Doug Johnson

Leadership or Management?

Head for the Edge, October/November 2009

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. Peter Drucker

You can’t do the right things unless you know how to do things right. - The Blue Skunk

I’ve been wondering a good deal lately about what seems to be a continuous round of recent political, economic, and educational disasters - the Iraq War, the handling of Hurricane Katrina, the housing bubble, NCLB, the financial sector meltdown - and questioning whether it was a lack of leadership or poor management that either created or exacerbated such messes.

Examples abound:

• Removing an evil dictator and establishing a democracy in a Middle Eastern country - good vision, poor execution.
• Helping the victims of a natural disaster - good vision, poor execution.
• Increasing the number of people who own their own homes - good vision, poor execution.
• Assuring that all children have good reading and math skills - good vision, poor execution.
• Instilling public confidence in our financial institutions – good vision, poor execution. Well, to date anyway.

Quite frankly, I am getting a little tired of the emphasis on “leadership” and “vision” in society, and especially in education. For all the talk, all the theories, all the studies, and all the exhortations, this obsession is getting us nowhere - and good management is suffering as a result. Here are some deadly warning signs I’ve noticed lately…

• Education graduate schools replacing their “administration and management” classes with “leadership” classes.
• Professional organization’s standards becoming “visionary” documents instead of practical guidelines for effective programs.
• School administrators hired based on philosophy rather than track records of running schools well.
• “21^st Century Skills” student learning standards that are incomprehensible, unmeasurable, and unfocused.

I will state right up front that I am a better manager than “leader.” The workshops and writings of which I am most proud tend to be pragmatic rather than visionary. Budgeting, technology planning, policy-making, skills integration, effective staff development, and program evaluation are among my favorites. It’s pretty easy to sneer at practitioners sharing those “how-I-done-it-good” stories rather than academic research or high-blown theory. But those looking down their noses certainly aren’t the folks trying to make actual changes in a real library or school.

One of my favorite recipes for change is the simply stated formula: C = V X D X F > R. Richard Beckhard and David Gleicher posit that Change = Vision X Discontent X First steps > Resistance. I find in schools and libraries that some of these qualities are plentiful supply. Visionaries abound; discontent both from inside and outside schools is plentiful; and resistance is bred in the bone of more teachers than we’d like. The only things too often missing are those realistic first steps that move a program from someone’s dream to reality. What are the things that are doable today that actually result in change? And who helps teachers do them? That’s where good management comes in.

It’s pretty easy to say “all students must demonstrate 21^st century skills,” but it takes a manager to:

• Define those skills in concrete, measureable terms that real people can understand.
• Create grade-level benchmarks of those skills, scaffolded based on ability and age-appropriateness.
• Design thoughtful projects and activities that teach and reinforce such skills.
• Plan with curriculum designers to make sure such skills are embedded in all content areas.
• Collaborate with individual teachers in such a way that the librarian or technology integration specialist efforts are viewed as genuine support, rather than as annoying add-ons.
• Use assessment tools that don’t just measure student skill attainment, but help students actually master the skills as well.

Of course we need to be moving in a positive direction. (As a buddy of mine liked to say, “We may be lost, but we are making good time!”) A vision shared by your students, staff, administration, and parents is essential.

Let’s face it - anybody can create a “vision” and cry loudly about all the things that are wrong and paint a utopian view that sounds pretty good  - and it seems like almost everyone does. But what is usually lacking is any practical means of moving from Point A to Point B - especially within the parameters of working with real people, real budgets and a real number of hours in a day.

True genius is in finding ways to make a vision reality - working where the rubber hits the road. Pat a good manager on the back today. Without managers, visionaries are just hot air.

Most of my Head for the Edge columns, updated and edited, can be found in my latest book. Buy it and I might be able to afford a nicer nursing home one day. Thank you.