Critical Components for Effective Leadership

With credit  to The Harvard Business Review (January 2009) “Women and the Vision Thing”:  Critical Components of Leadership that comprise the Global Executive Leadership Inventory, here are 12 descriptions of leadership characteristics and behaviors that may well determine a high level of success for a those in positions of leadership.  I have extrapolated these to apply to heads of schools but they also apply to many others as well and you can insert President, CEO and numerous other titles.   However, that said, when politics and personalities enter in, there are simply no guarantees of outcomes and those tricky waters must be navigated with great care and skill.

·      Envisioning: A Head of School can articulate “a compelling vision, mission, and strategy that incorporates a multi-cultural and diverse perspective and connect to stakeholders on a global scale.”

·      Empowering: at all levels of the school the Head of School empowers followers by delegating and sharing information.

·      Energizing: The Head of School inspires us to achieve the goals of school.

·      Designing and Aligning: The Head of School is adept at creating world-class organizational design and control systems and uses them to align behavior with the intended values and goals.

·      Rewarding and feedback: The Head of School delivers a constant stream of rewards and structures and gives constructive feedback.

·      Team building: The Head of School creates team players even in an arena of scarce resources and focuses on team effectiveness, instilling a cooperative atmosphere that promotes collaboration and encourages constructive conflict.

·      Outside orientation: The Head of School makes internal and external constituents aware of outside constituencies, how we impact local communities and they impact us.

·      Global mind-set: The Head of School is the glue between the regional, national, and international cultures represented in our community.

·      Tenacity: The Head of School encourages and models courage and tenacity and takes reasonable risks.

·      Emotional intelligence: the key to The Head of School’s leadership, effectiveness, excellence, and fairness is the trust fostered in the school by creating – primarily by setting an example – an emotionally intelligent workforce whose members are self aware and treat others with respect and understanding. 

The Head of School should demonstrate two other traits that may be the most difficult for authentic Head of Schools: life balance and resilience to stress. These are harder traits to evaluate, but they are essential not only for the Head of School’s success but also for sustained effective Leadership. 

Minnesota, South Dakota, Colorado

After hearing winter storm warnings for Denver, we pointed Li'l Sugar toward Abiquiu.  Last night we made it to Luverne, Minnesota and a wonderful state park campground complete with a bison herd, including a very large bull, gorgeous as he looked straight at us, unconcerned but curious.  Even more curious were the gray deer that strolled by our campsite.  We were the only ones in the campground and while we are also large and gray, we must have looked rather strange to them.  Many miles later through open expanses of rangeland through SD, we angled down to CO and are just northeast of Denver.  Should be home by early afternoon tomorrow.

Snow, so north, through Canada!

Yes, snow in Stowe, VT, and even more in Mass and CT so we opted for a northern route to warmer, drier weather, through Montreal and west through Quebec and Ontario.  An amazing lunch yesterday art Sucrerie de la Montagne in Rigaud, Quebec, a restored sugar shack converted into a very French, country restaurant.  On past Thunder Bay and to Ontario, camping in Pembroke at Pine Ridge and back into the U.S. across the bridge at Sault Ste Marie and halfway across the upper peninsula of Michigan.  Rapid River tonight on the shore of Lake Michigan, headed for Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota.  Lots of miles covered today and same for tomorrow.  Prorsum et sursum!

Stowe and Mt. Mansfield

Hunkered down near the base of the mountain, waiting to see if the predicted storm will dump any snow on Stowe.  Drove up to Smugglers Notch, took a short hike down a trail to a huge rock strewn, roaring mountain stream, recollected all the recent damage wrought by hurricane Irene.  Witnessed a lot of that yesterday en route north on VT 100 from Ludlow.   Powerful force of water, some 12 inches of rain, caused innocent streams to become raging torrents, strewn with rocks and trees knocking down anything in their path including houses, barns, lodges, highways, bridges and vehicles.  Evidence of rebuilding was plenty but residue of damage simply astounding.  Heavy equipment and workers everywhere still repairing devastation. 
Now enjoying peace, quiet and a day of rest, planning a return route to NM.  Would like something different, interesting and scenic, might consider part of Canada. Need to be back in Abiquiu by Thursday.
 Will see long time friends B&B Sanders this evening for dinner party here at the Wagners on Billings Hill Road.  Great views of the mountains!  More soon.

Liberty and OWC

Having the statue of liberty in view spawns a few thoughts and feelings of patriotism so we considered a visit to Ground Zero appropriate and timely although there's mostly construction going on around the memorial.  New glass skyscrapers are attempting to replace the WTC.  Not especially comfortable with the images but there you have it.  Walked a few more blocks to see OWC in the park and because of the rain, it looked more like tarp park, everyone covering their spots with blue, gray and green tarps.  In fact it was a park of tarps.  However, that said, the attitude and atmosphere was one of peaceful protest and one sign said, this is not a protest, it's an affirmation.  I liked that.  The message is clear. Wall Street represents the 1% and the banks, Goldmans and others have the money. S said that it reminded her a little of the revolution without the guns and that every democracy needs a revolution once in awhile in order to remind itself what a democracy is really about.  It reminded me a bit of the 60's where the issues of equity, inclusion and social justice were the driving forces.  Drove on out of Manhattan in a traffic choked artery, tried to camp out at Hamonassett State Park in Madison Connecticut but it had closed for the season.  Found a very nice B&B down the road called Tidewater Inn, had a lovely seafood dinner at Lenny and Joe's Fish Tales and called it a night.  One interruption on this dark and rainy night was a rather bad fall up some concrete steps, banging up head and hand and dislocating a finger.  Today a visit to Choate and on to Stowe, Vermont.  Ciao!

New York City

It's very early Thursday morning and we're parked across from the Statue of Liberty in Jersey City.  I know it sounds a little weird but there is an RV campground here just before the entrance to the Holland Tunnel. Liberty RV Park and Marina with ferry and train service into Manhattan.  Leaving Memphis Tuesday morning, we stopped early at a shopping center, picked up some groceries and drove across Tennessee on Interstate 40, rolling hills, great color, lots of traffic, the majority of which seemed to be trucks.  Past Nashville to Knoxville and a turn northeast on I-81 towards Virginia and Tuesday night found a beautiful VA state park called Claytor Lake, not far from Radford.  We had stopped in at the VA welcome center, picked up another map and a description of the area, and learned that we were just 10 hours from NYC from that spot.  Drove on another hour or so, hopped off the Interstate, stopped at a local orchard to pick up some apples, cider and pastry and then on to the park. Camped next to a young couple with a 2 yr old and 2 month old and discovered Mike is with the National Park Service and they are eager to relocate back to the West. Set up camp (2 chairs, a small table and a grill) had drinks and dinner and called it a day under the tall oaks dropping acorns everywhere, ker ching!
  Yesterday we drove leisurely through the Shenandoah Valley just west of the Blue Ridge Mountains and had another day of spectacular scenery with the Fall colors bathing us in their natural change of the season.  One fuel stop, crossed into West Virginia, a short piece of Maryland and then northeast across Pennsylvania, picking up Interstate 78 and all of this through familiar territory toward New Jersey which we crossed in a little over an hour, arriving here around 4:30 PM yesterday.  Today is clean up, lunch in the city with Claire and the Markleys, and on toward Connecticut.  Ta da!

ROAD TRIP

Intentions are to post here every other day or so on this two week road trip from Abiquiu, New Mexico to Stowe, Vermont and return.  First day out last Saturday, 10/22 was to Palo Duro Canyon, south of Amarillo, Texas, billed as the second largest canyon in the country.  No need to comment on which one is the largest but I do remember camping on the north rim in the national forest there.  Palo Duro is a spectacular little gem and we arrived as the sun was dropping in the west and watch the light and colors change from the floor of the canyon to the rim rocks.  Beautiful!   Nice evening breeze, very quiet, early AM departure in the dark, and headed toward Oklahoma City.  Arriving from the west in I-40 saw this mammoth tower of a building being erected, discovered it was Devon Energy's new building.  Had to stop at an Apple store and talk to a couple of the geniuses there.  The place was packed wall to wall with people as was the mall where it's located.  Somehow it didn't seem the downturn in the economy had affected OKC adversely at all.  Spent last night at the newly constructed home of J & J Richardson, Susie's brother and sister-in-law.  Crashed a party for their neighbors who have endured 2 years of construction, caught up with some family stories, departed this morning, 10/24 and are now ensconced at the Agricenter RV park in Memphis, Tennessee.  Great farmers market here and not sure what the center is all about as we just stumbled on it from seeing a sign along the highway and here we are.  Ideal temperature, perfectly clear weather and the drive through Arkansas was mostly foggy but the leaves are changing and as we head north from Knoxville later on the colors will shift rather dramatically.  More soon.

"Sunrise, Sunset"

Sunrise, 7:09 AM - October 12, 2011  Abiquiu, New Mexico

The light, just before the sun comes over the horizon, is pure and clear when there is not a cloud in the sky and no pollution to filter this amazing light. It’s one of the many reasons artists, photographers and others come to northern New Mexico, for the clarity that becomes a metaphor for a way of living.  Plein air painters especially enjoy this setting.  We live a mile down the road from Georgia O'Keefe's house and studio.

The slightest breeze is moving the leaves, silhouetted against the early morning, eastern sky.  The aspens and the cottonwoods have all turned that exquisitely golden hue that is worth more than the price of real gold at $1663.00 per ounce yesterday. 

Being able to be outdoors near mountains and meadows, forests and streams is a gift in any season but the Fall brings its own special delights.  I see the sun rise almost every day from this vantage point of a study that faces east and has a view of Marsha Mason’s bosque across the river.  I heard that she finally sold her property “Resting in the River” which was put on the market back in 2008.  The 247 acre estate and ranch was most recently listed at 7.9 million, down from the original 13 million where it started. http://www.marshamasonestate.com/

Our 12 acres of paradise here at The River House provide more than enough pleasure and work to keep us fully engaged on a daily basis.  We added a menagerie that includes mini-donkeys, chickens, (down to 11) and the usual domestic dogs (2) and cats (4) plus a pond of koi (7) and we often reference to this place  as our own Peaceable Kingdom, reminiscent of the painting by Edward Hicks.  However I don’t think we’ll be adding more to our herd, flock and school, although a few more free-range chickens might be welcome.  The peace is sometimes disturbed by beavers taking their share of trees and saplings or a flock of geese overhead or sandhill cranes making that wonderful clicking noise.  And then a chorus of coyotes joins the symphony and the scene is almost complete.

Fall is time to prepare for Winter, and Spring, but it’s also time to enjoy Fall to the fullest and this sunrise is just about the greatest way to begin another day, one filled with joy, beauty and a lot of connections.  This day, like every one yet to be filled, is a gift. The promise is large, the opportunities are immense, and there are glad surprises to be discovered all along the way.  Cool nights, warm days, brilliant sun and the road beckons. It's time for exploring beyond, taking in ever more sights, sounds and the delicious delights of a new day.  The words from Beethoven's finale of Ode to Joy: 

Be embraced you millions,

This kiss for the whole world!

Brothers, beyond the star-canopy...

Be embraced,

This kiss for the whole world!

Joy, beautiful spark of divinity,

Daughter of Elysium,

Joy, beautiful spark of divinity

Divinity!

"It's About Time!"

Here is an interesting phrase, “taking time off” because time is never off.  Like it says in the old ads for Timex, it just keeps on ticking and one day, we will run out of time, or walk out, or lie down and check out.  Think of some of the amusing ways people speak about time.  “I didn’t have time to do it.”  What they really mean is they did not choose to take the time to do it, whatever “it” was, but who is going to say that they chose something else?    How about this one?  “It’s time to eat.”  That was mother calling from the kitchen.  Whether you were actually hungry or not didn’t matter.  It was “time” for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  One family I knew quite well, not my own, sat down precisely at 5:30 PM every evening for dinner and everyone was expected to be there and be on time.  Being “on time” is highly important to many people but different cultures regard that behavior with more or less value.  Personal priorities about being “on time” may also vary.

We are often like Pavlov’s dog.  The bell rings and we respond whether by changing activities, answering a call or checking something in the oven.  We are conditioned and regulated by time.  It’s “time” to go to bed.  It’s “time” to get up.  It’s “time” to go to work.  It’s “time out” and “time” to start again.  It’s “time” for the meeting.  It’s “time” to leave in order to get there in a reasonable amount of time.  It’s all about time and yet time is an invention, a construct for our convenience and we are bound by it.  How we measure time and how we use it reveals an enormous amount about who we are as individuals and who we are as a culture.

Here’s another phrase that amuses me because of the double entendre. “It’s about time” we say, meaning in one way that we have waited for some time for something or other to happen and finally, it has taken place. Whether that expresses gratitude, relief or annoyance depends upon the context.  A long-awaited package arrives at the door and we say, “It’s about time!”   And really, it is simply that it has taken longer than was expected or desired for the delivery to be accomplished.  Big deal!  Get over it!  At least we got the package.

In order to get more done in the same amount of time the phenomenon of multi-tasking has appeared and it seems to have arrived in conjunction with the advent of computers that are able to perform several functions at the same time.   Recent research at Stanford on multi-tasking shows that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time.

High-tech jugglers are everywhere – keeping up several e-mail and instant message conversations at once, text messaging while watching television and jumping from one website to another while plowing through homework assignments.  But after putting about 100 students through a series of three tests, the researchers realized those heavy media multi-taskers are paying a big mental price.

When it comes to our brain’s ability to pay attention, the brain focuses on concepts sequentially and not on two things at once. In fact, the brain must disengage from one activity in order to engage in another. And it takes several tenths of a second for the brain to make this switch. As John Medina, author of “Brain Rules” says: “To put it bluntly, research shows that we can’t multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously.” ( http://brainrules.blogspot.com/2008/03/brain-cannot-multitask_16.html)

When we are in situations where there are multiple sources of information coming from the external world or emerging out of memory, we are apparently not able to filter out what's not relevant to our current goal.  That failure to filter means we are slowed down by that irrelevant information."

However, that said, there are examples and instances that may show some exceptions and here is one such illustration.  The song, “The Time of My Life”  was the music and lyrics used in the final scene of the movie Dirty Dancing with Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, and was written by Frankie Previte.   Previte said: "I received a call from Jimmy Ienner who asked me to write a song for this little movie.  I told him I didn't have the time and he said, 'Make time. This could change your life.'"  Frankie's former bandmate John DeNicola and his friend Don Marowitz came up with the music for the song. Says Previte, "I received a track from John and Donny and I wrote the lyric and melody for the chorus in the car while I was driving along the Garden State Parkway, going to a studio session for another song."

Here’s the message:  Making or taking time to do what is really important can change your life. The question is, what is really important?  And if you’re driving, be careful!

No Virtue in Being Busy

I receive at least a dozen or more emails, telephone calls or messages each week (I don’t text) that are filled with comments about how busy someone is and I am often guilty of the same kind of remark.   And for those who must travel for work, that adds a layer of time consumption, creating more pressure and stress on the schedule, calendar and one’s self.  Add up the demands and expectations of a family, a specific job or task, running a household, managing a business, dealing with the oxymoronic customer service, absorbing the news, being entertained, using the social media networks, watching and listening to others, and perhaps most importantly and more often neglected than not, taking care of ones own mind, body and spirit.

Yesterday my wife and I set out to winterize our mist away system for the elimination of mosquitoes.  Without going into the details of installation early last summer, let me say simply that it is an engineering and chemical mystery and marvel that sprays pyrethrin (an organic compound) around our house and garden according to a programmed computer system and a 55 gallon drum of the mixture inside a shed adjacent to our house.  It has to be “winterized” and now I laugh at the scene although at the time it was anything but funny.  We had to call the “source” three times to accomplish what should have been a simple task.  It took over an hour and a half. 

I now watch or listen with some degree of amusement as a friend or colleague refers to an electronic calendar to find a slot where a meeting is possible or impossible and I do the same thing although my calendar and schedule have more leeway for the first time in 49 years.  When I served as an interim head of a school last year, I remarked that I was fortunate to be able to work half time.  That was 6 to 6!  And there were those evenings and weekends that added hours of work, most of it meaningful and productive.

Another thing I am fond of saying although it does not resonate all that well with some others goes like this:   A friend or colleague says, “It was a very long day” and I know what they mean but I have the audacity to respond with, “I have news for you. They are all the same length, 24 hours.”  The point is that we all have the same amount of time and it’s simply how we use it, how we spend it, how we choose to invest ourselves in the moment or the hour or in the day that has been given to us.

Maybe there is a way of looking at the day or the week not as something to be filled up but rather as this miraculous and precious gift of time which, in fact, could be our last day.  If that were to be, how would we spend it?  The point is not to create a personal drama but to be sure that we are including some of those things that we value the most and not postpone them until we find the time or have the time.  Now, go put some of those into your schedule and on your calendar and see if it makes a difference.  Go ahead.  Just do it!