Vision with Frederick

The Assistant Principal Podcast

Assistant Principal Podcast Content Episode Outline

Show Description:

In 2007 I lead a group of six professors at Western Carolina University in a total redesign of our masters of school administration principal licensure program. I was the coordinator of a program that had jest become fully online, our admissions were skyrocketing and our students were becoming much more diverse. The old program just didn’t work, so we collectively decided to trash it and begin anew. It was a long process, building a program from the ground up – exhilarating, motivating, but also, at times, grueling. Once we had agreed to scrap the old program, our first step was to go offsite for a day and a half and develop a vision and core goals. What we came up with was this: Live your leadership journey courageously. I share all this as an introduction to an episode focused on vision, and when it comes to vision, I think many of use get it wrong.

Celebrations:

Ranford Almond is my future son-in-law. He’s a talented musician and has a remarkable gift to write songs that tap into our inner most being. Ranford had a big show at Floyd Fest this weekend and then traveled four hours to share a couple days with Pam and I, and his fiancé – my daughter Mara. I’m celebrating family, and the addition of a special person. I should mention that Ranford wrote and played the music for our show, and today I’ll close the show with a full version of Old Soul. I encourage you to listen.

The Big Idea

I’m building this episode off a series of daily emails I wrote back in October and November 2021. I’ll likely resurrect them as part of this show and send them out to my readers in a week or so, so if you are into daily leadership emails and don’t already subscribe, head to https://www.frederickbuskey.com/ and hit a sign-up link.

Summarizing (The big takeaway)

You see things; and you say “Why?”

But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”

-George Bernard Shaw, 1949

I have a love/hate relationship with vision.

I used to be in love with the idea of creating a great vision.

Then one day, a “leader” came into the organization I worked in and imposed his vision on all of the people and programs that had been there before him.

Three years later, the “leader” was gone, but most (not all) of the people were still there. Those people were left to pick up the pieces of a painful and contentious series of changes.

Vision is a double-edged sword.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish…”

-Proverbs 29:18, King James Bible

Vision can be a powerful tool for good. Here is the challenge as I see it…

The vision must be a shared vision. Leaders are servants first, and part of their job is to articulate the goals, dreams, and aspirations of the people within the organization. Where things are unclear, limited, or confused, leaders work to educate, clarify, and build consensus.

Every organization should have a vision, but the genesis of that vision should lay at the intersection of the purpose of the organization and the people within it.

So how do you sell a vision? You don’t!

People shouldn’t have to buy someone else’s vision. Instead, they should be investing in the collective vision – in the creation and implementation.

Instead of selling, what if we focused on serving?

Bring people together and help them clarify their values, aspirations, and beliefs.

Then help them identify the common pieces and articulate a vision – the impact that they want to have on the world.

This is a shared vision. It is what we agreed to. There is no selling. And because we agreed to it, we hold each other accountable for pursuing it.

Yes, it takes more time to create a shared vision. It also takes more skill. However, in the end, a shared vision is so much more powerful.

The final kicker is that even after you leave, the people will still share the vision. How cool is that?

Creating a shared vision is not always simple. A vision really begins with dreams, and a group of people need four conditions to be able to dream:

1. Safety. This is best achieved by creating a community in which people can:

a. take risks

b. share divergent thinking

c. trust each other

2. Space.

a. A physical space to gather together

b. Mental space to think and reflect

c. Emotional space to be authentic

3. Permission to dream without the limitations of current realities

4. Perspectives. Shared knowledge, experiences, and values need to be identified. Alternative experiences and views need to be embraced and included.

Meeting these conditions lays the ground for developing a shared vision that works for the organization and its people.

Leaders don’t create visions. They help people to clarify and articulate a shared vision.

Sponsorship:

I want to thank IXL for sponsoring this podcast…

Everyone talks about the power of data-driven instruction. But what does that actually look like? Look no further than IXL, the ultimate online learning and teaching platform for K to 12.

IXL gives you meaningful insights that drive real progress, and research can prove it. Studies across 45 states show that schools who use IXL outperform other schools on state tests. Educators who use IXL love that they can easily see how their school is performing in real-time to make better instructional decisions.

And IXL doesn’t stop at just data. IXL also brings an entire ecosystem of resources for your teachers, with a complete curriculum, personalized learning plans, and so much more.

It’s no wonder that IXL is used in 95 of the top 100 school districts. Ready to join them? Visit http://ixl.com/assistant to get started.

Let’s walk through an example of what a collective vision-defining workshop might look like. I am the board chair of a local non-profit focusing on meeting the most urgent needs of our most vulnerable and highly stressed youth. We’ve experienced a lot of growth coming out od the pandemic and the future looks unpredictable. We’ve stepped in to fill lots of gaps in supporting kids, which has brought in new people, new priorities, new opportunities, and new directions.

We decided we needed to g...