Values That Drive Leadership Work

Joshua Starr, managing partner of the International Center for Leadership in Education, points to three unwritten rules about leadership for superintendents to understand. PHOTO BY ALBERT CHEN FOR PDK INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION

Most nights, my wife checks the weather app on her phone in preparation for her morning walk. It not only tells her the likelihood of rain but also the “real feel,” which is supposedly a more accurate prediction of what the experience of being outside from 7 until 8 in the morning actually will be like.

Invariably, when she gets home, she will have removed an outer layer and say something like “It’s warmer out than they said it would be.” Her habit drives me a little nuts. I’ve never really cared much about the weather, except for when I used to call snow days as a superintendent and there were actual consequences. I’ve always thought that I know enough due to past experiences, and I can always step outside before donning outerwear. And it’s smart to throw an umbrella, a hat or maybe an extra layer in the car.

How we anticipate and respond to weather is not too different from how we find ourselves interacting within school systems. Conditions can change on a daily basis, but there’s a reasonably steady predictability to the school year. Every so often, there’s a surprise storm that requires significant attention. But for obsessive app checkers, any shift in conditions can either throw them off or make them feel confident in their level of preparation. Casual observers may go with the flow and be left soaking wet or with a sunburn due to their blasé attitude.

Discovering Nuances

Culture can make or break an equity-based transformation effort. Superintendents must actively tend to it yet are not the sole players. They inherit extant relationships and dynamics. If they’re new and from outside the district, superintendents must learn the nuances of interactions between and among elected officials, school leaders, association leaders, teachers, professional staff, community leaders, families and students.

In highly diverse districts like the two I ran, these relationships can be exceedingly complex and rife with history. Learning about these relationships often comes through the lenses and experiences of central-office system leaders. Superintendents are surrounded by their cabinets, principal supervisors and program administrators who give them problems to solve and decisions to make. They share what’s happening in a school with a particular program or how a leader handles certain situations. They brief the superintendent before meetings with community members and give talking points for speeches.

So superintendents who seek to change the culture of a system, especially when trying to drive an equity-based transformation effort, must first understand that they don’t have sole control and then ensure they’re getting complete information about conditions on the ground. They need to step outside and feel the weather for themselves.

To get a well-rounded view of a system’s culture, superintendents need to understand three unwritten rules of the system:

»There’s a difference between control and influence;

»Trust comes from the relationship between words and actions; and

»Great leaders are also buffers.

Control or Influence

A superintendent’s span of control is limited. School board policy, collective bargaining agreements and state statutes are guardrails that limit authority. Moreover, superintendents don’t directly supervise many people in the system. Yet they have the most influence, which can be used to engender a culture that supports an equity agenda. Effective leaders understand the difference between what they control and what they influence. Their transformation strategies reflect that understanding and reinforce the culture.

Consider one major example of how superintendents try to control something instead of using their influence. Many superintendents restructure their central offices, especially when they’re newly appointed, following significant budget cuts or when facing major resistance to change. The promise of restructuring is appealing. Revised job descriptions, different titles and realigned reporting structures hold the promise of transformation. Sometimes administrators are required to reapply for their jobs, supposedly to ensure the “right people are on the bus.”

Too often, however, this massive undertaking is a technical solution to an adaptive problem. Titles and offices change and there’s briefly new hope the central office will be more efficient and supportive of schools. But more often than not, adult behaviors regress to the mean. The superintendent has spent significant time and energy exerting control over the relatively easy, symbolic stuff of renaming. More likely than not, though, the day-to-day work of principal supervision, program administration, operational support and school improvement hasn’t changed.

If superintendents considered their sphere of influence rather than their span of control, they might approach it differently. Job descriptions and reporting structures are necessary, but they’re not sufficient when it comes to equity-based transformation.

The actual work that central-office leaders do every day to help schools improve is what counts. How they supervise principals by coaching, guiding and having clear standards of accountability makes an enormous difference. The allocation of resources according to school need is an essential equity strategy. Ensuring that talent is managed effectively and that employees are engaged, supported and always learning new skills is the foundation of any school improvement effort. And the list goes on.

Superintendents can’t directly control this kind of work through fiat. They must teach system leaders how to practice these skills and ensure they’re acting according to the vision and standards established for good central-office work. Superintendents can influence how others go about their work by learning together, coaching, collaborating and holding them to a high standard. That’s much more important than the job title or reporting structure. Superintendents can control their non-negotiable expectations for great adult practice but have to use their influence in order for people to adhere to them.

Trust

The foundation of any strong culture is trust. Trust is built by leaders following through on what they promise. Good leaders understand that not everyone agrees with them. After all, as Larry Cuban, professor emeritus at Stanford University, wrote, “Conflict is the DNA of the superintendency.” The approach to decision making engenders trust between leaders and followers. Given how difficult an equity-based transformation strategy can be, without trust it’s doomed to fail.

Superintendents who instill trust with their central offices, boards of education, teachers, support professionals, community leaders, families and students do so by making decisions with integrity. By integrity, I mean transparency and adherence to a process. Equity-based transformation requires difficult decisions. Let’s say that resources need to be reallocated to support a school that has a burgeoning population of immigrant children needing more support. To better serve this group of children, time, talent and funds need to be directed toward the need. Reallocating resources often is controversial within a community, even if it’s an obvious solution.

To build trust, a superintendent has to show who will be involved in the decision, what data will be used, how stakeholders will be involved, what the timeline is and who has the final decision. How many new staff are being placed in the school and how will they be chosen? What new practices will teachers be expected to use and when will they have time to learn them? Who gets to decide what new materials or professional development will be purchased? Will the schedule be changed to support “push-in” English language learning and other services or will students be pulled out of class? How will these scheduling decisions get made? And the list goes on.

The process by which the organization makes those decisions is what sustains culture.

Buffering

The third unwritten rule that superintendents must understand to sustain an equity-based transformation effort is their role as a buffer. In a rainstorm, a leader is the umbrella. Even if trust has been established and people have been moved to action, equity-based transformation engenders conflict. Effective superintendents protect their board, team, principals and allies from the gale winds in order to move their agenda through.

This may seem like a paradox. On one hand, a leader needs to be surrounded by people who have their backs in a battle. On the other hand, the superintendent is at the top of the hierarchy and has to be out in front, taking the heat so others can do the work. It’s a delicate balancing act.

Suppose part of an equity-based transformation agenda is opening up access to advanced classes. The superintendent’s team has worked with principals and school staff and made collaborative decisions about the process. The board of education has been prepped and is ready to pass policies and allocate resources. Students have been engaged and support the change. Community leaders have voiced their support for the move. And yet, some parents are opposed because they fear that curriculum will be watered down or their child’s college application will look weaker because advanced courses aren’t seen as elite anymore.

A superintendent in this case has to be the buffer between the people who are going to do the actual work and the naysayers. They must protect advocates, allies and educators so the change can be made. Yet they have to do so without taking away the authority of the board or the principals.

Messaging is perhaps, a leader’s most important buffering move. Great leaders are constantly communicating to multiple audiences — through different mediums — about why they’re making a change and what’s going to happen and when. They manage expectations of internal and external stakeholders.

Moreover, great leaders insist on a consistent message. When superintendents are visible and actively participate in an equity-based transformation effort, they’re acting as a buffer because their presence symbolizes the importance of the work. When they get out in front of community groups, newspaper editorial boards, students and faculty, they’re providing a buffer that allows educators to do the work. When they use social media, write op-eds or make videos about the intended change, they’re providing a buffer for other leaders. These kinds of actions won’t completely quiet the critics or stop the rain, but they will sustain a culture for people to do equity-based work.

Toward Mutual Gain

I try hard not to get too annoyed with my wife when she confidently asserts the chances of rain or the need to grab a sweatshirt. Her harmless habit is not going to change, so rolling my eyes won’t help. My wife’s actions and my response are part of our family dynamic and culture. Our long-term success is much more important than trying to convince her the app is worthless. How we choose to interact with each other is part of the foundation of our relationship and it’s not worth fighting over something so trivial.

So, too, in school systems, how we respond to others in the face of disagreements or react during stressful situations or make collaborative decisions to our mutual benefit forms the basis of relationships, exposes power dynamics and establishes culture.

JOSHUA STARR, a former superintendent, is the managing partner of the International Center for Leadership in Education. Twitter: @JoshuaPStarr