Colleagues,
I hope you’ll take a few minutes to reflect on your leadership this week. If you already have your own questions, great! If not, try these today:
After considering your answers, get up to a higher vantage point.
Please consider sharing your answer to one of these questions with me today by replying to this email. Do good and be well, Frederick
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Colleagues,
Dr. Anna Brink. Anna is the Director of Federal Programs, Accountability, and Professional Development for Laurens County School District 55 in South Carolina. District office (DO) leaders usually wear many hats, so being intentional about tasks is essential. Anna wrote: Sometimes when things at school/work seem overwhelming and you don't even know where to start, recognize some of the tasks that are still on your "to-do" list and find the one that is going to give you a much needed break, but that will serve and bless others. In my case, 4 pallets of Legos were delivered to a school instead of the district office to sort and as the week progressed, it hung over my head and I knew it was in the way at the school, but I am thrilled to "unbox" them and get them to the schools and it is now an added blessing that they are in an elementary school because we finally have students back in the building and I will not only be able to get my task done, but have fun doing it! One of the things that stood out to me was that Anna chose a specific time to do this task:
Tomorrow is Friday. What will you do to stay productive? Do good and be well, Frederick Colleagues,
Too many cooks spoil the pot, but many hands make light work. Can there be too many leaders? Yes. Can there be too few? Definitely. In answering the question, we need to distinguish between hierarchical and non-hierarchical. A hierarchical leader is someone with legitimate power, usually in a position that is formally above others in an organizational hierarchy. In general, one hierarchical leader will have a number of people who report directly to the leader. In most situations, these “direct reports” are only answerable to the one leader. When people are the direct reports of more than one leader, things can get very messy. A non-hierarchical leader does not usually have legitimate power, but holds one or more of the other four sources of power (referent, coercive, reward, expert, informational). When a hierarchical leader nurtures these powers in others, they are using a distributed leadership style. Distributed leadership creates greater shared responsibility and mutual accountability, so people in this situation tend to be more motivated. It also helps people utilize their strengths and creates a greater pool of leadership to draw from if key members leave the job. In an organization with high levels of distributed leadership, the hierarchical leader is able to focus on developing people as most of the daily organizational and managerial tasks are carried out by others. This makes distributed leadership a great option for strategic leaders. Do good and be well, Frederick Colleagues,
Yesterday we looked at four “essential” but often underappreciated leadership skills. Building others’ leadership capacity was on that list and today we look at an MVP (minimally viable product) for doing so. Four years ago, several colleagues and I published our findings on four actions school principals used to build others’ capacity. I’ve adapted these a bit to fit a broader audience:
There will be people who move into leadership positions without intentionally being developed, but developing a diverse pool of more leaders with higher levels of competence requires intentional efforts, skills, and strategies. Consider these questions:
Do good and be well, Frederick Colleagues,
This is another question from Mara’s list. The short answer is that skill is indispensable to a leader’s success. The great thing about skills is that you can become better at them through study and practice. In other words, you can always become a better leader by improving your skills! For the rest of this post, let’s look at four essential, yet underappreciated skills. Coaching If the job of a leader is to help the people around them grow and get better, then this is an indispensable skill. Coaching is a very technical skill, and anyone can do it if they are willing to study and practice. Facilitating risk-taking Innovation and improvement happen best in organizations where risk-taking is encouraged. Leaders can create such an environment, but it takes intention and skill. A subset of risk-taking is dreaming, as in developing a grand vision. A leader should not be developing that vision. Rather, it should be a collaborative effort, and that requires a safe space to take risks (sounds a bit oxymoronic, doesn’t it?). Building others’ leadership capacity Strong leaders know that being able to distribute leadership makes for a stronger and more stable organization. Developing collaborative teams High functioning teams yield better results and happier people. Team development may be one of the most complex and challenging set of skills. These aren’t the traditional set of leadership skills, but they are all focused on maximizing others’ performance. Remember that developing people is the fourth pillar of strategic leadership, so if you are committed to being a strategic leader, the four skill sets we just looked at are essential. Do good and be well, Frederick |
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