DRAWING ON THE TALENT AROUND YOU - A SIGN OF EXEMPLARY LEADERSHIP

Leaders in the worlds of business and commerce often have lessons to teach those of us who have the privilege of leading in schools. Of course their worlds are very different from ours - their organisational goals and objectives are different; their motivation is different; and they measure their success in different ways.

But, like us, they are still leaders of people – people with gifts and talents, competencies and skills, capacity and capability – who have been employed to undertake tasks which are relevant in their vocational context. Like us, senior leaders in business and commerce do not do everything; decide everything; or manage everything. They are not the sole source of ideas and suggestions for innovation. That is not their primary responsibility as organisational leaders. Nor is it ours.

Marcel Schwantes explains that Apple founder Steve Jobs had an interesting take on this (see This 32-year-old Steve Jobs quote may be his best leadership lesson ever, in Inc, 11 Oct 24). Back in 1992, Jobs said, We’re paying people to tell us what to do. I don’t view that we pay people to do things. That’s easy — to find people to do things. What’s harder is to find people to tell you what should be done.

We’re paying people to tell us what to do!

Do you see things this way? Do you regard your Executive Leadership team’s role as telling you what to do? Your Heads of Schools? Heads of House and Well-being team leaders? Heads of Departments and Grade Leaders?

What a magnificent cluster of educational advisors you have – each with unique experience; each with unique expertise in pedagogy, pastoral care or administration; each with their own knowledge and understanding drawn from their own reading and research. How could you not want them to contribute to the formation of your own thinking, strategies and ideas?

See – it is an insightful comment from a non-educational leader – who, just by the way, founded the largest commercial enterprise in the world.

Jobs held that leaders shouldn’t expect their team members to follow decisions they disagree with, especially if those same team members have a good grasp of a process, project, or product and may know just as much about as those they report to.

Jobs felt it would be smart if leaders were to step back and allow their knowledge workers — those people who work with their heads — the freedom to analyse, organise, test, program, distribute, search, market, or otherwise generally contribute their expertise to the transformation of something beautiful for humanity to use, know, learn and understand.

Translate that to how you might step back and allow your knowledge workers – technically, I guess every one of your staff members is a knowledge worker – to analyse, organise, investigate, search, test, and share their new understandings with you and with all your staff, encouraging all of them in turn to contribute their expertise to the transformation of student learning in their own classrooms.

Powerful, isn’t it? It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then simply tell them what to do. We hire smart people to join the team of staff in our schools so they can tell us what we should do, contributing all their gifts and talents to the shared endeavour of your whole staff to provide the best student experience and the best classroom learning experience you collaboratively can muster.

Managing people smarter than you

Steve Job’s words liberate you from feeling bad that that you have somehow surrounded yourself with people who are even better at what they do than you thought they were when you hired them, and, moreover, that they actually know more and are smarter than you and may even have the potential to be better leaders than you.

But hey – how wonderful! You are still and will remain their boss. None of them is about to mount a coup! They are there because they like working with you, and appreciate and value that you are honing their skills so that maybe one day they will be equipped to run their own school. But for now, they are yours. Ask them what they think you should do?

Schwantes obviously recognises that leading the smartest people in the school will require strong people skills. The good news is that you don’t need to be smarter than they are, he offers, reassuringly. Like all high performers, smart workers take pride in their work and want to serve your clients – the precious young people in your school -   well, Schwantes continues. The way to engage and inspire them is first to redistribute decision-making, he adds, reflecting that top-down hierarchical management styles that direct traffic one-way with no input will collapse because smart employees typically know more than bosses about their own areas of specialisation.

So, Schwantes affirms, your first order of priority is to axe the power trip and hop out of your ivory tower.

Being closer to the ground, you will see that they have more opportunity than you do to know more about the students’ needs, wishes, and expectations – and those of your staff more broadly as well – meaning that they are better equipped to solve problems, make good decisions, and thus to develop strategies to enable the school to develop and offer a richer student experience. You have to allow them to manage themselves, Schwantes urges, adding that simply put, giving them autonomy and letting them exercise their good judgment is necessary to satisfy the students and optimise their experience at school. According to Schwantes, if you are willing, you can utilise the organisation’s hierarchy to support your smartest teachers and their leaders in developing great in-class and out-of-class programs as well as to provide an exceptional day-to-day engaging, fulfilling and inspiring school journey.

Listen more than you talk 

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? In another recent Linkedin piece, Becoming a better leader – Instantly! 26.Nov 24), I cited Jeff Haden’s advice - So how do you become a better listener? It’s easy - all you have to do is talk less. Schwantes agrees: If you’re going to heed Jobs’ advice and hire people to tell you what to do, check your ego at the door and listen to the ideas and insights they are offering. Why? Because the higher you go in the organisation, the harder it is to lean down and listen.

But Schwantes is realistic about this, conceding that this kind of strategic listening – willing yourself to keep quiet while you let your executive leadership team and other leaders in your school offer their thoughts, suggestions and ideas -  is not something that busy senior leaders such as you commonly practise, because it requires time, patience, and a positive belief in the power and capacity of others.

But Steve Jobs knew better.

Learn from Jobs. Heed his advice. If you find yourself leading the smartest people in the room, remember this, Schwantes counsels. For your leaders within your school, regardless of their level of leading, their universal human need is not unlike that of the rest of us. It is, bringing all their wealth of talent and the richness of their experience to your school each day, to perform meaningful work, to be respected, to collaborate in a tight-knit community of excellence, and ultimately, to make an impact for the good of the world.

Turn your leaders loose. Liberate them. Permit, empower, encourage and nurture them to be the best leaders they can be, and keep asking them what they think you all should do. The kids in your school and the world of the future will benefit richly if you do.