Hank Boer is an associate professor of education at Aurora University and a former school administrator whose most recent position was as interim superintendent at Woodland CUSD 5 in Streator.
The primary purpose of any school is to improve student achievement, and an integral component of any school that effectively fulfills that purpose is effective leadership. When that effectiveness is questioned by the community because of a lack of trust and respect, the district and the school board can find themselves mired in a toxic culture that can jeopardize student success.
During a 40-year administrative career in Illinois public schools and during 13 years of reviewing research, as well as interactions with teachers in the masters of arts educational leadership program at Aurora University, I have come up a list of leadership skills that strongly affect the learning environment for students.
These skills have a common theme that leadership can be improved through daily practice. While each is listed individually, they have a synergy in actual practice.
These skills are not innate because those traits often describe a person’s fixed characteristics. They are, however, skills that one kindergarten teacher said she tries to teach her classes.
The skills are not arranged in any specific order of priority, except for the first, most important skill: trust.
Trust
Successful leaders create a trusting environment where they influence members of a school organization to become committed to the goals of the district. Trust must be earned. It develops over time and needs to be nurtured and monitored.
Consistent behavior that produces results leading to improved student achievement increases the reliability and validity in the observed judgment of the leader. Once trust has been lost, it may be very difficult to re-earn. When trust has been lost with school district stakeholders, it may be time to update professional credentials and begin looking for other places of employment.
Listening
Listening carefully to others in the organization can be difficult to improve because it requires focusing on those whose views may not be in agreement with your own. However, contributions from stakeholders who possess diverse views will generally lead to a more collaborative decision-making process.
Leaders who listen well generally make better decisions and that often translates into improved student achievement. Listening requires the leader to genuinely study differing viewpoints, and that requires patience and time. Perhaps the best suggestion to improve listening is to stop talking!
Caring and relationships
The skills of caring and building professional relationships are related and are the essential building blocks in developing effective interactions with school employees.
Genuine caring begins with developing a trusting relationship with people by interacting with one person at a time. A leader who cares will learn about each individual employee’s personal and professional concerns.
Even a short passing comment about an individual’s sick family member allows an employee to understand the leader is seriously interested in the person’s situation. Caring can also be a positive comment with a teacher who has successfully influenced a student who earned an outstanding achievement award.
Meaningful individual relationships are a building block for effective large-group professional relationships. During faculty meetings that require a great amount of information to be transmitted in a relatively short time, participants generally reflect the leader’s skills and exhibit behaviors associated with leadership skills.
Positive employee behaviors generally have a positive affect on the culture of the school, which in turn leads to improved opportunities for students to achieve.
Celebration
Celebrating employee successes can lead to improved student achievement. To improve this skill, a leader can look for individual employee successes such as completion of a Masters Degree program or publication of an article in a professional magazine.
Public recognition of professional achievements allows the employee to receive positive recognition, and often results in professional pride. Recognition will encourage employees to continue to seek opportunities to enrich their teaching skills, which in turn will improve student achievement. The same can be said of student successes.
Modeling behaviors
Leaders can assist in building a school organization that encompasses mutual respect for employees and students by remaining conscious of the need to model personal behaviors that support mutual respect. Leaders need to remain aware of this concept during the daily operation of a school.
Respect
Respecting everyone in an organization is a practice that, over a period of two or three years, will greatly assist in defining a positive school organization. Learning to be more respectful can be practiced by using the related skill of listening and remaining visible throughout the organization on a daily basis. Stakeholders and students will reflect respectful leadership skills modeled by a leader, which also should lead to improved student achievement.
Risk taking
Risk taking allows a leader to influence employees. Effective leaders create an environment that encourages employees to implement new teaching techniques founded on solid research findings. Administrators must monitor newly implemented changes to ensure that they are leading to improved student achievement.
After a reasonable time, if changes are not producing improvements, then the leader needs to have the courage to not allow them to continue. An example might be the implementation of a student tutoring program that involves middle school students tutoring first- and second-grade students in reading.
Perhaps the best component of any school organization that can be shared is information. A simple act of copying and distributing research articles with others or arranging for teachers to share information they may have learned during professional development is another powerful practice.
Plural pronouns
Leaders should limit the use of singular pronouns such as “I” and “my” and focus on plural pronouns. Sometimes singular pronouns are necessary in daily operations, but leaders should be aware of the strength of plural pronouns when collaborative actions are essential in reaching effective solutions to problems. An example of effective use of plural pronouns is finding an answer to the question, “What should we do about our problem of poor student behaviors while waiting for school buses after school is dismissed?”
Humor
Appropriate use of humor can help produce a positive learning environment, but it should never be used to humiliate or belittle another person. Leaders should refer to themselves rather than anyone else when making critical comments that are intended to be humorous.
At appropriate times, humor reduces organizational stress and allows for meaningful communications that will generally lead to improved student achievement. Skillful leaders look for situations that allow employees and students to have fun during learning situations. Students from pre-school to high school seniors appear to learn better when an element of fun is included in the activity.
Fairness
Treating students and employees fairly is a practice that should be monitored continuously. Open, clear and straight forward interactions with everyone in the organization greatly assist in developing leadership fairness. Application of rules and policies in a consistent manner helps establish a culture that supports the primary purpose of the organization: a focus on improved student achievement.
Integrity
Integrity is an imperative because behavior that is not straight forward or clearly focused on the successful operation of the organization reduces a leader’s effectiveness.
It may be more socially acceptable to embellish the truth in specific situations to achieve short-term popularity, but this practice over a long period will lead to an erosion of the leader’s perceived integrity. Integrity is closely associated with trust, caring, fairness and relationships.
Networking
Networking enriches the leader’s performance by drawing from the expertise of others who may perform similar activities. Developing and participating in professional networking allows educational leaders to remain up-to-date on academic research and best practices, which lead to improved student achievement.
Networking skills also often produce opportunities for future leadership professional growth. It provides information for the leader to share that assists others in problem solving.
Empowerment
Empowering employees is a powerful leadership practice. Here empowerment is not defined as the process of “buying into a decision,” rather it is defined as the practice of actually allowing employees to make the final decision.
Even if this practice is only used in a small percentage of the total decisions, it can be very valuable.
Empowerment should include accountability, such as having all involved sign a recommendation that the board and other district staff can refer to if negative comments arise.
Conclusion
I spent eight months as the interim at Woodlawn District 5, practicing and modeling the skills set forth here. The board members and new superintendent will reap the benefits.
Board believes Boer made a difference
When Hank Boer came to Woodland CUSD 5 in Streator as interim superintendent, he found a distinct lack of trust.
“The district was in disarray,” said Tom Kamike, former Unit 5 board president. “We had gone through a former unit secretary who embezzled a large amount of money. In addition, she had overpaid the entire faculty over a four-year period and the board had to ask for repayment.”
Those events led to a huge amount of mistrust and disrespect for the former superintendent and the board. Whether it was the past administration’s fault, in the community’s eyes, “it happened on their watch and they needed to go,” Kamike added.
According to board members, as an interim, Boer brought about a complete turnaround in trust between the district and the faculty and community, providing a favorable environment for a new superintendent to succeed.
“The staff and community no longer have to question every move we make, because there is a new level of allowing the administration to do its job and a new understanding of the community’s roll in getting involved with school matters that are normally handled by the board,” Kamike said.
Boer also brought a new meaning to the word “integrity” for board members.
“By acting with integrity, courage, fairness and respect for all parties involved, Dr. Boer taught me respect for one another’s character,” said Ralph Cole, current District 5 board president.
“I really didn’t know the meaning of (integrity) until I met Hank,” Kaminke said. “Always a man of his word, Hank proved to be honest and sincere from day one, as he fell in love with our small school district — a district he put his heart and soul into.”
“By using outstanding communication skills, explaining things to the public, answering concerned staff members’ concerns with an open door policy, listening, being fair and showing genuine care to all those involved, Dr. Boer helped us gain back the respect that was lost in our district,” he added.
“He may have finished as interim with our district,” Cole said, “but parts of his teachings and leadership skills will remain for many years to come!”