Alpine – Advanced Leadership Programs in Education

A blogpost by Walter McKenzie, ASCD

The time is now for Leadership 2.0. It’s not enough to be willing to lead. We need leaders with vision, with genuine insight into where we are headed. We need leaders with the innate tools and resources to lead by example and show the way. We need leaders with the empathy and emotional capacity to stay the course and help us realize new destinations. We need an entirely new kind of leadership: Leadership 2.0.

Just as it’s true that we tend to teach the way we were taught, so it is that we tend to lead the way we have been led. Products of an age where standardization and replicablity were highly prized, our current leaders have inherited the legacy of being effective managers of staff and resources. They identify milestones, measure progress, and hold staff accountable. This makes sense looking behind us, but flies in the face of what lies ahead. Leadership 2.0 goes beyond effective management. The leaders we need today must lead by:

• sharing their genuine, authentic selves
• promoting collaboration over competition
• building communal leadership rather than a power base
• espousing a dynamic vision that provides for flexibility, adaptability and capacity
• practicing social entrepreneurship by being globally diverse in staffing, thinking, creating and problem solving
• creating an inclusive, team culture with numerous ways to connect and get involved
• nurturing a climate of open, effective communication, internal and external networking, and dynamic alliances of opportunity
• fostering an environment of trust where risk-taking, experimentation, learning and innovation are expected and rewarded
• modeling multiple, varied, savvy uses of information and media for learning and productivity
• demonstrating a value for flexibility, mobility and portability in the products, programs, services and information that are created and provided

These new leaders must help us as a profession to:

See and believe in infinite possibilities
It’s time to stand back and appreciate the big picture. We are in the human potential business, and human potential is an unlimited resource. Remember why we chose education as a profession and reclaim our ideals. Stop fighting for our slice of the pie and see the potential for a world full of pastry chefs.

Craft a dynamic, generative vision
Delineate the issues, identify the solutions and take action. Make certain this new vision has the capacity to embrace all children as successful, contributing learners. Be sure it is inclusive of all stakeholders and their input. Wherever you see limits being put in place, break them down and be a champion for expanding the conversation.

End the inertia
Be the change, push the envelope, lead the transformation. No longer allow ourselves to be seen as impediments to progress. No longer allow outside interests to spin their version of our reality. Put ourselves in motion and stay in motion, serving as agents of change and advocates for the future.

Present our best professional selves
Walk with a tall stature of lofty ideals. Proactively smile, engage, and seize opportunities. Stand elbow-to-elbow with decision makers and stakeholders. Model openness, transparency, and flexibility in our thinking, offering clear questions and straightforward answers. And keep the focus on children.

Divest ourselves from any influences that compromise our integrity
Give up the entanglements preventing us from freely embracing education transformation. Be purely motivated to lead education without self-interest or influence from outside the profession, especially commercial interests offering enticements to increase their access to education dollars.

Exchange perceived security for professional growth
Let go of the Industrial Age notion that stability is security. We can no longer be perceived as stewards of the status quo. Dare to look outside ourselves and discover the greater rewards of contributing to the education transformation already happening…. it is moving forward with or without us.

Redefine “educator”
Give up how we were trained and how we have allowed ourselves to be defined. Extract ourselves from this uncomfortable pigeonhole and align our efforts with the new age in which we live. Yes we can keep those attributes which continue to serve children well. But everything else must go.

Model the values, skills and attitudes of the Information Age
Talk the talk. Walk the walk. Build learning and leading communities. Demonstrate trust, risk-taking, experimentation, and innovation. Become proficient with a variety of digital tools that promote learning and productivity. Network with colleagues worldwide. In short, live the life our students live.

Define and inform the issues
Fill the leadership vacuum. Be intelligent, strategic and well-spoken. Take back the issues surrounding education and own them. Insist on being at the table for substantive discussion. Push back on any agenda that runs counter to what we know is best for children. And do it with energy and passion.

Proactively form alliances
Be seen as a connector in an age of connections. Partner with stakeholders at all levels, especially those who most challenge our thinking. Make alliances that serve the best interests of children and learning and the future. Be known as an uncompromising proponent of the promise and power of education transformed.

Build a new public education
Achieve our ultimate goal of transforming education, coupling the long-standing ideals of a free public education with the opportunities of a global information economy. We may not know exactly what it will look like, or all the details of how it will work, but it is time to make it a reality.

Sustaining the status quo and relying on technological innovation to transform society is inadequate and irresponsible. Leadership must evolve to reflect the changes happening in society so that education can remain vital and relevant moving forward. The only way private interests can co-opt public education is if our profession fails in providing leadership that successfully completes this transformation.

Society is still transitioning, and there is still time for successful twentieth-century institutions to transform themselves to address the demands of Information Age teaching, learning, living and working. But it’s going to take more than a profession of dedicated practitioners. It’s going to require Leadership 2.0.

This weeks guest blogger is Walter McKenzie.

Walter McKenzie is a life-long learner who provides a clear voice in the call for education transformation. He currently serves as the Director of Constituent Services for ASCD, where he writes regularly on his Looking Ahead  blog on education and leadership. Walter taught in the classroom for 14 years and has served as a coordinator, director and assistant superintendent. View his vitae on his Surfaquarium web site. You can follow Walter on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and share your thoughts and insights with him directly via email.

No related posts.