Education Leadership

Whether you are just getting started in your education career or already in a lead administrative role, there are many things you can do to be an effective leader at work. If you’re going to be the boss that everyone wants to hire or work for, you will need to implement certain practices. Here are a few tips gleaned from experts to become a successful education leader:

1. Close the door

While many educational leaders think an open door policy is best, this can lead to constant distractions and make it impossible to get any work done. Instead, establish office hours when anyone is welcome to come in, perhaps an hour or two out of each day. Also, schedule one-on-one meetings to keep communication in check.

2. Leave your phone

Don’t use your phone in any sort of meeting, whether it’s with a parent, teacher, or administrator. Even if you use your phone to take notes or review an email with information for the meeting, this can be perceived as rude or inattentive. Switch to using pen and paper, and print out or write down any information from your computer you need beforehand. This shows you prepared for the meeting in advance and are fully present and engaged.

3. You don’t have to be everybody’s friend

A good leader should be likable but doesn’t have to be liked by everybody. It’s impossible to have every single student, teacher, and faculty member like you. Focus more on being a good leader than on being a friend. When given a choice, pick doing the best job you can over being the most popular person at work, even if that decision may ruffle some feathers.

4. Recognize your mistakes

Great leaders recognize their failures and take responsibility. They also realize when something isn’t working and are humble enough to admit it, then adjust and make improvements.

5. Show vulnerability

This ties into recognizing mistakes. Great leaders aren’t infallible. There is strength in showing vulnerability and owning up to mistakes. Setting this example allows team members to own up to their mistakes as well, and creates a less stressful, more productive environment.

6. Listen

An effective leader is a good listener. Listen to everyone without judgment and hear all sides to an argument or all options before making a decision. Be open to new ideas from unexpected sources, because you never know where positive change can come from.

7. Be passionate

If you’re not passionate about your school, your students, or your staff, it will show. Not only will your school be miserable, but you will be, too. If you are unhappy in your position, maybe you need to look at a different school, a different position, or a different field altogether. Passion is what drives most people in the education field, and if you don’t have it, it can make your day – and your life – really drag by.

8. Keep calm and carry on

Good leaders stay calm in a crisis, while still showing that they understand the gravity of the situation. Whether it’s a discipline issue such as a fight or something as serious as a school shooting, a good educational leader should have a plan in place in advance and react calmly but seriously.

9. Develop your team

Take the time to get to know the strengths, weaknesses, and goals of your team. Give feedback, both good and bad, in a positive and motivational way.

10. Foster creativity

Old ways of doing things are not always the best ways. Foster creativity and a think-outside-the-box mentality on campus to provide solutions to problems and create new goals.

Whether you are seeking a higher role in the educational field or already working as a supervisor at some level, these tips can help make you a more effective leader and a better boss. Implementing even a few of these guidelines can make a drastic change in your work environment or your attitude towards work. As a leader, positive change in your workplace begins with you.

Many education leaders have lost their competitive edge. You know the type; they have been in leadership roles for decades and refuse to evolve or develop the substance that it takes to be a sustainable leader. Instead of attending education leadership workshops, conferences, etc., they are ok with being complacent and refuse to improve their skills.

They do not understand that education leadership is a fluid position that changes often. Being an effective education leader is hard work, and requires you to have a grand vision, patience, and peerless decision-making skills.

In the not so distant past, an education leader could get away with being marginal, as the pressure to perform was not that high. All you needed to do was keep the teachers from planning a mutiny, the kids from burning down the building, and parents happy. Now, with the accountability era reaching its fourth decade, education leaders everywhere are expected to perform a high level.

In the face of new pressures, transformative education leaders continually reinvent themselves. This ensures that they always have their finger on the pulse of the moment and that their leadership style will always be relevant. In a nutshell, their approach to leadership is to be proactive and continuously improve.

So now we finally get to the million-dollar question. Is your education leadership style relevant or woefully outdated? To help you figure this out, here are four warnings signs that signal that it’s time to consider a change in your leadership approach and style.

1. You make bad decisions. If you find that you are starting to make uncharacteristically bad decisions and people are starting to question your judgment, then its time to consider a leadership style change. When education leaders start to make bad decisions consistently, it’s a sign that they are out of touch with the times. They need to reset and learn how things work in the here and now, not how they worked years ago. For instance, a principal that has been in their position for 30 years may be accustomed to making gut decisions about curricular or resource adjustments, but this is woefully outdated. Nowadays, education administrators use data-driven decision making.
2. You grow complacent. The moment you become complacent, your ability to be an effective education leader will begin to nosedive. When you grow complacent, you stop growing, and your attention to the small things starts to wane. After that, you lose your executive presence, risk-taking ability, and creativity.
3. People stop liking you. To be a great education leader, people must like you. If they don’t, you need to change your leadership style. This usually happens when you forget how to be a great leader. For instance, most people measure a great leader based on the number of leaders that they create. If you rarely delegate tasks and projects, your employees might get restless and feel like all they do is grunt work. Because of this, they probably won’t like you or respect your leadership, as they feel that you are holding them back. Develop a reputation for growing your employees and for being approachable. Then, you will have no problem getting people to like you.
4. You stop reinventing yourself. If you don’t evolve and continuously reinvent yourself, you will not last long as an education leader. This is a pivotal success factor of leadership. To do this, keep your pulse on the trends and issues in education and education leadership. Also, you will need to be a voracious learner; so, attend workshops, read books, attend conferences, etc. Remember, if you can’t reinvent yourself, how will you reinvent your school or district in the face of financial and governmental pressures? Education leaders who don’t reinvent themselves get stuck in a funk and find their career path limited.

Now ask yourself again, is your leadership style outdated?

Wrong or right your reputation precedes you. When starting our as a new or established education leader, your reputation can make or break your tenure. In a perfect world, people would wait to get to know you for themselves before passing judgment, but then again this is not an ideal world. If you don’t already know, your leadership reputation is how people judge your level of character or integrity. Sometimes there is some validity to an education leader’s reputation, but sometimes there isn’t.

For instance, you were formerly the assistant principal of a middle school within your district, and you are being promoted to the position of principal, at another middle school in the district. You were successful at your former school, and most of your colleagues believed you were the best administrator that they ever had. However, some may not necessarily feel this way, partially because of the fact that on several occasions you had to write them up because of serious infractions.

When the staff at your new appointment find out that you are being hired, they will inquire about your reputation. The stories they hear will be a mixed bag, and unfortunately, most people will spread the believe and spread the negative rumors, way more than the positive. So what do you do? Although you are not perfect, you know that you were productive, hence your promotion. So how can you improve your reputation as an education leader? Here’s how.

1. Find our what your leadership reputation is. Some people would say send out a survey so people can comment anonymously. Don’t use this option unless you are strong enough to find out what people really think. You can also ask a colleague to find out. They can give it to you in an authentic way, and make it sound more constructive than a survey.
2. Establish the reputation that you want. Although your reputation may not be what you would like it to be, you can always change this. People will believe negative stories about you initially, but this perception of you will change once their beliefs are challenged. Let them see the real you, and watch your reputation improve.
3. Don’t try to be liked. When people find out what others think don’t like them or think negatively about them, they go out of their way to get them to love them. Beware this can compromise your ability to lead, and sabotage your tenure.
4. Go on a charm offensive. Instead of trying to get people to like you, go on a charm offensive. This doesn’t going out of your way to get people to like you, it just means using a pleasant demeanor to soften their stance. Who can live with making you out to be the bad guy, when you are just so pleasant to be around?
5. Be accountable. The negative things that others say about you may have a lot of validity. If this is the case, its time to take a look in the mirror and come up with a plan to improve these negative attributes. Be transparent about the things that you are working on. Ask peers, friends, and family to hold you accountable for your actions. Thank them, and don’t get defensive. But also, don’t allow them to use this to manipulate you.
6. Reflect. At least once a week, but preferably daily, take time to reflect on how you are doing. Make sure you find a place where you feel centered and at peace. Are you proud of the interactions that you have had with others, and the decisions that you have made? Were these decisions and interactions emblematic of someone with integrity and morals? Are you doing everything that you can to meet your reputation goals? Don’t be too hard on yourself. You are human, and so you will make mistakes. You have to be ok with that. Use your mistakes to your advantage and keep working towards your goals

What do you think about my list? Are their other things that education leaders can do to improve their reputations?