Pesky, Yet Persistent Problems With Perspectives of Positional Authority

There is a book, a long book, that sits on a shelf in a room. This book has been read by seven people in the last fourteen years. For the author, it was an interesting adventure to write. The seven readers, well they read it because it was required. Since then, the book has remained on a shelf, a nice particle  board laminated shelf with other books. The book is my dissertation. With its completion and defense in from to the committee, I was granted three little letters to write on resumes that opened doors for the rest of my career. I am grateful for the professors who channeled me into the experience and through the experience. I am grateful to the committee of seven who read it. I am grateful for the doors those three little letters opened because it gave me opportunities to help students and adults learn throughout Illinois.

The funny thing is, the three little letters aren't the things that make one a good leader or an effective leader. They opened doors, the process of earning them gave me experiences and introduced me to fascinating people, but in the end doesn't make the difference between when a student learns or not, when a teacher is successful or not, when a teacher's assistant feels empowered or not. I learned a great lesson two months after I earned my degree. While co-teaching 4th grade Sunday School with my bride, she looked at me and said, "We both have the same number of graduate hours, one of us has two masters' degrees and one of us a doctorate. There is no way we are calling you doctor in our classroom." Wisest decision we ever made. 

That's the thing, it isn't about the title, the degree, or the organizational position that derives authority and respect. Each organization needs people to be responsible for different tasks. These tasks are independently important, require different skill sets, and come with different sets of problems and drama. Organizations are most effective when authority and respect are cultivated through mutual admiration, belief, and support. When these things are in place that is when schools, districts, and businesses thrive.

As a principal, staff frequently looked at me to ask the question about whether or not we were going to have indoor recess. When asked, I would frequently respond, "I don't know, we need to ask a member of the associates' team. They are the leaders outside and they will need to determine if it is safe or not to go out." While, I was responsible for all of the children and staff, it was the associates that were in the trenches daily at recess. They new the students, the fields, the blacktop, and if they looked at the weather, they would be able to make the most accurate decision. My role was to establish the parameters with the team for successful indoor and outdoor recesses but then to step back and trust those closest to the decision with the most knowledge to make the right call.

Another time, as a teacher was working to help a child learn to complete any of his tasks in school, the team looked to me as principal to do something. We talked. We brainstormed. We played through the options. We reflected and decided that yes I could take away his recess, give him detentions, or make him sit in my office until his work was done. We could use the power of the office to scare him or his parents. That might work for a day or a week. In the end, the position itself would mean nothing and the child would revert to not giving effort or completing tasks. We decided to talk with the child instead. A teacher, a social worker, and myself went to the parents home in the trailer park, rang the doorbell, and asked to talk. Forty minutes later we understood our child and family better. The child new we were invested in him and his family. And more work started to get done. Not all of it, but it was progress.

If we want to make a difference in our schools, it does come from top-down. Not because the top knows more, or the top has all the answers, but it is the top that needs to learn that all members of our organization are equally valuable, equally important to our success, and deserve equal respect. It is the top that needs to cultivate understanding throughout the organization that each member is important and when we talk together it is most often in a non-judgmental manner, except when required by the law, through which two humans are working together to support each other in being successful. The person is not telling you to do something because of their role, but rather having a conversation to cultivate support in a process that will help each of us perform our roles better and make everyone more successful.

When we no longer require respect because of position or title but rather cultivate shared responsibility and trust, then we can all be successful as students, teachers, support staff, and leaders.