The Head of School Conundrum: A 21st Century Leadership Challenge

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Over the past several decades there have been a plethora of articles, papers and research regarding the new and evolving role of the Jewish day and yeshiva head of school as “instructional leader.” This reality takes place against an ever expanding landscape of Jewish day schools and yeshivot which are faced with the  difficult, daunting and often perplexing problem of identifying, recruiting, and retaining the “best and brightest” talent to lead their schools into the 21st century.

In 2010, an outstanding article in Kappa Magazine entitled “New Thinking about Instructional Leadership,” authors Eileen Horng and Suzanna Loeb posited that schools which improve student achievement are more likely to have principals who are strong organizational managers and leaders than are schools with principals who spend more of their time n observing classrooms or directly coaching teachers.”

Although the article is somewhat dated, recent research continues to support and validate this finding. To be sure,  this hypothesis is based upon an expanding body of research which challenges our understanding regarding the traditional role of the head of school as being totally occupied with hands-on day-to-day teaching and learning activity. Moreover, according to Horng and Loeb, “the quality of teaching in a school, in many cases, can be affected only marginally by a principal’s (or head of school’s) actual involvement in the classroom.”

Whether one agrees with this hypothesis, one thing is clear – today’s head of school must spend less time focusing on “hands-on” in the trenches classroom learning, instruction and curricula at the expense of spending more time as a forward-thinking inspiring, strategic thinker, change agent, motivator/influencer and vision-driven innovator. By doing so, it enables and empowers the head of school to focus on other critically essential components such as board recruitment, retention and development, financial resource development, developing and ensuring school-wide curricular standards and benchmarks, teacher recruitment and retention,  admissions and community development, strategic planning and parental interaction – to name few.

The head of today’s Jewish day school or yeshiva  who micromanages his/her school personnel is by definition, caught up in organizational minutia and the weeds, as opposed to focusing on the forest or big picture. In fact, the head of school must focus more directly on the train’s schedule and direction rather than on it cargo.

As a close colleague once stated: “you can’t always fret about when the train arrives and leaves the station unless you know the train’s destination and that your passengers are safe and on the right train, moving in the right direction.”

This is just another way of paraphrasing Jim Collins who posits that effective and successful organizations need to have the right people sitting in the right seats on the right bus moving in the right direction.

This is not to suggest that the instructional leader disengage him/herself from the wonderful  magic taking place in the classroom or from the power of the teacher-student teaching/learning process or student social and cognitive growth and achievement – three of the most essential components of effective schooling.  What it does suggest however is the challenge and opportunity for the head of school to merge and blend the leader and manager domains comfortably, seamlessly and effectively…and, by doing so help create and foster a school culture which is effective, viable, resilient, meaningful and sustainable.

As we know,  heads of school today are naturally faced with a myriad of ever increasing complex challenges, exacerbated by limited resources, greater demands for accountability and transparency, institutional competition,  and demands for high quality assurance. They are required to lead and manage vertically and horizontally and at the same time, build capacity and an operational infrastructure and system as well as an educational culture that encourages and inspires effective education service delivery. This also assumes that our heads of school are appropriately trained, experienced, skilled and well-prepared to take on these monument and at times daunting tasks, obligations and responsibilities.

Today, the head of school, whether it be for a Jewish day school or yeshiva,  is by-and-large challenged to inspire and lead more so than ever before; and, not limit their energies to only teaching teachers how to teach. In order to do so, they must learn the fine art of how to identify and hire, lead and manage staff, empower faculty and delegate to those school personnel who are trained to assume greater responsibility with authority and accountability.

More often than not, heads of school fall prey to micromanaging their respective faculty and staff due to a variety of factors – ranging from a lack of confidence in their respective staff, to their own individual insecurities or to just plain inexperience.

Leading and directing institutions demands experience, exposure and skill. It also requires big picture strategic thinking and tremendous self confidence, maturity, modesty, trust authentic vulnerability and a willingness to take balanced and measured risks, anchored in model educational best practice.

Throughout North America, there are a growing cadre of outstanding day school and yeshiva professional  school leaders who are exemplars of best practice and who are at the top of their leadership game. These successes are due in large measure to the impressive impact of institutions of higher learning on school leadership practice, more sophisticated and sustained exposure to high quality professional development programs, greater access to qualified mentors and coaches, hands-on experience in the field, and a greater awareness and consciousness regarding leadership expectations, transparency and accountability.

Leading and managing our schools effectively should not always be mutually exclusive. Several ways in which the head of school can merge and blend leadership and management skills include, (but are not limited to) the following repertoire of beliefs, assumptions, practices and behaviors:

• ensuring that all policy, educational and administrative decision-making are data-driven and not based on political expediency, just an item on a check-list or for personal gain;
• offering ongoing constructive, reflective, sensitive, honest and at times difficult feedback to administrative staff, faculty and the school’s management team – ancorded in model or best practice;
• providing administrative staff and faculty with well-defined opportunities for professional growth, development and reflection;
• turning faculty meetings into meaningful learning opportunities and teachable moments (keep in mind that most administrivia can go into emails and that there is no need to waste precious staff/faculty time with lunch and carpool schedules and report card deadlines, etc);
• ensuring that the school’s curriculum is always aligned with the school’s hashkafa, core values, mission and vision – assuming that they are clear and well articulated;
• ensuring that all faculty, administrative staff and board agenda items are “action focused” – otherwise, why meet; reports should be committed to writing and read; why waste precious time?
• making conversations and meetings with faculty and staff more about them – not about the challenges facing the head of school;
• finding time to engage in personal and profession reflection;
• if feasible engaging an executive leadership coach;
• being aware and conscious about the quality of your time on task – is your time being well spent, directed or utilized effectively? It is never about time-on-task, but rather the quality of time-on-task;
• exhibiting and demonstrate Jewish role modeling;
• always being transparent;
• not using too many cliches or overly quote management/leadership gurus, buzz words or catch phrases – they get stale really fast;
• always begin management team and staff  meetings with words of inspiration. a Jewish value or inspiring Torah thought in order to set the stage for an anchored and meaningful  conversation;
• hiring and engaging administrative staff  to whom you can delegate effectively;
• do not expect reciprocal trust on the part of your faculty or executive staff until you yourself have exhibited trustworthiness on a consistent basis.
• encouraging and inspiring your management team to engage in their own learning – whether it be Torah study or topics relating to best educational practice.

The following is a summary of twenty (20) deep-dive “power-principles” for effective head of school leadership. They are intended to help inform and guide the manner in which heads of school can evolve, grow, and perform as true inspiring leaders, role models and as exemplars of leadership excellence,

• continuously strive to delegate and empower others on your team, utilizing the strengths of your team members; channeling and directing their strengths;
• you need not have all the answers; if unsure, seek advise from others;
• always seek advice and authentic feedback from your staff and faculty and hold everyone, including yourself accountable;
• always exhibit derech eretz, empathy and compassion for your students, staff, faculty and parents;
• be passionate about your work;
• the school’s core values, mission and vision is your roadmap and compass; use them wisely and strategically;
• take risks, but ensure that  decisions are well-informed and data-driven;
• trust is always earned, not acquired – it should never be transactional;
• always admit mistakes, but do not overly apologize or misdirect the blame (never play the blame game); remember – the buck  always stops at the top of the leadership pyramid;
• give-credit where credit is due – always seek ways to celebrate your staff and faculty accomplishments and successes;
• always keep your board of directors informed; no surprises;
• always seek ways to keep your team motivated and inspired;
• act decisively – procrastination paralyzes;
• build confidence and leadership in others;
• think and act strategically;
• develop your own professional goals with your board of directors; always manage expectations and seek critical feedback from your board;
• always articulate your vision with clarity and conviction;
• never mistake “sizzle” for “steak” –  your success is not dependent upon charisma or personality, it’s about true substance.
• enjoy your leadership role and responsibilities  – “positivity” can be extremely  rewarding, contagious and motivating.

These checklist power principles, qualities and attributes can very easily be applied to any senior or c-suite leadership professional. Our challenge however is to apply them directly to our leadership roles in Jewish day schools and yeshivot by first recognizing their importance, relevance and application. Only then will we be in a more credible position to celebrate and enhance Jewish day school leadership excellence – a sine qua non for effective schooling and education.

At the end of the day, heads of school will always be required to navigate the crises, exigencies, problems and pressures of  our Jewish day school and yeshivot. As a result, our leaders will be judged not necessarily by the number of fires extinguished, speeches or pronouncements made or crisis averted…but rather by the manner in which they were able to direct, channel and  inspire their schools to ensure high educational standards of excellence and above all, measurable student achievement, growth, progress and success.