Leading Through Times of Turbulence

by Joe Schroeder, Ph.D., AWSA Associate Executive Director

Oh, what a difference a few weeks can make – and how leadership can be so deeply tested in such short order!  Since our state’s schools closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak last month, education leaders have orchestrated both the major moves and the underlying cohesion necessary to continue key services and supports that are responsive to the incredibly disruptive wake of the coronavirus.  Leading faculty through the massive shift from in-person to remote learning; distributing countless meals; supporting people through their own sense of loss and fear; and sustaining energy, perspective, and resilience through it all has presented what arguably is the greatest leadership challenge to date for school administrators.  And the challenge continues!  This article is designed to offer some insights, reminders, and resources for you who will need to continue to step up and lead through the weeks and months ahead.

In Leadership in Turbulent Times, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin shares helpful observations – and I would add encouragement – for administrators who find themselves in such a daunting situation, as she draws from her decades of celebrated historical scholarship and writing on America’s leaders over time:  “No common pattern describes the trajectory of leadership.  Although set apart in background, abilities, and temperament, these [leaders] shared a fierce ambition and a deep-seated resilience that enabled them to surmount hardships.  At their best, [these leaders] were guided by a sense of moral purpose.  At moments of great challenge, they were able to summon their talents to enlarge the opportunities and lives of others.”

I start with this message from Kearns Goodwin because, in such tumultuous times, we leaders can often fall prey to fear and doubt creeping into our psyches, the notion that somehow we are just not up to the challenges of our era.  But the reality is that we are each gifted in unique ways and were made for just such a time as this.  Thus, it is important – especially in times of turbulence – that we mindfully summon our particular gifts and energize them through our deeper moral purposes in order to take on the situation at hand with relentless determination and resilience!  Make no doubt about it that, through the crucible of adversity, we put ourselves on the path to becoming our better, truer selves and in position to likely have more positive leadership impact than ever before.

But even if we are clear about the importance of leveraging our own gifts, moral purpose, and resilience, we can still fall into the faulty logic that some sort of extroverted personality profile or charismatic leadership style is required to effectively inspire others to rise with us to the challenges at hand, a notion which is soundly dispelled by the decades of scholarship, research, and writing of Stanford University Professor Emeritus, Jim Collins.  In his New York Times #1 Bestsellingbook Good to Great, Collins describes his findings that the most impactful and influential manager is actually someone he describes as the Level 5 Leader, one who displays a powerful (even paradoxical) mixture of deep-seated personal humility on one hand that is matched with an indomitable professional will on the other.  To be sure, Collins explains, Level 5 Leaders “are incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the organization and its purpose, not themselves.  While Level 5 leaders can come in many personality packages, they are often self-effacing, quiet, reserved, and even shy.”  And Collins’ findings are echoed by the decades-long work of Jon Saphier and his Research for Better Teaching, Inc. group, who find that the most impactful school leader is one who is “both vulnerable and strong at the same time.”  So once again, leaders, be true to who you are, know your gifts, and nest them within a servant’s heart so that you can humbly and resiliently bring them to bear – with others – in serving the greatest needs of your stakeholders.  More than anything else, your ability in crisis to provide a calm, open, and dependable presence; pull the collective gifts of others into your school’s distributed leadership efforts; and model the peace and strength you wish to see in others will be key!

As you find your way with others to lead with courage, fortitude, and grace, we at AWSA have been working to place helpful resources at your fingertips on an array of COVID-19-related issues via our AWSA coronavirus webpage.  You can utilize this webpage to track the latest announcements from state and national leaders, learn more about various supports available to you as AWSA members, and obtain an efficient listing of resource links on a host of coronavirus issues:  student health and wellness; family engagement and communication; online teaching and learning resources; supports for students, families, and staff; student connectivity; and even means to pose questions not yet answered by state authorities.  You can access the wide array of resources through this link and be sure to return to this webpage regularly, as it is updated over time as this fluid situation continues to evolve. 

During a recent conversation with education leaders in our state about the coronavirus outbreak, one of our colleagues said, “Although this is all incredibly daunting right now, we WILL get through this.  So, what is the narrative for our school/district that we are already beginning ‘to write’ through our actions, words, and deeds?”  For those who lead through their gifts, moral purpose, and resilience with others to meet the largest needs of those they collectively serve, I envision a story that will extol how you, as devoted public servants, discovered their better selves through the crucible of trial.  And how, in working through this turbulence, the example of service so clearly and consistently on display by leaders such as you positively impacted and inspired those around you like never before.  So leaders, thank you for all who you are; thank you for what you have done to date; and thank you for what you have yet to do!  In the final assessment, may the positive leadership examples and deep-seated moral purposes you powerfully demonstrate in your local communities inspire others to the degree that these positive forces ultimately become much more contagious than the coronavirus itself!

References

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap and others don’t. New York: HarperCollins.

Kearns Goodwin, D. (2018). Leadership in turbulent times. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Saphier, J. “The ‘Black Box’ of Leadership.” Unpublished Nov. 20, 2017 draft.  Presented at the 2017 Learning Forward Annual Conference.