No one is born a leader. Some have attributes that help them to acquire the skills faster and make them inclined to seek leadership positions, but no one is born a fully formed leader from the start. Leaders are built through experience and learning. This is really no different than many other professions and activities.

As an example, let's look at Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan was an incredible athlete. That athleticism and attitude towards the game were incredible assets in building the skills required to be a star basketball player. However, when he dabbled with baseball, he found himself unable to replicate the success of basketball. He retained all the athletic skill that he had as a basketball player, but had a remarkably different experience in baseball (spoiler for those who don’t know, he wasn’t great). 

While he had attributes that make a great athlete, in this setting he did not thrive. It is arguable that if he had made the switch very early in life he might have been a baseball star rather than a basketball star, but either way we can clearly see that one skill set was cultivated, while the other was not, which led to a vastly different performance. 

Leadership is much the same in that you can have all the attributes in place, but still not be a good leader if you don’t hone and cultivate that skill set. As such, leaders are forged both through experiences and through study.

The first of these is unavoidable. In a leadership position you will absolutely have a variety of experiences that you will hopefully learn from. Some of these experiences will go well; others will not. But if you are learning from them, you will soon find certain actions work best in certain situations and you will have more successes than not. 

I call this “drawing your maps” and “writing your scripts.” It’s not that each event is the same, but they are often similar enough that similar approaches will work. Going through these experiences the first time is tricky because you are essentially in uncharted territory where you are figuring it out as you go. But, over time with similar experiences, you start to develop a skill set towards handling these events and issues.

The second of these is optional, though it really should be a part of every leader’s experience. When you are learning solely through practice, you have a small sample size, no control group, and everything is trial and error. When you begin to study leadership, you can learn from many others and their experiences which can help you to more quickly enhance your skill set. You can be introduced to many different aspects of leadership that you may not have considered before.

In a previous blog I mentioned how COVID was a trigger for me to spend more time studying to help develop my leadership skills. As I learned more, my confidence grew and I noticed that my skills seemed to be getting better as well. I was able to make better decisions, develop and communicate a Vision for the school and overall serve my school better. While I don’t study quite the same amount I do try to ensure that I keep my hand in it. This is not to say I have anything mastered, if anything, it has shown me how much further I need to go.

An added benefit to my learning is that it helps me to lead by example, in that it contributes to an overall culture of learning both for students and staff. If I model learning, then it becomes more realistic to expect that my teachers and students also spend time learning to improve their practice as well. 

This is one of the reasons why Professional Development is so important to administrators. The better that you hone and develop your skills, the better you can lead your school. Quality professional development is a key component of success for any educator, and for school leaders it’s no different. This Professional Development can be personalized like self-directed learning or systemic, like mentorships, workshops, and a strong culture of support.

Both experience and learning are necessary components of a thriving professional leadership practice. Study without experience leads to theories that do not always manifest in practical ways. Experience without study leads to stagnation of ideas and a fixed viewpoint. Combining them allows leaders to build their skill set to better meet the challenges that come with a leadership role.