Transformational Leadership

There are a lot of reasons why teaching isn’t the sought after profession it should be, low pay and increasing pressure on teachers among them. But what if we’re missing something big here?

At last month’s National Charter Schools Conference in New Orleans, I heard a lot about a handful of charter schools’ pain points: Facilities. Operations. Finance. And most of all, staff retention. Some of these issues are thornier than others (like facilities), but most of them come down to people. How can we keep the incredibly talented people who work at education organizations on our teams?

On the heels of hearing researcher and author Brené Brown at this year’s NewSchools Venture Fund Summit, Education Pioneers CEO Scott Morgan and I have been talking with our leadership team about vulnerability and its relationship to leadership and courage, one of Education Pioneers’ core values. Ms. Brown’s engaging talk helped me and others think more deeply about how transformation—at an individual or systemic level -- is an intensely human process, involving the head AND the heart.

You can choose courage or you can choose comfort, but you can’t choose both. Brené Brown’s insights during her keynote at the recent NewSchools Venture Fund Summit resonated deeply with me and with hundreds of other education leaders, educators, and education champions in the room.

At the ASU+GSV Summit 2015 last week, GSV co-founder and chief investment officer Michael Moe shared a powerful lesson about coaching trees with a roomful of educators and edtech leaders. Just a few months ago, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks battled in Super Bowl XLIX a few miles from where we sat. Few realized that the teams’ head coaches, Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll, both apprenticed under the legendary Lou Holtz. Moe’s point was that great leaders don’t just rack up wins and championships for their own teams. They develop other leaders who generate wins and who, in turn, develop other winning leaders. Leaders create leverage .

Cage-Busting Network Performance Guest blogging this week is Frances McLaughlin, President of Education Pioneers. Education Pioneers is a national nonprofit with a bold vision to transform education into the best led and managed sector in the U.S. to ensure that all students receive a high-quality education. To fuel this vision, Education Pioneers is working to attract 10,000 top leaders, managers, and analysts into the sector by 2023. Rick Hess is right about the choice we have to work within or "bust" the cages that prevent us from educating every child in this country well. "Cage-busting"...

Originally published on Education Week: Cage-Busting: Hybrid Leadership Guest blogging this week is Shannah Varón, Executive Director of Boston Collegiate Charter School (BCCS) in Dorchester, Massachusetts, a school ranked first in the state for the math MCAS exam, with 100% of 10th grade students scoring Advanced on the test. For nine consecutive years, BCCS graduates have posted 100% college acceptance results. Shannah is an Education Pioneers Graduate School Fellowship Alumna from the 2009 Boston cohort. In Cage-Busting Leadership, Rick Hess writes that "high-performing schools and systems...

From Rick Hess' "Straight Up" Blog on Education Week Guest blogging today is Scott Gaiber, Director of Recruitment and Human Capital Support for the San Francisco Unified School District, a Pre-K to 12th grade district that serves over 55,000 students in approximately 140 schools. Scott manages a team that provides district-wide recruitment and staffing support, serves as a single-point-of-contact for all district administrators, provides professional development workshops on staffing, and visits district schools to support talent management. Scott is an Education Pioneers Graduate School...

From Education Week: The Head and Heart of Cage-Busting Leaders There's no question that ensuring that all children are prepared to thrive in college, career, and citizenship requires exceptional leaders - cage-busting leaders - from the classroom all the way to the federal department of education. Cage-busters have the power to create an excellent education for kids, and we need thousands more of them to fundamentally shift the performance of our education sector. When I reflect on cage-busting leadership in education, I think of what is needed in terms of both head and heart. Transforming...