Dear Teacher with a New Leader,
This year has been filled with many changes in district leadership- a new superintendent, new coordinators, new principals, and many new teachers.
As an educator, I’ve had the privilege of working for some incredible leaders through the years.
They were all extraordinary, but they were not all the same. The strength of one might have been a weakness of another.
I began my career working with children at a local daycare where the owner stirred shredded cheese in piping hot Quaker grits every morning at 5:30 a.m. She prayed with mothers in the middle of nasty divorces, and when it came time for payroll, she paid all her workers first. If the bank balance flashed zero when it came time to write herself a check, she worked for free. I only know this because she also happened to be my mother. She was the kind of leader who didn’t just say she would work for free, she actually did it.
From there, I worked at the YMCA where the camp director could con a group of self-absorbed teenagers into playing a game of salamander in 102 degree heat and make them feel like they were at Disney World. She was an innovative leader who knew how to channel creativity in others.
When I began teaching, I worked for a principal who served turkey dinners out of the school cafeteria on Thanksgiving Day. He and his wife started the tradition after their only daughter was killed in a car wreck at sixteen years old. Serving others was how they kept living. He also mowed the school’s lawn and let the senior boys take turns wearing his tie in their senior portraits. They did not come from homes where ties were readily accessible. He was the sharing kind who led by quiet example.
I love studying leaders because I've learned they all bring their own unique gifts and leadership styles.
Getting a new leader can be tough. It’s only natural to compare the former leader and the current leader.
Sometimes the new leader is better.
Sometimes the new leader is worse.
If you have to wonder, just ask the people. Heck, they'll tell you even if you don't ask, and these heated opinions can be starkly different.
These opinions reinforce the idea that it's much easier to criticize or praise the job of a leader than it is to become the leader.
The best leaders lead by example and consider the greater good.
They stir the grits and carve the turkey until their hands develop callouses.
It's a simple and whimsical question for sure, but sometimes I have to ask myself, "Is the key to progress found in the hands of people who are so focused on the vision they don't even have time to gloat or grumble?"
-CDB