I have been reviewing a Harvard Business Publishing Interview with Marshal Goldsmith, from 2008. I still think it is a pretty good summary of capabilities needed for future leaders. I’m particularly interested in cultural intelligence and how increasingly important it is for leadership. While I was in Singapore this week I met up with researcher Thomas Rockstuhl, part of the team working in this area at Nanyang Business School. He suggested beginners read Leading with Cultural Intelligence to learn more about this capability.
There is a growing body of literature focused on how leaders cope with cultural diversity within an organisation. In an increasingly complex world there is a need to take a global perspective. The notion of cultural intelligence is increasingly a focus in leadership literature. Cultural intelligence (CQ) refers to the capability of individuals to function effectively in multicultural contexts (Earley & Ang, 2003). How is it that some individuals are able to bridge cross-cultural differences and work effectively in inter-cultural settings?
Certainly knowledge of cultural universals and cultural differences is necessary. Yet some leaders who have experience in working in a range of cultural settings fail to develop CQ. Cultural intelligence also requires the leader to take an interest in other cultures, reflect on their own cultural identity and adapt their behaviours accordingly.
If observation, listening and dialogue are important for developing cultural awareness this should be part of every leadership development program. Perhaps every political leader should be required to undertake development in this area. We have so much to learn from one another. Tolerance and understanding are necessary capabilities for leaders of the future.
Leading involves listening and exploring possibilities before making decisions. While they may be decisive, they also realise the importance of engagement. I really like the model shown below, developed by the council of the City of Charles Sturt, as I think it shows the many facets of interacting with the community. Leaders need to understand that engagement is not simply working at informing and consulting. To only work at this level is not to engage but to believe you know it all and so only need to check in for affirmation or fine detail. Where leaders understand the many facets of engagement they are able to articulate the level they are working at, who will make the final decision and how the voices of others will be heard and valued.
I would suggest that this model can be adapted for educational leadership, especially to encourage student voice. Schools often focus on informing and discussing, thinking that discussing = consulting. Yet this is just the start, often being implemented when ideas are well developed. The second stage of consultation sees stakeholders involved in dialogue during the early stages of planning and having a role during the whole process even if they do not make the final decision. Less often, schools focus on students as equal partners, with decisions being made together. And still less frequently are students entrusted to initiate and manage their own work.
All these levels of engagement are appropriate. When students (and other stakeholder in all settings) have opportunities to be partners in decision making there is a greater chance of commitment and increased opportunities to make decisions for oneself. This is the fine balance between structure and freedom.
I came across this video of teachers providing their vision of 21st century teachers. Eighteen classroom teachers speak out on technology integration in response to two videos that have been around for a while A vision for students of today and more particularly A Vision of K-12 students today. I have several quick comments:
There are teachers who understand that technology is a tool to do things in more powerful ways; that the technology really can be used to collaborate, connect, challenge, and engage.
There are other teachers who have a fixed mindset and are not yet open to possibilities.
Leadership of schools has an important role to play in developing a growth mindset amongst staff. Principals and other leaders must continually focus on a co-created vision for the future and relentlessly pursue it. See principal Carolyn Stuart’s guest blogpost providing an example of how this is done – on purpose.
Unless we do something to improve the quality of teacher training things will change slowly. Old models exist of patch protection, overblown bureaucracy slowing pace of change and lecturers modelling what not to do. In some cases training institutions have limited technological resources and staff are still using overhead projectors to deliver courses. How will this prepare teachers for the future? Yes, I know there are places that are doing some good things, but I see limited future-focused teacher training here in New Zealand, or further afield. If it happens it is through good luck rather than good planning and vision across the whole organisation.
If you have any models of teacher training that are really pushing forward I want to know!! Am I missing something? Join the conversation at ALPinE Leadership if you have ideas and visit our Answergarden on Teacher Training.
So watch the video. It is worth thinking about what you are doing to lead future focused change in education.
And here is my final comment:
We need to get over the talk about 21st century…
We are over a decade into it. Aren’t we there yet?
A month ago Christchurch was decimated by yet another earthquake. Since then many new online initiatives, discussions and reports have appeared using a range of social networking and web 2.0 tools. The power of social networking has driven some interesting dialogue! Over the next few months this will continue, morph and intensify as we rebuild Christchurch City.
So in the Storify below I have taken snippets of the journey to date. Social networks enable more power to our people than ever before. As a company that focuses on leadership for the future, we understand that leadership is not about power but about influence. In today’s world we all have the opportunity to influence the future as never before.
This archive of social networking conversations takes snippets from a variety of social networks and Storify helps bring these together easily. The snippets include information about the earthquake, its effect on education, its effect on businesses, and on the lives of us all. They are stories of corage, hope and possibilities.
You will see a “load more” message at the bottom – click it! There are several pages of enlightening material, resources and links. It’s worth it….
We are entering a time of exponential change – rapid growth and rapid decline. There is a new age dawning. We have seen this in recent weeks with the uprising of the people. No longer prepared to sit back and accept mediocrity, corruption and disparity, the masses have surged onto the streets in protest…and they are not going away. The ability of technology to amplify messages is evident and leaders ignore it at their peril. If leaders do not listen to the voices they serve, instead continuing to serve the needs of a small minority, they can expect discontent. The world is changing and power is being replaced by influence.
With massive unrest, diminishing trust and violent clashes the future picture for some countries is unclear and concerning. Now, more than ever, the way a country is led and how the people perceive that leadership, impacts on us globally. Swedish academic superstar Hans Rosling graphically illustrates changes in global development over the past 200 years, and at the same time models aspects of leadership that we all should take note of. He uses his expert knowledge and translates that transparently in ways that the masses can follow and connect with. He understands the power of technology and uses it to enhance his message. He can see the big picture, as well as break that picture into smaller parts to analyse. He connects and collaborates. Leadership for the future demands this.
I am over the time wasted each year by schools ‘doing Christmas’ for the last two weeks of the school year. Yes, it’s that time of year again. A note comes home asking for some extra money for the craft activities needed for the Christmas theme. Now there may be a wonderful reason for this….it just takes a bit to convince me. I would want to ask the teacher:
What is the purpose? The response will determine whether this is a teacher who really knows his/her stuff, or just another teacher trapped in the past of nice activities to finish the year with.
How will this drive my child’s learning in ways that are powerful and future focused? Yes, I know it’s nice to do some really cool stuff just for fun too…
What will they be doing/making? Is this something that reinforces our throw away society? Is it a nice paper Christmas tree with some glittery lights; maybe a fairy to put at the top of the tree; or some loops we can colour in then staple together to hang in the classroom…
Will they be considering Christmas from multiple perspectives – different cultures, religions, and ways of celebrating? Giving instead of getting? Does that mean when other religious festivals are on the calendar they’ll do the same? As well as the Easter theme that is?
If a teacher focuses on a Christmas theme for two weeks it could look like this:
-’making and doing’, singing, dancing etc on a Christmas theme – 8 hours
-working out the item for the Christmas concert so it looks like the kids have come up with the idea – 2 hours
-the class relentlessly practising for the concert - 3 hours
-liaising with the parents re costumes and props – 1 hour
-team or schoolwide practices for the concert – 2 hours
That’s 16 hours for Christmas each year, and I think that is a conservative estimate. This is just on the ‘celebrating’ aspect of Christmas.
Let’s just pretend that a classroom was ‘doing Christmas’ like it’s been done for generations. By the time a student finishes their first six years of schooling they could have had nearly 100 hours of ‘doing Christmas’.
Sorry, in most cases I don’t consider this deep and meaningful learning. It’s simply repeating education as we know it. I know there are some teachers and some schools that have moved beyond this. And I can also tell you that an awful lot haven’t. And that has got to change or schools will become irrelevant. Actually when I think about it ‘doing Christmas’ is just one symptom of the root cause. Too many teachers teach for the past not the future.
I’m part of a team working on a two day workshop called Building Future Focussed Schools. It’s a pretty challenging topic and it has me thinking about the whole notion of how leaders can grow the conditions for change to occur. We seem to be so focused on conformity that we are in danger of choking in blah. So how can we move beyond this? Four ideas came to mind as a starting point.
Team work is not enough. We must question and challenge our own thinking and that of others. When ‘group think’ occurs there will be no forward momentum – “We’re okay as we are! In fact we’re really good so why change?” While organisational coherence is necessary, so is creative tension and challenge. “Challenge is the crucible for greatness” – Kouzes & Posner. Over-consultation stymies creation. I’m a fan of involving people to gain deep commitment, and of listening to people’s needs. At the same time I worry that ideas generated from consultation sometimes focus only on the past and present; without building in ways to explore possibilities and to ask “What if…?”. There is the famous quote from Henry Ford “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” If we spend too much time in consultation we slow things down, reduce clarity and conform to the average. Courage is needed.We live in times where we are pulled back to standards, quality assurance and risk aversiveness. Moving beyond this takes leaders who are strong in their beliefs about learning, have a dream of what could be and can intelligently advocate their position. Courageous leadership is not about the position we hold in the organisation and doesn’t make excuses that those ‘above’ require conformity. “The greater the darkness, the more brightly the candle glows.” Learning will happen if we get out of the way. Most schools of today are over-structured and over controlled. What would happen if educators stepped back and let students do more for themselves? Allow them to be expert learners and teach the adults – it’s a reciprocal arrangement that acknowledges the expert knowledge of the teacher. It also acknowledges that students can create their own learning when they engage, collaborate and choose.
I was reflecting on this as I watched one of the latest TEDTalks from Sugata Mitra, on The Child-driven Education. His work in putting computers into holes in the walls of buildings in Indian villages has had profound results. His latest work goes well beyond this. He has come to understand that children will learn to do what they want to learn to do. Sugata talks about the way in which the learning happened without intervention from the outside. When the students asked him “How do we do that?” his answer was ” I don’t know that actually…” and he left them to it. They worked together to move their learning forward.
Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education
While I’m not yet convinced of the depth of the learning shown in the TEDTalk what I am sure of is that a new idea was tried and has had amazing results. Sugata Mitra didn’t conform to the tried and true. He had an idea and went with it. If we are aiming for future focussed schools perhaps one of the key understandings is to look outside the current realities and explore the possibilities, generate some creative tension and take a giant leap.
In my latest online survey I asked the question “What is the biggest challenge for future leaders?” The greatest number of answers were based around the idea of low expectations, relationships and issues to do with people. That was not a surprise since it is the complexity of working with people that is tricky. I was particularly interested in the idea of ‘low expectations’ and what this might possibly mean. I’m wondering whether leaders need to confront issues rather than hoping that the problem will go away and whether leaders need to understand the importance of personal learning conversations. This is about building organisational culture so that people engage in dialogue and discussion that is robust and focused on driving the organisation forward. This implies that leaders have a clear focus on what is important, why it is important and how people might be expected to behave.
Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky (2009) describe adaptive leadership as the practice of mobilising people to tackle tough challenges and thrive. I think this is the way to go. Adaptive leadership is needed for the growth of individuals and organisations. Perhaps, to avoid low expectations, future leadership involves:
looking for those things that should be preserved and having courage to abandon the expendable;
accepting that conflict is a necessary part of the organisation and can be productive;
creating a culture of courageous conversations;
acknowledging the importance of collaboration, networks and global connections; and
building the capabilities of others to lead in adaptive ways.
This quote from Egon Zehnder (2000) reminds us that future leaders will need to be flexible, future focused and capable of thinking in new ways. “Stability is a liability, not an asset in today’s world. Each new view of the horizon is a glance through a different turn of the kaleidoscope.”
I’m going to leave the survey open for a few more days so take a few minutes to contribute here. And join the conversation about what the biggest challenge for future leaders will be. Do you agree that it is low expectations and if so what do you interpret this to mean?
I have just finished reading a fantastic book – Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I was particularly interested in this biography because of my connection with the Rata Teachers’ Support Trust and the fact that I will be volunteering in India later this year. The book describes Greg’s journey to help build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He provides a real example of courageous leadership with a commitment to educating children, especially girls. His clear focus and passion are exhibited in his treatment of obstacles. Failure was something to learn from; obstacles an opportunity to think differently. This is the type of leadership we need for the future – adaptive, reflective and resilient.
The greatest lesson Greg learnt was to “share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects (p.150).” This may have seemed more time consuming to start with but in the long run it produced more sustainable results. Too often leaders are focused on doing things rather than creating connections. They become driven by improving the external environment of their organisations without considering the foundational relationships that underpin the organisation’s success.
In their work based in Chicago schools, researchers Bryk and Schneider came to the conclusion that relational trust was foundational for school improvement. They suggested four vital signs for identifying and assessing trust:
Respect – genuinely talking and listening to each other in ways that acknowledge and accept the views, ideas and beliefs of others.
Competence – the ability and willingness to fulfill responsibilities and believe others to be competent.
Personal regard – caring for each other personally and professionally. Going that extra mile.
Integrity – keeping ones word. Putting the needs of children first, even when tough decisions need to be made.
These points were all exhibited by Greg Mortenson. He did not try to impose his views on those he was working with and he was prepared to do what was needed, at times with great personal sacrifice. The building of trust allowed him to work in areas that few could access and to provide education to many.
Future leadership is very much about collaboration, building professional learning networks and growing capabilities in others. It builds on trust and integrity and comes from the heart as well as the head. Future leadership requires leaders who listen and who constantly reflect on their own behaviour.
