they be loose—merely encouraging people to engage in the change process, but leaving participation optional? The challenge at all levels of the system is to navigate this apparent dichotomy and find the appropriate balance between tight and loose, between assertiveness and autonomy. If we know anything about change, it is that ordering people to change doesn’t work, nor does leaving them alone. (p. 33)
The delicate balance between loose and tight, as DuFour and Fullan (2013) describe it, requires that a leader have a comprehensive set of leadership skills. Without these skills, trying to differentiate between the right time to nurture and the right time to demand performance can lead current and aspiring school leaders down a slippery slope. People cannot logically expect that this collection of delicate skills would come naturally to everyone seeking to lead schools. In fact, we contend that people rarely have the instincts necessary to naturally strike this balance, and without proper guidance, every school would need a superhero to create the conditions for improvement. Fullan (2003) acknowledges that the goal should be to make leadership “more exciting and doable. It cannot require superwomen and supermen or moral martyrs because, if it does, we will never get the numbers necessary to make a system difference” (p. xv).
Our goal with this book is to provide leaders with a logical and duplicable process so that anyone who wants to become an effective school leader has a road map for success. We begin by exploring what we know about good leadership.
Leadership as a Skill
Leadership represents the ability to use influence to improve organizational productivity. Leadership is not a position; it is a set of actions that positively shape the climate and culture of the working environment. In essence, leadership is a verb, not a noun. We know a good leader is present when those whom he or she influences have become more effective and productive at their given task because of the impact of the leader. Consider this: most would agree that a reading teacher lacks effectiveness if his or her students don’t improve their reading skills after being exposed to the practices and influence of a reading teacher. Wouldn’t the same standard apply to a school or district leader? He or she is not a successful leader if those he or she leads do not succeed. For this reason, isolating and evaluating individual teachers as the sole indicator for school progress, using their students’ test scores to determine success or failure, is doomed to fail as a public policy and school-improvement method. The teacher does not work on an island; the teacher is a product of his or her leaders, just as the teacher influences a student. In fact, no one truly works in isolation. Educators are a part of an intricate web, each contributing to the success or failure of their system. All educators are leaders, yet they all need leadership. The question each educator should ask becomes, “What responsibility do I have for influencing and improving those I have to guide?”
In a school, productivity is measured in terms of this influence and improvement in both student learning and personal growth. Productive schools shape the future in positive ways. Education is a high-stakes business, not because of a ranking or accountability rating given by a state or government agency, but because educators only get thirteen years to help shape the future of young human beings. This shaping process requires profound care and skill. This makes school leadership one of the most critical positions in a progressive society.
Too often, people assume that because someone has shown promise or experienced success in a particular area, he or she has the ability to guide others to that same level of greatness. This is simply an inaccurate assumption. Andrew Munro (2005) warns:
Wrapping up attributes, behaviours, tasks and outcomes into a package of competency dimensions might seem an economical way of summarising leadership and management requirements, but by bundling cause and consequence there is a risk of confusing who is currently effective (displaying the achievement of outcomes) from who might be effective in the future (evidence of those attributes predictive of outcomes). (p. 65)
Schools cannot ensure effective school leadership by simply promoting a good teacher to the role of principal or promoting a good principal to the role of superintendent. The skills required to lead other people differ from those personal and professional skills required to perform other tasks. In 2002, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) reported that by 2012, 40 percent of the United States’ principals would retire, and qualified candidates would not replace most of them. We are now years beyond that stark warning. The NASSP (2002) report also notes that few school districts have structured recruitment programs that systematically seek out the best principal candidates, or implement training programs that grow future leaders.
Unfortunately, the crisis predicted in 2002 was even worse than anticipated. In a stunning report titled Churn: The High Cost of Principal Turnover, the School Leaders Network (2014) confirms that 25 percent of principals leave their post each year and 50 percent leave after three years. That same report also highlights the impact that principal turnover and effectiveness have on students. It concludes that a 10 percent drop in principal turnover in high-poverty communities, coupled with district investment in principal effectiveness, would translate to an increase of $30,024.07 in lifetime earnings for students enrolled in those schools (School Leaders Network, 2014). Therefore, it is imperative that school systems recruit and retain leaders who understand how to lead and sustain school improvement. This requires that school and district leaders possess a set of diverse skills that can impact both the technical and cultural dimensions of organizational change.
Technical change involves the manipulation of policies, structures, and practices. Organizations really need this form of change, but when used exclusively, it ignores very important aspects of organizational reform (Muhammad, 2009). Cultural change refers to addressing the beliefs, values, motivations, habits, and behaviors of the people who work within the organization. People often overlook this form of change because it is challenging and complex (Muhammad, 2009). In this book, we will establish that changing the culture of an organization is essential to improving outcomes, and it provides the context to make technical innovation effective. Technically savvy but culturally ineffective leaders will find little success in transforming schools.
Human beings are complex, so leaders need a skill set as diverse as human beings themselves in order to cultivate better practice. To begin our discussion of the skills that effective change leaders require, we first look at the transformational leadership model and what it means to become a transformational leader.
Transformational Leadership
James MacGregor Burns (1978) originally introduced the transformational leadership model in a book titled Leadership. Burns (1978) describes transformational leadership as a process where “leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality” (p. 20). The clarity and specifics of this model have advanced since he first introduced it in 1978. His original model provided a paradigm for transformational influence but very few specifics. Bernard M. Bass (1985) significantly contributed to the study of this model when he introduced eight characteristics of transformational leadership.
1. Model integrity and fairness.
2. Set clear goals.
3. Have high expectations.
4. Encourage others.
5. Provide support and recognition.
6. Stir people’s emotions.
7. Encourage people to look beyond their self-interest.
8. Inspire people to reach for the improbable.
A scholarly paper that Langston University (2016) published, titled Transformational Leadership, includes the most compelling and vivid description of this form of leadership that we have found:
Transformational
