What Direction Are You Headed?

I've written before about leading and periodically looking over your shoulder to see if anyone is following you. Recently, during a faculty meeting, we did an activity to see what direction people are actually heading in our school. It was a modified activity based on the work of the  National School Reform Faculty. The activity was called North, South, East and West: Compass Points and can be found HERE. While the activity may be similar to things you have done previously in your organization, this was an eye opener because it really got to the brass tacks of the many directions prevalent in our school. I challenge you to do this in your own school to see what directions your colleagues are heading. Doing so will shed some light on why your school's culture is what it is. To take it a step further, I would encourage you to do this as an ice-breaking activity in your classrooms on day one.

Reflecting on the activity as a leader, I discovered and confirmed what I had already known for a long time. In my large staff, I have colleagues that sync with me immediately and others who I drive crazy. Let me first start off by saying that I DO NOT wake up every morning in the hopes to be the worst part of someone's day. Inevitably, however, the direction that I am headed conflicts with the directions that others are headed. By traveling this direction, I tend to alienate people because they don't understand why I am traveling that way. Because of this, they don't feel heard and thus, culture suffers. It is only when you understand the various directions that people have can you truly impact the culture of your school.

I am a TRUE North. I make no bones about it. The activity states that no one is only one "direction," but in my case, I think that North describes my first, second, and third choice. It is not that I can't travel in other directions, but I choose North most of the time. The key to this is that I know this about myself and I have surrounded myself with other leaders on my team who represent the East, West, and South. As a building principal, however, my direction is typically the one that is scrutinized the most because I am supposed to be out front charting the course and navigating the vision. I also understand that my direction may appear laissez-faire and scares the heck out of the people I lead on a daily basis. With that being said, I think it is important that your people (students, staff, parents, community members) know this about you. They need to understand the direction you are headed just as much as you need to understand where they are coming from. By doing this, you create a school culture that does not have a preferred direction, but rather, a culture that honors and respects where everyone is headed.

In the end, decisions have to be made so your organization can continue moving forward. As Walt Disney once said, "We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." Those paths can go North, South, East, and West. The key is continue looking over your shoulder to see if anyone is following you.