NASSP Day #3: Being the Best Leader I can Be!

The beautiful garden table where I wrote this post from.

This conference has had different themes being presented each day.  You can choose to go to a session here and a session there each day, or choose a common theme to focus on for the day.  I have always been a believer in focusing on a few skills and working to become really good at them, rather than be introduced to  a lot of skills but not be able to apply any of them.  On Thursday the theme I chose to focus on was harnessing stakeholder voice in educational decision making, mostly focused on student voice in education.  On Friday I focused my sessions on my ability to lead and the development of leadership skills.  On Saturday my focus will be on improving instruction and increasing rigor in the classroom. 

I had the opportunity to hear from three of the most highly recognized and progressive leadership consultants in the country, Dr. Mark Wilson, Dr. Timothy Healey, and Dr. Jeff McClausland.  Many of the things I heard during the days justified my thinking and current practices in leadership, and others acted as wake-up calls for me as an educational leader.  What an awesome opportunity I have as a young educational leader, but was also reminded of the challenges of leading multiple generations of people towards the same goal.  Baby Boomers, Generation X, & Millennials are three very distinct and different generations.  Each group has a unique set of experiences and skills.  The hardest thing about leadership is the ability to balance the needs of all three groups and lead them in the same direction.  Communication, understanding different perspective, and differentiating the common message to each group are going to be the skills needed for continued success as a leader.

I also learned about leading in 4 directions, which was a new concept for me.  Leading your boss, leading subordinates, leading peers, and leading yourself are the 4 directions in which a successful leader must lead.  Two of the directions that were new to me and areas I am looking to do further investigation are leading my boss and leading myself.  I can see the development of these two areas making me a much more progressive and successful leader.

Dr. Wilson finished the day as the keynote speaker for the evening discussing how to lead schools that are focused beyond high school.  He spent lots of time talking about the experiences that our schools provide.  "One never notices what one has done, only what is yet to be done." -Madame Currie was my favorite quote of the day.  We have done a lot of great work at LCC.  We need to embrace and honor the work that is already done, but also understand that in order to lead you have to not only manage what you have done but developing ideas for what else needs to be done.

For dinner we got together as the entire Nebraska delegation of secondary principals at Harrington's Irish Kitchen.  It was great to meet other principals from across the state, and reconnect with friends from other conferences I have attended in the last year.