Mickey Lahmann

Effective Leadership for Teaching and Learning

Superintendent Certification Program WSU VancouverMarch 14, 2009

Mickey Venn LahmannSenior [email protected]

Six Degrees of Separation?

www.leadershipinnovationsteam.com

…if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is on average six "steps" away from each person on Earth.

Learning targets for today

• Review the Characteristics of Improved School Districts

• Explore your own leadership strengths

• Learn what the research says about leadership

• Learn about the power of feedback


Four Characteristics of Research on Improved Districts

• Effective Leadership

• Quality Teaching and Learning

• Support for System-wide Improvement

• Clear and Collaborative Relationships

Which Areas are Strengths for You?

• Review the Characteristics of Improved School Districts

• From the 4 Categories, identify 2 themes you consider to be your strengths

• Share your strengths with your neighbor…

What are your strengths and why?


All Characteristics are Important

• Which ones are most important?• Certainly the heart of our business is

learning, while there is …

NO SILVER BULLET…Your investment in making sure every

student has a highly effective teacher

every day is where the

rubber hits the road!


Leadership for Teaching & Learning?

• How can you ensure this for ALL students?

Be the BEST leader you can be….


No lack of advice on leadership

To name but a few..Bolman and DealFullanElmoreCoveySchletchyPetersSengeCollins


Four Characteristics (13 Themes) of Research on Improved Districts

• Effective Leadership– 3 Themes

• Quality Teaching and Learning– 4 Themes

• Support for System-wide Improvement– 3 Themes

• Clear and Collaborative Relationships– 3 Themes

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Common Threads (9) of Highly Successful Schools, DuFour

1. Clarity of focus

2. Collaborative culture

3. Collective Inquiry into Best Practices & Current Reality

4. Action orientation

5. Commitment to continuous improvement

6. Focus on Results

7. Strong principals who empower teachers

8. Commitment to face adversity, conflict, and anxiety

9. Use of the same guiding phrase

McRELBalanced Leadership Profile

The purpose of the Balanced Leadership Profile™

Survey is to provide building principals with

multiple perspectives on the their fulfillment of the

21 leadership responsibilities identified in

McREL's leadership research, and to furnish

feedback on principals' change leadership.


Leadership Practices Inventory: LPI

By Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner

360 Degree InventoryIt allows us continuously to test our initial

findings that The Five Practices Model with 31 practices

is a valid view of the world of leadership, and it

provides a tool that helps leaders assess the

extent to which they actually use those practices so that they can

make plans or improvement.

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13

Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham

Strengths Finder Profile (34 Themes)• Based on Gallup Study, over 2 million people• Globally only 20% of employees working in large

organization surveyed felt their strengths were used each day.

• “The keystone of high achievement and happiness is exercising your strengths, not correcting your weaknesses”

• “That excellent performers must be well rounded is one of the most pervasive myths we hope to dispel in this book.”

Extraordinary Leaders?

Think about an extraordinary

leader…

Think of at least 3 characteristics

this person was extremely good and

write those down.


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The Zenger/Folkman Research

• Two years researching the impact of leadership performance and the key behaviors that great leaders demonstrate

• Data set of 200,000 evaluations on 20,000 people

• Contrasted the highest-performing 10% to the lowest-performing 10%

• The approach: Lead with the data!

• The result: New insights that fundamentally change the way we think about leadership development

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Insight

Good does not equal great—and your organization needs you to be great.

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Leadership vs. Turnover

9

14

19

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

Bottom 30% Middle 60% Top 10%

Av

era

ge

Per

cen

t T

urn

ov

er

Poor Leaders Good Leaders Great Leaders

Extraordinary leaders are much better at holding on to their people.

18

Leadership vs. Customer Satisfaction

68

49

39

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Bottom 20% Middle 60% Top 20%

Per

cep

tio

ns

of

Cu

sto

mer

S

atis

fact

ion

(p

erce

nti

le)

The most effective leaders create satisfied customers.

Poor Leaders Good Leaders Great Leaders

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Leadership vs. Net Income

-2000000

-1000000

0

1000000

2000000

3000000

4000000

5000000

Net

In

com

e

Great leaders generate much higher income.

($1.2MM)

$2.4MM

$4.5MM

Bottom 10% Middle 80% Top 10% Poor Leaders Good Leaders Great Leaders

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Leadership vs. Employee Commitment

Results from a largeHigh-tech company

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

90

th -

10

0th

80

th -

89

th

70

th -

79

th

60

th -

69

th

50

th -

59

th

40

th -

49

th

30

th -

39

th

20

th -

29

th

10

th -

19

th

1s

t -

9th

Leadership Effectiveness Percentile

Em

plo

yee

En

gag

emen

t/C

om

mit

men

t

Percentile

Poor LeadersCreate

Dissatisfaction

Good Leaders Have an

Adequate Impact

Great LeadersMake a Great

Difference

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Leadership Effectiveness vs. High Commitment

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1st - 19th 20th - 39th 40th - 59th 60th - 79th 80th - 100th

% o

f H

igh

ly C

om

mit

ted

Em

plo

yees


Employees indicated the extent that their “work environment is a place where people want to go the extra mile.” The graph below represents the percent of employees who indicated they “Strongly Agreed” with the statement.

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Leadership Versus Employee Commitment

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1st -9th

10th -19th

20th -29th

30th -39th

40th -49th

50th -59th

60th -69th

70th -79th

80th -89th

90th -100th

Em

plo

yee

Co

mm

itm

ent

Ind

ex


Results from 378 Educational Leaders

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Percent of Employees that “Think about Quitting”

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40


% o

f E

mp

loye

es in

Wo

rk G

rou

ps

Th

at “

Th

ink

abo

ut

Qu

itti

ng

”


“Think about Quitting” percentage is the percent of employees responding neutral or negative to the item “I rarely think about quitting my job and going to anther company.

Results based direct report results from 374 leaders

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Leadership Effectiveness vs. Confidence of Reaching Strategic Goals

0

10

20

30

40

50

60


% o

f C

on

fid

ent

of

Ach

ievi

ng

Str

ateg

ic G

oal


Employees indicated the extent that they felt “confident that this educational institution will achieve its strategic goal.” The graph below represents the percent of employees who indicated they “Strongly Agreed” with the statement.

25

Insight

You don’t have to be a superhero to

be an extraordinary

leader.

NOT

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Impact of Leadership Effectiveness Without Any Perceived Profound Strengths

34

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Average Percentile

Score

0 1 2 3 4 5

Number of Strengths

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Impact of One Strength on Overall Perception of Leadership Effectiveness

34

64

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Average Percentile

Score

0 1 2 3 4 5

Number of Strengths

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Three Strengths Raises Leadership Effectiveness to the 81st Percentile

34

6472

8189 91

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Average Percentile

Score

0 1 2 3 4 5

Number of Strengths

Page 2-3

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Focusing Development on Weaknesses Works Well When . . .

Leadership Competencies

1 2 3 4 5

P

O

N

M

L

K

J

I

H

G

F

E

D

C

B

A

Strong negative data on an issue

can cripple a person’s leadership

effectiveness

. . . People Have Fatal Flaws

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Insight

To get where you want to go, you need to know

where you are.

Power of Feedback

“Pity the leader caught between unloving critics and uncritical lover.”

John Gardner

Getting regular feedback is the only way to know if you are having the desired

impact.


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Other Leadership Observations

True North: Discover your Authentic

Leadership by Bill George

CEO of Medtronic• 75 members of the Stanford Graduate School

Business Advisory Council• Asked to recommend the most important

capability for leaders to develop

• Answer nearly unanimous… Self awareness!

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Differentiating CompetenciesLeading Change

• Develops Strategic Perspectives • Champions Change • Connects the Group to the Outside World

Character• Displays High Integrity and

Honesty

Interpersonal Skills• Communicates Powerfully

and Prolifically• Inspires and Motivates

Others to High Performance

• Builds Relationships• Develops Others• Collaboration and

Teamwork • Values Diversity

Focus on Results• Drives for Results • Establishes Stretch

Goals• Takes Initiative

Personal Capability • Technical/Professional Expertise• Solves Problems and Analyzes Issues• Innovates• Practices Self-Development

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Insight

When choosing which strengths to develop, play

to your passions!

Passion + Organizational Needs +Competence = Sweet Spot• Passion + Competence without

Organizational Needs = HOBBY

• Organizational Needs + Competence without Passion= CHORE

• Passion + Organizational Needs without Competence = ROOKIE

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Fixing Weaknesses!Fixing Weaknesses!

What Does Performance Improvement Mean to Most People?

37

Insight

When building on your

strengths, often the best

approach is to build around

them.

38

Differentiating CompetenciesLeading Change

• Develops Strategic Perspectives • Champions Change • Connects the Group to the Outside World

Character• Displays High Integrity and

Honesty

Interpersonal Skills• Communicates Powerfully

and Prolifically• Inspires and Motivates

Others to High Performance

• Builds Relationships• Develops Others• Collaboration and

Teamwork • Values Diversity

Focus on Results• Drives for Results • Establishes Stretch

Goals• Takes Initiative

Personal Capability

• Technical/Professional Expertise• Solves Problems and Analyzes Issues• Innovates• Practices Self-Development

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The Competency Companions Are “Cross-Training” Ideas for Leaders

Analytical andProblem-Solving

Skills

Innovates

Can Be Trustedto Act in theTeam’s Best

Interest

RelationshipBuilding andNetworking

Communication

TakesInitiative

DevelopsOthers

Technical/Professional

Expertise

Desires to Pursue

Excellence

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Change Requires Practice

• Frequently, people underestimate the difficulty of some behavioral changes

• A key to developing a new skill is finding a way to practice prior to getting in the game

Playing or Practicing Leadership?

Set Goals based on Strengths

Which is our tendency?

Practice, practice, practice

Enlist the support of a coach.

Potential of Extraordinary Leadership Development for you?

What IF your leadership development leads to…– Increased commitment to overall district goals– Lower turn-over– More satisfied customers (staff, students, parents)– Increased job satisfaction & professional

advancement– Achievement of strategic goals– Student Achievement !!!

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The Power of Feedback

“Turning Feedback from Others into

Personal and Professional Change”

By Joseph Folkman


Leadership for Teaching and Learning…

What difference do you

think leadership makes in a

school district?

YOU are the difference.

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Courageous Leader Lessons

Joe Jones , Selah SD

Shane Backland, Selah SD

Paul Hunter, Columbia SD

Jeanette Ozuna, Toppenish SD

Tom Gresch, Cheney SD

Darcy Weisner, Walla Walla SD


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Summary

• Leadership matters! Great leaders have great impact.

• If you have a fatal flaw, fix it.

• Cultivate a few outstanding strengths.

• Use your feedback as a starting point in your development.

• Play to your passions!

• Cross-train to build on strengths.

• Practice, practice, practice!