As the principal or assistant principal, teacher-leaders are critical for your school’s success.  More than anything, they need your support.  What does that look like?  Here are three things that you can do to effectively support your teacher-leaders.

1. Acknowledgement:   Seems simple, but among the most important ways to support your teacher-leader is to acknowledge their efforts.  If you have someone who is heading up an effort at your school, make sure to acknowledge what they’re doing.  You may need to accomplish this in a number of ways.  The most important is face-to-face:  make sure that your teacher-leader hears you say “thank you.”   It’s been my observation that most teachers are wonderful people who will go a long way on just a little.  If you have a teacher who’s taking the lead on a new reading program for the school or her grade level, make sure you acknowledge that you know what they’re doing.  If a couple of your teachers are leading the Honor Society Induction, drop them a note to thank them for their work.  Acknowledge the efforts of your teacher-leaders in meetings, in newsletters, and in your social media efforts.  Don’t just include those who are sponsors and coaches, but also those who are leading academic efforts.  Again, this seems so simple, but it is so important just to acknowledge the extra effort being extended by your teacher-leaders.
2. Attendance:  Be there.  It goes hand-in-hand with the acknowledgement of their efforts.  Show up.  When one of your teachers is leading the way in using technology in her classroom, be there.  Not just to write it up as an observation, but  to be there to support her work.  You know to be at the marquee events, but the principal who shows up at all of the other events as well is one who is building a culture of teacher-leadership.  Again, this may seem very intuitive for you, and if it does then you’re on the right track.  Sometimes just “showing up” is enough to demonstrate your support for your teacher-leader in a significant way.
3. Appreciation:   It’s the next part of this progression:  after you acknowledge that you know that your teacher is leading, and because you attend demonstrations of the work, you are able to show your appreciation to your teacher.  This goes a little deeper than acknowledgement.  Since you’ve been in attendance and seen the work, now you can really show your appreciation.  Find ways to show your gratitude to your teacher-leader for the work that they have done.  One of the most important parts of appreciation is thoughtful follow-through.  “Thank you” is nice;  even nicer is something like this:  “thank you for opening the world up to our students through the work that you did on this project.  The level of commitment that you demonstrated is a great example for all of your students…   Appreciation is demonstrated not only by gratitude, but though an understanding of what’s been accomplished that can only be reached by spending time to observe and reflect.  That’s why appreciation is a step beyond acknowledgement.

Supporting your teacher-leaders in their leadership work and their development is an investment of time but it is most likely going to be something that will be natural for you as a leader.  If you support them with intentionality, you’ll be amazed at what it will do for your culture-building efforts.

This is the final episode of a two-week series on teacher teams and teacher-leaders.  If you take a look back through the last few days here at Principal Matters!, you’ll see how we have arrived where we are today.

#Leadership365

/104

Are leaders born or are they taught?

Regardless of which side of that argument you come down on, you’ll probably agree that experience can be a great teacher of leadership, whether you have predispositions to lead or not.

If that’s true, shouldn’t principals be ever-seeking opportunities for leadership for teachers, students, and staff?

Over the past two weeks, we’ve looked at a topic that’s inspiring conversations at schools nearly everywhere:  teacher teams and teacher-leaders.  How do we have the most effective teacher teams?  How do we prepare and support the teachers who lead those teams?

That line of questioning led us to yesterday’s topic:  What if we focused on leadership  with everybody?  Today’s column carries that question to its natural conclusion:  HOW do we connect everyone to leadership opportunities? 

Here are some steps that can support your teachers and students as leaders:

1. Permission to Lead:  Having a culture of leadership at your school begins with… giving everyone permission to lead.  Sounds unnecessary, but it’s important as the principal to set the tone that everyone’s ideas and contributions matter.  If your teachers and students believe that you’re there to say ‘yes’ then they’ll be more likely to step up to lead.  Make it clear and say it plainly.  Leaders wanted… all over the school.
2. Identify Your Passion:   Principals need to be asking teachers and students about their individual passions.  We need protocols that support this work.  It can be done easily electronically, but it should be done universally and often.  If you have people thinking about their passion at school, it’ll change the culture immeasurably.  Everyone does better when they’re interested; if you set the tone that everyone’s a leader, step two is to engage everyone in exploration of their own interests and a particular passion.
3. Gather Your Team:  Once you have permission to lead and have identified your personal passion, it’s time to find like-minded folks to join you on this journey.  You need to build a team.   It can be small (1-2) or large, a standing committee or an organically-formed group who join your interest.  If you’ve built a culture of creativity and collaboration, now all you need is to find each other and begin to act like a team.
4. State Your Mission:  There’s you, your passion, your team, and now you need a mission.  It needs to be clearly stated and shared for understanding with your team.  The mission drives you through uncertainties and sets you on the course of your journey to success.
5. Design Your Plan:   Often, people want to go straight to this step without the preceding ones.  That can be problematic.  You don’t need the plan first to get your team.  You DO need your passion, and then your mission.  Once you’re set with the important beginning elements, THEN it’s time to design a plan to support your mission.  
6. Implement!  Ideas into action! Work your plan.  Just do it.
7. Own The Results:  Being in charge means accountability.  Many of the candidates for leadership positions have the interest in the position but maybe not the experience.  This is what I believe to be one of the most important components of learning leadership.  Without a sense of vulnerability and a risk that your idea might not work, there’s not a lot to learn.  Leadership skills grow when you have to work with others, you own the results, and you are responsible for both parts (the results and the people involved).

How can you connect your people into this leadership framework?  The more that teachers and students lead, the more that teachers and students learn.  Leadership can (and does) happen in the classroom, but everything that happens in the classroom isn’t necessarily leadership.

Inspire leading by inspiring learning.  Foster a sense of exploration and curiosity.  Ask people what they’re passionate about.  Challenge both teachers and students to create things.

The more leaders at your school, the more ideas you’ll have and the more effective your school will be.

#Leadership365

/103

Principals and Assistant Principals hear a lot about leadership.  If you serve the school in one of those roles, you are identified as a leader by title.  You’re also called upon to extend leadership to others, which often means teachers, a leadership team, and others who are involved with you in the administration and leadership of the school.

We’ve been looking at teacher-leaders over the past two weeks, examining what the principal and assistant-principal(s) can do to develop and support teacher-leaders.  In today’s column, we toss out an idea that might make it all come together for you at your school.

The idea is simple:  build more leaders by developing a leadership development program for everyone.  

You might be thinking, “wait!  I am having trouble trying to get a few people to do well in leadership.  Why would adding on more be a good idea? ”  While that argument may seem logical at first glance, consider this:  what if you could establish as a norm for your school ‘leadership.‘  (replacing what norm that conflicts with it now?  Followership? Indifference?)

What if your school was designed behind this premise:  everyone is a teacher, everyone is a student, everyone is a leader.  If you can build a culture in which teaching, learning, and leading are the foundation, you will find it much easier to have effective teacher teams.  You’ll find that as personnel changes occur, you won’t be starting again at the beginning, but you’ll have people ready to take the lead.

What if you taught leadership to all of your teachers?  To all of your students?  To all of your staff?

What if everyone identified areas in which they wanted to lead?  What if your teachers reported their evidence of leading just as frequently as they uploaded their lesson plans?

What if you developed, borrowed, or purchased the necessary resources to lead a focus on leadership at your school?  Would your school be a more effective learning institution if your teachers and students saw themselves as leaders?

Right now, do you have a split among your faculty members?  If so, are they split by leaders and… non-leaders?

It’s easy enough just to say that everyone is a leader and that teaching is leading and leading is teaching.  Is that really enough, though?  Can you develop an explicit framework and a set of strategies to truly build a school of leaders?

I’ve visited schools that have adopted a framework for studying leadership on a broad scale.  (i.e., Leader in Me)  In those schools, teachers, parents, and students alike speak the same language of leadership.  A priority is placed on service.  The school talks about vision, mission and beliefs in the context of the school on a regular basis.  These schools are on the move.  Leadership becomes a common language and collaboration becomes the norm.

What if everyone at your school learned more about leadership?  What if they did many of the things that you have done and continue to do to be an effective leader?  (reflective practice, discussing your work with fellow practitioners, focusing on root-cause problems?)

Would your school be stronger if your teachers and students studied effective communication?  If everyone took time to learn techniques in interpersonal skills?

Just as we’ve had DEAR (Drop Everything and Read), what if we had DEAL (Drop Everything and Lead) when we all focused on leadership lessons, introspection and growth.

Here’s where I typically arrive while studying leadership:  when you’re working on being a better leader, you are also usually simultaneously working on being a better person.  If there’s even a fraction of truth to that idea, it’s worth the pursuit.

Leadership for everyone.  Connecting people with their passions.  Building a culture of supporting others around you.

#Leadership 365

/102

One of the things that has become clear to me over the past five years is that principals who aren’t happy with the way things are going often have no further to look for a reason than the person sitting behind their desk.

Not the visitor’s side of the desk.  YOUR side.

This column isn’t intended to unfairly cast a negative look towards principals.  What it is, however, is a reminder why outcomes are as they may be.

Take for example, teacher teams and teacher-leaders, the topic we’ve been looking at over the past few days.

On occasion, I’ll visit a school and the principal will share with me that one or more of her teams aren’t working well.  Team members aren’t pulling together.  There are some members of the team who are being negative.  The buy-in is shallow and not deep.

When I inquire about who is in charge of the team, it often is someone who the principal really doesn’t have confidence in to lead the team.  Sometimes it’s because the team leader doesn’t really have the dispositions for leadership.  One example is the team-leader who hates conflict and doesn’t want to make anyone mad (and ends up doing all of the heavy lifting on their own just to keep peace).  Another is the team-leader who doesn’t care if everybody is mad and bulls ahead without building consensus.

The problem is when the principal knows what the problem is and doesn’t do what’s necessary to remedy it.  Assigning someone to a leadership position isn’t enough to help them be prepared to lead.  It takes ongoing support, encouragement, and direction.  This is where some principals miss the mark.

You can’t always get what you want.  Sometimes you don’t have ready-made leaders available to drop into each spot where a leader is needed.  What you do always get is what you’ve put into a situation.  If, as the principal, you haven’t worked to help your teacher-leaders grow, that’s what you’ll get:  outcomes that match your input.

If, however, you’ve established a routine of supporting and coaching your teacher-leaders through their development, you’ll still get an outcome that matches your input, but that outcome will be more of what you were hoping for.

In short, as far as teacher-leaders and their efficacy, you typically will get out what you put in.  If you are fortunate to have ready-made leaders who require little from you to get going, consider yourself lucky, but make time to keep their development going.

What I’m suggesting is this:  if you want more effective teacher-leaders, you most likely will need to be intentional and explicit in your support and development of them for that  role.  Across the landscape, this is the exception and not the rule.  If we want our schools to progress as they should, we need to change it around.  It should be rare to find a principal who doesn’t have a strong teacher-leader development program.

If we do, we’ll have teacher teams that work collaboratively to improve instruction and carry out the school’s mission.  Without it, we’ll be hit or miss with the effectiveness of our teacher teams.

#Leadership365

/101

Here’s a question for you if you’re a principal :  what is the purpose of your “leadership” team?

What is that you want to accomplish by bringing a group of teachers together and calling them “the leadership team” or something similar?   Have you pondered that question or are you having a leadership team because there was one when you got there?

It’s reasonable to suggest that a leadership team might serve several purposes depending upon what you’ve charged them to do.  The purpose of your leadership team should precede picking your teachers, but in many cases it doesn’t.   So, what is your leadership team about?  Why do you bring them together?

Here are a few purposes of school-level leadership teams.  Think about which best describes yours.

1.  Administration:   This remains one of the functions of many grade-level and department leaders in schools around the country.  In these configurations, the leadership team is responsible for completing purchase orders, distributing materials, and for the most part serving as a distribution center for the members of her department or team.
2. Representative:   Some leadership teams are set up like a faculty senate or a student council.  The members of the team represent a group; they come together and listen to a variety of things on an agenda.  They may give their opinions, and in some schools they even ‘vote’ on items.  This representative function looks different than a purely administrative design; the teachers represent their colleagues and come to your leadership team meeting to interact with the information and make decisions.
3. Ambassador:  This is the reverse of the representative form of leadership team.  In this format, you bring teachers in and prepare them to represent the leadership team with their grade-level or department.
4. Hybrid:   Many schools have a hybrid of the previously-mentioned leadership teams.  They do some of the administration work, and some representing of their teachers, and some representing to their teachers.
5. Distributed:  In this model, you distribute the leadership of the school to a number of people.  Some may be department heads or grade-level leaders, others might be responsible for a program or initiative (PBIS, Freshman Academy, Pre-K).  This is different because you give broad authority to the individuals in charge of each group of teachers.

Which describes your leadership team?  There isn’t a right answer, but it’s one that you should be intentional about.  Obviously, some schools have a faculty who is ready for more responsibility than another.  The same is true for leaders; some leaders are more apt to share responsibility than others.

What you ought to be considering is this:  what model of leadership team would best serve the school and the students?  As we spent a week’s worth of columns last week looking at teacher-leaders and teacher teams, if you’re a regular reader, you probably know that this fits in somewhere with that initiative.

We will spend more time this week looking at teacher-leaders, the administrators who support them, and how we design for success.  To begin that conversation, here’s a homework assignment:  which of the models above best describe your current design of your leadership team?

#Leadership365

/100