Leading through the season? Or just the Super Bowl?

Recently, I've been reading everything by Baruti K. Kafele that I can get my hands on. He's also doing this amazing free virtual "course" every weekend that I have been tuning into. Principal Kafele has this very real way of speaking the truth about leadership and what it should look like, feel like, and sound like. If you haven't heard from him, I promise you will find a book that interests you at www.principalkafele.com

I want to bring one of Principal Kafele's analogies alive for you. In his book "Is my school a better school because I lead it?" (2019) Kafele likens school leadership to football.

The football season brings out true football fans. The people who know the Xs and Os of the game. They watch the game for fun, they even love the game. The true fans watch plays and catch little details that other people don't see. These true fans understand when a play doesn't work and can explain why a play does work. They know football.

And at the end of the season we have The Super Bowl. At the Super Bowl we see all sorts of fans. Yes, the true fans are still there. But they are scattered among less enthusiastic fans. The Super Bowl brings out people who enjoy the food, the drinks, and the fun. They recognize a touchdown or a tackle, but they can't explain how the teams got into the predicament they find themselves in. The Super Bowl brings out fans just in it for the commercials or the half time show.

Which leads us to leadership.

We have school leaders who are like the Super Bowl fans. They rely on flashy jargon or popular pedagogy to provide teachers with feedback. They see the teaching in a classroom on the surface level and can be impressed with what "looks like" good instruction. I once had a teacher tell me that during a post conference with their principal they were marked down because the principal didn't see random sticks being used in instruction. Another teacher spoke of a time they were marked down on an evaluation because one student was reading a fiction book during a non-fiction unit of study. Both of these teachers consistently have excellent rapport with students and families while bringing in consistent, excellent student achievement data. These are examples of Super Bowl principals. They know the popular look fors. They know popular ways to keep students engaged and learning. But in both instances, the principal lacked the ability to see the training and quality plays in the classroom leading up to the Hail Mary, because they didn't have a firm grip on the playbook.

Okay, so what? What does this have to do with transformational leadership and leading with preeminence? I want to take Principal Kafele's thoughts 1 step farther.

The principals I've studied go beyond the true fan. Not only can preeminent leaders explain why a play worked or didn't work. They can do more than recognize a good block yards ahead of the ball or call a penalty before the refs. Preeminent leaders get into the realm of predicting. Many times, when I am watching football with my husband he will tell me what play the team should make next. He uses what he knows about the offense or the defense to determine if they are ready for a pass. And every time he tells me they should do a particular play, he has to see it through. If the team follows what he is calling out to them through the TV, he's ecstatic for them when it works, cheering louder than anyone. When they don't do what he thinks they should do, and then the play doesn't pan out he claims he "knew it!".

While preeminent leaders definitely aren't telling there teachers they "knew it" when something doesn't work out the way they planned, they are doing the same forward thinking. Preeminent leaders are using what they know about their teachers to predict how they are going to take shifts in procedures or how they will take certain news. They are using that knowledge to determine how to approach each grade level or individual teacher so that what needs to be done gets done, but in a way that builds up all stakeholders. When it works, you better believe this type of leader is cheering louder than anyone. And when it doesn't work, they are right there, asking questions and having a true conversation with a teacher about what they could do differently next time.

And you can't fake those conversations. It is evident in what they say that they know the playbook from front to back. Not only have they coached the game, but they played the game themselves (and loved doing so).

As leaders, being a Super Bowl fan isn't enough. We've got to study the game and get good at it. We've got to go beyond knowing the plays and seeing the blocks. We have got to start predicting what play should happen next, based on all of the facts and support our teachers every step of the way. Teachers deserve that!