How to think like a leader

Schools are experiencing a dramatic shift from how they’ve been run and structured for over a century. Leaders must establish direction, influence others, and initiate sustainable change as they navigate the ever-evolving landscape of education. Such leadership requires a dynamic combination of positive mindset, influential behaviors, and effective skills. Stepping into a leader role requires a change in thinking from “How can I be the best for me?” to “How can I be the best to help my people do their jobs more effectively?”

School leadership, which is the process of enlisting and guiding the talents and energies of teachers, students, and families toward achieving common educational goals, is about thinking differently, not just acting differently. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

All too often, we focus on what we’re comfortable with—the strategies and methods we’ve used for years. But as education evolves, we must be willing to modify or update our approach. As hard and uncomfortable as this may be, we must think about our approach to think like a leader.…Read More

#9: 9 common leadership missteps to avoid

[Editor’s note: This story, originally published on September 10th of this year, was our #9 most popular story of the year. Happy holidays, and thank you for tuning into our 2018 countdown!]

The role of school administrator is evolving from a building manager into an instructional leader. This shift is not easy, and all leaders strive to be the best they can. Being a school leader isn’t easy and you are not going to make the right call all the time. However, you can learn to avoid common missteps.

There are countless articles about being a good school leader, but we also need to learn how to recognize and avoid missteps. Although making a misstep can be a learning opportunity, taking the time to learn how to recognize and avoid common mistakes can help you become productive, successful, and respected by your staff. Here are some examples of decisions or actions that can become a problem for you and your school. Understanding the misstep is the first stage in avoiding it.…Read More

7 ways to be a more visible leader

Today’s school administrator has an overabundance of duties and responsibilities to balance with the mandates from state and national reform. As an instructional leader, you must guide teachers to align learning experiences with objectives and create learning activities to optimize student achievement.

Leaders should monitor instruction and develop a clear and well-defined curriculum while ensuring quality instruction, promoting best practices, monitoring the implementation of the curriculum, providing resources, and examining assessment data.

How can educational leaders do all that? My answer: By having a pulse on the building.…Read More

Introducing the EdLeader Personality Test

Personality tests are fun.

Some people derive valuable insights from them. Others simply use them to validate what they already know about themselves. Most just like to see which category they fall in so they can compare, contrast, and laugh about it with others.

That’s kind of the idea behind Advancing K12’s latest experiment: The EdLeader Personality Test. We identified nine recognizable archetypes from various levels of school and district leadership based on years of observation, then came up with a way for you to find your closest match. The logic behind the 40-question test has undergone thorough testing and validation. We’ve even provided some recommendations based on common pitfalls encountered by each archetype.…Read More