Every day, you choose which problems you are going to deal with as you lead your charter school. Where do you start? What ends up at the bottom of your list? How can you use those problems to feel empowered, to increase your own impact and influence, instead of feeling defeated and frustrated? Keep reading to learn more!
What type of fire fighter are you?
What happens when you walk in the door of your charter school? Are you hit with problems that seem to need your immediate attention? Do you open up your emails and wince at the number of items that just got added to your “to do” list? Are you putting out fires all day long?
What if you were able to back up three steps and actually solve important problems, to prevent fires instead of fighting them? If you could delegate some of those short term, urgent, but not necessarily important (for your attention) problems, what would you choose to work on? What problem would you decide to solve?
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Intentional problem-solving
You can increase your effectiveness with a few simple changes to your mind-set. Here are ten steps to increase your impact and influence today!
Find a place to work where you will not be disturbed (yes, really – you can’t do proper deep thinking if you are being interrupted.)
Identify a worthy problem that you want to solve. Your work will be most effective if you choose a problem that affects your school’s mission and vision.
Brainstorm to find the greater theme. Go beneath the surface to the underlying issue. Does this problem affect enrollment? Achievement? Morale? Is this a people problem or a process problem? Do you need to change policy or do you need to change staffing?
Identify the current situation and factors that led to this problem. What barriers are in place that are stopping you from correcting the problem now?
Find out what others have done. Reach out to other school leaders. Talk to colleagues within your organization and in your professional network. Do a Google search. Read some articles on the topic. How have others solved this problem? What can you learn from them and apply to your situation?
Formulate a plan. What do you want to do? Set goals and decide what success would look like.
Get feedback on your plan from others. Be sure to include people who will be impacted by the changes you wish to make. Check in with people who may need to authorize your plan or approve purchases.
Formalize your plan. Now that you have feedback and potential approval, decide what you will do. Who will be involved? How you will do it? When it will be done? Write it down and set your own deadlines.
Put your plan in action. Do you need to get new policies approved? Do you need to discipline or terminate an uncooperative employee? Do you need to start a new program or order and implement new curriculum? Do it now.
Measure results and shout-out your success. You need to know if your plan worked. You need real data to share with your stakeholders so they will support your next big idea. And you need to take a few minutes to congratulate yourself. You had impact on your school. You increased your influence within your circle. You made a difference.
Resources
In my experience, there are three elements to effective leadership: relationships, accountability, and visionary leadership. I have found three books to be very helpful in developing my leadership style in these areas.
Trust Matters: Leadership for Successful Schools, Megan Tschannen-Moran (relationships)
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan (accountability)
Start with Why, How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Simon Sinek (visionary leadership)
What books have shaped your leadership styles? Share with us in the comments below!
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