Practicing Strategic Leadership D. Shepherd

Practicing Strategic Leadership

Chapter 15Diane Shepherd

Learning Objectives

• Craft a personal leadership persona and style• Identify core values relevant to leadership• Construct a professional philosophy of education and of

management• Set priorities for leadership action• Comprehend considerations in deploying people,

resources, and times• Communicate with a spectrum of audiences• Employ leadership symbols and follower impressions• Conduct difficult conversations with colleagues,

subordinates, and upperlings• Understand the significance to a leader of personal ethics

and consistent behavior

Shaping One’s Leadership Style

What is Leadership Style?Leadership style refers to the composite of and

interactions among all personal and professional traits and components.

An individual’s personal, physical and professional facets fit comfortably in a self-reinforcing amalgam of attributes and actions, and successful leadership is the result.

A reader can pick and choose to weld together a leadership style that is congruent and fits with what one genuinely believes and can consistently do.

Leadership……Work in Progress

Leadership Styles Taken from History:

George S. Patton:He believed he was predestined from on high forleadership, possessed a steely discipline.

Eleanor Roosevelt:A shy, awkward, somewhat emotionally mistreatedchild, starved for adult recognition and peer acceptance, grew into a woman with great sensitivity to the underprivileged of all creed, races, and nations.

Leadership Styles Taken from History Cont.

Jack WelchCEO of General ElectricUnder his leadership the value of the corporationsoared by billions of dollars.

Harry S. Truman,Self-effacing and genuinely humble, undistinguished career as a farmer, military officer, upon rising from Vice-President to Commander-in-Chief.

Leadership Styles Taken from History Cont.

Mother Teresa,Who grew famous for selflessly ministeringTo lepers, the homeless, and The poorest of the poor, in the slums of Calcutta.

William J. Clinton,President of U.S. from 1992-2000, was among the nations most charismatic presidents and husband of Hillary Rodman Clinton the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving within the administration of President Barack Obama.

Leadership Styles Taken from History Cont.

Martin Luther King Jr.,Mr. King’s style is the embodiment of strategic leadership. As a enemy of much of the nation’s power structure, he adhered to his beliefs and ultimately achieved unparalleled success.

Leadership Styles Taken from History Cont.

Ronald Reagan,His philosophies were in many ways counter-opposites of Martin Luther King, Yet ironically, each was a absolute world class strategic leader. He was responsible for undoing the hegemony of the former Soviet Union.

Self-Consciously Constructing a Leadership Style

Style is…….

In large measure, Situational:

• Different Qualifications

• Interest

• Styles

Leadership Style Categories

• Examined Experience

• Observation

• Actively Searching for models

• Practice

• Outside Criticism

• Reflection

Constructing Professional Philosophies

• An educational leader is often called upon to explain his or her philosophy regarding learning, management, and the links between the two.

• The precise nature of one’s philosophy and all of it’s individual components is seldom as important as having a coherent view of how learning takes place and how schools as organizations should be managed to maximize learning.

• Role playing

Putting Life into Practical Priorities

• Your principal tools are:oPeopleoMoney oTime

It is not sufficient for strategic leaders to look at these resources as either/or. An effective leader must orchestrate all three.

People

• No leader can perform effectively without the help of others.

• Selecting, motivating, and appraising those “others” is an important tool.

• Empower those who work for you.• Act consistently

Money

• Educators are sometimes uncomfortable and reticent in dealing with money because they seldom have been trained regarding finance.

• Here are productive steps to pursue in order to take advantage of an organization’s budget process.

• The following steps will likely meet with resistance, as budgeting is far more a political and social than a technical undertaking.

• Insinuate yourself in your organization’s budget planning process to occupy a place at the center of this endeavor. When you have a full budgetary understanding and is pursuing the path specified by your vision, you can then return the reins of budgeting to subordinates.

• Ensure that you are fully in the information loop regarding important budget-planning matters.

Money cont’d.

• Inform yourself regarding federal government regulations pertaining to any program, school, department or related activity for which as a leader you have responsibility.

• Become technically informed regarding any formulaic distributional or allocation decision rules.

Money cont’d.

Money cont’d.

• Strive to move your organization away from employee salary arrangements.

• Maximize budgetary discretion for subordinates in whom you have confidence.

• Pursue efficiencies and organizational incentives.

Time

• Time is the most elusive of a leader’s resources.

• Individual’s have alleged to need little or no sleep.

• A leader can routinely expect to work 50 to 60 hours per week.

• This means that there are 2,500 to 3,000 hours per year to be allocated to matters related to work.

Time cont’d.

• As for most education leaders a question regarding “how to spend one’s time” has an air as unreality to it.

• For a school official a predetermined calendar of events can easily happen.

Block Scheduling

• A leader should consider flexible or block scheduling.

• A leader’s job is to react to conditions that are not always predictable.

• Use anticipated free time to undertake actions consistent with your larger goal, elevating student achievement.

Walking Around

• Have a random schedule.• Engaged with people wherever

possible.• Talk to as many individual’s as you

can.• Do not feel guilty because for most

leaders it is enjoyable.

Time to Reflect - Activity

• Can you think of downsides to managing by walking around?

• How available do you think a leader should make himself or herself to subordinates?

• Should a principal or superintendent specify office hours when anyone can drop by to talk about anything.

Communicating Purposes

• Communication can take at least three forms: oral written and informal or non-verbal.

• One should consciously craft an ability to speak effectively to audiences.

• Effective public speaking is a most for a leader.

Communicating Purposes Cont’d

• One should sharpen writing skills.

• Good penmanship is rare.• Handwritten notes convey a

special message.

Creating Impressions

• Others will other will have an impression of you as a leader.

• It can be superficial, unflattering or incorrect impressions.

• Creating a favorable impression is similar in marking and brand loyalty.

Confronting Conflict

• Regardless of a leader success, image, or preferences something goes wrong sometimes.

• If the wrong is a function of a person’s error or systematic failure to perform, then a difficult interpersonal conversation may be in order.

Confronting Conflict Cont’d.

• If the failing or deficient individual is defensive then your posture should be firm, convincing and possessed of fact after fact.

• Arrange for a witness to be present or within ear shot if you believe the conversation would become confrontational.

Leader Ethics and Consistent Behavior

• Ethical issues are sometimes difficult for leaders.

• The more successful a leader become the more attractive the opportunity to behave unethically.

• A leader’s long run effectiveness may stem from his or her ability to resolve these tensions and resist such temptations.

Final Thought

• Overt and obvious crime almost invariably leads to a leader’s downfall; however, it is the gray areas where judgment becomes more clouded and it is in the wavering of indecision that the ethical standards of a leader more likely would tested.