Great Leaders Make Great School Districts

By: Etienne R. LeGrand, CEO Vivify Performance

Let’s take the saying “Good leaders make great schools” a step further and say that “Good leaders make great school districts.”

Research finds that high-performance school leaders are difference makers for students’ performance and more investment in their development is key to changing outcomes and their calling to global competitiveness. But let’s not overlook the obvious — students benefit when every employee in a school district is performing at their maximum capability level, not just the principals.

But when it comes to an all-inclusive approach to culture shaping, the education industry is different than others because it tends to single out individual employee groups as more essential to results than others. I can hardly imagine Delta Airlines singling out pilots as critical to their success while excluding flight attendants, baggage operations or gate agents.

For years it was teachers who were thought to be determinative of learning and now it’s principals. Do these trends show that we don’t need any other school district employees? Of course not. Delivering best-in-class education for students requires a team effort, not the singular heroic actions of a few employees.

Culture Builds Cohesion

A shared district culture, which we at Vivify Performance defines as the individual and collective habits and behaviors of the people in a school district based on core values and high-performance behaviors, can fuel greater individual and team performance as much as water, fertilizer, and sun fuel the healthy growth of plants. Culture builds cohesion and an esprit de corps, each of which our school districts could use more of.

Filling our nation’s schools with powerful school leaders is indeed critical, but we do students and employees a disservice if we limit our expectations for high performance to principals. Everyone working for a school district from the individual school office receptionist to the food service worker, the chief technology officer and the special education coordinator must become as high performing as principals and teachers are expected to be.

Are you ready to increase your district’s outcomes while minimizing stress, create an enjoyable and effective environment, and build community-wide pride?