Competencies of Leadership: Communicating

Communicating is a process competency. Even if you can do the other two competencies (diagnosing and adapting - see blog posts from 5.24.13 and 5.28.13), you need to communicate effectively. If not, it is unlikely you will meet your goal.

We will be discussing the importance of communication much more in later blog posts. For now, it is important to keep in mind that the successful leader meets two goals in the communication process: influence and effectiveness. The leader can measure the influence of communication through the amount of action or change in the receiver caused by the message. The fit between the message received and the readiness of the receiver to accept it will determine whether the leader exerts positive or negative influence. Effectiveness can be evaluated by how closely the influence of the message reflects the intentions of the sender: In other words, is the receiver influenced in the manner intended by the leader? Effectiveness, therefore, is a measure of the reception coupled with understanding.

Competencies of Leadership: Adapting

Adapting is a behavioral competency. The leader adapts his or her behavior in a way that helps close the gap between the current situation and the desired state.

Even though leaders would prefer to change their followers' styles and readiness levels, they may find that they must adapt, at least temporarily, to the the followers' present behavior. For example, a teacher who wants students to take more responsibility and to operate under general rather than close supervision cannot expect this kind of change to take place overnight. The teacher's current behavior, at least to some extent, must be compatible with the present expectations of the group, with planned change taking place over a long-term period. Teachers who turn over significant responsibility to students without acknowledging their current expectations and readiness levels often produces irresponsibility rather than student initiative.

Competencies of Leadership: Diagnosing

Diagnosing is a cognitive competency. It involves understanding what is now and knowing what you can reasonably expect to make it in the future. The discrepancy between the two is the problem to be solved. This discrepancy is what the other competencies are aiming to resolve.

The importance of a leader's diagnostic ability cannot be overemphasized. The successful leader must be a good diagnostician and must value a spirit of inquiry. The abilities and motives in the people under the leader vary; therefore, leaders must have the sensitivity and diagnostic ability to be able to sense and appreciate the differences. In other words, leaders must be able to identify clues in the environment. The leader must use analogies sparingly, consider the issue's history - both sources and context, thoroughly examine key assumptions, consider the histories of the people involved, consider the history of the organization, and finally see the issue as part of a time sequence (see blog post from 5/17/2013).

Yet even with good diagnostic skills, leaders may still not be effective unless they can adapt their leadership style to meet the demands of their environment. This is the heart of Situational Leadership . . . and I believe the critical piece of differentiation of instruction in a classroom.

Leadership

The real test of our abilities as leaders is how effectively we can establish and maintain human organizations. Leadership and management are full time responsibilities that must be practices every hour of every day.

There are three competencies of leadership:

1. Diagnosing
2. Adapting
3. Communicating

W. Edwards Deming

William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American statistician, professor, author, lecturer and consultant. He is perhaps best known for the "Plan-Do-Check-Act" cycle popularly named after him. In Japan, from 1950 onwards, he taught top management how to improve design (and thus service), product quality, testing, and sales (the last through global markets) through various methods, including the application of statistical methods.

Deming made a significant contribution to Japan's later reputation for innovative high-quality products and its economic power. He is regarded as having had more impact upon Japanese manufacturing and business than any other individual not of Japanese heritage. Despite being considered something of a hero in Japan, he was only just beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. at the time of his death. 

Deming's focus on continual quality improvement has been a major inspiration for me in my teaching. Regarding the management of people, Deming said:

"A manager of people needs to understand that all people are different. This is not ranking people. He needs to understand that the performance of anyone is governed largely by the system that he works in, the responsibility of management."

It is this awareness of system . . . the system that is my class, understanding the various components and inputs of that system - this is what drives my class and will be foundational to the information presented here.

W. Edwards Deming

Questions for Consideration

1. When faced with the challenge of creating a teacher-student partnership, do analogies come to mind . . . especially when considering why it "won't work?"
2. What is the history of the "learner-centered" approach?
3. What assumptions do you have about "learner-centered" classrooms?
4. Do you know the "histories" of your students and your learning organization?
5. What is the "big picture" behind the movement to a learner-centered approach as part of a larger time sequence?
6. Do any of these questions really matter . . . especially when considering student achievement? Why or why not?

In their book Thinking in Time (see previous blog post), Neustadt and May that questioning analogies, understanding histories, seeing the big picture of an event or idea, understanding the time sequence are all vital to good decision making . . . unfortunately, they also note that it is rather rare.

Situational Leadership - Motivation and Behavior

Think about your current group of students.

Are they ready to be partners in their learning?

How do you know?

If they are not ready, how can you increase their readiness level?

Situational Leadership is a useful tool in this process. We begin our study of Situational Leadership by looking at the use of history in decision-making.

In their book Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision-Makers, Neustadt and May contend that the "Cuban Missile Crisis" was a success story in large part because of the way Kennedy and his advisers effectively used history. 

Specifically, they:

• Used analogies sparingly
• Considered the issue's history - both sources and context
• Thoroughly examined key assumptions
• Considered the histories of their adversaries
• Considered the organizational history - that is the history of the organization or structure
• Saw the issues before them as part of a time sequence - big picture - long term focus

In my school's attempt to create more learner-centered classrooms, I asked teachers - after reading the selection from Thinking in Time - to respond to an online forum question: "Do any of these strategies and/or lessons apply to our school in general and this staff development initiative in particular? If so, in what way? If not, why not?"

This activity served a couple of different purposes. First, it helped to focus our thinking and provide some unity regarding our group's goal (this would be a continual process of focusing and re-focusing). Secondly, there are valuable lessons discussed in this article - lessons beneficial to anyone in a decision-making position. Finally, it provided a demonstration on how to conduct an initial assessment of group member's readiness level. Those staff members that did not post on the forum (in fact, several did not even download the reading) certainly made a statement about their readiness level.

Educator-Student Partnership: A Non-Example

• In the following video clip, does the "educator" know the current level of knowledge and interest of students? 
• Does the "educator" reflect an understanding that learning is a social process? 
• Are "students" engaged in the decision making process? 
• Are the "students" co-creating their learning experiences? 
• Are the "students" demonstrating self-regulation and appear to be taking responsibility for their role in the learning process?
• Does your classroom ever look like this situation . . . even remotely?

Indicators of the Educator-Student Partnership

Educators and students acting as partners in learning has a high degree of implementation when . . .

The educator demonstrates knowledge of students' current levels of understanding and interests, and they understand that learning is a social process.

AND

Students are engaged in decision-making, have opportunities to explore topics of their choice, and co-create learning experiences to deepen their understanding of critical content.

AND

Students demonstrate self-regulation and take responsibility for their role in the learning process.

Effective Partnerships

Take a look at the "partnership" displayed in the video. What is done well? What areas provide an opportunity for growth?

There does seem to be some genuine caring and concern between the two partners. This shared concern would certainly be one critical attribute in effective partnerships. However, I am not sure they have a shared goal. There is a significant gap between making a quick few dollars and personal pride.

Do the students in your class have the same goal as you? If not, whose goal seems to win out?

Leadership Today vs. Yesterday

"In the past a leader was a boss. Today's leaders must be partners with their people . . . they no longer can lead solely based on positional power."

Ken Blanchard
Author of The One Minute Manager

The first question for teachers is: "Are teachers leaders?" If you do not believe that teachers are leaders, all of the ideas discussed here will be of little value to you. However if you believe that teachers are or should be leaders, then perhaps it is time to explore effective leadership strategies. 

For those who do not consider it necessary for teachers to be leaders, I would suggest that someone is leading your classroom . . . if it isn't you, than who is it?