A Managerial School Leader

Managerial Leadership just does not exist anymore. Well at least not in the way that it has during the 20th century and in many cases -- the 21st century as well. Leaders simply have to be dynamic and great listeners. Now granted -- I probably sound cliche-ish. To simplify this facet of leadership. There are 3 things a great leader must do great:

1. Meet the basic needs of every stakeholder

2. Have a system in place for every component of school structure

3. Have a two way communication system that is clearly opened and can be reached on multiple platforms that clearly communicates all plans, feverently seek feedback from every stakeholder, communicate all changes in the best timing possible, and why changes were made.

All of this must be filtered through the human experience - we experience life through our senses and one of the most important jobs of a leader is to serve - and even to a deeper degree we are “in locus parentis” so in fact we take on the caregiver’s role while the scholars are at school -- they are in our care. Now - “in our care” is a very different term to use than at school -- it brings to light that we are to “Relieve Suffering and not add to the pile” (Miller, 2015) for our scholars and staff. I think if we want to reimagine school leadership - we have to reimagine how we treat each other and remember what truly matters in life -- and that is simply 'being' and 'being' - well that is enough to reward students and staff and stakeholders for -- just being. There is power in that. And once we build infrastructure around acceptance and humanity - our schools - our worlds will be better for it.

So managerial leadership is simply building structures that honor and support our human senses and physiological needs. Otherwise, solely being in compliant will lead us all to an early and premeditated death.

References

Miller, B. (2015, March). What Really Matters at the End of Life. [Video]. Ted Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/bj_miller_what_really_matters_at_the_end_of_life