 ideas, we can quickly turn them into 50 and then 500. Before long, we have shelves of binders. The problem is that no one is going to hang on to these lists. And even when a miracle occurs and someone does, no one is around to inform her or him what is really important. No one is going to pursue 16 goals or a dozen professional development ideas. No one is going to believe that 20 dimensions of anything require action. Become fluent with the one-hand rule. If you only get two fingers to count, what is important—for goals, areas of work, valued outcomes, and so forth? If you have four fingers, what makes the cut? If you start counting on your second hand, you may be in trouble. If you have to take your shoe off to count, it is likely that you have lost everyone.

LEAVE YOUR EGO IN THE CAR

Good leadership is not about you. It is about what you leave behind. When leaders with big egos leave, improvement often walks out the door with them. Good leadership does not depend on personality, certainly not on the big personality in the school.

HAVE THE COURAGE TO ADDRESS PROBLEMS DIRECTLY

I once had a colleague who told me about a problem that was vexing him at his school—a certain fifth-grade teacher who arrived to school late on a not infrequent basis. At our next meeting, I asked him if he had gained any traction on his problem. He replied that he had. In response to my inquiry, he informed me that he had sent a memo to all teachers about district policy about when teachers were to be at school and in their rooms at the start of the school day. What he told me was this: Rather than having the courage to talk to this single teacher whose behavior was inappropriate, he angered the entire rest of the faculty who were already doing the right thing. Not a wise piece of leadership.

TALK LESS

Most leaders talk too much in public meetings—and in private exchanges for that matter too. It is a bad habit that routinely dampens conversation and debate. Practice not saying anything for the first third of meetings. Pick your points of entry carefully.

MOST BARRIERS ARE SURMOUNTABLE

In the process of improvement, it is almost inevitable that significant barriers will arise. Ninety-five percent of us arrive at these seemingly insurmountable difficulties, acknowledge the impossibility of further movement, and turn back. Great leaders learn to dig trenches under barriers and find ladders to use to climb over them.

STRUCTURAL CHANGES DO NOT PREDICT SUCCESS

Principals and other school leaders are trained to solve problems and improve schools by identifying and importing structural changes to their schools—block schedules, ungraded classes, detracking, and so forth. This is problematic. The first iron law of school improvement is that structural changes never have predicted, do not now predict, and never will predict organizational success.

IT REALLY IS ALL ABOUT THE KIDS

It may seem trite to say it, but this lesson is often honored more in the breach than in practice. Keeping kids first does not negate the significance of others—but it does put things in the right order.

“This book captures all the lessons I have learned about educational leadership over the years in a simple and clear way. I have a principal on an improvement plan now, and it could have been written from this book. This truly helps me know I am on the right track.”

Christopher Shaffer, Director, High School Campus Springfield High School, OH

LET OTHERS WIN

Leaders often develop the bad habit of assuming that they need to win every skirmish, debate, point of contention, and so forth—what we call the Ty Cobb syndrome. It is not necessary and is generally tiresome. Get into the habit of letting others win.

UNDERSTAND FIRST, THEN JUDGE

Because they are generally in a hurry, leaders often judge before understanding situations. Snap assessments and quick judgments are part of the culture. It is always best to understand first.

LISTEN—LET PEOPLE FINISH TALKING

Teachers, students, and parents often have a chance to talk with the principal. Many will also tell you that they were not heard. Take the time to listen to what is being presented. Avoid jumping in with your answers until you take the time to reflect on what each person is telling you.

LEARN THE ACT OF TRIAGE

Given the complexity of schooling, it is easy to just keep adding material to the importance pile. Yet when everything is important, then nothing is important.

“Essential Lessons for School Leaders includes brief vignettes, each one exploring a differing leadership topic. Emotion is 60% of what attracts people to a product. From the first essay forward, Joe Murphy seizes the reader’s heart and mind with riveting themes.”

Richard Sorenson, Associate Professor The University of Texas at El Paso

WRITE IT BUT DON’T SEND IT

Always avoid immediate responses to troubling e-mails. If you don’t, you generally will wish that you had. You cannot withdraw e-mails. If you need a cathartic experience, reply, but do not send your response. Sleep on it. You will find yourself deleting almost all of these responses the next morning.

IT’S NOT PERSONAL

A very difficult lesson for leaders to learn—and remember—is that much of the critique that flows their way has little to do with them. It materializes not because of who they are but because of who they are in the organization. Do not personalize criticism. You will end up being unhappy and dividing faculty and parents into camps of supporters and non-supporters.

NO ONE EVER WINS AN ARGUMENT

A little wisdom from Ayn Rand. It doesn’t work for parents. It won’t work for leaders. Arguments are a colossal waste of everyone’s time—worse even because they often (generally) harden positions. Avoid them at all costs.

IF SOMETHING IS IMPORTANT TO SOMEONE, THEN IT IS IMPORTANT (EVEN IF IT IS OF NO IMPORTANCE TO YOU)

Principals, and other leaders, often discount the importance of things—activities, investments of time, material items, and symbols—that are not of particular importance to them. Anyone who has worked around children and adolescents should know better. If someone cares about something, then it is important. It is as simple as that, and you should act accordingly.

DIRECT THE SPOTLIGHT OF SUCCESS TOWARD OTHERS

It is only natural, when achievements are garnered and successes tallied, to wish to receive credit for those accomplishments. It is, however, much more important that others in the school—teachers, students, staff—be the ones on center stage as the story of success is told. Learn to deflect credit.

“These practical ‘nuggets’ of life, learning, and leadership are the real ISLLC standards.”

Fenwick W. English, R. Wendell Eaves Senior Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership, School of Education University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

SEEK SOLUTIONS, DON’T DWELL ON PROBLEMS

One of the major truths of organizations is “that nothing so economizes effort and energy as the knowledge that nothing can be done.” And few things lead to the conclusion that nothing can be done more than wallowing in problems. Leaders acknowledge problems but they move the conversation to the next level. What can we do to solve the problem, get around the problem, or use the problem as a springboard for action?

LEARN TO TELL STORIES

We live in a world where data are critical and evidence is king. But most of us don’t digest information this way. People are moved to action by stories of success. Get into the habit of making your points in this form.

“Murphy has distilled and perceptively packaged a career’s worth of insight, experience, and analysis into...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright
• About the Author
• Essential Lessons for School Leaders
• Index