Category: LDRS 501 (Page 3 of 4)

Members of my leadership team (equipo directivo)

Mister J – left the brain

• He is very logical, uses excellent reasoning, and is critical.
• I need to be very clear with him in how and why. I need to approach ideas logically and objectively. He usually thinks that people are too romantic about ideas. He likes to be concrete. I should approach him in the same way while persuading him of new ideas and approaches.
• He balances our team with being direct and logical.

Mister L – left brain

• He is also a left brain, although he uses his intuition very much. Besides being very critical, he can also be somewhat sarcastic.
• I need to be very clear with him in what I expect as a principal.
• A person of trust, clear and realistic thinking.
• He balances our team by being critical and questioning assumptions.

Mister F – right brain

• He is a right brain thinker. Enjoys music and is creative. Occasionally he is impulsive and quick to conclude.
• I consult often with him regarding creative activities and imaging the new directions for the school.
• I should give more room for using the emotions to motive him.
• He balances the team with creativity and a light-hearted spirit.

Mister H – right brain

• He has an interesting balance between both brains. Enjoys reading and
• Not a person always easy to understand.
• Has a passion for helping others and leading new projects.
• I should be more clear of my expectations with him. He also needs encouragement and attention quite often to stay focus.
• He balances the team by being easy going and looking at the needs of others.

Misses P – right brain

• She is somewhat impulsive, emotional, and imaginative. She is not concrete and logic.
• I need to be more patient and understanding towards her nonverbal language and her emotions.
• She works well with little kids and can be spontaneous at times, like children.
• She balances the team as she brings her sensible feelings towards others.

Misses L – left brain

• She is very determined and task focused. Very competent and enjoys the challenge.
• Although she is quite she often needs encouragement.
• I need to allow her to share his thoughts and her determination. Not challenging her but allowing time to reflect on what she says to avoid frustration.
• She balances the team by being very focused and task oriented.

Organizational Success

            As the principal at Colegio Johannes Gutenberg Campo 9, I have the responsibility and the obligation to lead and direct the school on the right path. Our school is young; we just celebrated our 5^th anniversary. We are still trying to find our way and rhythm of work. Just like a child, a young institution seems at times somewhat unbalanced and fragile, yet can show high energy and enthusiasm. During the early stage of an institution, it is essential to find the right path that will lead to healthy growth and bring the institution into full maturity.

As a former principal once said, “the school is what the teachers are.” Human resources are key to the success of any institution. As Galbraith (2014) mentioned, “hire hard, manage easy” (p. 53). It is yet a dream to have more options while hiring. We have great difficulty finding well-prepared staff. Much of the training and preparation we do in-house. We invest in training. Our board allows us to spend much more on training than other schools in the area.

Barriers

I see the list below as a few of the challenges that we face in our country, in our community, and in our school.

• Shortage of well-trained staff and people that carry Christian values.
• Lack of commitment to a profession.
• Lack of professionalism in the career.
• Lack of understanding of teamwork.
• Low quality and a shortage of training opportunities.
• Low salaries for teachers.
• Staff members and board members sometimes have a short-term focus
• Lack of trust among people.
• Corruption in all areas of society.

Hope and Renewal  

This past Spring semester I took the LDRS 624 class. During the course, we were able to design our school and create a hiring, training, and discipline and dismissal policy for a new school we created as a team (Longmire, Somers-Harris, Warkentin, and Williams, 2018). I envision these policies as best practices for my institutions. Following these steps, I believe, will also bring continual renewal to the school.

• Staff Selection Policy:
  • evaluate the written application
  • job interview – triangulate interview between the leadership team
  • teaching observations

Currently, I am not able to follow through with all of these steps. This year I had three staff members walkway from their jobs, and I had to hire fast three people to replace these teachers. I was only able to follow through all these steps before hiring the new teachers.

• Orientation and Support policy:
  • Welcoming teachers to the school
  • Mentorship
  • Supervision and Evaluation
  • Professional Development
  • Orientation for all new teachers to the school from the Principal

We have not been able, at this point, to implement a mentorship and well-structured supervision and evaluation. We offer an orientation to new staff members, we offer once a month training to our staff and have professional development money available.

• Discipline and Dismissal policy:
  • We have already implemented the Restorative Discipline Method where we follow a respect agreement.
  • Dismissal is the last option when the restorative discipline has not worked.

I believe that if we can implement and carry through the policies mentioned earlier, we will be able to have a more significant impact in our community, create a corporate identity, and build a stable organizational culture where staff members feel at home and can professionally grow.

I also believe that if we can implement the earlier policies we will be able to shift the negative impact, break down some of the barriers that we currently encounter, and refocus to reclaim organizational purposes.

Besides, to bring renewal to our institution, we have started a conversation with a Christian university to start a new branch in our town. It will yet take a long process but it is something could cause a significant impact in our community. We have also started a new partnership with a local church to start a new sports ministry. This ministry has the purpose to train future leaders and teach biblical values and principals to children in the neighborhood.

Reference

Galbraith, J. R. (2014). Designing organizations. Jossey-Bass & Pfeiffer Imprints, Wiley.

Longmire A., Somers-Harris R. L., Warkentin M., Williams T. (2018) Inquiry Based Project [LDRS 624]. Unpublished Manuscript. Trinity Western University.

(Our Equipo Directivo with spouses and my family in Curitiba, Brazil)

Hi Layla!

Thank you very much for bringing in your experience with adult education. During last years Spring semester, I took a class with Dr. Castellon on adult education and it was very enriching. Have you taken the ldrs 627? If not, you will definitely enjoy it.

By the way, you cited a personal communication with two people from China. Did they talk in any way or fashion about how adults in China might perceive short-term and long-term gains differently than Westerners since our sources are from the West? Just wonder. I spend a lot of time talking to co-workers about how they perceive things while reading books and articles about leadership.

I appreciate you giving me new tips for how adults see things differently than teenagers. Thanks for pointing out that you see long-term and short-term gains less of a balance than an issue of convincing people of long-term gains. In Paraguay, during the meetings with our leadership team people might not object against certain ideas but then I have to go and observe their routines the following weeks to see if they were convinced. Paraguayans will less frequently speak out and enter into a discussion about strategies. At the moment, they might say yes but then latter will continue to do it the old way. So, observing and continuing to talk about new strategies is necessary.

I also appreciate your idea of creating a collective mental model. This will help me working with my leadership team (equipo directivo).

Blessings,

Response to Organization and Systems Thinking from Kamal Badesha

Thank you, Kamal, for giving me a glimpse into your work and what it means to work in health.

Before going into the questions you pose at the end, I would like to highlight some comments you made in your post. Having a shared vision and making sure co-workers own this common vision, I believe, is always a challenge. More so for big institutions. Lepsinger (2010) mentions in the first chapter of his book of the troubling gap between vision and strategy. He goes on to share that one crucial element is to make sure that the employees feel like they exist, they need to feel respected and feel that their viewpoint matter (p.14). If my staff feels they are essential for the institutions, they will also be more willing to own the vision. Another observation Lepsinger (2010) makes is that the leader and the employees should not have two sets of values (p.17). As a principal, I need to make sure that I do not give myself certain freedoms that I would not allow my employees to do. Employees need to feel that they are just as important as their leader.

You also mentioned the challenge to communicate. I believe that improving communication has been a goal of mine every year since I started. We never communicate enough. Culturally communication in Paraguay is difficult. People do not always trust, and people think that it is better not to tell everyone what is going on. One has to fight against culture as well. Although we have worked at establishing protocols in how, when, and where to communicate, my secretaries occasionally still forget to inform everyone what has happened and what is going on in our school.

Regarding one of your questions about being heard. I remember when I was a teacher that we would complain and say that the principal did not listen to us and we felt distant from the administration. Although I related well to administrators, I did not think they took the time to listen to teachers. Now, as a principal, I wonder if my staff would say the same thing. I want to hear them. I have also attended different teacher roundtable discussions to make sure that people realize that I care. This year I have interviewed every single staff member mid-year to hear them. Is this enough? Probably I can still apply other strategies as well.

Recognizing staff members is probably the most challenging topic in our school. I acknowledge staff individually as I talk to them and we mention something publicly when they receive a prize or an award. Since we are a non-profit Christian school, I cannot recognize staff members with an increase in pay. There is always a lot of cultural mistrust, and it would also be very difficult to explain our reasoning why someone gets paid more than others. I would agree when Galbraith (2014) who says that the recognition system is probably underused and should be used more frequently than is the actual practice (p.51). I still need to work in finding creative ways to reward people who are doing excellent work.

Blessings,

Reference:

Galbraith, J. R. (2014) Designing Organizations: strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Lepsinger  R. (2010) Closing the Execution Gap. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.