Leadership Letter

Thank you, again, to Elizabeth Barnes at Good Council, who was gracious enough our last meeting. Appreciation also to Mark Bova, the director of facilities, and other GC staff who made the event a success. The insights shared by our vendor partner, Garland, were most valuable to those in attendance, all of whom were beneficiaries of the catered barbeque lunch.  Thanks also to everyone else for making the time.

In other campus news, one of our cornerstone members, Glen Pederson, director of facilities at The McLean School, retired after thirty-five years of dedicated service. Glen said he has worked on campus for half of his life. Like so many others, Glen’s servant leadership was purposeful, strategic, and deeply appreciated. Thank you, Glen. The physical plant will reside in good hands; Danilo Espinzo, who worked alongside Glen for more than thirty years, is the new director of facilities. Welcome Danilo, and congratulations.

Please also welcome Tommy Reed, the new director of facilities, at Landon School. Congratulations, Tommy. While many of you will recall that Dennis Shores, formerly of Landon, is now the AVP at Strausburg University. Dennis will be in town for the regional APPA meeting in late July. If you want to catch up with Dennis while he is in town, simply send an email.

While we are on the subject of leadership, this is a suitable time to share notes from one of our first meetings nearly ten years ago. Ed Hamer hosted at the Maderia School a roundtable discussion: Leadership & Development, which is meaningful in any season.

LEADERSHIP BEST PRACTICES

• Be trustworthy
• Be respectful to your employees
• Have humility to know what you don’t know
• Set a vision for your team
• Foster a sense of teamwork
• Build cultural guardrails
• Make tough calls
• Who are you as a leader — the person behind the title
• What’s your personal motivation
• When are you most engaged at work
• Why did you join this organization
• Why do you stay
• When you consider the organization’s future, what are you most excited about
• What are you most anxious about

DEVELOPE & REFINE STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN

Implement daily leadership practices. Always re‐enforce leadership during staff meetings, personal reviews, while setting direction for the team – Ole’ Miss University Capital Planning Directive, 2017 

• How often do you enhance, modify and refine leadership & development strategy
• How is the strategy applicable to each individual staff member and skill set
• What measures are in place to evaluate staff talent and identify other talents
• Identify barriers that prevent staff from accomplishing goals
• Adopt solutions to enhance performance and productivity
• Incorporate campus‐wide leadership & development initiatives that dovetail with other departments, equally important, the school’s mission

CONCEPTS OF DEVELOPMENT

What is the extent to which employees commit both rationally and emotionally to something or someone in their organization, how hard they work, and how long they stay because of that commitment. Align facilities team culture with school culture. Foster ethnic diversity. Always be on the lookout to further enhance your culture.  Who is your market, who is your client, who is applying for positions – Stanford University School of Leadership Seminar, 2016

Refine expansive views. For instance, facilities teams are most often responsible for focused & task orientated missions. It’s often more difficult to create and implement an enduring strategic plan. Perhaps it would prove helpful to present strategy to school leadership and contemporaries. Implement & reinforce elements of the strategy to staff. Create, publish, and promote leadership & development. Rather than showing someone how — explain the why.  Elements of Fairness – violating the norm of fairness creates dissention and unrest. Pay people well and pay people fair ‐‐ Daniel Pink Research, 2017

Encourage continuing education & additional language skill, computer classes, various trade seminars, staff leadership initiatives and reimbursement. Psychological Safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. An inclusive leader translates to being accessible and proactive. Invite input and acknowledge your own fallibility. Promote inclusion, which lowers the psychological cost of speaking up and limits the psychological cost of silence ‐‐ Ed Hamer, Madeira School

Personal Engagement – Benefits of being bilingual. Honor staff culture, language, food, music, staff cookouts, holiday party, up the number of times you stress: “good job“, “thank you.” Delivering a personal letter or handwritten note is meaningful. What steps, activities, and personal relations do you initiate to make staff feel that they are a part of the facilities’ family and also the school culture. Work to enhance team culture – James McDowell, Langley School

Encourage feedback. Most companies –and, some schools, are feedback deserts. And, yet, people receive instant feedback online, through Facebook, text messaging, etc. It’s the pace to which we are accustomed. Annual performance reviews have been abandoned by leading companies, in large part, because engaging staff more frequently makes them feel part of the process and that their voice matters. Perhaps it is worthy considering monthly one-on-ones centered around the following topics, for instance, month one: “how are you doing and what do you need?” Month two: “what’s working and what’s not working?” Month three: “what are some of the obstacles that prevent us serving clients best. Month four: “what should we stop doing?” Month five: “what are your long-term plans.” Month Six: “what can I do better as a boss?” — Ralph Mitchell, Saint John’s College High School

Motivation ‐‐ management is compliance. It’s getting people to do what you want done. Staff, however, has to feel engaged – not disengaged or actively disengaged. Create a culture that is fair, safe, and affords staff control over core aspects of their work, sovereign to make independent decisions that are in the best interest of the school. People do not engage by being controlled; people want to exhibit front‐line self‐direction, which should be encouraged, to create a sustained autonomous workforce — Andrew Harrington, Stone Ridge School