We must act with a sense of urgency for our students. It's not only their future that hinges on it, but it's their present that relies on it. We must always move forward, we must never stay complacent.

I believe in Servant Leadership where one must engage, work with and empower all staff with that same sense of urgency to do what's best for all students.

 

A Catalyst For Others

When working in the service of others, I’m driven by my core values of partnership, collaboration, transparency, authenticity and productivity.

A servant leader must explicitly know their values, commit those values to principled actions, and convey their beliefs by being conscious of their why. More importantly, a servant leader must be a catalyst to initiate and facilitate this thinking in others by partnering with them through the journey.   

A Clear why

It is imperative that a team have a clear and shared "why" they exist, "why" they do what they do and "why" they are crucial to the success of students. A servant leader must help facilitate the team’s why.

Everything done should have value and align with the why.

Create & maintain authentic relationships

A servant leader must create authentic relationships by meeting with others face to face, look them in the eye and be positive and transparent.

Maintaining these relationships is done by gathering and acting on feedback and delivering high quality results that have a positive impact on student achievement.

servant leadership

A servant leader must be driven by a desire to help others grow in their practice and look after the well-being of the people and the communities to which they belong. Strong coaching skills are needed to effectively serve and help others realize their potential. 

high quality & applicable resources 

All resources that a servant leader and team create should be well thought out, simplified, immediately usable and aesthetically pleasing.

DATA INFORMED

Data is important. However, it doesn’t always paint the complete picture. Rather than being completely data driven, actions, decisions and initiatives should be informed by data.

When looking at data, one must make meaning by clarifying context, make observations, inquire about data, analyze data for interpretation, and make inferences BEFORE taking action.

 

How To Deliver On These Values

input & freedom within form

Everything developed by the servant leader and team should be taken through a feedback loop. This feedback loop includes input from stakeholders and the internal team. Reflected on, reworked and presented again. 

However, as important as feedback is, there still must be something for stakeholders to react to. Providing options, ideas and choices using sound research and best practices can allow for work to get done while creating a shared understanding. Freedom within form. 

online presence

Social Media - A push to engage the online community though Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat will help bring visibility to the work. 

Online Classes - High quality, outcome based online classes can help facilitate professional learning opportunities to district staff where learning can happen on their own time.

Online Resources - Every servant leader should deliver a website for on-demand PD. Please see my portfolio for an example. It's a spot to house all of the PD resources for all to access in a well designed, modern, easy to use, mobile friendly platform. This not only helps centralize resources, but also creates a sense of transparency.

Partnership principles

I adhere to the Partnership Principles outlined by Jim Knight, and so should the team:

  • Equality - I treat people how I want to be treated; on the same level

  • Choice - There is no one certain way to doing something

  • Voice - It matters to hear and listen to others

  • Reflection - I reflect on the work I do and try to improve

  • Dialogue - I love to engage in dialogue where we freely and creatively explore ideas

  • Praxis - Everything must be applicable to immediately apply to practice 

  • Reciprocity - I often learn just as much from coaching or teaching others as they do from me 

experts and research

We cannot ignore what the experts in education and leadership say. Here are just a few of the experts and leaders in education that I follow and use in my work.

  • Simon Sinek

  • Jim Knight

  • John Hattie

  • Robert Marzano

  • AJ Juliani & John Spencer

  • Allison Zmuda

  • Stephan Barkely

design

Details matter and so does design. 

How teams get work done:

Agile and Scrum

In today's complex work environment a servant leader must be able to guide a team to get work done by being Agile to help check the teams actions against their beliefs.

Together with a Scrum process to make sure the right work is getting accomplished on time and with high quality, Agile and Scrum is a proven technique used by many of the most successful companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft.

I am a Certified ScrumMaster® by Scrum Alliance® License #1070508

Please see my work on bringing Agile and Scrum to education at agilewithstudents.com