The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
–General Colin Powell
Our society grapples with problems of leadership. Difficult decisions clash with strong emotions–with severe consequences. Constituencies that clash when seeking public resources.
Pop culture dictates that the only meaningful existence is at the top. But to me, the essence of real leadership is humility, a willingness to get into the trenches with everyone else. Here are just a few principles I have learned about leading people, through history or in my own classroom. I believe many of them apply outside the classroom also.
1. Own the vision of excellence
Dr. Martin Luther King owned the vision of social justice. That’s why people followed him. He was willing to put himself at risk. He did not rely on some official title in an organizational flow chart. This legendary leader simply influenced people for the better. Dr. King didn’t ensconce himself safely in an office suite somewhere and tell others to risk themselves on the Pettus Bridge. He was in the lead, facing armed police and hostile mobs.
One need not be a Christian to see the wisdom of something Jesus observed. Would someone paid minimum wage to guard sheep risk himself when hungry wolves show up? Or would she flee from the danger? Only when that person sees the sheep as a mission can he or she lead them.
The first step to leading is to own the cause at a visceral level. Dr King owned the vision of social justice so much that he was willing to be the first to cross to bridge. Did you see the video of the young man berating his teacher for not leading? Manners aside, I say the boy nails it.
2. Set the example with positive action
A teacher must be willing to show students that he or she is the hardest working student in the room. Painful as it sounds, the teacher must be willing to sacrifice for that classroom to succeed. The teacher must come in early, leave late and do work at home. The teacher must grade papers rapidly, thoroughly and return them promptly. Students can see when the teacher is just phoning it in, and you can be sure they will do the same. When the teacher is looking to make life easier for himself by giving busywork, the students will check out as well.
3. Create a community where everyone belongs
Make your organization feel like a community where everyone is valued and belongs. Only with this emotional connection will people follow into difficult places and uncharted ground. The best way to motivate someone is to compliment them.
Trust is a necessary precursor that comes only by seeing the teacher working relentlessly for the curriculum and for students. Anything else is likely to fail. Only when the leader shows that he or she will put in long and arduous hours will others respond. For the teacher, you must accept that there will be very little of you left when you get home. Real teaching requires that we leave nothing on the table, hold nothing back, each day.
4. First, develop your expertise
Leadership does not come with the mere act of wanting to be in charge. Only when someone has a detailed and skilled body of knowledge that can solve problems can that person lead others. To ask others to follow you is to prove to them first that you have expertise that they lack. Why should I listen to you when you aren’t any better at it than me? Demonstrable expertise in a subject is the only sound basis for authority. And remember, authority and power are not the same thing.
5. Lead with encouragement
Fear is one way to lead. We have all seen leaders who are slavishly obeyed. But show me someone who is slavishly obeyed and I’ll show you someone who is widely feared. Show me someone who is widely feared and I’ll show you someone who is secretly despised.
Real leadership aims to generate good will before making decisions that affect everyone. And good leadership generates loyalty. A man doesn’t follow a curriculum; a man follows another man. People in India didn’t follow a civil disobedience textbook; they followed Mahatma Gandhi. A leader can get things done by ramming decisions down others’ throats, but to let excellence out of peoples’ hearts, show them you believe in them.
6. Be relentlessly optimistic
Nothing drains morale faster than a chronic complainer. It is fine to seek support upon occasion, but everyone must support the overall morale by refraining from chronic kvetching. We all know people who are always down in the dumps. Ask them how they are, and out comes a long list of grievances. We try to cheer them up, but doing this is a drain on one’s own emotional energy reserves. Don’t be one.
7. Don’t set top down policies without getting buy-in
Here’s an example from the schools. School officials announce a new policy about lesson plans at the next staff meeting. The rank-and-file teachers grumble under their breaths as they depart. Will this new policy succeed? In the end, no.
Teachers who haven’t been given a chance to buy into new policy changes will feign cooperation for as long as it takes, but really won’t support it. The teachers will pretend to comply. Feigned compliance is actually resistance.
The new system didn’t include the teachers in the planning process. No consensus was built first. The new policy arrived in the form of an edict from on high. The teachers promptly set about doing as little as they thought they could get away with once the glare of the boss subsided. The policy fails and the cycle begins again with a new administration.
The better thing to do would be to talk to the teachers first. Give the teachers a voice in their work and efforts will be made. Ram it down their throats and get institutional failure.
Do not sit behind your desk and tell others why and how they must improve.
French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery put it this way: If you have to build a ship, one way is to conscript men, gather wood and issue orders. Another way is to teach the men to yearn for the endless sea, and then the men will build it themselves.
You know instinctively which way is better.
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