What's Your Leadership Story?

A School Leader's Guide to Aligning How You Lead with Who You Are

Gretchen Oltman, Vicki Bautista

• Editore: ASCD
• Anno: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781416630418
• Argomento: Education
• Categoria: Leadership in Education

In this book, Gretchen Oltman and Vicki Bautista walk you through the eight steps necessary to craft a personal leadership philosophy: a reflective explanation of the leadership style, core values, mindset, and real-life experiences that make you the leader you are today.

When you can authentically tell your story, your school community will know you, what you value, and why you make decisions the way you do. You will rediscover a sense of purpose, renewal, and inspiration that may have slipped away amid the chaos of life—and you can build a stronger connection with those you lead and work beside.

Leading in a school setting does not mean you need to lose your individual identity. You became a school leader by following your own unique path. You possess talents that set you apart from others. By working purposefully to share your personal leadership philosophy, you can create a new expectation of what school leaders should be and counter the unrealistic assumptions that others may hold. You can be more than your title.

What's your leadership story?

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Chapter 1

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How Can I Be More Than My Title?

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Jake was transitioning from his job as a 6th grade history teacher to becoming the school's new assistant principal. In the classroom, Jake had an obvious rapport with the students—so much so that they voted him "Most Popular Teacher" two years in a row. His laidback teaching style was engaging and non-threatening, and he had a way of connecting with students that helped even the most reluctant learner want to know more about history.

As Jake began his new job, he was asked to deal with a former student of his who had just gotten kicked out of music class for disrupting the choir rehearsal. Jake sat down with the student, began to talk through why the student was behaving as he was, and eventually told the student that he would have to serve a detention for his class disruption.

The student immediately grew angry. "You used to be so cool," he said, "but now you're just one of them!" Suddenly, Jake realized that he was unprepared to accept what people thought of him in his new role as an administrator. What had happened to him?

Has anyone ever expected you to behave or act a certain way simply because you are a school leader? Consider our colleague, Andrea, an assistant superintendent who told us she is forced to shop in a certain part of town because community members are constantly watching her at the grocery store just to see how much she spends. Another school leader joked about not being able to exceed the speed limit because a ticket would be a black mark on her reputation. One teacher leader shared with us the struggles of meeting with her own children's teachers, noting that she felt they were reluctant to be forthright with her because of her position. An instructional coach told us about a time she shared a vacation photo on her personal social media page and faced critical comments from parents who questioned why she was not at work or how she could afford to take a vacation with her public school paycheck. Yet another school leader reported that he noticed a change in demeanor when he attended a school parents' meeting for one of his own children, with parents seated around him quickly ending conversations.

Many people make wrongful assumptions about school leaders or have unrealistic expectations for them because of the roles they fill at school. Imagine taking over for the retiring school principal only to be told you have to do things the exact same way she did. Or imagine being told by a team of teachers you are failing at your job because you choose to do things differently or challenge the existing norms in a building. We often teach our students to be resilient in the face of others' opinions, but it can be hard to take this advice when you are in a school leadership position. People will always have an opinion about how well you do your job and whether you are qualified to make the decisions you do. This book is designed to help you solidify your strengths as a leader, your qualities as a human, and your path as an educator. Although others may question or criticize you, one of the best professional tools you can create is a personal leadership philosophy (PLP) that clearly lays out who you are and what you hope to accomplish professionally.

You are so much more than your title—a friend, relative, leader, companion, colleague. Your title just explains the role you play professionally within a school setting. In a sense, you hold two identities: one based on your own lived experiences, mindset, core values, and personal leadership style, and another based on your title and perceived mainly by others. If these two identities conflict in some way, there can be problems. However, if you can authentically tell your story so your school community can know you, what you value, and why you make decisions the way you do, then you will build a stronger connection with those you lead and work beside.

Consider This

Think about your two identities—who you are in your everyday personal life and who you appear or are assumed to be in your role as a professional. Create a list of words that describe you in each role (thinking particularly about how others would describe you). Write those words here:

Personal Identity
[space provided for your response]

Professional Identity
[space provided for your response]

Now reflect on why some people might perceive you differently than you perceive yourself. Maybe your students think you are a strict rule-enforcer, but you know you are really a student-safety advocate. Or perhaps your colleagues perceive you as easygoing when in reality you are attempting to allow for shared decision making.

Find these "collisions of identity" and write about one here. Why do you think these different perceptions exist? How do you know the "collision of identity" is present? Where and when have you felt it? How does it make you feel in the midst of realizing someone is relating to you in your professional role rather than for who you really are?
[space provided for your response]

Being a leader can cause you to act differently in your professional role than you might in your personal life, and that makes complete sense. This can be especially noticeable when you serve a broad variety of constituencies. During the course of one day, school leaders might interact with students, teachers, parents, community members, fellow school leaders, alumni, and school board members in addition to our own friends and family members. With our students, we may try to come off as lighthearted or approachable. With school board members, we may want to seem decisive and in control. With our own families, we may be quiet and compassionate. Authentic leaders who lead with clarity and purpose find room for all necessary facets of their different identities to coexist.

Consider This

Esther has been a high school principal for 20 years. Before stepping into this role, she served as an art teacher, leading the district art curriculum adoption process and cofounding the student art show. As a principal, Esther is known for her witty disposition and relentless pursuit of behavior management within classrooms, but few would guess that she has an artistic side; she seems more like a rule-follower than a creative spirit.

Think of some ways Esther can merge her artistic and rule-driven leadership sides. What might she do to bring more of her personal side into her work world?

After some careful reflection, Esther accepted that she did not want to isolate her artistic side from her professional life. Therefore, she began to bring her love of art into the school—first by painting a mural near the school entrance illustrating the school's diversity and inclusive mission, then by commissioning teachers and students to paint other pictures throughout the school, bringing life to the drab hallways. She also made it a priority to advocate for arts funding in her annual budget meetings with the superintendent.

Leading in a school setting does not mean you should lose your individual identity. By working purposefully to share your leadership background, lived experiences, core values, and mindset about education with others, you can create a new expectation of what a school leader should be that reflects how unique and independent you are.

Why We Wrote This Book

Our experiences working with educators and with leaders from multiple disciplines have taught us that even though most educators can articulate a teaching philosophy, the same cannot be said of leaders and a leadership philosophy. Why is this? Many job interviews and applications for teaching positions require applicants to share their personal teaching philosophy, but few of the same requirements apply to those moving into leadership positions. Again, why is this? Why is a philosophy necessary in the classroom but not to lead an institution? What does that say about the value we place on our philosophies or guiding practices in the first place?

Unfortunately, there is little clear guidance as to what makes up a complete leadership philosophy. We have read books, websites, journal articles, magazines, and blogs seeking an easy-to-implement formula for our aspiring leadership students only to come up empty-handed. We immediately understood that this lack of resources directly affects school leaders of all kinds—principals, superintendents, teacher leaders, instructional coaches, curriculum directors, even staff. In our own work, we have observed that most educators don't really have a clear idea as to why their leaders lead the way they do or how to articulate an alternative leadership approach.

We hope you approach this book as a workbook, scratching notes into the margins and using it to reflect honestly on leadership. The book walks you through a variety of self-assessments and reflective prompts to help you tell your leadership story. Each self-assessment will provide insight about your leadership attributes to help you build an approachable, concise personal leadership philosophy that you can share with your school community. You will be challenged to engage with trusted colleagues, consider your leadership attributes honestly, and bring your leadership story to life.

Teaching Philosophy vs. Leadership Philosophy

It is important to distinguish between a teaching philosophy and a leadership philosophy. Most teachers enter the classroom with a teaching philosophy of some sort—a set of expectations for how to guide students, aspirations for student learning, and perhaps personal reflections about the meaning of learning. By contrast, a leadership philosophy outlines what followers can expect and identifies a cohesive strategy for leading followers and colleagues. Both philosophies require the educator to be self-aware and reflective and are effective when they accurately represent the educators' true beliefs and abilities.

Consider This

If you have a teaching philosophy available, use it for this exercise. If you don't, think about your initial years as an educator and how you would have answered these questions then.

What beliefs about education does your teaching philosophy reveal?
[space provided for your response]

What does your teaching philosophy say about how you will teach?
[space provided for your response]

What does your teaching philosophy identify as evidence of good teaching?
[space provided for your response]

When did you last revise your teaching philosophy and why?
[space provided for your response]

Who has read your teaching philosophy? Have you received any feedback on it? If so, did it lead you to change your philosophy in any way?
[space provided for your response]

It is fairly common for teachers to develop a teaching philosophy prior to beginning their first job and to share it both with students and the greater school community. However, over time, experience can reshape our philosophies. This evolution reflects both the continually shifting nature of education and our own evolution as educators. What worked yesterday does not always work today; likewise, what works with one group of students may be completely ineffective with another group. Flexibility, adaptability, and a willingness to learn are crucial. The same goes for school leaders. Every year presents new challenges, people, decisions, and disappointments. Leaders must be just as adaptable to change as teachers, and they are just as likely as teachers to see shifts in their philosophy over time.

Building a Personal Leadership Philosophy

Your personal leadership philosophy (PLP) is a reflective explanation of the leadership style, core values, mindset, and real-life experiences that make you the leader you are today. It should be no more than one page long and written in everyday wording free from jargon or insider language, and you should periodically revisit it to see if it needs readjusting to reflect changes to your philosophy.

The process of building a PLP helps you identify your unique characteristics, traits, and attributes. It relies on how you perceive your own life, the things and ideas that you value, and the experiences that formed your thinking. In developing a PLP, you are also creating a map to help others (your followers, most importantly) understand and appreciate how and why you lead the way you do.

Imagine being able to explain your leadership style, your core values, your mindset, and how your experiences shape your thinking in under five minutes. You would immediately telegraph that you embrace who you are and how you lead. To your followers and colleagues, you would appear confident and prepared. In your heart, you'd know you were just being you.

Everyone Is a Leader

Leadership is more than a title, position, or paycheck. Certainly, school leaders will have titles or positions that reflect leadership terminology and roles that require decision making and strategizing, but ineffective leaders with formal titles may not actually be leading at all, and some of our best leaders are not identified as such by their titles.

A walking tour through a typical school shows what we mean. As we enter the office, we greet the school secretary. Her voice welcomes all visitors in person, immediately setting the tone for how they perceive the building; she also closely guards the confidential communications of teachers and students and has a key to every classroom. We then wave to the assistant principal, who is meeting with a student and her parents about her recent lack of attendance. We stop by the principal's office, where we find the principal working on a budget and trying to determine class sizes for the next semester. Out in the hallway, we run into a custodian fixing a locker. Without his work ethic, the safety of students would be compromised. We overhear the choir teacher conducting students through a new song and the Spanish teacher reviewing verbs with his class. We then visit the lunchroom, where the lunch team is conducting a safety audit and revisiting a recent change in nutrition guidelines.

Clearly, not everyone who makes leadership decisions has a title or position that says so. In fact, schools need every single adult within them to make informed, ethical leadership decisions every day, oft...