Powerless to Powerful by Salina Charles;Girtz Suzann;Eppinga Joanie;

Author:Salina, Charles;Girtz, Suzann;Eppinga, Joanie; [Eppinga, Charles Salina;Suzann Girtz;and Joanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2015-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Leadership Lesson #3: Time Is Golden

As a leader, use time wisely to identify, implement, support, and evaluate schoolwide systems that are aligned with the 45-day plan. This is essential in gaining relational trust from staff and is the beginning point in healing a school that feels powerless.

It’s expected that as you implement your 45-day plan, you’ll know where you want to go—but not how to get there. Remember, it is about learning new leadership behaviors to change old beliefs of staff. Formal leaders do well to embrace ambiguity and uncertainty. Fullan (2011) calls this “behave[ing] your way in” (p. 14). The journey heading true north is full of swamps and potholes that leaders have to navigate and avoid to arrive at the desired destination. Heading true north in a straight line is impossible.

Formal leaders and policy makers continually talk about the importance of instructional time, sometimes in regard to interruptions during instructional time or increases in the length of the school day. But not enough conversation has centered on how effective leaders spend their time facilitating change to develop a positive school culture. We might positively shift our learning cultures if we investigate how leaders spend their time during the school day.

One of the factors that results in leaders’ gaining trust from staff in a dysfunctional school is the creation of schoolwide systems that support teachers in helping students learn. The important concept in Lesson #3 is that initially, the time used in a low-achieving school is focused more on diagnosing and implementing systems schoolwide that support teaching and learning at the grade or department level and in the classroom.

The development of systems sends a message to the staff that leaders believe in what they are doing and want to support them in doing it. Staff members already know what’s not working in the school. When low-performing systems persist, teacher efficacy is low. Staff need to have someone who believes in them and challenges them so that a message is sent that they’re capable of getting the work done. This message is sent when staff see their leaders spending time differently—in diagnosing, understanding, and implementing systems that support their work as identified in the 45-day plan.

The way to start this work is to have leaders analyze each role they play and the time they spend in each of these roles. The model pictured in Figure 2.1 may prove helpful in this process.

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