Core Values

The end of the school year. As much as it seems like we should be able to kick back and relax at the end of the school year, this is a busy time for school leaders. Not only are we trying to make sure that we have absolutely everything tightly wrapped up with a bow, from end of the year data to hiring plans to culminating events, we are also gearing up for whatever work we are engaged in during the summer (for me that includes running a summer academy) and planning intensely for getting us off the ground in September. The planning for a solid opening cannot be underestimated - so this alone requires a great deal of reflection, planning, collaboration, and visioning.

I started working with a group of teacher leaders that represent a cross section of the different types of work we are engaged in a few weeks ago as part of a Turnaround School Leadership Program that I am involved in through my district. As we looked closely at different areas of our turnaround, we reflected on where we felt like we needed greater clarity. We looked at School Culture, Education Program, Talent Management, Operations, and Governance and Accountability. We decided that the areas for us that needed greater clarity centered on core values. We felt like we had a clear vision and that it was clearly articulated and that there was significant buy-in, but there was not always consistency in how our vision is carried out. Our core values are the beliefs that we have as an organization and what transpires as a result of those beliefs. An organization's core values must be clearly known and shared throughout the organization in order to have systemic change.

In this article by Jim Collins, he describes how the core values of an organization have to be shared by everyone in the organization. There is no detail too small to attend to - as Rory Sutherland talks about in this Ted Talk called "Sweat the Small Stuff."

In our work with the core values of our school, we used the analogy of a house that we built based on our core values. We described four pillars with an overarching "roof" on our structure. Our pillars are Academics, Social Emotional Learning, Collaboration, Culture and Climate with Community as our arch over the system. Looking at these pillars, we were able to articulate our core values and begin the discussion around what we need to do in order to ensure that everything we are doing aligns to these core values.

As the school leaders, we are responsible for the core values and alignment of those core values to the work across our organization. Teachers are the leaders in their classrooms and it is up to them to ensure that their classrooms align to the core values within the pillars of Academics, Social Emotional Learning, Collaboration, and Culture and Climate, as well as the Community. Ensuring systemic shifts in our organizations requires that our core values are in alignment throughout the system. Stay tuned for the next steps we will take to ensure that in our turnaround school!

Iron Sharpens Iron

A couple of weeks ago, I was at a leadership gathering and one of my colleagues was describing a working relationship. She said that they challenged one another, pushed one another, and made one another better at their work. The phrase she used was "iron sharpens iron."

It really got me thinking about how we support one another as leaders and what we value in the other leadership around us. I need people around me who push me and challenge me - people who sharpen my iron. It can certainly be challenging to hear feedback or opposing points of view, but I have learned to reflect and consider it from multiple angles so that I can come back to a point where I can hear it. I have had to push myself to recognize that when I am uncomfortable in feedback or some kind of challenging thinking, that there is usually more truth than I am able to hear initially. By taking the time to reflect and look at it from different angles, I can often come back and find how I need to grow.

So, how do we learn to sharpen the iron of those around us without being abrasive or too cutting and how do we help our teams learn to appreciate and value the need for sharpening? It can be challenging to give feedback or share an opposing point of view without sounding argumentative or even rude. In Leadership and Self-Deception, by the Arbinger Institute, we observe leadership from "inside and outside the box." We learn about how we can give direct and even difficult feedback to others without devaluing others. For me, this book has had a significant impact in my own leadership development and it is a title I return to again and again.

It can be as difficult to share an opposing point of view as it is to hear one. In this talk by Margaret Hefferman, she talks about the importance of teaching the skills of defending a topic, usually saved for Ph.D. work, to students of every level in order to develop thinking classrooms and organizations. In order to engage in this act of challenge developing and encouraging thinking, we must let go of believing that we must always be right. It is not a matter of right or wrong when we are pushing thinking. We must allow for the discomfort that happens when we are challenged, or when we need to challenge the thinking of others. When we allow the voices of a few negative or outspoken persons to represent our thinking because we are not comfortable in defending our own beliefs, then we are all weakened. When we sharpen one another, as iron sharpens iron, we strengthen the entire system and become the best version of ourselves.