What is most important to me in my habits of mind, choices, and practices as a leader? 

CHANGE IS A PROCESS, NOT AN EVENT

By nature, I am a doer, and when it comes to leadership, I am often looking for opportunities to make transformative changes. As a teacher, looking up at our school leadership, it feels easy to see challenges and how transformative solutions could be swiftly implemented. The "event" of change seems simple. However, the more I move into leadership roles within my institution, the more I recognize how methodical, and therefore slow, the process of change can be. Each piece that will change needs to be aligned with the institution's mission and values and affirmed by the community. This means there is often a bottleneck, slowing down the process before a change is actualized. When Bodie Brizendine visited our Leadership Academy in the summer of 2019, she spoke about implementing anti-racist work at Spence School. Brizendine described change as being core to the institution and not simply a project that can get done. Change takes time, and "[w]e both fear and seek change" (Senge 155). Determining an institution's core challenges and then implementing a process for changing that culture or practice is at the root of change leadership. 

The fear of change is one of the biggest challenges we are faced with as leaders in our institutions. Change is scary to most, even when you want it to happen. The fear of the unknown, of getting it wrong, and of what new problems a change could bring are heavy thoughts for a school leader. Unless an institution is able to articulate what is at the core of the issue, pushing change can easily go in the wrong direction. When Phil Kassen of LREI spoke in the summer of 2020, he reflected on his role of implementing a change to support better DEIJ+ initiatives at the school. Kassen shared, "we slowed our pace to the people we had to move, instead of moving at the pace of the people that needed us to move." So even though their intentions were right, their process still missed the mark. 

That's why Schein's essay on culture is so critical when thinking about the process of change. "To get something done requires some kind of action in various environments in which the group is embedded" (Schein 8). As an action plan is being developed, you need to gather others' support, getting them excited about the possibility of change. As part of both initiating change and then making lasting change, it is important to seek allies within the school community who will support the change. This is where change and leadership intersect. 

BALANCING DELIBERATENESS AND URGENCY

In this current moment, we are amid two global pandemics, Covid-19 and systemic racism. It is a time when an essential principle of good leadership is needed to balance deliberateness and urgency.  

The need for balance is not particular to this year's uncertainties, but the essential principle is difficult to achieve as leaders are forced to make quick decisions. In a meeting, this fall, at my own school, one of our board members, Randall Dunn, the Head of School at the Latin School of Chicago, shared how different it feels to make decisions as a leader during Covid-19. Dunn said, "every day, we are remaking what school is now. It's more like being an admin or CEO of a startup -- make your best guess as to what your next move is, all while several people are giving advice: medical board, faculty, parents, etc. And then you make a decision all while knowing some part of every group will disagree. Schools have never been forced to change in this way ever before; leaders of schools have never been in a position to do something on such short notice. The process of decision making in schools in the past has been to suggest a change, then people [challenge the suggestion], and then you go back and adjust and make a decision -- now nothing like that possible. In Chicago, things are changing so fast that we need to troubleshoot on a daily basis, but without having developed muscle to do that." How does one balance the urgency of responding to Covid-19 while still holding true to the school's mission and values? The deliberateness of change and decision making is what will define the school as people look back at this time. There is no such thing as good communication in the moment of a crisis; it's about the work after. As Maya McGovern wrote in the Summer 2020 NAIS Magazine, "Most people will remember the school's response to the crisis more than the crisis itself" (57). 

At the core of this balancing act is the ability to stay true to your values as a leader and to the school's mission and values. Noni Thomas López of the Gordon School said to our cohort in the summer of 2020, "address what's happening in the moment rather than making decisions that impact the structure and value of the school." So, when implementing change, whether in response to a current crisis or a systemic issue, change requires both urgency and deliberateness. If the leadership is transparent about why a change needs to happen, that will invite support and collaboration from the community. Urgent change is often needed, such as the present need to address the systemic racism rooted in our independent schools' history. When this is the case, I will remind myself of what John Allman of the Trinity School said. "We don't want to evolve, we want to pivot." Deliberate and urgent change is needed. 

THE LEADER IS ALSO THE LEARNER

At the core of my beliefs as an educator, I see the importance of leaders actively learning. As a teacher, I learn as much, if not more, from my students as they learn from me. Even in the framing of leadership, Noni Thomas López reminds us that "leadership can be something that is learned -- a set of behaviors and skills." To think that a leader must have all the answers is to ignore the essential fact that schools are a place for everyone to learn. In shifting away from the assumption that leaders know everything, I am reminded of the essential leadership characteristic of authenticity. It is more important to be authentic than to be right, and being able to ask for help from mentors, colleagues, the board, can be incredibly impactful to one's success as a leader. In change leadership, it is important to frame learning as -- I don't know the answer yet. 

As teachers, we understand that mistakes are essential to learning. "A mistake is an event, the full benefit of which has not yet been turned to your advantage" (Senge 154). As educators, we are often asked to learn on the job, but how is grace given when you are responsible for making change happen? It comes from being authentic, and it comes from being transparent about those learning moments. As Kevin Mattingly reminds us, "it's not the experience we learn from -- It's the reflections we have on those experiences." So the leader must take time both to struggle and to reflect in order to learn. As Maya McGovern wrote, "being adaptable, empathetic and resilient -- and using the school's mission and core values to guide decision-making, caring for others and self, and building learning into the process can help school leaders and the community weather any storm" (57). 

MASTERING CREATIVE TENSION 

Leadership requires living with ambiguity. This is a sentiment frequently repeated by our cohort, and one that I feel is particularly applicable to who I want to be as a leader. This concept can also be framed as mastering creative tension. I find both ways of framing this nuanced area to be essential to where I am as a leader now and how I want to grow in the future. "Truly creative people use the gap between vision and current reality to generate energy for change" (Senge 153). Sometimes the gap, or the steps required to address the problem at hand, is not clear at the moment. Knowing that change needs to happen and having the vision and creativity to lead that change, to explore that gap, is where I believe leaders become great. As Brizendine said, "how people navigate change often tells us how successful they are." 

Leaders speak of creative tension in a multitude of ways. My framing of deliberateness and urgency is one example of the tension inherent in change leadership. Still, there are so many examples of how education and leadership move the line between where we are and where we want to go. One aspect of the tension is that "[e]ducation has always been a backward-looking enterprise. Given America's obsession with innovation, already widespread in 2000 and now ubiquitous, this may seem a flaw, but it is intrinsic to schooling. A school's mission is to prepare children for the future by teaching them skills, knowledge, and values, which it can only do by drawing on the past—that is, by teaching them what we know now" (Evans). While this statement may feel contradictory to the growth of education, I highlight it in this instance because it reminds me of how entrenched the challenge of teaching for the future is when all we know is the information we have now, from the experiences of the past. The task of mastering creative tension is an essential part of being a transparent and authentic leader because bridging the gap between vision and current reality will require the entire community's support. "It's not what the vision is, it's what the vision does" (Senge 154). 

DEFINITION OF LEADERSHIP: Who I Want To Be

The leader I aspire to be is one of authentic integrity. I will create change in my school community through valued interpersonal connections and relationships while being transparent and purposeful about the strategies I will use to implement change. "Authentic leaders have the capacity to open themselves up and establish a connection with others" (Northouse 260). I hope to garner trust from those I am working with by leading alongside them as part of a team, building a strong rapport, presence, and consistency while bringing my humility and humanity.  As Brené Brown said so pointedly, "I am here to get it right, not to be right."

David Johns, executive director of NBJC, asks, "how do you describe me when I'm not in the room?" I hope that my community describes me as honest because it is through honest and authentic leadership, not friendliness and complacency, that change happens. 

References

Brizendine, B., Teachers College, Klingenstein Institute. New York, NY. Guest Lecture. June 2019

Evans, R., "Why a School Doesn't Run -- or Change -- Like a Business." Independent School Magazine. National Association of Independent Schools, 2000.

Kassen, P., Teachers College, Klingenstein Institute. New York, NY. Guest Lecture. June 2020

McGovern, M. "How Can Leaders Guide Their School Communities Through Any Challenging Situation? Understanding The Life Cycle Of A Crisis And Adopting Leadership Mindsets Is Key" Independent School Magazine. National Association of Independent Schools, 2020.

Northouse, P., "Authentic Leadership" in Leadership: Theory and Practice, 6th Edition, Sage Publications, 2013, pp. 253-270.

 Schein, E., "Part One: Organizational Culture and Leadership Defined" in Organizational Culture and Leadership, 5th Edition, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2017, pp. 1-30. 

Senge, P., "Holding Creative Tension" in The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, New York, NY: Doubleday Currency, 1990, pp. 150-155.