and Rains recommend that leaders begin by differentiating facts from beliefs since it is beliefs that are the basis for visions. But visions must be realistic, and facts can serve to help hone visions into an attainable yet inspiring possible future. Obviously, a school’s vision should be shared by all relevant stakeholders and used by the leader to generate commitment to concrete goals that are grounded in the vision.
Question 5: How can I support teams? As before, the answer to this question should be guided by established PLC practices. These include examining common times; creating team tools; focusing on curriculum, instruction, and assessment; examining data; and monitoring progress.
Question 6: What, when, and how should I communicate? Arguably, this last question is the most important since it deals with day-to-day interactions with others. The quality of these interactions most probably has a one-to-one relationship with the quality of one’s leadership. High-quality interactions involve listening to others, sharing with others, and celebrating others.
Stronger Together not only affirms a belief held by many leaders but also provides actionable guidance for actualizing this belief.
INTRODUCTION
Beginning Thoughts
No one can lead alone. After all, an educational leader’s day can easily include a student missing the bus, an accident occurring in the pick-up lane, a teacher calling in sick, the cafeteria running out of cereal, and a bathroom pipe leaking—all in the first thirty minutes of the day and having nothing to do with learning. The responsibilities are too much for a single individual, with expectations of proficiency not only in management but also in pedagogy, instruction, assessment, curriculum, technology, research, staff evaluation processes, data analysis, and more. When you add making sure teachers have what they need and ensuring that students show academic growth, you can easily see that leadership is not a one-person job. It requires collaboration. But there is a way to protect sanity, strengthen organizations, and increase success: leading collaboratively.
Collaborative leadership requires someone to recognize and utilize the strengths of many people toward a single goal or vision. A collaborative leader fosters leadership skills in others and empowers them to be responsive to an organization’s needs. It is not enough to understand the required work and accomplish the goals that are tied to that work. After all, great leaders do not lead tasks; great leaders lead people. Working in tandem with and promoting leadership in colleagues not only supports an organization but also facilitates goal achievement. Richard DuFour (2015) offers this blunt but true message: “No one person has the energy, expertise, and influence to fulfill all the responsibilities of your job successfully. If you try to do it all by yourself, you will fail” (p. 225). To wit, author Linda Lambert (1998) states that “when we equate the powerful concept of leadership with the behaviors of one person, we are limiting the achievement of broad-based participation by a community or a society” (p. 5). A broader leadership community makes the difference.
The following sections in this introduction define collaborative leadership, this book’s audience and framework, and our hopes for you, the reader.
EXAMINING YOUR CURRENT REALITY
As you read this chapter, consider the following questions. Reflect on your personal growth as a leader and your support of growing leadership within your organization.
• How do you feel at the end of the day?
• What does your to-do list look like?
• Who supports you, and how do they provide that support?
• In what ways does that support improve your school’s educational environment?
• How do you support those around you?
• How does that support grow others’ leadership skills?
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Collaborative Leadership
Collaborative leadership is about capitalizing on the strengths and skills of others in the effort to achieve common goals. It is understanding that success is achieved through sharing leadership responsibility. While collaboration is people working together, collaborative leadership is about encouraging others to be leaders as well.
Collaborative leadership incorporates various approaches and tools. These types of leaders strive to know themselves as leaders and endeavor to know others within the organization, establishing rapport that eventually leads to trust. Trust is crucial to collaboration, since “psychological safety, more than anything else, [is] critical to making a team work” (Duhigg, 2016). Collaborative leaders intentionally bring out others’ strengths and potentials and use visioning to allow for greater autonomy. Tim Kanold (2011) encourages leaders to “paint that picture and let everyone touch the brush” (p. 31). Communication is a way to connect the people and the work. Author and motivational speaker Marcus Buckingham (2005) speaks to the necessity of leaders communicating clearly to connect an organization’s purpose with the actions of those who live within to ensure progress.
Leaders use their knowledge of others to identify who should lead teams. After doing so, they relinquish authority to a broader group but continue providing support, thus enabling additional leaders to grow. They help their teams stay focused and working toward their shared vision. Director of qualitative research for the Education Leadership Research Center at Texas A&M University, Jean Madsen (1996), says it precisely:
In these communal settings, leadership is not defined as exercising power over others but as empowering people to accomplish shared goals. The open exercise of wit and will, principle and passion, time and talent, and purpose and power allow these varied participants to accomplish a set of goals. (p. 79)
This collaborative leadership allows everyone to use his or her personal strengths. Leadership authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner (2012) talk about this as creating a climate that promotes people being at their best. The two go on to share that, “in a climate of competence and confidence, people don’t hesitate to hold themselves personally accountable for results, and they feel profound ownership for their achievements” (p. 243). People feel empowered to do what needs to be done when leaders enable this approach. Communities author Peter Block’s (2013) words hold true: “Empowerment embodies the belief that the answer to the latest crisis lies within each of us” (p. 19).
Effective leaders first provide direction and then shift their energy to serve those who can get the job done. After providing direction, these leaders identify and meet the needs of the team with resources and tools (Hunter, 2004) and the needs of its individual members (acknowledging that people have their own fears, joys, and sensitivities). Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas Many, and Mike Mattos (2016) refer to this group as a guiding coalition. They are a conduit for all other teams. Many schools simply call this a leadership team. What you call the teams is not as important as ensuring alignment between the leader and the teams’ actions.
This Book’s Audience
This book is written by educators, for educators. With almost fifty years of combined education experience in over thirty states (including our own settings), we have worked with many leaders from multiple levels. We have seen many leadership styles. We have seen leaders move from shaky ground to solid. One consistency is that when you know how to promote leadership in others, you accomplish amazing things. Anyone in an educational leadership position, from teacher leaders to those at the central office level, or anyone who desires such a position, can use this book to learn about and develop
