Your “Why” as a Critical Driver of Changeby Joe Schroeder, Ph.D. Associate Executive Director, AWSA Principals are up to their ears in the what. Strategies, tactics, initiatives, practice components, reports, and school/community events comprise just a short list of the many activities filling the daily life of an educational leader. But the impact of the what that we do is rather limited unless coherently connected to our why, that clear purpose or rationale for what we do and how it relates to achieving a vision greater than ourselves. So, how clear is your why (both for you and for others), how tightly does it align to your actions, and how might you go about generating such an inner clarity that powerfully grounds, guides, and serves your school community? Inner Clarity Contributes to Outward Impact A commonality among the most impactful people of all time is the crystal clear sense they hold about who they are, what they do, and the why that connects it all. Read any short stack of biographies on such leaders as Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr, or Abraham Lincoln and the leader’s link of inner clarity to outward impact becomes abundantly clear. In other words, a leader’s coherent why becomes a critical driver, not just to his/her own actions, but also, through the formal leadership role, as an influential shaper of organizational values and activity over time for the larger group he/she serves. But an important theme to note across such narratives is that the why did not just magically arise for any of these acclaimed leaders. Rather, the individual’s why as well as the identity that each ultimately became was honed and galvanized over time through the crucible of experience. To be sure, even the greatest of leaders don’t typically think themselves into a new way of acting. Rather, they act themselves into a new way of thinking -- and ultimately of being. And it’s the same process for us! Who we are, what we do, and the why that encompasses it all is an ongoing journey, a delicate balance of becoming while doing that provides for an increasingly deeper and more abiding clarity over time about who we are, what we do, and why it matters. Finding Your Own Inner Clarity So who are you, the real you underneath all the biographical information about race and gender and occupation and so forth? Who do you want to be and what is the why that will undergird and drive it all? Gandhi has some simple, yet powerful advice that he also discovered through the opportunities and trials of his life: “You will find yourself by losing yourself in service to your fellow man, your country, your God.” So you folks in servant leader roles, count your blessings! You already have a running start on discovering your why and unleashing the real you underneath it all! Specifically, by applying your unique gifts (i.e., who you are) deeply into the challenges of your particular place/time (i.e., the specific whats you take on), you become a better version of you -- what Abraham Lincoln referred to as “the better angels of our nature.” And through this process, your why becomes a powerful driver both for yourself and for those who you lead and serve. Making Your Why Explicit As administrators, we are highly visible actors in the daily narrative of our schools. And this visibility gives others many opportunities to form understandings over time about who we are and what we do. And while our words and deeds are frequently observable, the rationale behind our actions often times needs to be inferred, unless we take explicit effort to make our why clear and consistent over a host of decisions. So to help with this, I sometimes have leaders articulate the two hypothetical “banners” about them that people can derive through their daily actions: one banner describing “who I am” and the other “what I do.” I encourage participants to be as succinct as possible because there is power in being clear and concise. Here are three unique products of school leaders working through such an exercise:
Through this activity, leaders deepen clarity about who they are and the why that encompasses it all so that they can powerfully live out their gifts to the school/community they serve. This clarity over time is like banners we wave in our daily work that make our core beliefs transparent, clarity that can focus our leadership action and “rally the group” around inspiring values and applications of service, particularly if we consistently speak to, model, and live these values. Therefore, I encourage you to try out the simple exercise I share above. Clarify your own “banners” that speak to your core values. Then ask yourself a few key questions about what you identify:
In summary, clarifying purpose is one of the most critical drivers that a leader can hone. Through consistent modeling, speaking to, and living out your why, the core beliefs of the leader ultimately become the core values of the group -- thus, a culture for transformative impact is cultivated. Therefore, perhaps the question most deserving of deep reflection is this: How can what I do this school year create a better version of who I am, so that my why can serve as an inspiring and impactful force within my school community?
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