To paraphrase Dan Rockwell from (www.leadershipfreak.blog) the quality of your personal and professional outputs can only match the quality of your inputs. Outputs in the case of education leaders are the systems, programs and culture you build in your school to better the lives of students. Inputs are what you are putting in your brain every day to stretch your thinking. Leadershift (and most leadership books today) makes the point that there are no shortcuts around this input process.
Leaders must constantly challenge their own thinking, expanding their paradigms and change their models of leadership to adjust to the current realities facing schools.
John Maxwell’s book Leadershift helps you navigate this shift in thinking and practice. Each chapter discusses a shift in leadership you can make if you are interested in keeping up with the rapid flow of change that impacts every organization…especially schools. There are 11 shifts (each discussed in separate chapters) that will lead to leadership growth.
Soloist to Conductor: From a “me” orientation to “we” orientation
Goals to Growth: “Goals helped me do better. But growth helped me to become better.” In other words, the growth that occurs while reaching a goal is more important than reaching that goal.
Perks to Price: Focus on what you can give, not what you can receive.
Pleasing People to Challenging People: 25-50-25 principle. 25% of the people will support your changes/initiatives, 50% are undecided, and 25% resist. Your job is to get the 50% to go along with the first 25%.
Maintaining to Creating: Leaders can’t maintain their way to the top and lead change!
Ladder Climbing to Ladder Builder:
Ladder climbing…how high will I go?
Ladder holding…How high will others go with a little help?
Ladder extending…How high will others go with a lot of help?
Ladder building…Can I help them build their own ladder?
Directing to Connecting: (7 characteristics)
1. Humility
2. Curiosity
3. Connect with people
4. Trustworthiness
5. Generosity
6. Listening
7. Encouragement
Team Uniformity to Team Diversity: Surround yourself with people that have views that differ from yours.
Positional Authority to Moral Authority: The Four “C’s” (Competence, Courage, Consistency, Character) plus love and humility
Trained Leaders to Transformational Leaders: “If your actions inspire people to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are a transformational leader.” (P. 215)
Career to Calling: Letting your ego go and do what truly “sets your fire”.