Cognitive Resources

As a leader, I spend most of my time interacting with others, drawing upon my "blue characteristics" as described earlier under Personal Leadership Resources. Essentially, when interacting with students and staff, blue shines as brightly as gold.

In my work as a Catholic school leader how will I manage the balance between personal responsibility and distributed leadership?

A principal who is able to ensure effective communication between himself/herself and the school team has mastered the first step in leading staff. As a leader, I will make this my priority. As part of the training provided for Violence Threat Risk Assessment, I was introduced to four types of communication patterns in schools: Naturally Open, Naturally Closed, Traumatically Open, and Traumatically Closed. The ideal system, and the system I will work hard to develop and maintain is the Naturally Open School System. Information flows seamlessly to, from and through the community, principal, school staff and students. My role as Department Head for the past five years has allowed me to develop skills and strategies that ensure my school is a naturally open school system. I show up at school 1.5 hours before students are scheduled to arrive and leave several hours after they exit. I maintain an open door policy to anyone who needs or wants to speak with me. Regardless of how rushed, or behind I may think I am on completing a specific task, I always give the person meeting with me my unhurried and undivided attention. I do much more listening than talking. This listening is a powerful tool for developing trust, understanding and communication. I always spend time at the end of the day, when everyone is gone, to reflect on all that has happened in the day. Part of my reflection process includes thinking about I learned that day what needs to be shared with other people, and how I will share this information. After I reflect, I complete paperwork. This sounds crazy but I like doing paperwork. It is important for me to let my dominant personality trait, organizational tasking, get a workout too. On a personal level, completing paperwork gives me tangible proof that I accomplished something. However, on a practical level, it ensures I am communicating and reporting information. As a principal, I will conduct myself daily in the same way I act as a Department Head.

Good leaders trust in themselves and trust in their team. Through communication, I will get to know the strengths and interests of my staff and they will get to know mine. This will allow me to distribute leadership effectively. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed, and really do feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. When this happens, I sit down, lean back in my chair and look up to the ceiling. In this position, I say to myself, something along these lines: “God, I know you believe in me. I know you will not give me more than I can handle. I am going to have to trust you. I have to tell you though, I am starting to feel overwhelmed. Please help me”. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I don’t. Always, I manage. When distributing leadership, I will keep this metaphor at the back of my mind. I will try not to ever give more to a staff member than they can handle. I will try not to force anyone to do something they have no interest in doing. I will trust people when they say “enough”. I will recognize the uniqueness of each staff person and honour this: “Too much” to one person may be “not enough” to another and this is okay. My current principal distributes leadership among the staff. The fact that she trusts me with a lot of responsibility helps me to develop my sense of efficacy and belief in myself. The more I believe in myself, the more challenges I am willing to take on. This is what I want to develop in staff as well.

Leaders model behaviour. I have always modeled the behaviour I would like to see in others: as a daughter, sister, student, young teacher, wife, mother, experienced teacher, and department head. I will continue to model others as a principal. The people I work and interact with will see a person who they respect and trust. They will see that I work hard, I have no hidden agenda, and I only want the best for everyone. Through this, they will know that when I distribute leadership I am not “giving them my work”, but rather allowing them to give me their work. Actions speak louder than words. “Preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words.” (Francis of Assisi)

What ways will I be accountable to the students, families and community to ensure that values, knowledge and attitudes are developed through the lens of our Catholic faith?

As mentioned earlier, at the end of the day, or over the week-end, I find comfort engaging in organizational record keeping activities. Because this is my most dominant personality trait, I will always turn to this and complete paperwork. In order for a school to run effectively, it is necessary that these “behind the scenes” tasks be completed. It is a requirement that a school is not only accountable, but able to produce evidence of accountability. This is what I will accomplish when I unwind by analyzing data and writing reports.

As a new administrator, the challenge will not be in motivating myself to do the

“behind-the-scenes” jobs that secure accountability. The challenge will be in acquiring the knowledge to do this well. Course candidates have been blessed to have had the privilege to hear from a high number of high caliber guest speakers. Reflecting after each class, I often find myself thinking: “The more I learn, the more I realize I need to learn more”. For example, Anne Miller spent time with us discussing the issues around Special education, IEP’s, and IPRC’s. Theresa Kennedy opened up the dialogue on Early Learning Strategy. Joe Jamieson tackled the job of helping us to realize the importance of knowing the law and the principal’s legal duties and responsibilities regarding supervision, training, mentorship, due diligence and follow-up. Jim Reilly and Anne Miller spent two days with us providing training for Violence Threat Risk Assessment. Just writing this paragraph caused me to lean back in my chair, look up at the ceiling and talk to God: “What am I going to do?” I will do exactly what I would expect of any teacher or student to do. I will continue to engage in lifelong learning and professional development. Just as I do not expect anyone to know everything, simply through the process of osmosis, I should not expect this of myself either. Through training, calling on mentors, and gaining experience, I will acquire the knowledge that I need and I will be effective. My years as a vice-principal will be ones of tremendous professional growth.

I feel fortunate and blessed to be privileged to work at a Catholic school. My faith is such an integral part of me that I do not know if I could function in a secular school. My husband and I sent our son to a public school to attend Junior Kindergarten. We lived in the country and this school was just up the road and had a very good reputation. The closest Catholic school was in town and involved a one hour bus ride with a bus connection. Because of the transportation issue, the public school seemed the wisest choice. The curriculum delivery was ideal. My son’s teacher was engaging, and enthusiastic. My son loved going to school. However, the mention of anything religious was strictly forbidden: “God”, “Christmas”, “Jesus”, “Easter”. My husband and I agreed. The soul of the school was missing. When we moved to Belleville, we knew the only school we could consider having our children attend had to be a Catholic school.

The principal provides the vision and the values of the school. A Catholic school principal must achieve this while ensuring Catholic values are honored and practiced. They cannot simply be honoured though. They must be interwoven into all that happens at the school. How will I ensure values, knowledge and attitudes are developed through the lens of our Catholic faith? This is really hard to answer. The very way I conduct myself personally and professionally is always faith centered. I couldn’t do things differently, so I cannot imagine running a school without faith guiding me always. Physical evidence of our faith will be present in all parts of the school: crosses, alters, and pictures of the Pope. Students will start their day in prayer. Through teaching and modelling, students will learn and apply the Catholic graduate expectations. Religious education curriculum will be lived. Social justice initiatives will be embraced. Everyone will be made to feel equal, welcome and valued.