Just Be Resilient?

My friend Dr. Lawrence Kohn, partner at Leadership Partners LLC, recently wrote an article titled “Why are They Wearing Lead Parachutes? It’s Not Their Fault.” In the article, Kohn refers to “Personal Leadership Resources,” seven traits that help school leaders provide “functional parachutes” for their teachers and staff instead of toxic “lead parachutes” that will more than likely sink the adult learning leaders and eventually their schools. “Personal Leadership Resources” are based on the research of Dr. Kenneth Leithwood, an education leadership professor at The University of Toronto.

Kohn and his associates at Leadership Partners have released a practitioner’s guide to help school leaders address what Kohn considers the most important PLR – resilience. Kohn writes in the guides’ introduction:

“Do you have that ‘tough skin’ everyone talks about, that shell leaders must have to stay in the game? Do all the leaders you know have ‘the shell’? One thing is for sure. These days, campus and district leaders need resilience more than ever.”

“Losing an effective leader is costly, close to 100k financially speaking. In addition, the loss of culture and achievement associated with losing such a leader can be devastating to a school. Simply put, resilience matters. Leaders who lack resilience are at a much great risk of exiting the profession than those who master this attribute.”

“In psychological terms, resilience is the process of adapting well in the context of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress. It means ‘bouncing back’ from difficult experiences, such as learning gaps, teacher attraction and retention, accountability issues, challenging students and parents, political and social strife, and the list goes on and on for today’s education leaders.”

“It might be said, ‘To survive as an education leader, you must be resilient.’…”

Kohn shares seven characteristics of a resilient leaders :

“Emotional Regulation (They can manage and control one’s emotions, especially in stressful situations.)

Positive Outlook (They maintain a hopeful and optimistic attitude, even in the face of adversity.)

Problem-Solving Skills (They can think critically and solve problems effectively.)

Social Support (They seek and maintain strong, supportive relationships with others.)

Adaptability (They can adjust to new conditions and adapt to change.)

Self-Efficacy (They believe in their own ability to handle and influence situations effectively.)

Realistic Optimism (They recognize the reality of situations while maintaining a belief in overcoming challenges.)”

Kohn goes on to provide the reader with a Four-Part Resilience Framework, where he asks four questions:

“Why is each characteristic of resilience highly essential to a leader’s skill set?

How can leaders build or sharpen each characteristic of resilience?

What does research say about each characteristic? And

What are free resources leaders can leverage to improve each characteristic?”

When I was a non-profit leader, my group did similar work with schools like Leadership Partners today. We worked with school leaders to improve their resilience to internal and external threats along with other important skills necessary to succeed in the modern American public education system.

Even though our clients, the school leaders, told us what a difference our training made to their ability to set goals, deal with inside and outside interference, take care of teachers and staff, and impact student learning, the achievement data for their schools suggested otherwise. Very few of those school leaders made a difference inside their schools when it came to student learning. I’m guessing Dr. Kohn and his Learning Partners’ associates are finding the same result.

Why? Why does leadership training fail so often in our public school system?

Because all the “pain points” identified in yesterday’s column –

“Poor mental health and emotional well-being, particularly in relation to their teaching job.

Excessive workloads and long hours.

Lack of positive work culture and environment, significantly impacting younger teachers.

Stress from poor pay and benefits, staff shortages, and excessive workloads.

High attrition rates with many teachers considering leaving the profession, influenced by various stressors.

Negative impact of poor communication and understanding from administrators.

Need for autonomy in the classroom, support with student discipline, and involvement in setting school policies.

Lack of support in creating a sense of belonging for students in the classroom.

Work-Life Balance and Mental Health

Safety and Violence in Schools

Educational Equity and Racial Justice

Special Education Leadership

Principal Shortage

Challenges with Current Education Policies

Additional Issues Identified by Educators like student absenteeism, a shortage of substitute teachers, poverty among students, a general teacher shortage, the need for effective teacher-prep programs, and the importance of fostering a love for learning among students” –

are just too hard to overcome by school leaders and their teachers and staff.

The pain points listed above are indicators of a broken system, a system that leaders, no matter how resilient, are unable to overcome. And as these “pain points” become even more oppressive to the system, the hope that leadership training somehow will alleviate the pain and improve the system increasingly becomes a dream.

I’m interested in learning more about Dr. Kohn’s future guides to improving leadership in today’s schools, but will they really matter? Resilience, along with proactivity, optimism, self-efficacy, hope, humility, and self-awareness are all leadership traits worth improving. When you exist in a failing, broken system, it’s probably time to assist current leadership in imagining what a new learning system might look like and start rowing the boat in that direction. Friday News Roundup tomorrow. Til then. SVB