Effective Leadership
Positions of authority have, of course, no guarantee that their occupants will actually be good leaders. In fact, for some, the right to control other people is so alluring that any thought of doing something different remains far away from consciousness. Effective leaders can take situations that are bad and turn them around to the good, yet, as will be seen, this must be done by balancing one’s own control with the right of employees to have some say over what they do in their lives, including their work.
There is a principal of an urban school who is the model of leadership. This school was in trouble for test scores for a number of years; it inhabited a run-down typical old inner city school building. When she first got in the position, Dr. W. became determined to turn the test scores around. There were two problems: the kids did not think they could learn and the teachers did not think the kids could learn. Most people in the building did not believe that the test scores could be changed.
Dr. W. instituted training for the teachers as well as expectations that lessons would be planned around state benchmarks. She is a hands-on type leader and it is not unusual for her to be looking in on classrooms. At the same time, because of her own experience as a teacher, she knew what the teachers’ perspectives were and she supported them.
The first year, scores rose ten percent, but no one really attributed that rise to work. They thought they were just lucky. The second year, the scores rose another ten percent. By the third straight year of rising scores, the teachers and the students got it figured out. The teachers were teaching and the students were learning.
The district decided to renovate the building and the school moved into another building while the old school was fixed up. The good news was that Dr. W. had a large say in what would be in the new building, such as every science teacher having both a laboratory and a classroom, all rooms would have high quality technology, and the sports facilities would be top notch. The bad news was that the change to a different building brought the test scores down. But the amazing thing was that the tests had previously risen high enough that the drop did not put them into a lower achievement category.
Now the school is in a new-old building. It has the high ceilings and big windows of an old building as well as a lot of history. But all classes are wired for high level technology. Not only does the school have a gifted leader, but it also has every amenity a high school could hope for.
Effective leaders can do this: they can take something that is doing much worse than average and in a matter of years have it become significantly better than average.