Leadership Matters: Leadership Really, Really Matters!

Leadership is one of the most critical components of every organization and plays a crucial role in the success of the organization.  In all walks of life, we know that leadership matters.  The military has always known how important leadership is to success and been purposeful/intentional in training leadership, as well as having a structure to sustaining leadership when a leader goes down.  Leaderless armies would be a massacre and tragedy waiting to happen.  Businesses also know how important leadership is and are purposeful in making sure they have leadership that can lead the organization to great performance and often financial gains.  Churches also have leadership structures and know that the leader of the church sets the vision and expectations for everyone in the church.  What’s the first thing an NFL or NCAA team does when they have a losing season?....fire the head coach and replace them with someone they think can lead them to more wins and championships.  Everyone may not explicitly say it, but we all know that leadership definitely matters! 

 

I’ve always felt that any organization’s success is directly tied to the people in the organization, not the programs or material things.  Two positions in a school are the most critical for student academic success:  the principal and the teacher.  Great teachers and great leadership are the two most important parts to any school being successful.  The foundation of effective and successful turnaround is built on the foundation of effective leadership, hiring or building better leaders in schools and districts.  In the majority of school turnaround models originally utilized, replacing the principal and/or replacing the staff or a percentage of the staff were mandated to turn around a failing school.  There were also models like restart or closure, which still shifted people or shifted students to staff that was more effective.  Turn around models from NCLB, RttT, and the CARES Act have all been targeted at improving instructional leadership capacities within schools.  In building great leadership, we also have to remember that great leaders also help others to grow and improve their leadership capacities so that an organization’s improvement is sustained and continuous.  The investment is in people and there is more than enough science and research that shows how to build instructional leaders, but the key is in doing and putting that knowledge to work and in practice.  

 

Many principals and superintendents inherit schools or districts that are not only underperforming but also have a myriad of issues and concerns from students, teachers, parents, and the community. They are pulled in many directions every day. The jobs of superintendents and principals can be very fragmented and it is easy to put aside the most important work of school or district improvement. Leaders must be intentional about what they focus on. What the leader focuses on is exactly what the people in the school and district will focus on.  Everyone in an organization knows what the leader is focused on by where they spend their time. When leadership makes learning and building instructional capacity a priority, everyone in the organization focuses on this and this is the focus of the school.   In the current state of education, with shortages of great teachers and leaders, it’s more important than ever for leaders and organizations to build capacity in their people.  This is especially true for building instructional capacity in both teaching and leadership.  Real school improvement does not happen one teacher at a time. Real school improvement requires a collective, cohesive effort. This collective effort is led by a leader that understands the role of the lead learner is to build the capacity of the staff on an ongoing basis. There is an urgency that exists and helps to accelerate the learning of everyone involved. The schools and district understand that accountability for learning and results is everyone’s job.  Everyone is responsible for every student’s learning.  

 

The two best ways to improve an organization are to hire better people or make the ones you have better.  Great leaders do both!  Leadership matters!: It Really, Really Matters!