fluid conversations

Leader.

What comes to mind when you hear that word? Inspiration? Mistrust? Frustration? Hope? For many people, the attributes of a great leader are easy to articulate…decisive, strong, visionary…but hard to come by. As we stand and look out on the changes occurring in education, should we be thinking about redefining what it means to lead? And if so, what does that look like?

My interest in what it takes to be a great leader has been growing over the past several years; it was early on in my role as the district instructional technology specialist that I happened upon a post by Pete Reilly over at Ed Tech Journeys. Entitled, “Narratives and Change“, this incredibly inspiring post begins with the words, “How successful we are in transforming education is dependent on the stories we tell.” Those words resonated deeply with me, as I sought to discover my own story.

Several years later, I found inspiration in Seth Godin’s book, Tribes. A simple book, it grabbed ahold of me, probably due to it’s simplicity. What sets Godin’s work apart from other leadership books is his emphasis on building and empowering a community of people who share a common goal, or dream if you will, with an emphasis on connecting one person to another. He states, “Great leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate. They establish the foundation for people to make connections, as opposed to commanding people to follow them.” A shift from our traditional model of leadership, to be sure.

Then, along comes a blog post by Rob Jacobs which further nudges me towards a different notion of leadership. In it, he talks about the need to re-envision what it means to be an educational leader in a world of such rapid change. He asks, “If education is to be transformed, should we not transform its leaders?” Um, yeah. He then goes on to share a post entitled, “The Builders’ Manifesto“, written by Umair Haque. Haque says what we need are not leaders but rather “builders”. Builders? I like that; it feels right.

Below is a chart Haque created contrasting the boss, the leader and the builder; on first glance, the differences may appear subtle; but focus a little more carefully, particularly on the first and last column, and you begin to feel a definite shift.

**My favorite comparison? Where the boss says, “Go”; the builder says, “Come”. What I love about this is the tone of respect for others. Echoing Hague, Godin says that leaders (or builders) “give people stories they can tell themselves. Stories about the future and about change.” Those stories are born out of a passion for something bigger than themselves.

A builder. Who tells a Story. Born out of Passion.

What about you? Are you a boss? A leader? Or a builder? Do you have a story to tell? Is the story fed by passion?