Labor of Love: Serving Those Who Serve OthersBy Joe Schroeder, PhD Associate Executive Director, AWSA Metaphorically speaking, as a school or school system leader, you are a well. People come to you because they are thirsty. They thirst for knowledge, they thirst for wisdom, they thirst for resolution and justice. They come to you in order that their personal wells can be replenished, so that—one way or another—they can become a bit more strengthened and whole through the process. And that makes sense, because giving to others is what servant leaders do. But in an era of unprecedented pace and scope of change, where the demands on leaders can often seem overwhelming, we face a critical issue in education leadership today: where does one who serves others replenish his/her personal leadership well…before the well goes dry? Addressing that critical issue and equipping leaders with means for managing it is the purpose of the book I published earlier this school year: Labor of Love: A Spiritual Companion for Servant Leaders. Henry David Thoreau once famously penned that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” I think he is right. Moreover, it seems particularly true for leaders—at least that has been what I have witnessed. We each have some days that are better than others, seasons of great joy and peace amidst ones of significant trial and anxiety. A critical moment in my own leadership journey was over fifteen years ago when I was principal of a large high school and attempting to lead several second order change efforts in a demanding community while also trying to be a loving father and husband who was simultaneously working through my wife’s own cancer scare. Many days I felt overwhelmed and in near breathless despair. And with my well running dry, I could feel myself struggling to be as helpful to others as I had been in my more robust hours. Seemingly at the end of my rope, through grace, I reverted back to some foundations in faith from my youth that I had drifted away from somewhere while immersed in my busy adult life. And through the disciplines of daily wading back into the wisdom of Christian scripture, prayer, and communion with my Maker and with other sisters and brothers of faith, I regained my footing and was able to replenish my well once again. Through my role with AWSA, I am blessed to engage with hundreds and thousands of leaders in education. And in conversations with many of our colleagues, I often hear about people experiencing their own leadership and life crises, similar to what I described in my own story above. In short, their stories collectively chronicle a common leadership narrative: of highly dedicated, good-hearted people running into moments and seasons of overwhelm resulting from the plethora of demands confronting them both professionally and personally, fearing that they are adrift and losing their way but unsure how to, if ever, regain their footing. So as a response, about three years ago, I began to blog for the purpose of sharing what has been a tonic to my soul for over fifteen years. I blogged to help education leaders (and other servant leaders) connect more deeply to Our Maker, His Word, and His Guidance—trusting that what had been a saving grace in my own life years earlier could be similarly helpful and consoling to many others. This blog ultimately led to publication of my Labor of Love book this past school year, which is designed, through twenty-six aspects of leadership, to help folks like you navigate your own journey. Essentially the book aims to help leaders rightly discern their unique gifts and build some foundations in faith so that we can each become our better, truer, more peaceful selves; so that we each can make our gifts ever more abundant and useful to the world; and so that His word through us can become a well for those we lead and serve and love. AWSA has existed for approximately forty years and is blessed with over two thousand members, mostly who serve as either school principals or associate principals. For the first time ever, we hosted optional Fellowship Breakfasts on the last day of three annual conventions this school year (elementary principals in October, associate principals in January, and middle/high school principals in February). My purpose for introducing the breakfasts was to fill what I see as an emptiness in the field, one devoted almost entirely to the intellect and little to the spirit, which ignores the reality that leadership is at least as much a journey of the heart and soul as it is of the mind. So in a literal leap of faith and with encouraging support from my boss, AWSA Executive Director Jim Lynch, we introduced the first-ever optional Fellowship Breakfast at each of our grade-level conventions, connected the session with some sharing thoughts from my Labor of Love book (which was published this past fall, just in time!), and waited to see what the effort might yield. For our first offering in October, I settled into the notion that if we could get fifteen people up early to join us on day three of a busy convention for a new offering with little promotion, I would be very pleased. Then the morning arrived—and people kept coming and coming. We ended up having to scramble to bring in more chairs again and again until forty-five people were in attendance tightly around about a half dozen tables. So we put out more tables at the conventions that followed, and overall had about 120 administrators attend the three staggered breakfasts across the past several months. And in the follow-up surveys, 99% of the attendees surveyed rated the time as either excellent or above average with 86% in the excellent range. Here is a sampling of some of the written comments:
Now, I recognize that a blog, book and/or fellowship breakfast centered primarily around Christian faith is not for everyone. Certainly, many servant leaders—perhaps like you—hold very different belief systems from mine (or perhaps may not even be very clear about what they truly believe at all). So in acknowledging this reality, please allow me to be explicit about the following so that my intent is in no way misconstrued:
Clearly, while I don’t know what particular beliefs speak to your spirit and heart, I do believe it is essential for you to figure out what you do, in fact, believe and then to draw upon the resources of that belief system that tend to your heart and spirit, if the burdensome leadership journey is to be successfully managed – because the intellect by itself will not suffice. And from the reaction to what I have written and shared in our field to date, it is abundantly clear that the concepts in Labor of Love are resonating and helpful with many of our colleagues who are looking for just such supports to their own journey. So in closing, if you are searching for ongoing means to replenish your own leadership well, please visit my website,www.laboroflovebook.org to access all blog posts (usually monthly) from 2018 and beyond. If you like them and would like to automatically receive each new blog post directly to your email inbox when published, you can sign up for a free blog subscription at the website. Furthermore, those interested in my book (Labor of Love: A Spiritual Companion for Servant Leaders) can find it available for purchase on Amazon. Regardless, a big thanks for the many commitments you make to serve Wisconsin’s children, our future. It is a tremendous honor—my labor of love, in fact—to serve those who serve others so devotedly.
Read more at: Elementary Edition - Secondary Edition - District Level Edition |