"Focus on only 'what is essential and ignore the rest.'"
-Mike Schmoker quoting Jim Collins in Focus, p.91
A leader is only as effective as their team. Guiding, directing, goal setting, and ensuring we meet the needs of those the team serves is critical to the effectiveness of the lead role. This takes place through:
strategic planning both with individuals, the team, Board of Directors, strategic partners, and national experts
focus on the needs of learners served to provide support resources, and connection
utilize research and evidence-based pedagogical and andragogical strategies to foster a culture of innovation and collaborative efficacy when working with adult learners
foster creativity and desire for academic research
Through this approach, the instructor and academic organization can best support the goals of the organization and the vision of learning to ensure an ongoing positive relationship with the learners, the academic team, and the overall organization . This, in turn, ensures a constant commitment to continual growth and excellence that fosters the academic organization, department, and overall student success.
Communication and service go hand in hand. A fundamental approach to this includes providing multiple modalities of outreach, including, but not limited to:
creating and maintaining a digital platform to house pertinent and timely information
providing multiple means of access for services and information to provide an ongoing system of support for learners
cultivate a culture of collaboration and efficacy for the department and for learners in the academic organization's various programs
responding to the needs of learners, fellow colleagues, and members of the academic organization in a timely, effective, and specific manner
developing and delivering effective, rigorous, and relevant academic learning, training, and supports
By addressing this through unparalleled communication and service the instructor and fellow colleagues are able to ensure learners have the most relevant and up-to-date knowledge to effectively operate and successfully grow and develop in their learning through the integration of technology and delivery of instruction and services.
The role of the academic organization and its lead requires unparalleled commitment to learning together and as an individuals. This requires the lead to be connected in the following ways:
Membership, leadership, participation, and presentation with a variety of professional organizations regionally, statewide, nationally, and internationally
Pursuit of learning through formal and informal means, including but not limited to:
higher education pursuits
connections via social media forums, such as education Twitter chats
participation/leading book studies that foster continuous growth
ongoing academic research
All of these while maintaining an intense focus on the overall vision of the academic organization in regards to goals and achievement integrated via technology with curriculum, instruction, assessment, and rigorous course content.
With the role of lead in the area of organization, the finger must be on the pulse of the needs of education and educational evidence based trends and research. This includes but is not limited to:
Identifying the needs of learners at all levels
Organizing timely and relevant support and instruction that is both "just-in-time" as well as "forward-thinking" and anticipates the needs of learners served in the academic organization
Sourcing field experts
Capitalizing on the expertise of educators/administrators globally
Identifying outside presenters that best fit the needs and vision for the academic organization and support learners with relevant learning
Create and vet the best learning experiences both economically and in regards to the fundamental content and presentation to engage learners for the purpose of effective, relevant, and implementable learning that develops educators for the field
The role of a lead in the area of fiscal management is to oversee the budgets of the various departments and ensure that budgets best focus on the vision and mission of the organization in order to best serve our learners and the academic organization.
Accountability both with internal budgets, as well as other outside funding is critical and must be monitored and managed with integrity, focus, and purpose.
This requires a positive and ongoing relationship with programs and departments that support the logistics of events and financials, and the academic organization's leadership. Specifically, the lead would need to work closely with accounts payable/receivable, business manager, human resources, and facilities/maintenance coordinators to ensure the learning experience provided to learners and the academic organization's partners are of the utmost in excellence while adhering to budgetary guidelines.
The lead must have a firm and committed belief in Collective Learning Communities. Each educational entity served by the academic organization has growth and needs that are unique and as individual as each student. It is essential for the lead to be able to work within each of the unique groups to forge support of the work of Collective Learning Communities. This is done, in part, focusing on the following:
Providing support for team building both in resources, learning content, and modeling
Identify protocols, procedures, and practices that foster collaborative inquiry and collective efficacy
Create connection within partnerships AND across the region to leverage the power of WE with our learners and partners, capitalizing on the strengths each entity has to offer
Stick with the fundamentals of Collective Learning communities to create common language and understanding:
Target the 3 Big Ideas:
Focus on learning
Focus on collaboration
Focus on results
The lead is a self-starter, who can work independently and with a team to ensure the vision and mission of the academic organization are constantly being pursued through multiple avenues. This requires both self-directed learning, decision-making, and confidence while balancing with humility and a willingness to learn and ask questions.
This role requires self-management and goal setting for both large and small scale tasks in order to accomplish the myriad of responsibilities and supports for learners needed to achieve the greatest level of excellence in service to the academic organization, its current student population, alumni, and the greater community.
The role of lead in this area is both internal and external.
In the area of internal relationships:
build and maintain authentic trusted relationships
foster an environment of collaborative inquiry
model servant leadership
empower growth and develop the strengths of learnes and colleagues to facilitate strong leadership within
unwavering commitment to excellence and professionalism
emphasis on healthy interactions and self-care
In the area of external relationships:
build and maintain relationships with learners and colleagues based on trust, strong communication, excellence of work, and continued commitment to the vision and mission of the academic organization
foster inter-dependent relationships among colleagues and learners to curate ideas and support
leverage the leadership and expertise from learners and mentors to further enhance the excellence within the academic organization
avail services and supports to learners, colleagues, and the academic organization's leaders to foster collaborative inquiry globally
unwavering commitment to continued excellence and professionalism in all areas connected with the academic organization
emphasis on positive interactions and focus on the well-being of learners, colleagues, and the academic organization's leaders
The lead must emulate not only a growth mindset but an innovator's mindset. Through embodying the flexible thinking of an innovator's mindset, the lead can support learners who are working to embody a growth mindset. Having an innovator's mindset, not only believes something is possible and can be done, it is the empowered thinking that takes it to the next level and finds a way within the parameters given to set a course or path for accomplishing what is believed to be possible. This is essential for a lead as they work with the learners, colleagues, and the academic organization's leaders faced with many challenges while striving to facilitate services and support that provide the very best opportunities for learning for students. A lead must be able to "flesh" out ideas and think innovatively with learners, colleagues, and the academic organization's leaders to find the next steps or new steps for implementing programs and approaches rooted in evidence-based research.
The lead must be in tune with ways that instructors can provide student-centered learning. This happens in multiple ways and the elements listed below must be infused into all practices to ensure that evidenced-based practices reflect at the center, the student learner.
Those elements are (in no particular order):
relationships
student voice
student choice
stakeholder involvement
relevance
rigor
engagement/empowerment
resilience/grit
educational policy(ies)
When these elements are present in thought and action in the content delivered by the lead's team, it can be assured the student learner remains at the center of the focus as an academic organization serves learners, colleagues, and the academic organization's leaders.