Editorial by Michael Brisciana
Hurricane Sandy recently left millions on the East Coast seeking a light in the darkness. News stories of devastated communities longing for relief brought to mind the image of a lighthouse—a beacon of light, hope, and safety. A lighthouse is also a powerful visual of the role leaders can play in both good times and bad—pointing the way forward, toward light and safety.
Shining a Light Forward
I’ve had the occasion recently to help two schools implement evaluation and development systems. In both cases, the schools are run by experienced, dedicated, and charismatic leaders, with strong leadership teams, and healthy, positive employee cultures. Remarkably, though, in both cases, leadership felt that far less than half of their employees had a clear understanding of the organization’s direction, why they made the decisions they've made, and where the school was heading.
It really struck me that two otherwise high-performing, well-respected leadership teams felt they needed to do a much better job of communicating the school’s vision and direction, instead of taking for granted that “everyone knows where we are headed”. After coming to this realization, the leaders of both schools were determined to redouble their communication efforts, confident that this would provide innumerable tangible and intangible benefits to performance, productivity, and morale.
Lighthouse Leadership
It is axiomatic that everyone looks to their leaders for direction. The leaders of the two schools I worked with believe firmly that, if their faculty and staff had a clearer sense of where the school was heading, they would advance in that direction much more confidently and with considerably less anguish and uncertainty. This is leadership time well-spent, we believe. One can say that strong leaders serve as lighthouses for their employees, offering:
- Light—shining through the fog of an uncertain environment;
- Hope—giving confidence that the school has a plan (or at least a direction) for the future—and a path for getting there; and
- Safety—reassurance that someone is standing watch, guiding the ship toward safe harbor.
Even in good times, these leaders recognized the need to communicate vision and point the way with clarity and confidence. In difficult times—of economic, operational, and environmental distress and uncertainty—this is doubly true. Let us remind ourselves often of the need for clearly communicated vision and pointing the way forward with confidence. May we all help steer our organizations to safe harbors.
Additional ISM resources of interest
ISM Monthly Update for Human Resources Vol. 10 No. 8 Re-Designing Your Teacher Evaluation Process
ISM Monthly Update for Business Officers Vol. 10 No. 5 Why Business Managers Need to Care About Teacher Evaluation
ISM Monthly Update for Human Resources Vol. 10 No. 7 Can Evaluation Really Drive Faculty (and Student) Performance?
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 9 No. 6 Can Evaluation Really Drive Faculty (and Student) Performance?
Additional ISM resources of interest for Consortium Gold members
I&P Vol. 37 No. 2 A 21st Century Teacher Evaluation Model
