Context, Content, and Conduct: A Candid Look at Leadership with Jeff Young

An Imperfect Leader

NEW EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE

"What do we want to create together?" So proud to have co-written the foreword with Zach Taylor to this essential book on Human-Centered School Transformation. If you're a school leader looking to make sense of what you know to be true about schools, check it out. If you're a corporate leader, you will find a pathway to better results in every page.

------

I can’t remember if I’ve used this example in previous episodes. I don’t think so…., and if I did, using it again here is appropriate because I use it as an example in my conversation with my guest. You know, when a candidate is being selected to lead an organization, there is a transition from being the applicant to being the named leader.

Have you ever seen the end of the movie, The Candidate? If not, I highly recommend it. It’s so good. At the end, the newly elected senator (played by Robert Redford) seeks momentary refuge with his strategist, first in a service elevator and then in a hotel room. He’s just won a hard-fought election to be a US Senator, and in the few seconds of solitude, his face, truly contemplative and obviously transformed, asks, “What do we do now?”

Superintendents feel this way when they’ve been named the CEO of their school district. In the they feel jubilation to be named, but they also realize that they now have to do the job. Everyone is counting on the district to succeed. My guest talks about coaching and mentoring. He describes the 3 C’s: Context, Content, Conduct. And he talks about his first-hand experience with the power of language.

Jeff Young is my guest. It’s a great episode. Thanks for tuning in.

BIO: Dr. Jeff Young has been the Program Director for Columbia University’s Education Leadership Program at the Teachers College's and Co-Director of the Urban Education Leaders Program, an Ed.D. program for aspiring district-level leaders, and is now serving as Director of the PK-12 Education Leadership and Policy Studies Program. Dr. Young served as Superintendent of Schools in Cambridge, MA from 2009 through 2016, following terms as Superintendent in Newton, Lexington and Lynnfield, MA.

-----

An Imperfect Leader is sponsored by Yondr. Schools around the world are seeing the damaging effects of phones on student engagement, social development, and mental health.

Yondr has developed a unique product and program to allow schools to become phone-free, from arrival to dismissal.

Learn why 1 Million Students use Yondr every day.

MINIMIZE DISTRACTIONS. MAXIMIZE LEARNING POTENTIAL.

Go to overyondr.com to learn more.

----

An Imperfect Leader: The Superintendents and Leadership Podcast is supported by ILAA, LLC, a firm dedicated to supporting aspiring, new, and established leaders. For more information, please find them at www.human-centeredleaders.com.

Music for An Imperfect Leader was written and arranged by Ian Varley.

Sam Falbo created our artwork, a wood-print inspired daruma doll butterfly.

-------

AN IMPERFECT LEADER IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

My book, An Imperfect Leader: Leadership in (After) Action is available on Amazon.com. If there is no hyperlink to follow, please go to Amazon.com or peterstiepleman.com. You can order it there.