At its foundation, the leadership that we undertake as overcomes in the face of adversity. Principals is about the application of a collection of values which are applied consistently and consciously to the everyday cut and Self control – This may surprise many as being one of the top thrust of our role. seven values but it is my belief that we overlook the value of There are many values. Some values work in partnership with self-control at our peril as leaders. each other like a team, with a captain value and player values. Robert E Lee in the 19th century once stated, “I cannot trust a Some values can work alone. The context will determine which man to control others who cannot control himself.” I believe this values operate. applies equally to us as the men and women who lead and exert Values are always at play as part of our character, influencing influence over our New Zealand schools here in the 21st Century. our thinking, and shaping our actions. Some of the situations that we face can be very emotionally Values are most commonly demonstrated in and through straining. Our levels of tolerance can be pushed to their extremes. relationships. A school is a complex It is in these moments when a good dose and diverse collection of relationships Values are always of self-control is crucial to help us not to including our staff, the pupils, our react emotionally or unintelligently. A parent communities, BOT members, at play as part of our negative reaction could compromise our s up p or t i n g b u s i n e s s e s , w i d e r character, influencing professionalism and credibility with our community groups, and agencies such staff and community. Comments once out as ERO and the MOE. of our mouths are hard to retract. Statements our thinking and It could easily be argued that for a once made in writing through e-mails, blogs principal every value is important and shaping our actions or on social media can turn around and bite I would not disagree with that. We as us. Having the self-control to hold our voice leaders, we as Principals, need them all. A lack of just one could gives us the high ground. be our undoing. However, I do believe that there are a special Self-control means we remain silent when emotionally we cluster of seven high stakes values that when aligned with the may want to vindicate, justify and defend our course of action. leadership role of a Principal increase our effectiveness and Self-control also means that we stay professional when we want influence. to let our humanness overwhelm our response. Easily said but harder to put into practise. These seven values are . . . Resilience – Leadership is very stretching. We juggle diverse Integrity – As leaders of our nation’s schools, a huge amount expectations and conflicting opinions and have only finite of financial and physical resources pass through our hands. We financial resources and personnel at our disposal to solve some are also privy to a considerable amount of information that we difficult decisions. It can be draining physically and emotionally. need to report to various internal and external people or agencies We need resilience. Charles Swindoll writes of resilience this including our BOTs, the children’s parents, auditors, the MOE way, “People who soar are those who refuse to sit back, sigh and ERO. When dealing with all this we must do it with integrity. and wish things would change. They neither complain of their Implicit in integrity is honesty and truthfulness. lot nor passively dream of some distant ship coming in. Rather, A lack of integrity is when we knowingly, consciously they visualise in their minds that they are not quitters; they will misrepresent something in order to save face or obtain some not allow life’s circumstances to push them down and hold them perceived gain. A lack of integrity ultimately erodes trust, under.” How true! damages our credibility and can undo a career. Acting without Resilience is needed to get back up after the knock downs, integrity is like walking across a snow covered glacier – it looks to face up when we know there is opposition, to move forward safe but just underneath the surface are deep crevices that pose when others want to stay anchored to past structures and pending doom. beliefs. Resilience helps us to keep going and going and going We as Principals face a plethora of situations. Even after years when we would otherwise stop. It is a deep inner strength that of experience new incidents occur. It is not always entirely clear
what should be said, written or done. There are times where it truly is a judgement call. Integrity acts as the rudder to guide the ship in the right direction. Integrity does not mean we don’t make mistakes. These will happen regularly. Integrity simply means the mistakes that we do make are honest mistakes. They are mistakes from a genuine lack of experience or knowledge. Integrity means those mistakes are soon put right and we move forward back onto firm ground. Respect – This really is summed up by the scriptural adage of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Respect is very much about acknowledging the inherent humanness in everyone. This is where politeness and manners are birthed. The ‘pleases’ and “thank-yous’ to all that we interact with. The ‘you first’, the ‘door open for others’ which simply shows we value them as people. Respect, when shown in actions, is very honouring. Respect is easy to show to people who we admire for their talents, appreciate for their personality and esteem for their accomplishments. The first challenge with respect is to give it to people that we actually don’t like, disagree with, or can’t gel with. There will always be these types of people either on our staff, in our parent community or as part of wider school related organisations. A second and greater challenge with respect is to give it to someone who has shown to us the complete opposite and has been openly impolite, actively unkind or overtly offensive. These people are treating us like an enemy. In these situations we have
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to ‘turn the other cheek’ and give back to them what they have not given to us – politeness, kindness and encouragement. Maybe it was this that was going through the mind of Confucius when he said, “Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?” Continual and unrelenting respect is a very powerful value when working towards school community cohesion. They say respect is earned. I believe one of the ways that it is earned is by showing it to everyone irrespective of who they are. Humility – This value may seem mutually exclusive from leadership until we consider its opposite ‘arrogance’. When given the option of choosing an arrogant leader or a humble leader almost without exception people will choose the humble leader. The question behind this is ‘Why?’ The answer comes back to one of our core functions as Principals and that is to equip and empower our staff to be the best they can be. Who does this better, an arrogant leader or a humble leader? A humble leader will act strongly in their strengths but, will openly acknowledge their weaknesses and get people around them to support them. This reflects what Charles H. Spurgeon is quoted as saying, “Humility is to make a right estimate of oneself.” Humility is knowing our good points, and knowing our weak points. A humble leader will acknowledge the contributions of others and praise them for it, will allow other leaders in their school to grow and develop; will encourage each staff member to grow in their gifts and talents; will not feel threatened by the accolades and accomplishments of others around them and will support a staff member when they make a mistake so that they grow and learn from it. I have heard it said that one feature common to many great leaders is humility. Arrogant leaders will want to draw the praise to themselves. They won’t acknowledge others’ strengths. Arrogant leaders are driven by their own egos at the expense of everyone else. It becomes about their accomplishments and perceived trophies. The school is a stepping stone for a bigger and flashier position. The staff are a means to an end. Staff find it hard to grow and blossom in the shadow and darkness of an arrogant leader. They are starved of warmth, light and nutrition. Humility in leadership is a binding cohesion for a talented team. Here’s an interesting quote from Lao-tsu – an ancient Chinese philosopher – which reflects humility as a quality of powerful leadership. Lao-tsu says, “To lead people, walk beside them … As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honour and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate … When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’ “ Are we prepared to be the unnoticed leader? That is a real challenge! Reflection – This is a powerful value for incremental growth. Reflection requires a leader to look at how something went and then wring out of it the good, the bad and even the ugly. A reflective leader will go ‘there’, into the darkness of mistakes, the arid bleakness of problems and the turmoil of disputes in order to learn, and learn, and learn. Ngahihi o te ra Bidois at the recent NZSTA Conference in Auckland said that ‘Thinkers lead and leaders think’. What is
it that they are thinking about? Improvements, refinements, adaptations, innovations, growth. This all starts from looking in the mirror, seeing what is there and turning to the school’s vision for what we would like to see there. A reflective leader knows they don’t know it all. A reflective leader is a listener. A reflective leader is an observer. A reflective leader is a reader. A reflective leader is a thinker. A reflective leader is a change agent for improvements. Our schools need us as Principals to be constantly reflecting so that each year our schools grow and progress. Grace – This final value, I believe, has slowly slipped out of Western consciousness. It is a very deep value. Possibly one of the deepest of the seven. It has been missing in action for so long that many of us may even struggle to grasp what it means anymore. Grace is that second chance. Grace is dropping the mental lists of hurts that people have made against us. Grace is the gift of forgiveness. If we as Principals cannot forgive, the stress of this job will consume and erode us. There are many hurts that scar us; betrayal by a staff member; the resistance of a BOT member; the gossip of a parent. We are not exempt from the damage this causes us on the inside. The longer we spend in the job the more internal wounds we can accumulate. We can become cynical, bitter, critical, impatient, intolerant, snappy and judgemental. I say it because I know it for myself. After almost two decades of being a Principal I know the pain the role can bring.
Grace, that ability to forgive someone even when they did not ask for forgiveness, is a profound release from the emotional chains their hurt can bind us in. Grace, that ability to forgive ourselves when we got it wrong, when we messed up, is a gift of freedom that we give ourselves. Hurts hold us back. Negative words can control our actions. Cynicism stops us from seeing opportunities. Bitterness breaks relationships. Impatience produces frustration. Judgemental attitudes alienate. Grace enables us to break free of all this to be the Principals that we need to be. Of all the seven values I would rate grace as a mega-value. It is that important. To conclude we need resilience, self-control, integrity, humility, respect, reflection and grace in order to fulfil the fullness of our roles. These are, I believe, the high stakes collection of seven values that are at the heart of a highly effective Principal. They are like a personal vision to continually aspire to. As we mature, we become more cognisant of our actions and by aligning our actions to these values we place ourselves in the ‘sweet spot’, that place where bat meets ball with power and finesse. This collection of values may have surprised you but I can guarantee when these seven are exercised in unison, on a daily basis, over time, through and in the situations that we face, they will give us credibility, professionalism and sustainable longevity in the very important role that we undertake as leaders of New Zealand’s schools.
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