Six Areas

leading through an intentional lens as you develop and focus on priorities, shared leadership, communication, instruction, and of course, the students.

In this book, we remain focused on the great need to be intentional in your leadership practices and pay particular attention to what must be done. We aim to add a lens of will and deepen your understanding, as a leader, of the requirement to dig deep and lead from inner strength—from within. We remind you that you can learn and strengthen your will. This intentional focus will create the synergy and confidence that produce outstanding leadership.

The Pythagoreans acknowledge the number six to be the first perfect number. In mathematics, an ideal number is when all the number’s divisors (excluding the number itself) are added, and the sum equals the number itself. The number six is the symbol of luck, the highest number on a die, and the symbol of Venus, the goddess of love. Having a sixth sense refers to extrasensory perception (ESP). It is also common to hear someone using the phrase the sixth sense when referring to a hunch or instinct (MysticalNumbers.com, n.d.).

Leading from within requires an abundance of your sixth sense as you learn to understand yourself and others and develop your capacity to trust your instincts to make decisions. Our purpose in writing this book is to help you explore your instincts and tendencies as a leader and consider possibilities and potentially new ways of leading that will guide you as you encounter challenges along the leadership road. We write about the following six areas in this exploration. 1. Bravely leading from within 2. Leading with coaching 3. Leading through conflict and challenge 4. Leading change with accountability 5. Going the extra mile (and looking after yourself) 6. Learning always and from everywhere

Bravely Leading From Within

Courageous leadership is what schools need. Where there are bold, resolute leaders who fiercely stand for what is best for students and uphold this stance no matter what,

the school staff are more likely to embrace any change and innovation necessary to improve outcomes for students. Leaders demonstrate brave leadership in their everyday actions. Five brave actions leaders take include (1) defining and protecting values, (2) confronting reality by telling and encouraging the truth, (3) exceptional listening, (4) being reflective, and (5) getting comfortable with leading change and getting messy. Brave leadership is not easy, and it requires leaders to overcome the often formidable obstacles that can get in the way, such as the challenge of making thoughtful decisions and overcoming the desire to be liked. Leaders who recognize the importance of being respected over being liked are more likely to engage in behaviors like telling the truth, even if it’s unpopular, and saying “no” when they need to. Brave leadership requires unwavering commitment and self-appraisal. In this first of six areas, we guide your thinking on becoming more reflective, confident, and comfortable as you face obstacles and courageous decisions.

Leading With Coaching

The coaching approach to leadership provides an opportunity to be more in tune with the specific and individual motivations of those you lead. As a leader, you want to develop people who can problem solve and think through options, weighing the pros and cons of each one. As leadership coaches, we aspire to coach more than tell, and do our best to build capacity and potential whenever possible. We also know there are times when we must guide and direct those we lead. As a leader, listen attentively and consider what you know about the person speaking. This is how you begin to understand the direction you want to take as a leader. In this second chapter, you learn to assess whether the person could benefit most from coaching stances including consulting, collaborating, or reflective coaching.

Leading Through Conflict and Challenge

Leading from within tests the patience of every leader we have had the pleasure to work with. Leaders can exacerbate challenging situations and encourage harmful or destructive behaviors in those they lead by simply not addressing them. Expectations in an organization are often more visible by what the leader allows to happen than the leader’s officially stated tights—the leader’s non-negotiable expectations. In theory, leaders would lead and everyone would follow. It takes much more than influence for others to change, and a great place to start is to insist on the expected practice. Leaders build a consensus of collective commitments, acknowledging the need to develop a collective understanding of exemplary work. The change process

takes an intentional focus to remove obstacles and resolve resistance. In this chapter, we take you on a journey of one school leader’s positive approach to building joint ownership through collective commitments as a way of creating change and leading through conflict and challenge.

Leading Change With Accountability

Leading from within requires the leader to know the score; in other words, there is no hiding from the story the data tell. The best-laid plans—school-improvement plans, district strategic plans, lesson plans, collaborative-team unit plans, and so on—are only worth the paper they are written on unless you model them through actions and expectations, and monitor these expectations for results. Leading change within your system requires intentional, accountable actions. As you build a culture focused on results for students, consider the value of building your staff’s knowledge, skills, and dispositions (or will) to monitor and respond to student data effectively. Implementing a cultural shift through change includes goal setting and progress monitoring to determine what is working and what is not. Every journey has a beginning, stops along the way, and an end or goal. Leading from within requires a personal commitment to knowing the beginning, monitoring the signs along the way, and understanding the desired outcomes. This chapter builds a deeper understanding of leading change with a focus on accountability.

Going the Extra Mile (and Looking After Yourself)

Leading from within requires intentionally acknowledging a personal commitment to accept the role and responsibility of leadership. As we coach leaders, we witness an authentic desire to remain focused; however, we also experience the struggle that transpires for leaders without the grit to endure. Leaders who practice consistent actions that tightly align to their expectations create synergy, and others follow. Leading from within requires staying the course no matter what and ignoring the seeds of doubt that creep into your thinking. Developing a thick skin means you deal with the situations at hand, but as leaders, we make it less about anger, pride, or hurt and more about what will move your school or district forward. We find the most impactful way to balance our work and life is when we emphasize taking care of ourselves. This chapter provides an opportunity to self-reflect and considers strategies to increase a work-life balance and stay strong, and focus on leading from within.