Leading vs. Maintaining
Our schools, our districts, our states, our nation could use
a few more leaders, and a few less maintainers. Maintainers, those who simply “go with the flow” (page 258),
are stuck flowing, just like water, downhill. Water takes the easiest course, and is dependent on its
surroundings to determine its course and speed. Maintainers are the same, they don’t create, they don’t go above
and beyond, they do just enough.
Sometimes they go faster, if the school and everyone else around is
doing so. Leaders seek change, the
renewal process, to constantly improve and sometimes challenge the status quo
to blaze the new trail that needs to be opened up, and bring his team along with
him.
When discussing his “Dissatisfaction Theory,” Lutz (page
248) states that, “School districts are in a state of satisfaction when the
values of the community, school board, and superintendent are aligned. In a satisfied community, school
politics appears to be low key and uninteresting…” That’s the current situation in my school district, thank
goodness. Our superintendent is
starting his 13th year in his position, the school board is smoothly
operating and is in line with the superintendent, and the public plays a
limited role. He has done a
wonderful job at leading the district along a likeable path, while creating a
team atmosphere that has bonded the major players together quite nicely. Every once in a while, a local
political group will come along and press an issue that they don’t agree with
and try to mix things up, stirring the public to create the dissatisfaction
that Lutz talks about, which can lead to the change mentioned in the
chapter. My district really isn’t
affected as much due to its teamwork nature, which is definitely a strength in
the continual struggle to improve.
As I look at how the major players are seemingly on the same
team when they face most of the struggles, it is a great example to me as to
how I’d like to run a school. If I
go in and try to make changes on my own, just for the sake of making changes,
I’m going to constantly be fighting the teachers, staff, and community. Change is a renewal process, a process
of improving how/what we can do to continually progress and improve. So if we can value the need for
improvement, and if we become a team that can see and share the vision, mission
and values, then the little roadblocks can be taken care of rather easily, and
we will all be moving forward, hopefully in the right direction.
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