Don’t Worry, Be Happy!
This week’s entry in The Disciplined Leader (Manning, 2015) is a great one that we all have to diligently work on as leaders taking the responsibility of leading ourselves first in order to effectively lead others. The topic was that of managing our worries. This is one topic that we can all say we have experience with, right? If we are honest, this is something we all struggle with. Instead of mindlessly rushing through life, often stop during the day to ask yourself what really matters to become more aware of your inner world and the chatter in your mind (metacognition). Another very helpful way to calm anxiety and fear is to take the proverbial ‘fly on the wall’ perspective as an observer. When you experience these emotions, imagine stepping back as a third person observer and observing yourself and the situation at a distance. Distancing has proved to be one of the most effective ways to calm our fear. This mindfulness allows us to be very thoughtful in analyzing the situation to either develop a solution or realize no action or worry is necessary because it is out of our control.
“Worry is a toxic emotional condition that can feel like it’s choking us at times, even though most of what we worry about doesn’t ever happen.” ~ John Manning
Manning (2015) offers three suggestions for leaving your worries behind:
- Understand that worrying is not a solution. I am reminded of one of my favorite TV shows growing up: MacGyver. I’ll let you click on the link I’ve provided to get the details if your not familiar with the show. My takeaway and lesson I learned from watching the show was that MacGyver never let fear take over; he looked for the solution instead of staring at the problem. Then he would take action with his trusty Swiss Army knife and go to work. What a great lesson – if you have never watched an episode get one and let the learning begin.
- Surface your worries. Categorize into what you can control and what you cannot control. I always go one step further and think about what do I need to control and when do I need to worry about controlling it. In other words is it something that is a priority right now.
- Reduce worries. This involves being proactive. Taking control where you can. I use the example here of having a very tight and sound school safety plan. I can’t control what may happen, but with an outstanding plan that every staff member understands, I can eliminate constant worry.
Finally, just be mindful of priorities and use your problem solving skills to diminish your worries so you can be like MacGyver and look for solutions instead of mindlessly staring at the fear.
Reference
Manning, J. (2015). The disciplined leader: 52 concise, powerful lessons. Oakland, CA: Barrett – Koehler Publishers, Inc.
The Sheer Guts of Leadership!
It’s hard to believe it is already time for Lesson #2 in our learning with John Manning in The Disciplined Leader. Without courage it is impossible to focus on what really matters (Manning, 2015). In my case of having now taken on the exciting and important work of leadership of two failing schools, I can tell you courage (or just sheer guts) is a necessary prerequisite skill. Courage is necessary just to get me through those days when I say, “What the heck am I doing here!” You ever had one of those days? If you haven’t I honesty feel sorry for you because you truly have not been in what Theodore Roosevelt called the “arena.” His entire thought is in the picture above. Doing significant work that matters puts us in that “arena” and makes us vulnerable and the focus of our critics. I love how Manning (2015) puts it: “…great leadership isn’t about facing fears but taking positive action in spite of your fears” (p. 17).
Manning (2015) gives us three great ways to find our “sheer guts:”
- Look the Fear in It’s Face. In other words, recognizing your fear and then determining what you need to discipline in order to act against the fear. In my case I know I need to study to obtain current information, pertinent data, facts, figures prior to a media interview, panel discussion, presentation, or speech to overcome any fear of not knowing an answer to a question.
- Create a Plan of Attack. In my case I have trusted professionals I can go to, as advisers, to help me analyze what information I might need and help me to obtain the information I need for the example I used above. Then I study! But, as Manning (2015) points out: “to admit you do not always have the answer is more a show of strength than weakness” (p. 19).
- Acknowledge When You Succeed. I learned a long time ago that we need to learn to be nice to ourselves. In other words we need to show compassion for ourselves when we are not perfect, make mistakes, or when things go well, too. Scrutinize and self-reflect on what went well and how we made that happen and how to repeat the process.
In the “Take Action” part of this week’s entry, Manning (2015) advises us to look to a role model for courage. That leader for me is Indiana Speaker of the House, Brian Bosma. He has taken many courageous stances during his career, but when it comes to education, he has an unwavering belief in School Choice and doing what’s right for Indiana’s children. These are things that I also believe very strongly in. When the Speaker appointed me to the Indiana State Board of Education I asked him what success in that role would look like to him. He had a simple, three word, but very powerful answer: “Consensus to Implementation.” Think about this answer. Really, doesn’t it take a great deal of courage to go through the process of reaching consensus and doing the hard work of implementation. This was a tremendous leadership lesson for me and I use it daily in evaluating myself and other leaders I come in contact with. The Speaker modeled this when he formed his Education Kitchen Cabinet this past year to act as a sounding board on education issues. It was exciting to experience him actively listening and processing all of the different views and opinions. Whether you agree with Speaker Bosma’s or my core beliefs or politics is really irrelevant here. The most important lesson here is that he models the three ways Manning (2015) has described having what I am calling, “The Sheer Guts of Leadership.”
Reference
Manning, J. (2015). The disciplined leader: 52 concise, powerful lessons. Oakland, CA: Barrett – Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Push Me – Pull Me Leadership
This past week a discussion came up about how do we get young leaders to grow. Leadership growth happens when there is stretch. By stretch I mean being put in an uncomfortable place – In other words, pushed. But, is pushing always the best approach?
It is very easy as a leader to push our high flyers. The old adage “we give the most projects and responsibility to the busiest and most competent people because they get things done and get them done right,” is all too true. But really, we need to make sure that we are pushing all of our team members. We just need to make sure we are differentiating the way we are pushing, or as I will discuss here, occasionally pulling too. I am reminded of a story back from my early teaching days. I would like to share it with you here:
At the time of this story I was an agriculture science teacher and FFA advisor. Needless to say, I was very competitive in FFA contests and really pushed students hard to success. We had many state champions and many students that went on to successful careers based on the foundations that began in those contests, or Career Development Events as they are called now. But, that’s not what the focus is here.
The focus here is on a student name Suzie (I have changed the name). Suzie was very talented and over the course of her high school career won three state FFA championships. That is not an easy task. As you can guess, I pushed Suzie very hard. Let me reiterate here for emphasis that Pushing was what I was doing until she came to me in tears one day and said the words that would change my life as a leader forever. She said, “Big E (that’s what they called me back then) sometimes you need to pull me up along side of you once in a while instead of pushing all the time.”
Wow, I was devastated! How stupid I had been. I was so glad Suzie had given me this slap in the face, however, because it changed me and gave me a new perspective as a leader. From that time on I would always remember how important it is to pull those I serve up alongside myself and work shoulder to shoulder while at the same time pushing occasionally, too.
Suzie had taught me how to lead in such a way that followers would choose to act. Pulling a person in motivation means creating conditions that they choose themselves. It means showing them how something else will be beneficial to them. It means them deciding rather than just you deciding. Push and pull are a matched pair: pushing is the stick to the carrot of pulling. It is discovery as opposed to the ordering of push methods. It is creating desire rather than creating fear. It is creating attraction rather than repulsion.
While the objectives of PUSH and PULL are the same, the way that one goes about achieving these objectives is very different. The objective is the same, but the approach is very different. To help pull it is important to help those we lead to set goals with a reasonable chance of achievement, but not so easy as to lack challenge. We must also have people develop their own specific plans for how they will accomplish their goals; then jointly review these plans and provide our input. Regularly ask people how they’re progressing in reaching their goals and ask what you can do to help them achieve or exceed their goals. I believe it is important to express confidence in the individual’s ability to reach goals. We must follow up regularly on progress and reinforce all movement in the right direction. Demonstrate enthusiasm to our teams by talking about why the organization’s goals are important and encouraging others to set challenging individual goals.
So how do we move from the push style of leadership to a pull leadership style. Essentially it requires becoming involved with the challenges and initiatives your organization has before it. We become involved when we show both in what we say and what we do that we are interested and care. We need to clearly demonstrate that what we do is for the greater good of the organization, not merely something that will boost our own value. We need to clearly demonstrate with words and actions that we want our team to develop as individuals. It really is about remember that the most important thing we can focus on as leaders is our people.
Creating a Vision of Success
Graphic Facilitation by Mike Fleisch at our first Focused Leader Academy session
First of all, I am excited to report that I am embarking on another weekly book read and blogging journey. The book is The Disciplined Leader: 52 Concise, Powerful Lessons (2015) by John Manning. I had the opportunity to preview a copy of his book and participate in the book’s launch through Becky Robinson and Weaving Influence. I was fascinated by the book and have actually developed a friendship and professional camaraderie with John Manning. I am continued to be amazed by the power of Twitter for making professional connections. The start of our relationship is based solely on Twitter (@JohnMManning). I am sure I am right when I say it is the greatest professional tool available today. You can check out my Tweets at @ByronErnest.
I also decided the book would make the perfect reference material for our Focused Leader Academy that we have started at Hoosier Academies. All the participants will be blogging about a lesson in the book each week till we complete the 52 lessons. I am hoping for them to experience the joy and professional growth that can be experienced while “blogging the journey.” John was great enough to inscribe and autograph a copy of the book for each of our participants. How cool is that?
There are three core principles that the book is based on:
- Leading yourself
- Leading your team
- Leading your organization
Through John Manning’s research with Management Action Programs, Inc. (MAP), he has discovered that a disciplined leader focuses on these three core areas of leadership. But the point that John really drives home in the introduction of the book is what all great leaders do well: “they consistently disciplined themselves to focus on what really matters – people.” (Manning, 2015, p. 4) He also asks the question: “What percent of your budget do you allocate to develop your people?” This is why I believe our Focused Leader Academy is so important to Hoosier Academies. I am very proud we have started this program for the development of our teacher leaders. Not only is it the right thing to do for them, but it will also develop our future leadership bench. 
The first lesson in the book is “Make the Commitment.” The idea is that we must be fully engaged and emotionally, mentally, and physically into our learning. The changes that will result form this commitment to professional growth be amazing and lead to great things, but it will not be easy. The first step to this is becoming a focused leader and creating a vision for success. Manning (2015) suggests we must create an “it’s time to change” mindset. In other words, we must start with an inward focus.
Directing others’ attention is a primary task of leadership. But to do it well, leaders must be able to focus their own attention. And these days, that’s difficult. A constant onslaught of information leads to sloppy shortcuts – triaging e-mail by reading only the subject lines, skipping voice mails, skimming memos and reports. We think we’re reducing distractions, but these habits actually make us less focused. People commonly think of focus as directing your attention to one thing while filtering out other things. But research shows that we focus in many different ways for different purposes. The various types fall into three broad categories. The first two—focusing on self and focusing on others—help you develop emotional intelligence. The third, focusing on the wider world, can improve your ability to devise strategy, innovate, and manage organizations. Fortunately, you can become a more focused leader with the right kinds of exercise.
Focusing your attention on yourself involves self-awareness, or getting in touch with your inner voice. This is where emotional intelligence begins. It also involves self-control, or willpower—which allows you to put your attention where you want it and keep it there despite the temptation to wander. Manning (2015) also points out that we must learn to control our emotional reactions. Really, I call this learning to respond instead of reacting. We must also, according to Manning (2015), learn to take care of our health and well being to maintain the balance in our life that will allow us to become focused and disciplined.
Finally, Manning (2015) suggests that we journal about our progress. I am excited that we are doing just that as the Focused Leader Academy participants blog their journey in The Disciplined Leader. I can guarantee you they will be blogging about more than just the book portion of this journey learning to be focused leaders.
Reference
Manning, J. (2015). The disciplined leader: 52 concise, powerful lessons. Oakland, CA: Barrett – Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Lazy Leaders
Hoosier Academies Focused Leader Academy Graphic by Mike Fleisch
I have seen this so many times in many organizations and in my own industry as a school leader. As a person who has come in to help school teams turn schools around, I have heard so many teacher leaders say, “we were always told this idea does not fit the model.” Then when I ask the question of who said that, we find that no one did except the lazy leader who did not want to go to the trouble of making the change or explaining (selling) the change throughout the organization.
Lazy leadership really goes beyond the example of the widget itself. Probably the worst effect of lazy leaders and lazy leadership is on the organization’s culture. Imagine a culture where you are always told, “no, we can’t do this or change that because…” At some point you would just decide that your knowledge was irrelevant. We know that this would then translate to the most important component of employee satisfaction – engagement. Research tells us that the happiest employees and the ones that stay with organizations the longest are the ones that truly believe they are valued and making a difference. These same employees have been empowered and have a clearly defined role in carrying out the vision and mission of the organization. Research tells us that this level of enagagement is much more important than even salaries.
Lazy leaders may just be one of the biggest crushers of culture there is. So, how do we keep ourselves from falling into the lazy leadership trap? You are caught in the quick sand of lazy leadership if you catch yourself telling one of your team members that your superior will never agree to a change suggested by someone on your team without trying to lobby for the change. Furthermore, let’s do a Jeff Foxworthy parody.
“You might be a lazy leader if…
- You move on with a decision without finding out the real answers.
- You don’t delegate because you don’t want to have to help others hone and develop their skills.
- You delegate by “dumping and running.” What I call “relegating.” You have to help people know the vision, understand a win, and stay close enough in case they need you again. New leaders are developed, loyalty is gained, and teams are made more effective through delegation.
- You give up after the first try. No one likes to fail. Sometimes it’s easier to scrap a dream and start over rather than fight through the messiness and even embarrassment of picking up the pieces of a broken dream, but if the dream was valid the first time, it probably has some validity today.
- You don’t invest in the young and up-and-coming leaders. There’s the whole generational gap — differences in values, communication styles, expectations, etc. It would be easier to surround ourselves with all like-minded people, but who wins with that approach — especially long-term?
- You settle for mediocre performance. It’s more difficult to push for excellence. Average results come with average efforts. It’s the hard work and the final efforts that produce the best results.
- You don’t explain “why. “Just do what I say” leadership saves a lot of the leader’s time. If you don’t explain what’s in your head — just tell people what to do — You maybe get to do more of what you want to do. The problem is, however, you will have a bunch of pawns on the team and one disrespected, ineffective and unprotected king (lazy leader). (And, being “king” is not a good leadership style by the way.) Continually casting the vision and connecting the dots is often the harder work, but necessary for the best results in leadership.
- You avoid any kind of discourse. If there was only answer, solution, or innovation who needs a leader?
So, let’s get out there and excercise our leadership muscles and not be lazy!
Significance: Impacting Outside Yourself
“In the course of life, there are the great majority of successful people who have to change their direction at about age sixty. There is a very small minority of purpose-driven people who have to concentrate and not change and I can’t tell you which you are going to be. The decision is going to come up. Decision is perhaps the wrong word – as you grow older, are you focusing more on doing the things that give you achievement and satisfaction and growth or more on the things that have an impact outside of yourself? Those are decisions one has to make. And nobody can help you make them. But the one thing to avoid is splintering yourself, trying to do everything.” ~ Peter Drucker – Rick Warren Dialogue, May 27, 2004
This week’s entry in A Year With Peter Drucker really resonated with me and is something that actually presents a bit of a thought challenge for me. I have always been one who takes my own professional growth very seriously and have owned that. But, at the same time I really have never worried about or tried to position myself for what is next. At least not any more than to the extent of living by what I have always preached: “We must be ready for what we don’t know we need to be ready for.” Drucker used 60 years old as the benchmark where the decisions of a successful person needs to be made. At age 52 I still have some time, but I really do want to make sure I am making a significant impact outside of myself. Drucker believed a person could continue to do what he knows how to do extremely well or attempt to make another significant and innovative contribution to society (Maciariello, 2014). The prospect of making some new and innovative contribution to society is very attractive to me.
People who use and manage the second half of their life for impacting others are seen to be the minority. I want to be a part of this minority and would encourage you to be too. We need to be the people who see the long work expectancy we now enjoy as an opportunity both for ourselves and for society. We need to be the leaders and the models. Leaders must systematically work on making the future. The purpose of the work on making the future is not to decide what should be done tomorrow, but what should be done today to have tomorrow. Drucker also posited that leaders needed to anticipate the future that has already happened and make the future that has already happened (Maciariello, 2014). 
The importance of this was really driven home to me yesterday when we had the first session of our newly developed Focused Leader Academy. I was so inspired as I spent the day with 15 of our best and brightest teacher leaders. The passion that was displayed and the desire to learn and affect the future of our school was exciting. 
When I reflect on all the learning that went on yesterday it is exciting to think we are building our future leaders and anticipating the future that has already happened and positioning our leaders to be ready for it. We learned about a focused leader and a disciplined leader. Additionally, we discussed being focused on ourselves, our team, and our organization. The Focused Leader Academy is so exciting to me because it truly gives me a chance serve our future leaders and make an impact outside of myself. It was awesome to hear their ideas for Focused Leader Projects and I have spent a great deal of time today thinking about resources and ways I can help them to carry out the projects they have chosen. It has been exciting to put this program together and I am so thrilled to be in a position of being a servant leader to the individuals who are taking this leadership journey and will be the leaders of our school.
As I reflect on the lessons of Drucker this week I aspire to impose on the as yet unborn future, new ideas to give direction and shape to what is yet to come. I also want to be a true servant leader and help model for and mold those who will be leading those new ideas in our future. I will close with one of my favorite Peter Drucker quotes:
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” ~ Peter Drucker
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Social Ecology: Creating Voracious Learners
“The starting point for management can no longer be its own product or service, and not even its own market and its known end-users for its products and services. The starting point has to be what customers consider value. The starting point has to be the assumption – an assumption amply proven by all our experience.” ~ Peter Drucker
Peter Drucker fancied himself a social ecologist. This was a person who attempts to spot major future trends in society that are discernible but not widely understood (Maciariello, 2014). I would posit that these persons are also pioneers, but that pioneers many times don’t do the social ecologist part. Drucker had a methodology the social ecologist should follow for the creation of emerging institutions that included four parts:
- Understanding their function
- Understanding the disruptions they create for existing institutions
- Thinking through how they could be made to function effectively
- Thinking how the new institution will have a constructive impact on society
As a pioneer who tries to practice artful leadership this really hit home for me. We need to make sure that in education we take the time as begin new, innovative, and disruptive innovations to really think through and strategically think about Drucker’s methodology. We must also diffuse innovation throughout the entire education system to those affected by emerging trends and help them to capitalize on those trends. We must become a “teaching education system,” one devoted to the diffusion of innovation.
This week’s lesson in A Year With Peter Drucker prompted me to put Everett Roger’s seminal book, Diffusion of Innovations (2003) on my book reading list. Roger’s book is the standard reference on how innovations spread throughout a social system. I cannot wait to read this book! In order for our innovations which will create disequilibrium to become viable and do all the good possible we must become “voracious learners” (Jim Mellado in Maciariello, 2014, p. 301). This is key to spreading new ideas and innovations to the majority that need them the most.
“The adoption of an innovation usually follows a normal, bell-shaped curve when plotted over time on a frequency basis.” ~ Everett Rogers in Diffusion of Innovations, p. 272
We must consider abandoning unjustifiable products and activities; set goals to improve productivity, manage growth, and developing our people. This will create resources to explore and undertake new innovations. We must not forget, however, to employ Drucker’s methodology as social ecologists and become voracious learners.
Maciariello (2014) had three great practicum prompts for this: “What are the risks of being an early adopter of innovations?” What are the risks of being a laggard?” “Where is the optimal place for you and your organization to be on the innovation diffusion curve?” Make plans to get there. 
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Everett, Roger, M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th Edition). New York, NY: Free Press.
Finding & Implementing Best Practices
“So I began this concept of Just For Kids, an effort that, to me, raises the essence of the {education} problem: too often no one is focused on the needs of the education establishment, whether it is the teachers union, or administrators, or this group or that group; or it’s this group that wants school prayer, or this group that wants something else. Very seldom are things really looked at from the viewpoint of the child.” ~ Tom Luce, Founder of Just For Kids, speaking to Peter Drucker
One of the problems with public education is that sometimes people do not approach the issue from a systems-wide approach. Additionally there must be an easier, more efficient way of diffusing knowledge and innovation. In the entry this week in A Year With Peter Drucker it is discussed how educators and educational leaders do not learn everything they need to know in the schools of education (Maciariello, 2014). I don’t believe this is new to any of us in education, but I’m not sure we’ve done everything we can about it.
It is also worth noting again, as I did in my post Multidimensional Missions: Don’t Create A Flea Circus, it is necessary to meet the needs of a number of separate stakeholder groups, and meeting these needs very often requires leaders to make trade-offs. You have to affect the delivery system but you also have to affect the political environment, you have to also deal with public opinion. Sometimes, if we are honest, we also become smug and self-satisfied inward looking school systems (Maciariello, 2014). This is why having an accountability system that is appropriate and student-centered is so very important.
Education in the knowledge society is much too important to be left for schools to do alone. All institutions of society should be involved in continuous learning and teaching. Technology should be used as a tool to increase the effectiveness of education. The technology will be significant, but primarily because it should force us to do new things rather than do the same old things better (Maciariello, 2014). Technological advances in education should allow more time for our teachers to individualize instruction for our students by identifying strengths and weaknesses. We should also use technology to make professional growth opportunities more available and find better ways to share innovation.
Innovations in the form of best practice dos and don’ts must be diffused through the educational system.
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers
Teacher of the Year Learning Continues in 2015!
Today was one of my favorite days of the year. As an Indiana Teacher of the Year, I was part of the selection committee for the 2015 Indiana Teacher of the Year. Today we held the interviews for the top 10 finalists. As always, I was inspired! Click here to see the listing of this year’s top 10. I am so inspired each year by how great these teachers are and come away refreshed and rejuvenated as a school leader. During the interview I take copious notes to inform our decision making at the end of the day, but also take personal notes that I use for my own professional growth. Last year I wrote a post entitled Teacher of the Year Learning and this year I thought I would do the same. For this year’s post I am going to provide you a bullet point list of all the comments, phrases, and learning that I jotted down today.
Here is the list:
- We must match teacher goals to individualized professional development
- What steps should be taken to reach the goals?
- Implementation plan
- Feedback needs to be provided regarding progress toward goals
- Purposefully select books for libraries that give a window to the world
- “One of the things that makes me, me is…”
- “I’m either going to fail forward, or being totally successful!”
- “I’m just as much a learner as they [students] are.”
- “I [teacher] lead sometimes, and they [students] lead sometimes.”
- We should be blogging our thoughts instead of just journal-ling
- Use formative assessments before even approaching summative assessments – this needs to be balanced
- Diversity is not always visible
- Teacher effectiveness starts at the local school – the school must have a process that supports growing highly effective teachers and teacher leaders
- The community drives instruction
- Share the gifts that you have
- Read the book: 7 Habits of Happy Kids
- Read the book: Mindsets in the Classroom
- “Clustering” – bringing in students who aren’t quite ready for the High Ability program, but are close and need extra attention to get them there
- We need to make students feel welcome and loved
- We need to be writing from different points of view and exposing students to writing from different points of view
- Twice Exceptional Students – high ability students who also have learning disabilities
- “Teachers are effective if inspired” (my favorite quote of the day – I tweeted it)
- “Let me make a theme out of all of this”
- Blogging our journey
- If you cannot adapt to changes you will not be successful
- “Subject matter is important, but one to one contact and relationships are most important. Remember, what you are teaching today may not be the most important thing happening in a particular student’s life today”
- Ask your students: “What am I doing that is irrelevant?”
- You can’t put everyone in a box, you must individualize the instruction
- Find the students’ strengths and weaknesses
- “I evaluate myself every day”
- “Shine On”
- “Make kids first and everything else second”
- “Immediate feedback should be innate in everything we do”
- We need to love all the different experiences students bring to our classrooms
- Teacher effectiveness measures – ask the kids
- We need our students to do “authentic reading”
- We must be immersed in what matters
- We must create an environment where we have an investment in each other – this will build a true TEAM
- As a coach/mentor – the goal should be to work yourself out of a job
- We should have less required collaboration and more spontaneous/unstructured collaboration
- Poverty is the biggest issue facing education today
- Choice based classrooms –
Give students the opportunity to explore what they are interested in. Help them ask powerful questions. Give them time to explore. Students should be able to share what they have learned in a compelling way.” ~ George Couros
- We need to bookend creative lessons
Need I say more? Again, congratulations to this year’s Indiana Teacher of the Year finalists and thanks for inspiring me today!
I think my tweet at the end of the interviews says it all:
Multidimensional Missions: Don’t Create a Flea Circus!
“If you focus on short-term results, they will all jump in different directions. You will have a flea circus – as I discovered during my own dismal failure some forty years ago as an executive in an academic institution… What I learned was that unless you integrate the vision of all the constituencies into the long-range goal, you will soon lose support, lose credibility, and lose respect… I began to look at non-profit executives who did successfully what I unsuccessfully tried to do. I soon learned that they start out by defining the fundamental change that the non-profit institution wants to make in society and in human beings; then they project that goal onto the concerns of each of the institutions constituencies.” ~ Peter F. Drucker
As a school leader, the entry entitled “Accommodating Various Constituencies in a Mission” in A Year With Drucker (Maciariello, 2014) really hit home with me. We know that single-purpose institutions tend to be the most effective. Yet as a school leader, and for the leaders of many organizations, it is necessary to meet the needs of a number of separate groups, and meeting these needs very often requires leaders to make trade-offs. I have always compared it to a train station roundabout where the engine sits on a rotating swivel and there are many tracks leading out. As a school leader I have all of those tracks to serve as stakeholders. Some of those stakeholders include: students, parents, charter authorizer, state, state department of education, education management company, school board, teachers, taxpayers, and the list goes on and on. As a school leader this list of at least nine constituencies sees the school a little differently. Make no mistake, each of these stakeholders is crucial to the success of the school. In my case, it even gets tougher when turning a school around. There are short-term gains that must be met, but sometimes it seems those gains are at the expense of long-term gains. How then can the leader reconcile the demand for short-term performance with the demand to care for tomorrow? 
First of all, it is important for leaders to consider both the present and the future; both the short run and the long run (Maciariello, 2014). A decision is irresponsible if it risks disaster this year for the sake of a grandiose future. Likewise, if the future is risked for short-term gains; that decision is irresponsible as well. Leaders must meet the critical needs of the future (Maciariello, 2014). Leaders of all organizations must try hard to reconcile the interests of each of their constituents as they manage the short-term and long-term interests of the organization. It is very difficult to reconcile these conflicting interests of constituents around short-term goals, but much easier for leaders to integrate them around the long-term vision of the organization. A clear vision is essential, but when you deal with so many constituencies it is very difficult to stay balanced in the present and future.
For success, there must be a unified, clear vision and mission for the organization. In the past this vision and mission were much easier for schools. The mission was to learn to read and do multiplication tables. Now, the vision is much broader and includes such things as development of character, personality, social tasks, citizenship, et cetera (Maciariello, 2014). Nothing wrong with any of these things, but it has sparked the argument of what learning means. Our unifying focal point has been lost (Maciariello, 2014). With so many goals to accomplish, it is hard for the organization to function according to a unified mission.
I really like how Maciariello (2014, p. 277) ties all of this together with essential questions and would like to close with these:
“List the constituents whose needs you must satisfy in your position and in your organization. How are you meeting the needs of each constituent person or group? Which demands of these various groups conflict in the short term? Can these demands be reconciled in the longer-term goals of your organization? List the constituents again. Try to reconcile the interests of each one in your long-term goals. Which, if any, cannot be reconciled with these goals? Can you release yourself and the organization from the responsibility of meeting the irreconcilable interests of these constituents?
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Byron's Babbles 
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