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A forum for discussing issues in Independent School governance in the second decade of the 21st Century

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The Trump Trap: How NOT to Lead Your School #1

3/17/2017

2 Comments

 
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​No matter what you think of his politics, President Donald Trump has stepped onto the world's largest stage and has given us a daily lesson in how not to lead. School leaders, both aspiring and current, can use the style and actions of the current President as a cautionary note about what works, and doesn't, in contemporary school leadership. In the following series of posts, we will examine some of the characteristics of the emergent style governing the White House and look at its application to the context of effective leadership. 

There is no better place to start then how he got the job in the first place...

1. Getting the Job
In spite of the fact that research supports the observation of Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, that most great companies are led by internal candidates, a majority of Boards (and Heads) believe that bringing in external candidates will "shake up" the school or bring in fresh ideas that will spark improvement. This is sometimes the case, but in most instances the myth of the "outsider" turns out to be just that, a myth. Donald Trump's "drain the swamp" mantra is a prime example of a candidate framing themselves as the person who can bring positive change to an institution without being sullied by actually having any experience working in it. Hilary Clinton, by contrast, was seen as the ultimate "insider" which was just a way to frame decades of experience and hard work as a "weakness".

In schools, headhunters usually propagate the same theory (after all, who needs help in promoting an internal candidate?!) The fresh face, can dazzle an interview team with great new ideas and approaches and, arriving on the doorstep with only glowing references and no history, hiring committees can often be seduced by style over substance. Internal candidates, by contrast, in spite of solid accomplishments and an intimate knowledge of the institution, are often crippled by the fact that they are known "warts and all" and carry the baggage of past slights or mis-steps. Internal candidates are far more often eliminated by gossip than by substance.

The external candidate (or outsider) rides the change wave by making sweeping promises for "making the school great again" without being hampered by an understanding of the resources, personnel, culture, and barriers to growth that have to be managed and overcome before the school can move forward. In the recent Presidential campaign we heard "I will defeat ISIS in the first 30 days", "We will repeal and replace Obamacare on Day 1", or "We will build a wall, and Mexico will pay for it!".  Once in place however, the external candidate quickly learns that while grandiose promises might get you the job, failure to deliver can help you to lose it in record time.
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As a disclaimer, I have more often come into a leadership role as an outsider than as an internal candidate, and have learned by hard, (and humbling) experience what approaches work, and which ones are doomed to failure!
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So, once the "white knight" has been given the mandate to come in and make changes, what should she or he do first?

We'll talk about that in the next post.







2 Comments
Mark Brown link
3/21/2017 04:49:47 am

Hi Jim,

I'm not sure if I can wholeheartedly follow you on this one... it most assuredly is an 'it depends' situation when we look at the internal versus the external candidate scenario.

In schools that are obviously on a path to excellence with (almost) purely excellent educators employed within the internal candidate might, indeed, be the right one. However, you and I both know that the number of these schools won't take both of our hands to count!

Though I get your warnings about the siren song of the external candidate I've also seen too many scenarios to count where opportunity to move forward and evolve was, quite possibly, lost by going with the internal and 'safe' candidate. That safety in hiring the internal candidate gives them an advantage - do not forget this. Most schools and school boards are complacent and happy to accept what is versus going after what could be. This, in my humble opinion, is the primary reason that most schools are caught at least 20 years behind the curve and have been, though they don't know it yet, already made irrelevant by massive changes in our society.

Children today need basic skills - yes. But more than that they need the opportunity to solve real problems, to be (once again) contributors to their communities in a very real sense, and to learn how to start businesses and 'create' versus 'find' jobs.

Remember GoPro? Already irrelevant though it seems to us to be actually quite new. It is just one example of how not thinking outside the box fast enough leads to demise... and internal candidates, from what I've seen, are most often firmly inside the box and thus leave little room for a school to grow beyond their current paved paths to irrelevance.

Reply
JIm
3/21/2017 09:07:21 am

Thanks for your thoughtful (as always!) comment Mark. As I have tracked this over the past 15 years, the number of internal appointees - at least in major Canadian independent schools have been relatively small. There are always other factors (such as in BM) but for the most part, Boards have been highly reticent to go with an inside candidate. The result has been uneven, at best, for schools. The process, as it currently exists, is still to vulnerable to poor decision-making and being hijacked by flash over substance. Cheers!

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    Author

    Dr. Jim Christopher
    has been working with Boards and Heads on Governance issues for the past 15 years. He is a former Superintendent of Schools, ED of the Canadian Association of Independent Schools and Canadian Educational Standards Institute and is the author of a number of books and articles of education and governance. His latest book, Beyond the Manual: A Realist's Guide to Independent School Governance is available on iTunes or at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/388729

    View my profile on LinkedIn
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