Leadership and Management

Oh no, here he goes again.  When something goes bad for the guys in charge, I tend to blame their leadership styles on the failure.  I do comprehend that every boss has both a leadership and management component in their job.  I just try to distinguish the difference between things and people and focus there. 

One of the greatest failures in our current Business schools is they tend to focus on the things that I call management and fail to share the leadership successes.   You can measure everything in a business.  The question is do you want to or need to?  If I were to try to define what is a successful school, I would have some end point to measure.  Clearly if half of the sixth graders can't read above the 3rd grade level, that's a failure.  If half of the high school students don't graduate, that's a failure.  But with that said, most teachers whose very job it is to get to the outcomes don't have input into the ways to achieve these good outcomes.  Someone said it is more important to have a Masters Degree in Management than 20 years of practical experience in the class room.

We have a National Standard out there that is professed to tell us what school is failing and what school is not.  I don't need a standard to look at the inner city schools and say they aren't as successful as the schools in the better funded districts.  What is needed is someone that will look at the differences and see if there is a way we can influence changes that will result in better performance. 

The truth of the matter is I don't have all the answers, I am only looking at the symptoms of the disease and saying that to me it is plain that the old axiom is valid.  "If you do what you did, you will get what you got."   I just want to once see a person that has a Masters Degree in Leadership and Management.   

Oh well, I started my day with some poor leadership with Barb and perhaps she will start talking to me by noon.  Or not!

MUD