The shade of influence cast by the person at the top of the school district’s organizational chart is wide and deep. It does not matter if the organization is an immense urban school district or a compact rural district. The style and values of the superintendent convey an ethos and way of doing business that must be understood and incorporated by any person engaging in the work of the school district. Those who are able to identify and work within the proclivities of the organizational leader can make significant contributions to the productive work of the schools. Those who cannot or do not understand their leader’s style and priorities face unavoidable frustration and dissatisfaction.
This article is written to assist school personnel to adapt and adopt to a new superintendent. The applications also apply to creating working relations with a new school principal. This is a true statement: During your career your school district will employ almost a dozen different superintendents. Your long term success can depend upon your ability to adapt and adopt when leadership changes.
Every year school districts seek and find new school superintendents. The average tenure for school executives in the same position was 3.6 years in 2010. Generally, superintendents are hired, work their leadership for several school years, and then they move or are moved on. Tenure for other central office administrators, principals and teachers is much longer than that of a superintendent. This turnover rate makes it imperative that school leaders below the superintendent become adept in working with different leadership styles.
I have watched with interest the drama surrounding the musical chair that is the Milwaukee (WI) Public Schools superintendency. The current occupant, Gregory Thornton, is moving his career to Baltimore at the end of this month. Thornton is the 6th person in the MPS superintendent’s chair during the past 20 years. In July 1, Darriene Driver, Chief Innovation Officer for MPS, will become the interim superintendent. For the past half year, the in-district and community conversations have ebbed around the generally very favorable effects of the Thornton era and how his personality and organizational leadership achieved these outcomes. This is the act of reviewing leadership. At the same time, those previewing the next leader want to know the extent to which Driver’s leadership values and skills will be different and how those differences will impact the school district.
I also am paying attention this summer to the leadership replacement efforts of small school districts. The dramas in large and small organizations are very similar in professional processes and legalities, but are very different in their everyday dimensions. The MPS Board of Education seeks a person who figuratively is in charge of the schools. When Thornton leaves Milwaukee, MPS loses its figurehead. Smaller school boards seek a person who literally is the school(s). When a small schools superintendent leaves, the district literally loses their head. It is the concept of “headship” that each school district seeks to replace.
Beginning with the Board of Education’s (BOE) naming of a new superintendent, every person engaging with the district has the opportunity and need to understand “how” the new superintendent lives and works professionally. In Meredith Willson’s Music Man, the traveling salesmen on the train to River City, IA, sang, “… you have to know the territory…” if you want to succeed in River City. Knowing how the superintendent leads and exerts leadership is the territory that enhances or obstructs a subordinate’s success in a school district.
One can be clinical about this. A Google of educational leadership styles will report that leadership has been a topic for the ages. There is a wealth of literature. Short of a dissertation, I offer four personal actions that will provide you with a quick understanding of your new superintendent and how to successfully adjust to his leadership.
1. Understand and adopt the new credo. Successful superintendents develop a professional credo or set of philosophic tenets upon which they base their leadership. Often their credo is encapsulated in a slogan or motto. Their motto may read like one of these.
Equality of learning opportunities for all children
Assuring that all children are college or career ready
One year’s growth in learning for each year in school
Safe and secure schools for everyone
Closing all achievement gaps
A 21st century education for all children
Caring and nurturing schools
Cost effective schools
Every child a graduate
You can bet that the BOE knows their new hire’s credo and motto. So should you. Take the new super’s motto and apply it to your work. It may seem like sucking up, but, in reality, adopting the new super’s motto assures that your work is aligned with his.
2. Adopt new accountability systems. A change of leadership often brings new metrics for measuring school success. Using new measurements devices does not change current realities, but it does allow the new superintendent to declare, “Beginning now….” New metrics are all about accountability systems. Understand and adopt the language of these new metrics. Make them a part of your professional conversation. This allows you to see your work in the framework of the new superintendent’s leadership and know that your work can be seen and valued by those doing the measuring.
3. Adapt with patience, acceptance and resilience (PAR). New leadership can be traumatic to school organizations, especially if the Board expects the new superintendent to “change things.” Knowing that people are not always opposed to change, but are usually opposed to being changed, PAR gives you resources most others are not able to grasp during times of organizational trauma. Be patient in order to understand the big picture of your district’s new leadership. Knee jerk responses to every small detail only exacerbate the trauma. Let the new regime unfold. Patience allows you time to analyze, evaluate and make a judgment about the efficacy of the new changes. Be accepting that the BOE and new superintendent are on the same page related to these changes and that employees who cannot adapt to the changes may become unemployed. Most of the changes arising from new leadership will have a thread of consistency so look for those threads. Be resilient. Change theory says that any introduction of a new variable into an organization always causes conflict and a level of opposition. There will be a point in every leadership transition when one or more elements of change seem just plain wrong. Pick your battles wisely and do battle where and when it really matters. Questioning and offering a counter argument are necessary for big picture clarity. In doing so, know that all conflicts leave wounds. Be resilient and heal thyself. Success will come to those who understand the new leadership, accept the authority of the new direction, and are able to weather any conflict that arises.
4. Adopt new organizational navigation skills. Each new superintendent will create his own vanguard. These are the persons and leaders who are at the forefront of the superintendent’s new organizational structure. Some within the vanguard may be new faces and others will be district veterans. Know who is responsible for what. Know how to access members of the leadership team in order to obtain the resources you need to succeed in your work. Often the new vanguard is viewed as a buffer between the superintendent and everyone else in the schools. The quicker you learn to navigate and connect with the district’s new leadership team, the more efficient and effective you will become in achieving your professional goals.
Navigation skills include an understanding of the new superintendent’s use of accessibility. In contrast, some supers use an “open door” system and anyone can approach the superintendent when the door is open. An open door superintendent typically is comfortable with spontaneity and ad libbed decisions. Other superintendents rely upon intermediaries to screen their accessibility. “By appointment only” allows the superintendent to foresee and prepare for potential decisions. Closed doors mean closed to less accessible superintendents. Quickly learn how the superintendent prefers to be accessed and adapt to this preference.
Each time a new superintendent is hired, all eyes in the school and community immediately go to that person. It is a new day! When this happens, use these adopting and adapting skills to assure your future success. Don’t get caught staring and wondering “What am I supposed to do now?”