Even though your online business idea might be great, got tons of initial traction and generated huge traffic, you began noticing a steady decline in traffic over time.
Your to-do list is filled with low-impact tactical items – I’m not one to make a big difference between leadership and management, but one of the clear differentiators in my mind is that leaders initiate change and managers react to it. If you find your to-do list is filled with low-impact, tactical items that contribute more to the daily operations of the business, then you may be running on autopilot. Your to-do list should be focused on big picture, strategic items that could make significant improvements in your operations.
The autopilot leader easily becomes oblivious to changes occurring around him until the nature of the situation reaches a crises point, forcing the leader to snap back to reality. This happens because the leader was content to react to change rather than initiate it.
Routine has the potential to be quite good. It can create powerful habits that lead to effectiveness over a long period of time. However, routine equally has the power to be bad. Taken to extreme, routine becomes complacency.
Running on autopilot is great if you’re a pilot, but it’s a bad idea if you’re a leader. Instead, find yourself copilots who can shoulder the burden with you.
Coaching in education has grown rapidly in education contexts in the last 5 years (van Nieuwerburgh, 2012). It has moved beyond the provision of coaching as a professional learning activity for school leaders to include: coaching training as a leadership development skill; various coaching initiatives designed to enhance teaching practice as well as coaching involving students either by staff or even by fellow students. Educators have embraced coaching in all of these school conversational contexts.
"It's human nature-if we feel we belong, we are more likely to view ourselves as having the potential to achieve. It's troubling that this simple principle seems to have been lost in the debate about educational reform."
Being involved in a number of school transformation initiatives I have found that this principle can have a very powerful impact on students and their learning. But, there are also bigger lessons here which can/should be applied to whole school community. jf
"For those who share this common commitment (and really, who among us does not?),there is, I am arguing, a moral responsibility, a strong one, to share our educational initiatives and innovations: to summarize them, share their key elements, show examples of them in practice, and, at best, reflect upon their successes and lack thereof."
"This is also an essential element of educational leadership. Leadership is showing the way to others and making it easier for them to follow, it is empowering others to benefit from your example, take inspiration, and improve upon your advances- to stand on your shoulders."
Here are some ways that we can build strong connections with the parents in our school communities:
1. Use what the kids use
If we can connect using mediums (blogs, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) that our students use, not only are we building an understanding and instructional leadership within our schools, but we are familiarizing our parents with many of the tools that their children will be using.
You may not have all parents excited about the changes that are happening in school, but they are out there. You have to find them which leads into the next point.
3. Tap into parent leadership
One thing that we have to realize is that parents are more likely to listen to other parents.
What is imperative is that we connect with parents that have a voice with others and get their feedback on new initiatives.
As districts are faced with the challenge of building a buget in these extremely tough fiscal times, this article becomes imperative. Seeking new ideas from not only those within our industry, but those stakeholders outside of education may provide new insights and opportunities for us in education. "Outside of the box" thinking may help to save many of our programs and initiatives that we pride ourselves in inspite of the economic crisis we are/ will be faced with.