Standard Seven - Micro-political Leadership
School executives will build systems and relationships that utilize the staff’s diversity, encourage constructive ideological conflict in order to leverage staff expertise, power and influence in order to realize the school’s vision for success. The executive will also creatively employ an awareness of staff’s professional needs, issues, and interests to build cohesion and to facilitate distributed governance and shared decision-making.
7a. School Executive Micro-political Leadership
The school executive develops systems and relationships to leverage staff expertise and influence in order to affect the school’s identity, culture, and performance.
Our DPLA Cohort was taught by Dr. Mubenga early in our program. It afforded us great insight into how he views and utilizes data. We are very excited that he is now the Superintendent of Durham Public Schools
At the start of the year, I developed a needs assessment to check the pulse of the school. the information obtained here was brought to a meeting with administration so any areas of concern could be addressed. This survey also assisted me in getting to know the staff better. I was able to advocate for teachers and also suggest them for roles as positions opened. For example, when we were looking to build our Restorative Justice team, I knew of one teacher who was very strong in those practices already however she was not formally trained. With that, I suggested to the team we include her to capitalize on her raw talent.
At the start of my residency, I introduced myself to the staff so to help ensure a smooth transition into the school. I met with them and asked for their input on the school so I knew how to best serve and support them. This also helped me gain an understanding of the current culture of the school. It also helped me communicate my desire to work with them and the current mission and vision of the school.
When looking to implement True Colors, I capitalized on the strengths of one of the teachers at Brogden. She is very intuitive to relationships and how relationships impact the learning environment. With that, we put the True Colors professional development together for the staff. This helped to build the culture and identify of the school bu providing everyone with a baseline understanding of their colleagues.
Coursework
School Culture Symposium
Grant Writing
Professional Development and Specialized Training
Crucial Conversations
Distinguished Leadership in Practice
Readings
Community: The Structure of Belonging (Block)
How to Win Friends & Influence People (Carnegie)
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High (Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMlan, & Switzler)
School Culture Symposium
Grant Writing
Professional Development and Specialized Training
Crucial Conversations
Distinguished Leadership in Practice
Readings
Community: The Structure of Belonging (Block)
How to Win Friends & Influence People (Carnegie)
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High (Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMlan, & Switzler)