Force Multipliers for Your Leadership: Leveraging and Aligning Your People, Purposes, and Aims

By Dr. Joe Schroeder, AWSA Associate Executive Director

April is a time when thoughtful principals demonstrate bifocal leadership. That is, each spring, school leaders take a set of actions that are “near-sighted" (ensuring the current school year finishes well) while also pursuing others that are “far-sighted” (organizing for success in the year yet to come).  This article focuses on the latter, equipping you with thoughtful “far-sighted” leadership actions so that next school year is your best one yet.  Specifically, we will attempt to show how to better leverage and align three key factors in continuous improvement planning so that your positive influence rises in 2023-24 like never before through the force multipliers approach described.   

“Impactful organizations plan backward.  They articulate their mission/vision, identify appropriate goals, and create a plan with key actions and activities that will support the goals.” (Aguilar, 2016).  Then they artfully clarify and align to these aims so that coherence and impact naturally result.

In the Rise Up Middle School example that follows, please note how the principal and leadership team leverage and align the following three key factors of continuous improvement planning in uncommon but powerful ways in order to gain a force multiplier effect:  

1. Aims of the school (as expressed both in the long-term through the school’s mission and also in the short-term by its three goals for the given school year)

2. People (namely the folks leading/serving on one of five teams in the school)

3. Purposes (clarifying the specific function/responsibilities of each team in relation to specific aims/goals of the school)

As you review this example that follows, please ask yourself: 

1. In what ways is this construct comparable to ways we currently conceive of and align continuous improvement work in our school?

2. What approaches am I noticing in the example that could be helpful ways to get more return on our local improvement efforts?

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Our School’s Mission:

Rise Up Middle School provides our students with the social, emotional, and academic skills necessary to find joy in life and learning, to build compassionate communities, and to master the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in high school.

Rise Up’s Goals for This School Year:

1. 100% of our students who attend at least 95% of the school year will make at least a 20% growth in their reading scores as measured by the XYZ reading assessment.

2. On our annual survey of students, families, and community, 95% of respondents will report feeling welcomed, appreciated, and valued at our school.

3. We will reduce suspension rates and office referrals for our 20 focal students by 80%.  On our annual survey, these students will each report feeling supported and cared for by at least five peers and three staff members.

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When we integrated this example and learning into our BEL Academy this past winter, these were common observations that school leaders shared:

1. Appreciation for listing the primary goal as an academic one and for attending to focal students in particular (such as in goal 3), where such clarity could lead to more impact.

2. Having a balance of goals across three important areas (academics, social-emotional health, and attendance/behavior as shown in goals 1-3 respectively) while avoiding having too many goals so that impact is diminished.

3. Using language in the goals that is both measurable and meaningfully coherent to the school’s core mission.

4. Articulating the function and responsibilities of school teams so well that alignment with specific school goals is exceedingly clear.

5. The raised prospects for meeting key school-wide goals when the focused efforts of people, purposes, and aims could be so well organized and leveraged.

Overall, for many participants of our BEL Academy, seeing such an example like this seemed to forever change how they plan to develop and distribute leadership for impact across their schools.  In fact, afterwards, many leaders made a point to share with me their resultant thinking and/or even show me an early attempt in how they were applying this approach to their school for 2023-24.  Could such an effort be fruitful for your far-sighted leadership actions as well and serve as a force multiplier for your impact in the process?  Best wishes, all, as you provide the bifocal leadership needed in your school for the coming weeks and months.

References

Aguilar, E. (2016). The art of coaching teams: Building resilient communities that transform schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.