How Educational Leaders Go From Good to Great
The popular phrase “going from good to great” is the title of an amazing best seller management book authored by Jim Collins in 2001.
As a result of its popularity, the phrase and concept is now used often to describe how one can develop themselves personally or professionally in order to achieve greater heights or aspirations. The term also assumes that being “good” at what one does may not be good enough and that one must always aspire to become “great” at what we do.
At first blush, one can posit that the turn of this phrase is an easy and convenient way to understand and appreciate that the status quo in our lives may not always be sufficient and that we should always seek to push ourselves to greater limits. It also serves as a motivator that we should always go beyond our perceived limitations in order to achieve “greatness”.
In our continued quest or pursuit to go “from good to great” we often push and motivate ourselves to be better than we are, to achieve more than we do, to push more, to extend our limits and to stretch our abilities and capacity to succeed.
For some, this can become a natural extension of their nature personality. But for others, it can be somewhat frustrating and challenging.
The concept of going from good to great is a fascinating one. It challenges us to think about how we can be the best we can possibly be and how we can encourage and motivate others to do the same.
As an educator, executive coach and school consultant, I often think about how this concept applies to our principals and heads of school in real time.
Several years ago, I conducted a full-day seminar for over one-hundred day school and yeshiva principals and school heads entitled: “Going from Good to Great: Being the Best we Can Be”
The session (with breaks) was without doubt one of the most meaningful professional leadership development sessions I ever had the privilege of presenting to senior school leadership. This was not do to my style of presentation but rather the participants interest and motivation in the topic. After-all, everyone wants to be the most effective they can be.
From Concept to Reality
I do know of one school principal or head of school who would not welcome the opportunity to become the best they can be…unless they are lazy, complacent or completely bored and at the end of their career. And even then, I’ve seen tremendous willingness to succeed beyond ones perceived limitations.
Going from “good to great” is not an even-playing field. It first requires that the principal or head of school understand what it truly means to be an effective leader or at the top of their game.
Great principals and heads of school are modest, humble and determined. They always put their teachers and students first and ahead of their own individual personal or professional needs or aspirations. They do not seek kavod for themselves but rather for their schools and for their staff . To be sure, they continuously sublimate their egos.
Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Those school leaders who look for kavod and put themselves first, eventuality find out that their staff and school can quickly become a collapsing house of cards.
Schools require authentic leaders with knowledge, experience, skill, foresight and insight. They also require principals and heads of school who continuously seek to inspire and motivate their teachers and staff to become the best they can be. In doing so, they elevate their senior leadership roles as educational leaders.
Being an effective principal or head of school, especially one who aspires to be great, requires a true sense of self perception, confidence and actualization. It requires an ability to engage in self-reflection and analysis.
When a principal or head of school transitions from good to great they focus on a clear, shared vision, distributed leadership and data-driven continuous improvement. They also shift from managing daily operations to empowering others, creating a culture of high expectations and continuous support for students, teachers and staff.
Key strategies include;
….defining and communicating a clear vision;
…building teacher capacity;
…prioritizing instructional leadership;
…cultivating a culture of trust and deep understanding;
…leveraging data to drive policy and decision-making;
…engaging community
When transitioning from good to great, the principal or head of school must be very aware and cognizant not to move too fast ahead of teachers and staff.
Leading is achieving, but its also about modeling for those we guide and supervise; and its about pacing change in order to ensure that all teachers, staff and employees are in lock-step with the principal or head of school.
On a more functional level, leaders who move from good to great shift their emphasis from managing daily operations to creating or building sustainable systems. The key word here is sustainable.
It is essential that irrespective of how a new structure, approach or model is built, sustainability will become key. Otherwise, change becomes temporary and ends up becoming a flash in the pan.
Moving Forward…
As we motivate, inspire and encourage our school leaders to transform themselves from good to great, we must remind them that the path to greatness is payed with many challenges and opportunities.
It is important to note that in Judaism, perfection is viewed as an illusion.
As I indicated in my book Think Excellence (Brown Books, 2011), perfection can be the enemy of excellence. We can never actually reach perfection. At best, we can aspire to levels of excellence, but never in its totality.
Maimonides teaches us that we become great by doing great actions until that behavior becomes second nature. We also learn from the midrash that mitzvah goreret mitzvah – one good deed naturally leads to another.
As we transition from good to great we must remember to take incremental steps. Moving from zero to one-hundred never really works. And if it does, it is not always sustainable.
May we all be blessed with excellent health and the will and the desire to lead from good to great as we inspire a future of inspiration, mitzvot, hatzlacha and b’sorot tovot.
