Educational Leaders: Are you a fixer or a multiplier?

Are you A Fixer or A Multiplier?

Of course, we'd love to think of ourselves as both. In reading an article by Douglas B. Reeves about selecting and assessing superintendents, it was evident that the information applied to more than just the 'person at the top'.

So what is A Fixer?

The Fixer is always several steps ahead of everyone in the room and has a bias for action. Let's just get it done - is their mindset. In the short term, organizations love The Fixer. The long-term implications for this are that this person never builds leadership capacity and the district is poorer for it.

What about The Multiplier?

The Multiplier is willing to share intellectual and emotional ownership of new strategies with teachers and others. This allows the process to proceed, perhaps not with lightning speed, but in a manner that is far more likely to endure.

To read more, click here:

http://www.asbj.com/MainMenuCategory/Archive/2010/September/What-Type-of-Superinendent-Do-You-Need.aspx

Strengths Based Leadership is a Fantastic Resource for Leadership Development or Retreats

Just wanted to take a minute to send a note re: Strengths Based Leadership (http://www.strengthsfinder.com).

This is an incredible, data-based tool with an assessment that identifies your top 5 strengths (out of a total of 34). Research indicates that leaders have waaaay more to get from using their strengths than trying to learn to make their weaknesses stronger. The book also has a great section on strong teams, and a section on what followers need from leaders.

StrengthsFinder came along after all of the Gallup leadership research (First, Break All The Rules, etc.). StrengthsFinder is now part of the Gallup organization

I have used this with teams in business, medicine, & education & it is really an exceptional tool.

To order the book: (http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=strengths+based+leadership).

Rather than take up space here, call me (320-260-2612) or e-mail me (bruce@bigrivergroup.com) if I can provide any other info that will help you decide if, or how to use it with your team.

Four Things Your Employees Need From You

Hope this finds you well & enjoying your summer.

I have blogged about the Harvard Business Review Management Tip of The Day before, but yesterday's post was very good & deserves a wider audience. You can sign up to receive the tip each day (addresses below). Today's tip contains ideas similar to the research from StrengthsFinder re: what followers need from leaders (Trust, Compassion, Stability, Hope).

Have a great week!

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--- MANAGEMENT TIP: JULY 13, 2010 ---

4 Things Your Employees Need From You

Traditional leaders see the employee-boss relationship as a transaction: money in exchange for labor. Transformational leaders know and recognize that employees want much more than that. Here are the four things your people need to succeed:

1. Love. This may sound touchy-feely, but love simply means focused concern that is exclusively for that person's good. Show your employees you care about them and their futures.

2. Growth. No one wants to be exactly where they are forever. Create a culture that allows your people to grow and expand.

3. Contribution. To feel fulfilled, employees must know that they are contributing to the whole. Emphasize the ways that their work matters to the organization.

4. Meaning. We are meaning-seeking creatures. Share a vision that demonstrates that all of your employees are engaged in a larger purpose.

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Welcome to Management Tip of the Day, a free daily alert with quick, practical management tips and ideas from HBR.org.

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What's Your Leadership Brand?

Hope this message finds you well. I always like to pass along great resources when I find them. Here's one from the Harvard Business Review. Click on the link below to read more.

What's Your Leadership Brand?

A leadership brand tells people what is distinctive about you as a leader and communicates what you have to offer. Summarizing your brand in a statement is a useful and often enlightening task. First, answer two important questions:

1. What do you want to be known for?
2. What results do you want to achieve in the next 12 months?

Take these two answers and put them into the following statement: I want to be known for ______ so that I can deliver ______. Once you have your statement, be sure that you are living up to it. Ask others for input on whether you are achieving your goals and whether they see your leadership brand in the same way you do.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/03/define_your_personal_leadershi.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-MANAGEMENT_TIP-_-MAY_2010-_-MTOD0524&referral=00203

Big River Chainsaw Planning Videos are Now Online

Hope this message finds you well. I am really excited to send this out. A Chainsaw Planning video - check it out by clicking on the links below!

Big River Group Channel

All seven videos (below) are to be used by clients that have gone through Chainsaw Planning w/ Big River. All are between two & three minutes & contain a few ideas to get the most out of your plan.

One Week After Planning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQtc1GsGZnc

One Month After Planning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzvPEFJDxMQ

Two Months After Planning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsCg_VOp0Jg

Three Months After Planning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNvgBlgJzKU

Six Months After Planning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_pdRfYcKCo

Nine Months After Planning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD5XjOesBko

One Year After Planning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaXOMK7EoDM

Good luck & contact me if I can provide any additional assistance.

Providing Effective Professional Development for Educational Leaders

Hope this finds you well & having a great school year.

Wanted to tell you about two "experimental" groups that started this year.

One Tuesday each month, educational leaders (principals, tech coordinators, assistant principals, staff development directors, etc.) get together for an hour for a virtual session over the phone (10:30 to 11:30 AM Central time). Superintendents get together on the same day (1:30 to 2:30 PM Central time).

We ask them in advance what issues or topics they need to learn more about and discuss in the session. Research summaries and a powerpoint are prepared on the topic & sent out to all participants in advance.

The original idea for the sessions was to:

1) Assemble a group of educational leaders that would like to expand their group of professional contacts across multiple states (currently MN, WI, SD).

2) Provide customized professional development in shorter sessions on needed topics with researched topics & presentation materials provided.

3) Allow busy leaders to participate without giving up travel time & time away from the job.

The response has been good & the format works despite a few reservations on my part. The groups have passionate, energetic participants that put to rest my initial concerns about working together over the phone.

Evaluations comments from participants have been reinforcing:

"I really have appreciated the powerpoint and resources made available. I also enjoy and appreciate the discussions from Educational Leaders from a large geographic area!"

"The networking with other leaders has been beneficial. I have gained additional perspectives toward issues and/or I have had my own perspectives affirmed by my peers."

"The timely topics & sharing with really cool, intelligent, up-to-date leaders."

"The most beneficial piece has been the topics and selected materials. Opening minds."

Please contact us if you would like more information about the groups, or the resources that we have developed for them.

Tuxedo Tuesdays

Dressing to impress is always on the minds of high school students. Chuck Briscoe, principal at Century High School in Rochester, is also dressing to impress – and he has impressed many more than he thought he would.

Each Tuesday, Chuck dons his tuxedo for school. "I'm trying to model for students that you dress for success. When I dress up, I do a little better work, I feel better." Each Tuesday, is now known as ‘Tuxedo Tuesday’. Chuck has had this idea rolling around in his head for a while; a friend’s challenge was all that he needed to make it happen this year.

"Tuxedo Tuesday" has had an amazing ripple effect throughout the school. The students are excited to see the tuxedo every Tuesday. Even some of the students and staff have started to dress in their finest on Tuesdays to join in the effort. During spirit week at school, the office staff dressed up in tuxedos to emulate Chuck.

The positive impact that Tuxedo Tuesdays have created is worth the extra effort Chuck takes. "People look at you differently in the real world and the expectations are higher. It's another take off about how you dress is important. You get one chance to make an impression, and if that's the first impression, it may not be a good one…if your pants are on the ground." Chuck chuckled, referencing the recent audition on American Idol.

We all know the three “R”s that schools focus on. Chuck has added a fourth “R” and feels tops them all. The most important "R" that exists in every school is the relationship "R." Great principals work very hard to establish and maintain positive relationships with the student body and the staff. The positive effect of wearing a tuxedo each week is an example on what a leader can do to have an effect on their relationship with everyone in the building.

Chuck tries to get a photo or two each Tuesday with students or staff to commemorate each week as it passes. According to him, he has every vest and tie color under the sun. Beyond the pictures, Chuck recently was contacted by WCCO and a story will be airing in mid-February about Tuxedo Tuesdays.