Budget Flexibility

When it comes to managing a budget, consider the lesson taught to me by three exceptional school leaders, Richard Hooker, Bob Brezina, and Shirley Neeley. Always have some wiggle room. 

In your budget, you need to disguise an emergency fund.  At some time during the year, something is going to happen where the only way to solve the problem is throw money at it.  It might be a repair, a consultant, a training or overtime, but without the funds, the campus is up a creek. Being a good budget steward is not about saving money, it is about being effective and efficient with money in a way that allows the mission of the school to be accomplished. 

  

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: TASSP Summer Conference, Virginia Middle and High School Principals Conference; The National Principals Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Asks... Your Personal Mission and Vision

A LYS Teacher asks:

SC,

I have recently started working on a Masters in Education Leadership. One of my assignments was to develop and write my “Vision of Leadership” statement. Which got me wondering, what is yours? And/or do you have an opinion on having a personal “Vision of Leadership?”

SC Response

First, I think that every leader (especially those in public service) needs to know who they are, what they are about and why they do what they do.  This understanding keeps you from going astray. Can this be encompassed in a “Vision Statement?” Maybe for some, for some maybe not.  

I don’t operate under a concrete vision statement, posted on a wall in my office, but there are some overriding themes that drive me, my work, and my teams.  And these overriding themes have done so for going on 25 years now.

1. If not us, then who?  My entire career has been spent working with the underdogs.  At-risk students, at-risk schools, and at-risk districts.  In this pursuit, it is understood that there is no “safety net.”  Instead, WE are the safety net.  Which means that if we don’t step up and do the right thing, put in the extra effort, care about the results, etc., no one else will.  

2. Today’s best is tomorrow’s base line. Meaning that we are always pushing to get better, reflecting on our practice, challenging the status quo and looking for the next mountain.

3. Do what’s right for students and don’t worry about the fall out.  In the vast majority of schools the big people worry a lot about the other big people.  We don’t.  The big people are in schools to maximize student opportunity.  If they are not willing to do so, get new big people (yes, our job is that important and that urgent).  If you get fired for doing right by students (it happens), trust me, the next job will come. Easier and sooner than you expect.

4. The answer is out there. We just have to find it.  There is an answer to how to get schools to operate at maximum effectiveness.  It’s just beyond our grasp… today.  But it we stay focused and keep grinding, we’ll figure it out. And then we’ll share that answer with the profession.  Because if not us, then who?

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: LYS / TASSP Advanced Leadership Academy (Keynote); The 2016 Texas Charter School Conference (Multiple Presentations); The 4^th Annual Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Writes... Vision, Mission, Goal, Target - Part 2

In response to the 5/22/14 post, “Vision – Mission – Goal – Target: A Travelogue,” a LYS Assistant Superintendent shares:

SC,

This is the best description, definition, visual representation I have ever seen of vision, mission, goals and their relationship to each other.  As usual, LYS has done it again. 

I want to let you know that after 41 years, I’m retiring.  Though it was a while back, I am grateful for the leadership and mentoring that you provided back when we were in the same district.  You allowed me to do my thing and knew how to rein me in when I started to go astray.  And you did it in such a way that I didn’t mind it, at least most of the time. I will continue to follow your blog and I will keep sharing it with the teachers that I will continue to mentor. 

SC Response

First, coming from you this is high praise. Very high praise. Second, I can believe that you are retiring, but 41 years... That is very hard to believe. And rein you in, when did that happen? Congratulations on a successful and meaningful career.  All I can say is that every district that you worked for, you rose above it. And by doing so, redefined for each district what was possible. 

Thank you.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Asks... Vision, Mission, Goal, Target - Part 1

In response to the 5/22/14 post, “Vision – Mission – Goal – Target: A Travelogue,” a LYS Assistant Superintendent asks:

SC,

Okay, I’m in the middle of a hornet’s nest!!  I need input from you regarding yesterday’s (5/22/14) blog post.  Our district has a vision of (MASKED TO MAINTAIN CONFIDENTIALITY).  We are doing some work with our principals about vision for their campus.  Should the campuses have a separate vision that supports the district vision or should all campuses share the same district vision????  

Thanks for weighing in!!

SC Response

Excellent question.  And I think the answer for your district (large, diverse, over 30 campuses) is different than the answer for the small district.

Let’s tackle the small district answer first.  This is the one high school, one or two middle schools, and one to three elementary schools district. In this case the district and the campus visions should be very similar.  The district has the ultimate vision for students and in a small district that vision reflects the reality of the few schools in the district.

This is a significant strength of the small organization, there is less opportunity for vision/mission divergence.

Now the large district is different.  Yes, there is still a district vision, but the campuses are a heterogeneous mix of different communities, students and staff.  Therefore, the all encompassing, everyone in lockstep vision is a myth.  Instead, what you what is big picture understanding of purpose coupled with small picture understanding of operational parameters.  This means that the campus vision may be different than the organizations, but the campus vision must directly correlate with the district vision and campus progress in fulfilling the vision furthers the district in its vision quest.

A lot of words for a mushy explanation, so I’ll give you a concrete example.  Let’s take a district with two high schools, one with a very affluent student population and one with a very poor student population. Not an unusual scenario. 

Now in our example the district’s vision is, “Producing graduates that make a difference.” 

The campuses could co-opt that vision and there would be nothing wrong with that. Or based on the campuses unique mix of students, community, staff, resources and leadership there may need to be a variation of that vision.  The affluent campus may look at the district vision and its own mix of operating parameters and may realize that its mission should be, “Enter the student. Exit the World Class scholar.”

The strength of this vision is that it drives that particular campus and in the pursuit of that vision, the campus is also helping the district pursue its vision.

Now let’s consider the economically disadvantaged campus.  That campus could look its mix of operating parameters and develop this vision, “Always compete.”  Again, the strength of this vision is that it drives the campuses forward and in doing so propels the district forward.

The district vision creates a destination; the campus vision creates a logical pathway to that destination.

I hope this helps, or maybe I just should have answered, “It’s complicated.”

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Moving the Entrenched Teacher

Evidently the scariest, most terrifying threat to education is the bitter, cynical, entrenched classroom teacher. They impede progress, sow dissent and are bad for students.  Oh by the way... these are the same teachers that for past twenty years have had no meaningful training, tools or support, have had their jobs threatened, their salaries eroded and have worked for a revolving door of supervisors and managers.  As I tell principals, if your veteran teachers don’t possess a healthy level of cynicism, they haven’t been paying attention.

But the question does remain. How do you get these teachers moving forward in a concerted fashion? It will be more difficult than leading a team of rookies, put the payoff is greater because a group of veterans know more than a group of rookies.  Here is what I have always done.

1. Have a concrete, visceral mission.  Mine was, “Get them to school. Get them in class. Get them in college.” Then repeat this mission like you are a broken record. Keep the mission in the forefront and make sure it frames discussions, problem solving and decision-making.

2. Create visual change.  Deep clean the building, spot paint, make repairs, and rearrange the geography of the building.  And explain why you are doing it. 

A. Our eyes are our biggest source of sensory input.  If you see change, you start to believe change.

B. Environmental cues lock us into habits and routines.  It is much easier to break those habits and routines in a new environment.

3. Simplify.  Don’t rollout a 75-point plan for campus improvement. No one can do 75 things. Work on getting better at the few things that really matter.

4. Train, train, train.  Small modules over extended time.

5. Cue. Cue the practices the staff is training on.  How? PowerWalks.

6. Reinforce.  Reinforce the attempt. Reinforce the effort. Reinforce the progress. Reinforce the success.

7. Measure.  If you are doing something, measure it, track it, and discuss it.  Celebrate the successes, huddle up to plan for overcoming adversity.

And finally, with your entrenched, cynical, veteran staff, “Gritching” is good.  It means that they are getting out of their comfort zones and trying.  No gritching means they aren’t doing it.  To misquote Robert Duval, “I love the sound of gritching in the morning... It's the sound of victory.”

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of June 22, 2014

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now Twitter users.  If you haven’t done so yet, we want you to join us.  To let you see what you are missing, here are the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of June 22, 2014.

1. Write everyday. Nothing is better for processing your thinking. (By @DrJerryRBurkett)

2. Today's Quote:  "True, a little learning is a dangerous thing, but it still beats total ignorance." (By @DrRichAllen)

3. Speak up for the teaching profession because I can promise someone is speaking against it. (By @BluntEducator)

4. Teaching is arguably the most complex and most essential profession in the world. (By @PrincipalFHS)

5. What do your grades measure: purely objective mastery or something else? Anything beyond objective mastery is misleading and useless for data.  (By @JasonJj7)

6. Everything gets better as you purposefully spend more time in the Power Zone! (By @LYSNation)

7. Many mission and vision statements are vague and general. I guess that makes it easy to not live up to high expectations. (By @woscholar)

8. "People who get things done, are not always liked." (By @ptarkkonen)

9. Expect opposition to your dream. Every nitpicker who doesn’t have a dream will oppose yours. (@LollyDaskal)

10. Onward and upward, The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) just passed 60,000 copies sold! Thank you LYS Nation! (By @LYSNation)

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: NAESP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Vison - Mission - Goal - Target: How They Relate

The 5/23/2014 post, “Vision – Mission – Goal – Target: A Travelogue,” gave a visual representation of those elements.  Today I will discuss how they relate and impact your campus.

There are a lot of people who believe that you must have a vision, then a mission, then a goal, and then a target.  That: 

1 – It is a backwards design process; and 

2 – Without having all four, you are lost.  

Both of these beliefs are true in some cases and false in other cases. In practical terms, here is how it works in schools.  

I can make significant and meaningful progress (in the short term) without a vision and mission.  The reason for this is two-fold.  First, as a profession, educators want to do well by their students and please their boss.  We are good people who crave order.  Just doing what comes naturally to us represents steps in the right direction.  Second, the state mandates annual performance goals that force us to adjust our practices towards meeting those goals.  We can argue how those goals are measured, but bottom line we are expected to teach students to a standard.  As we teach to standards, again we make steps in the right decision.

For those that embrace their mandated goals, there is a need to create a slate of interim targets that inform us in the pursuit of goal accomplishment.  For many schools, this is all that is needed in the short to midterm.  But once we build some competence we need more to keep us moving forward.  Just increasing the goal is one way to do this.  But that doesn’t stoke the fire in the belly, at scale.  Now is the time to build that vision and mission. 

Which one you build first is situational.  There are those who first define the mission of the organization and then paint the picture of what the organization aspires to be.  This is a viable solution.  There are those who paint a picture of the vision for organization and then define a mission that supports the vision.  This is a viable solution. 

What I think is the important take away from this discussion is that what is most important on any given day is a clear understanding of the goals and targets of the organization.  What is important for the long-term success of the organization is a clear understanding of the vision and mission.  But this is a crawl, walk, jog, run dynamic.  If your team isn’t ready to consider vision and mission yet, that doesn’t make you a bad leader. But note that the longer it takes to get your team to that level of competence and consciousness does have a negative effect on progressing from survival mode to actualized mode.

      

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook