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Leading my inter-generational group was one of my highlights from this summer. We had great discussion and debates regarding what makes a good leader. The discussion made me realize how far I have grown from my first year in the program. In the picture, service is at the heart of the circle. Indicating that at the heard of every great leader is a servant. I can’t say today that I would have said the same thing the first year of my program.
I never really thought of the importance, as a leader of making meaning for those I lead, especially if I felt that what we were doing, or how we were transisiton, just made since. But then I heard this, “people do not react directly to events; they act based on their interpretation of the meaning of events”.
Meaning: states that humans act toward people and things according to the meaning that they assign to those people or things. Symbolic interactionism holds the principal of meaning to be central.
I tie meaning to perception. As leaders, we must be open to others perceptions, and how they as assigning meaning. This, allows leaders the opportunity to think though things through anothers view.
We don’t know what we don’t know……..The three realms are important. It is true that we operate within three concepts. What we know, what we don’t know; but I think the most important realm is that we don’t know what we don’t know.
This concept makes me think about what else I need to learn as a leader. What is it that I do not know?
It’s People, Not Programs
*What Great Principals Do Differently….
“We can spend a great deal of time looking for programs that will solve all our problems. Too often,
these programs do not bring the improvement or growth we seek. Instead, we must focus on what
really matters. It’s never about programs; it is always about people. This does not mean that no program
can encourage or support improvement of people in our school; however, no program inherently leads
to that improvement. Believe me, if there were such a program, it would already be in place in every
one of our schools. It is people, not programs, that determine the quality of a school.
Question:
What would we be doing if what we were doing made sense? was a questions posed by the leadership team at South Milwakee School District.
I believe there needs to be a system orientation to planning,and liked how the team outlined their approces to the planning process. Starting with system planning and going through different stages that included; system action, system plan updates, integration of site planning.
Key questions organzation need to ask themselves before they being the planning process…
Who are we as a community?
Where are we?
Where are we going?
How will we get there?
How will we know we are there? Assessment? Reporting?
Nothing stays the same. Change is the only thing that is consistent.
Change happens
Change is resisted
Change is managed to varied effect
Why we resist change
o Some is cutting things off
o Blackholes
o Silo
Question for leadership task. How do we move people towards change. How can I move productive change in my current organization? By what means will I continually improve mission focus and achievement.
I recently started at MATC, and these are questions I have regarding change with in my organization. Currently the organization is going through transition and I want to be a postive change within my organization. To do that, I need to keep change, resitance to change, and how to move people through change at the top of my agenda.
damiragrady 