Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

Message from the Lead Dog Principal #10

Is ownership a key to your culture?

You bet it is. And in a negative culture, lack of ownership is a given.

In a school, this lack of ownership transcends the adults and permeates right down to the students. Everyone comes to school every day, yet the school does not belong to any of them. When this occurs, I can just about guarantee unhappiness and poor results. Everyone in the school must own it!

I found some interesting definitions in Entrepreneur. They make a distinction between accountability and ownership. They define ownership as the staff member taking initiative, whereas accountability is defined as completing the task assigned. I found that teachers that lack ownership will most times complete assignments, yes with much moaning and groaning, but few bring a new idea to the table. And I find it interesting that probing deeper, the one that takes initiative, will be an active participant at meetings and other forums. Those that are along for the ride will sit in a meeting and stare off into space (or perhaps nap) and just get angry at the person who is interesting and contributing.

I can vividly recall a teacher who retired after thirty years of teaching with zero accumulated sick time. I must add that this individual never had a long-term illness in his career. He was not an owner. He was not invested in the school. He visited for thirty years.

Schools and organizations that lack ownership feature poor communication and are not transparent.

Compounding this problem of lack of adult ownership of a school, students refuse to take any ownership for their own learning. Students have checked out. They do not seem to be intrinsically motivated at all. Finding that student who wants to learn for the desired knowledge outcome is rare. Grades motivate students purely because they have mastered the game of school. I have written about that previously.

This concept of ownership in a school might just be the key that unlocks doors that clearly need to be unlocked. But how do we get there? We will not figure this out in this weekly blog, but it will serve as a good jumping off point for some serious discussion and reflections. Please consider:

• Hiring the right person who possesses a growth mindset. (Conversely, getting rid of those that do not possess this mindset is important.)
• Work to build mutual trust.
• Develop a shared vision.
• Develop common shared expectations that always point back to the shared vision. Everything in the school must reflect that shared vision.
• Embrace a common set of behaviors for everyone in the school.
• Share decision-making responsibilities. The principal must be a participatory leader. An autocrat won’t work here.
• Provide meaning professional development, preferably teacher generated.

Each person must put the school first. I wish I could think of a fancy acronym for this, but I can’t. The school must always win out over individual wants or needs. There is no “I” in school. (Ok, I know that is corny) That must be a given.