Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

Lessons from the lead dog-#2

Is someone nipping at your heels?

“If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes”.  (Lewis Grizzard)

Of course, someone is nipping at your heels.  That is the way the world of leadership works.  Someone always thinks that they can do your job better than you can do your job.

Never forget that the second dog will always be nipping at your heels.  If you are not going fast enough or perhaps going off course, the second dog will let you know this. You always need a good second dog.  Many leaders fail to recognize this.

There is a follow question embedded here that one must also consider.  Is it necessarily bad that someone is nipping at your heels?  I do not think that it is bad for several reasons. First, you need someone to keep you on your toes, to keep you on that course. Second, you have to have a strong pool of potential leaders ready to assume a leadership position at a moment’s notice. And I think that lack of potential leaders is a significant problem in our schools today.  There never seems to be an adequate pool of potential “lead dogs” ready to lead.  We have not spent enough time cultivating these future leaders.  From experience, there used to be a pool of people tripping over one another for leadership opportunities in our schools.  For many reasons (too little pay and too much aggravation to name a few), people are not as ready to step to the plate as they once were. 

Current school leaders have no one to blame but themselves for this current problem.  They have not spent enough time or thought succession planning.  And it proves itself time and again when a principal or superintendent leaves the district for whatever reason.  When this occurs, I am convinced that there will be a sense of turmoil and upheaval in the transition, beyond what should be normally expected with change.

As a leader you can never show weakness.  And always remember that everyone thinks that they can do your job better than you can do it.  These are the leadership facts of life.

As the lead dog, you must be visible and you must prove yourself to be indispensable.  You must be good at processing feedback.  The lead dog must get results and be future driven.

You have to watch the second dog when they work to make you look bad, become gossip starters, and finger pointers.  Second dogs cannot be your resident second guesser. Nor should they be your resident “kiss ass.”  When your second dog possesses these aforementioned qualities, they are useless.  They become a significant detriment to your mission.

Nurture your second dog.  He or she will keep you motivated and on track. But always remember that you are the boss and if this second dog exhibits the qualities mentioned in the paragraph above, you must eliminate them.  Take my word for it, you cannot keep them around.  They will suffocate you and lead to your failure.

Good luck.