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PNAIS Board Chairs Workshop

PNAIS Board Chairs Workshop. Building and Maintaining Effective Relationships in the School Context Jean Orvis May 22, 2010. Themes. Leadership in Our Times Nature of School Dynamics: Implications for Relationships 2 Important Concepts: Alignment and Same-Paged-ness

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PNAIS Board Chairs Workshop

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  1. PNAIS Board Chairs Workshop Building and Maintaining Effective Relationships in the School Context Jean Orvis May 22, 2010

  2. Themes • Leadership in Our Times • Nature of School Dynamics: Implications for Relationships • 2 Important Concepts: Alignment and Same-Paged-ness • Head/Board Chair Relationship • 2 Helpful Tools: Decision Quality and Party Lines

  3. Leadership In Our Times • Exponential Change • Uncertainty • Anxiety • Adversarial relationships in the name of accountability • Opportunity

  4. Our Changing World “We are entering an era of permanent white water, a river of endless rapids with no patches of lake-like calm. What is new is the speed and extent of change and the vulnerability of organizations to decline rapidly.” Rob Evans, The Human Side of School Change, 1996.

  5. The Board Chair’s Metaphorical White Water Angry Parent (s) Rogue Board Member Difficult personnel issue Rumor mill run amok Financial issues Unplanned leadership change Faculty “revolt” Tragedy or other crisis

  6. Leadership and Teamwork • i

  7. Leadership and Teamwork in the 21st C.

  8. Nature of School Communities: Dynamic Tensions

  9. Alignment

  10. “The inability of boards and non-profit executives to keep their organizations focused on a clearly articulated mission is a significant and overlooked governance problem.” Mission-Driven Governance, Fisman, Khurana, and Martenson

  11. Misalignment • Pain (Insecurity) • Irritation (Crankiness) • Inflammation (Factions) • Imbalance (Confusion and mistrust) • Deterioration (Loss of identity and/or market appeal)

  12. Same-Paged-ness

  13. Same-Paged-ness • “Teams on the way up unify behind a decision once made and work to make the decision succeed, even if they vigorously disagreed with the decision.” • Jim Collins, How the Mighty Fall

  14. Risks To Alignment and Same-Paged-Ness • Leadership Change (Head) • Major New Initiative (New building or campaign) • New Strategic Plan (Big, audacious goals) • Financial Stresses (Enrollment or fundraising downturn, unexpected capital expense) • Institutional Change (merger, new division) • Crisis (tragedy, scandal) • Flawed Decision-making

  15. The Board Chair’s Role • Focus on the big issues and help set a course for the future • Work with the Board and Head to assure alignment and same-paged-ness with the broad school community • Make effectiveness and performance top priorities

  16. Your Changing Role: Managing The Hats

  17. Building Relationships

  18. Establishing Trust Integrity Respect for Boundaries Availability Communication Channels Candor Confidentiality

  19. The Key Relationship: Head and Board Chair Life as Head of School Role of the Board Chair in the Relationship Mixing and Matching Leadership and Managerial Styles The Revolving Door Nature of the Board Chair Position: Impact on the Head and the School.

  20. Nature of the School Head’s Job • Time intensive (average 75-80 hrs/week) • Emotionally intense • Tightly scheduled • Fragmented • Highly visible • “Lonely”

  21. Role of The Board Chair in Relationship • BFF! • Partner and Teammate • Boss • Mutual respect, trust, support • Reciprocal Communication • Shared Purpose (alignment and same-paged-ness)

  22. 1. Micromanage? 2. Coach? 3. Engage in Socratic Inquiry? (i.e., ask the generative questions) 4. Abdicate? (delegate and disappear) The best style is situational and depends on the developmental level (confidence and competence) of your teammate(s). Mixing and Matching Leadership Styles

  23. Some Tips for Working Together • Know each other’s schedules. • Exchange preferred times for phone conversations. • Be on each other’s speed dial. • Request a “heads up” on all issues with wildfire potential, even if those issues are outside the Board’s purview. • Laugh a lot!

  24. Two Great Tools: • Decision Quality Governance is group decision making. How a decision is made can have profound impact on what decision is made, and whether or not the decision stays made. • Communication Clarity “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw

  25. Decision Quality

  26. Communication Clarity • Achievement of teamwork, alignment, and same-paged-ness in complex organizations during challenging times requires clear and direct communication. Consider developing “Party Lines.”

  27. “Party Lines”--Alignment • Who we are and who we are not. • Why we are who we are. • What we believe. • What we do. • How we do it. • Why we do it. • How we know we are successful.

  28. “Party Lines”—Same-Paged-Ness • What we intend to do. • Why we intend to do it. • How we will achieve this goal. • What will change. • What will not change. • When we will do it. • How we will assess progress and achievement.

  29. Questions, Comments and Discussion…

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