Vision Leadership in Schools

Traditional school cultures are geared to maintain the status quo. It is not the fault of educators, who are passionate about learning, teaching, and students! (Here's a great post on Teachers' Passion). Schools are constantly at the whim of state politicians, federal mandates, and possibly local politics. Ugh...it's no wonder change is slow. 

However, campus and district leaders can, and must, do better. They can embrace vision leadership. This is not a new topic, but it is one that still is slow to see effective and consistent practice. How do we change this? What is the benefit of vision leadership? What is vision leadership in schools? Let's work backward through these questions.
Vision and School Improvement 

School Leaders with Vision

It doesn't take long to recognize when a principal, curriculum direction, or assistant superintendent has vision. They interact and engage daily with parents, teachers, students, and each with a sense of energy and purpose. They communicate on priorities. Their enthusiasm is not simply an over-the-top personality. It is a steady source of energy that is present in all their interactions.

Leaders with vision don't sway to and fro with the shifting sands of educational trends. They, like the hedgehog, stay focused on that one thing. For the hedgehog, it is digging tunnels. For the school leader, it is the vision of where they intend to take the school in the coming 5 to 8 years.

When the vision is present in a leader, it permeates every decision. How will this budget choice further our goals? How will this personnel move further us on the path to where we are going? There is a distinct target for them and their teams. Every effort is expended toward that aim.

Vision and School Improvement

Yes, every school has a vision and mission statement these days. Plan4learning and other campus improvement plan software get us to "put it in". That is not what this is about. That is 1% of the equation. Living the vision. That is 99%.

From the teachers, the status quo says, "Leave me alone and let me teach." From administrators, the status quo says, "I'm going to close my door and do some email, read some news, or even work on my doctorate work. I've been in enough offices to know this is the case (even in really strong schools). That's the shadow. Here's the highlight.

When a vision is created and shared across a campus and district it invigorates and unleashes a dynamic force of human talent and potential. School improvement is not a response to state accountability. With vision, school improvement is the dividend. It is the collateral benefit of shared effort aimed toward a long-term target. 

Vision takes the daily routine and makes every passing moment an opportunity to move forward. Every meeting, every challenge, and every idea is an opportunity to forge a new step toward a better school. This is how vision leads to drastic school improvement!

How to Gain Shared Vision

It might be a mistake to think vision leadership is all about the leader. It's not. Really, it is about the leader involving the most people in creating and maintaining the vision. Here's a post on why involvement is so much stronger than buy-in.

How do we create a shared vision? Remember, it's not about writing a statement...although we do want to put it in writing. We start by finding the teachers on campus who desire to improve the school. It's not about brains, talent, and seniority. It's about teachers who have a drive and passion to make and do better. 

With those teachers together, we can shape the culture fast. The leader's role is to ask the right questions. Present data that paints an accurate picture of the campus' current reality. Together, we learn the strengths and create ways to celebrate. Then we find weaknesses and discuss what it could look like five years from now. If we are able to tackle all of our challenges and improve our strengths, what would our school be like?

The discussion is open. It's simple. What could we be? What would be ideal? It's a shared dream session. It's not just a brainstorm, it's a dreamstorm. This is the first step to gaining a shared vision. Another time is needed to discuss how to develop it further, so let's move back to the necessity of leadership - the necessity to adjust leadership practice. It's an adjustment needed to empower campus dreamstorming.

How do we adjust leadership practice?

This can seemingly be more difficult than improvement instructional practice. It is not because we don't want to improve. It is not because we don't know how to improve. It is because we don't focus on improving leadership practice.

Yes, we do district training, we bring in leader mentors, and we have leadership meetings. But no, we don't put pressure on leadership practice. We just remove principals when schools fall. We just keep principals who we trust, whether or not they really are having an impact. We seek perfection, not growth. 

I say "we", but there are many examples of quality districts improving and growing leadership. But the research is quite clear, there are equal examples of districts focusing on perfection rather than leadership growth. Again, it is no real fault of district leaders. Often local politics, state mandates, and outside pressures define the decision-making process.

This brings us back to vision leadership. With vision leadership at the campus, district, and state/national level, we will create a picture of where we want to be. We will start eroding the culture of isolation and of perfection. We will replace traditional improvement planning with real visioneering. We will see more educational leaders becoming involved in professional learning networks locally, organizationally, and digitally. 

We can and we will. This is the mandate of vision leadership in schools. 

For more on topics discussed here, please read:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Accidental Diminishers, 6 Types for Self-Reflection

How Long Should Direct Instruction Be?

Learning is an Adventure