Holistic Leadership, Thriving Schools: Twelve Lenses to Balance Priorities and Serve the Whole Student

[00:01] SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Principal Center Radio, bringing you the best in professional practice.

[00:06] Announcer:

Here's your host, director of the Principal Center and champion of high performance instructional leadership, Justin Bader. Welcome everyone to Principal Center Radio.

[00:15] SPEAKER_01:

I'm your host, Justin Bader, and I'm honored to welcome back to the program my friend, Dr. Jane Kesey. Jane is an author, executive coach, and education consultant who works to create environments that everyone wants to be in. She's the author of more than two dozen books, including her new book, Holistic Leadership, Thriving Schools, 12 Lenses to Balance Priorities and Serve the Whole Student.

[00:38] Announcer:

And now, our feature presentation.

[00:40] SPEAKER_01:

Jane, welcome back to Principal Center Radio.

[00:42] SPEAKER_02:

Thank you. It's good to be talking with you again.

[00:44] SPEAKER_01:

Likewise. I've been a big fan of your work for a long time, particularly around leadership and managing polarities. I know that's been one of the main topics that we've interacted around. Tell us a little bit about where this book came from in your work and kind of what problems you saw educational leaders struggling with that led to this book.

[01:03] SPEAKER_02:

You know, I think one of the big things is simply contrasting what education leaders experience versus business leaders. So often in the world of business, when you are promoted to a high level, you're also given a coach to help you manage all the new nuances of, you know, leadership from a higher level. And often in education, people are tossed into new situations, assuming that they already have all the skills. And, you know, a coach is is an outside person that lets you talk through what's going on and helps you think through whether you've got any biases or assumptions going on. And so the book is designed to walk leaders through that self-coaching process that will help them come up with some of the same things that a coach might help them unearth. And part of the reason for that is so much of still what goes on in schools, I would call linear leadership, where you

[01:58]

we're assuming we can set a strategic plan and go after it. And principles are often measured as to how well they carry out that linear plan. And we don't live in a linear world. We live in a world where systems are at play. And if you concentrate on one thing, all of a sudden you realize something else has fallen through the cracks. And I think that's one of the huge reasons that we have so many pendulum swings in education, where we're headed down one path and all of a sudden there's unintended consequences and we have to course correct.

[02:28]

And I'm hoping this book will bring a system thinking approach to avoiding that and maybe get us headed in a direction that's more in line with the what's now called a VUCA world, a volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous environment in which we work.

[02:46] SPEAKER_01:

Well, and I've been introduced to polarities, I think, probably from the very beginning of my educational leadership career. But I know it is a concept that most people are most familiar with through the phenomenon, the lived experience of a pendulum swing. We've all experienced pendulum swings in terms of philosophy in terms of maybe math or language arts instruction. We have all these different shifts in terms of discipline from zero tolerance to trauma informed and all of these other different possibilities. And that pendulum swing phenomenon can kind of give us whiplash as leaders. But often we don't even know that we're in the middle of a pendulum swing.

[03:28]

We think we're just dealing with one issue, right? We think we have one problem to solve. And it often takes a lot of time and maybe, as you said, some coaching or some experience to really just figure out what else is going on in relation to the one thing that we're aware of. So I wonder if we want to just kind of frame the idea of polarities a little bit. What is a polarity and how can it help us understand the pendulum swings that we're all familiar with, but also help us understand some of the sticky situations that leaders find themselves in without even knowing that they're polarities?

[04:00] SPEAKER_02:

You know, polarities, we've been dealing with them our whole lives. And I think one of the whenever I'm in front of a group, I always ask people to take a deep breath and hold it. And hold it and hold it and hold it until I know that they need to exhale. And then I let them all exhale. And I ask, which is better, inhaling or exhaling? And someone will always say exhaling.

[04:18]

And I'll say, well, what happens if you exhale and exhale and exhale? You'll need to inhale. They're interdependent. And over time, we need each other. And we've been leveraging polarities like breathing since we were born, since we took our first breath. But that doesn't mean we always leverage it well.

[04:35]

I mean, we've all been out of breath. We've all had times where we've had to control our breathing, whether it's for exercise or for, you know, you're sitting in a meeting and you think to yourself, I am going to take three deep breaths before I respond to that. This idea of the system of the very breath that we depend on is similar to how we have to work with all the polarities in our lives. And they're all over the place, you know, top down and bottom up and centralized and decentralized leadership. They aren't once and for all fixes that you get it right. You have to keep changing just how much is top down and how much comes from the bottom or what happens at the district office and what happens in buildings.

[05:17]

Another huge polarity is individual and community, whether you're talking about one student in the classroom or a classroom within a school or or the teacher and the whole staff, or a school within a building, or the students with disabilities versus all the other students in the schools. These are all different individual and community polarities that have to be managed when we talk about whose needs are going to be met or how will a disciplinary action affect people. And if we don't see it that way, if we don't see, for example, how a curriculum change is going to affect students not just one child in the classroom but the whole classroom and on through, then we will find that we need to correct again, that things won't balance out. Something else, other problems will pop up because it's a system. You push on one side, something bulges on the other side.

[06:09] SPEAKER_01:

That reminds me of the appreciation that I had for our building union rep when I was a principal, that there's this reputation that union reps are just the worst nightmare of principals, right? That we're kind of like enemies. And I have to give a huge amount of credit to our building rep for always helping me see the other side of whatever the issue was, because it's absolutely true, right? It's not just that...

[06:38]

my way is the student-centered way and teachers are just in it for themselves and the union rep is fighting for them. There was always a polarity there that I might not have fully appreciated and both sides of it, of that tension, were good things. And I think that's often something that's a little bit hard for us to get a grasp on. And you mentioned kind of individual versus community or individual versus collaborative. And I think that's a good one for us to kind of explore this topic on a little bit because almost everywhere, educators will express a belief in collaboration. Right, like collaboration is a good thing, right?

[07:15]

But if I have someone who is not collaborative, it's tempting for me to see them as just bad, right? Like to see them as resistant, to see them as the wrong fit. How can a polarity understanding help us make better sense of that person and their perspective and work with them more effectively. So like if I'm a principal and I have a person who I perceive is just not collaborative and I think collaboration is a good thing and I'm willing to fight for that, right? I'm willing to defend collaboration. How can a polarity help us get a better handle on that situation?

[07:45] SPEAKER_02:

What we want to establish first is that each side is equally valuable, that working as an individual is equally valuable to collaborating. And because in this scenario, you're telling me, well, collaboration is wonderful. I want to be able to help you recognize what others value about individual work, even as I already probably guess that you've got some fears about what happens when people work individually. And I want to make sure you understand what the individual side fear about collaborating. And so I might even start and let you gripe first and say, well, what's the downside of having these individualists in your school?

[08:21] SPEAKER_01:

Well, I feel like if collaboration is valuable, it's because everybody participates, right? It's because people can share ideas, they can work together, they can get on the same page, and they can have kind of a united front so that no matter which class participates, a kid is in, they're going to get the same thing because their teachers have worked together. So that's what I see as the upside of collaboration and what's missing when somebody just kind of, you know, doesn't want to participate, doesn't want to collaborate, and they just want to do their own thing.

[08:48] SPEAKER_02:

So when they don't collaborate, they're actually not contributing to the work of the school, is the... sort of what you're saying in a nutshell.

[08:54] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And that like, we're worse off because everybody like, certainly we could have a school where everybody does their own thing, but we're worse off for it.

[09:01] SPEAKER_02:

Okay. So you lose their voice, you lose their ideas. And usually people are pretty quick at being able to list what's wrong, quote unquote, with the other side. And what's hard is to see what's wrong with your own side. And so, you know, we might start pushing for it. So What do these people fear about collaboration?

[09:19]

Or what do you think keeps them from collaborating? And it's better actually to talk about their fears because otherwise you might just come back with, well, they think it's too much work or whatever. But what do you think they're afraid of?

[09:30] SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think for some people, it's being asked to do something that they're not comfortable with, maybe something that they were never really trained on, you know, the fear of change, that it's not just going to be that their ideas are the ones that the team runs with, but that they're going to be pushed to do something that they're not comfortable with.

[09:45] SPEAKER_02:

You know, I think in our time pressure world of education, too, they're afraid of losing their individual planning time, which includes, you know, contacting parents, thinking about that child that's not doing well, all kinds of things that do take some individual time, right? Not all tasks can be done collaboratively. You know, they might also be afraid of not getting back as much as they give, depending on where they are in skills and how much of their lessons they have planned or whatever. Maybe they've been in many groups where they contribute more than they get and that they see that possibly happening again. So what I'm trying to get at is in the polarity process, we want to be sure that we understand what the other side fears about our side, because that's really stepping into their shoes. And giving credence to why they're afraid of change not as a knee-jerk reaction but there's some legitimate things there and at the same time we've got to be very aware of why they value what they do or where they're at so you know maybe it's their own creativity that you know i i'm an introvert i get my best ideas when i'm alone and if i don't have that time before i come to a group i can feel like my head's stuffed with bananas i can't get a creative thought going and so

[10:59]

You know, I need that balance. And that's where it comes to being a polarity that the individual and team is very much about, as you said, you know, getting that collaborative gift of everyone coming together and making things as rich as possible. And yet everyone also needs a piece of thinking things out, reflective time, which actually uses a different part of our brain than collaborative time and makes our own understanding of things richer. And so we all need both. And are we getting the right balance? We've seen this pendulum swing in education.

[11:33]

We used to have communities of practice and then we had collaborative teams and now we've got professional learning communities and if we don't do it right, the pendulum will swing back and we'll have to start over again.

[11:43] SPEAKER_01:

I love that polarity because it's one that we just often don't think about what's in tension with collaboration. Like what's the other good thing competing, you know, and balanced against collaboration and we don't give ourselves permission to acknowledge the good in People working as individuals, people having private planning time and reflection time and individual work time. We don't give ourselves permission to even admit that that's a good thing, right?

[12:11] SPEAKER_02:

Right. As a matter of fact, I worked on that polarity with an organization that's very well known for collaborative teaming, and they could not come up with what was valuable about working as individuals. you know, I had to start prompting, you know, what went on, you know, Shakespeare didn't write as a collaborative team. There are some things that, you know, start on the individual side. I would imagine that the King's players probably enlivened his texts, but there is that piece. And, you know, if we don't realize that, then we don't set up our learning communities to meet everyone's needs.

[12:41]

And that means that some people aren't operating out of their strengths. So you aren't actually getting all the benefit of collaboration. You're, moving toward a situation where people don't have enough time to work individually and they aren't as effective when they collaborate as they would be if we saw the two sides and started planning for how to get the upside of both.

[13:04] SPEAKER_01:

And when we keep it in the dark, we can't do that planning, right? Like when we say we are only collaborative, like there is no room for the individual in this organization. Well, that's leaving an unmet need that people are going to meet somehow, but just secretly and without any kind of planning.

[13:20] SPEAKER_02:

And that's something that is really important to understand. If you do not recognize the polarity and work with it, you actually get the downside of both sides. You won't have as strong of a collaboration as you were aiming for. And of course, people won't have time to do the individual work. So you actually lose on both sides. And that's why the pendulum swings.

[13:39] SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Because, I mean, we can't ignore reality, you know, for an extended period of time and still have a healthy organization. And actually, that's a pretty good segue from chapter six of your book to chapter seven, where you talk about the polarity between pursuing a vision and having ambitious goals for your organization. and taking reality into account and being honest about where we are currently, which I think is a tension that a lot of schools are very hesitant to articulate because it feels like lowering standards or it feels like admitting to the kind of unpleasant truth in the room. How have you seen schools manage that polarity between taking reality into account versus pursuing a vision?

[14:21] SPEAKER_02:

Unfortunately, what I often see is a vision that actually can't be met because they are pursuing it without a realistic look at either the support teachers need to carry it out, the time available, the resources available, where the students are right now and how far they can actually move. And I'm not talking about saying, well, we can't do anything. I'm talking about saying we're human beings. We have limits. Even if you say, well, we put a man on the moon in eight or nine years, whatever it was, that statement, you've got to look at the reality of the money that went into the space program, the hundreds of thousands of people that were hired, the square footage of facilities that were built, etc., to understand what it takes to go after that kind of big, hairy, audacious goals.

[15:07]

And unfortunately, our schools aren't funded that way. They aren't seen as that big of a priority. So when we set a goal where the actual resources needed don't exist, then we're setting everyone up for failure. And we know that motivation comes from having some autonomy, as we were talking about with individual and community. We also need mastery, knowing that we can get there, that when teachers can't see that they can actually carry out what they're being asked to do, that is obviously demotivating and we have to have a purpose. So if we set the vision, we may connect everybody with the purpose, but they may not see that they can master it and therefore they become demotivated and it's a vicious circle.

[15:49]

That's one of my favorite chapters in the book because one of Minnesota's very articulate educators, Patrick Duffy, was willing to share his struggles with journeys toward equity in several districts where his vision is clear, but he's learned so much about understanding the reality of each district and where the starting place is and what that means for the planning for moving toward the overall vision for equity. And what works in one place doesn't work in another, not because anyone's incompetent or not shooting for equity, but simply because reality is different. And that means different things need to be done.

[16:26] SPEAKER_01:

Well, I appreciate the way in the book you frame a number of different polarities that leaders will encounter in the course of leading a school. But it's not just, you know, know these polarities, you know, memorize them, manage them well, and you'll be in great shape. Like there's also a leadership aspect that is about the person kind of. And in the book, you call it an EQ connection. Talk to us a little bit about what happens to leaders when they start to think and lead this way with polarities in mind.

[16:57] SPEAKER_02:

Well, just one note before that. There's some research coming out now that as people move into higher positions, they actually lose EQ. They actually go down in their scores. And part of it may be that they're kind of given permission to think that they're right. And so, um, really thinking about EQ becomes more and more important and it's far more than just resilience and empathy, which is how I often see it being kicked about in schools. Uh, emotional intelligence is about being aware of your emotions and being able to manage them and being aware of the other emotions around you and being able to influence them.

[17:35]

And those all play into leadership. You know, if you aren't aware that, um, the compliant staff in front of you is actually scared stiff of what they're being asked to do, then you won't support what is about to be asked of them in the right way, if that makes sense. If you were taught to check emotions at the door and stay objective about things, you may not be aware that people tend not to trust leaders if they can't read their emotions. They have to be able to understand what the leader is feeling in order to trust that leader. And that doesn't mean you let your emotions hang out all the time. That's the part of being able to effectively manage them.

[18:16]

You know, for each one of the lenses, I talk about some of the emotional intelligence components that are important to it, whether it's in the reality and vision piece, for example, acting independently becomes huge. And this is about when you make a decision, are you dependent on feedback from others appropriately? And emotional intelligence is You can have too much or too little of any single one of the components. You know, if you're too independent, you're never listening to others. If you're not independent enough, then you're overly dependent on what others think. And so getting that balance right in reality and vision might be having enough independence to be able to look at the district office and say, this cannot be done with what you've given me.

[19:01]

And here's how. and actually being able to take that stand. And if you aren't independent enough, you'd be either afraid to do that or checking with everybody before you made that move to make sure it would be okay to go to the district that way. to set up that vision and have a healthy dose of reality may require being independent enough to think through it for yourself when you're asked to be part of a strategic initiative.

[19:26] SPEAKER_01:

I hesitate to make such a sweeping statement like this, but I really feel like that ability to see the whole picture, to see the whole system, to see the other side of every coin, really that's the essence of leadership. And if I think about all of the leaders that I've spoken with who've been blindsided by something or who have been just taken down by some challenge that they didn't really see coming, so much of it comes down to That ability to look for the other piece that's there and not just say, you know, I have my perspective. I believe in this one thing. I believe in collaboration or I believe in, you know, high standards and there's nothing else that that's related to. Like the ability to see that. the polarities, to see those tensions that are there and that need to be managed.

[20:14]

More than anything else, when I look back on my training, and the military has a saying that in times of crisis, we don't rise to the occasion, we fall back on our training. And when I look back at my training as a principal, like this was consistently what saved my bacon when the going got tough was that ability, you know, to see those priorities that were in tension with one another. And I think I used the wrong word earlier. You didn't call me on it, Jane, but I said versus. And I know enough to be dangerous when it comes to polarities that none of these are really about versus, right? It's not about the individual versus the group.

[20:53]

They're ands, right?

[20:54] SPEAKER_02:

Yes. And that's so important because what you're trying to do is harness all the energy that's going into these fights toward working toward the greater purpose. You know, when we're looking at individual work as a teacher and the collaborative work as a teacher, our goal is a learning community that helps students succeed, right? And so when we're focusing on that higher purpose, then we can get each side looking at, well, what do we need to do as individuals and what do we need to do as a team that'll move us toward that goal? And that's very different from saying one's right and one's wrong. We're saying both have value.

[21:30]

And over time, we've got to access both sides. Same with reality and vision. Our goal is pulling off some sort of change. And we've got to be balancing going after the biggest goal we can with what we have. And if we're unrealistic on either side, we won't reach the higher purpose. Being able to look both ways at once actually is an indicator of a higher level of human development than most of us ever get to.

[21:57]

When we're struggling with this idea of polarities, trying to say, I get what you're saying about supporting teachers, but man, they are accountable for meeting our standards and the evaluation process makes sure of that. And you can't see the other side of how much support a teacher needs to master one of the most difficult crafts there is. You're at the border of actually making that leap to the next level of adult development. And polarity thinking is one of the best ways to train yourself, as you said, to be able to pull up above the fray, go to 30,000 feet and say, wait a minute, what's in play here? What am I not seeing in the system? I think When this book went through peer review, one of the people came back saying, OK, I've been a principal for 20 years and I'm going to be looking at every single one of these lenses this fall and trying to decide what I'm missing.

[22:47]

And I thought, thank you. That's what I want to hear, because I don't you know, I have to step back all the time and say, you know, which one of these polarities am I missing? And, you know, supposedly I know something about them. So it's not easy.

[23:00] SPEAKER_01:

Well, Jane, I know your company is Differentiated Coaching Associates, and I know you work extensively as an executive coach and work with senior leadership teams. How did that come into the design of this book? And how do you envision people using this book to, as we said earlier, kind of coach themselves?

[23:15] SPEAKER_02:

This book is really meant as kind of a cookbook where a leader can identify something they're working on, and there's instructions in the book for how to set the correct kind of goal. And then It takes you through a process that has you sorting priorities and choosing your top 10. And those top 10, you filter through a system that helps you think about whether you are falling into the traps of any of your blind spots and whether you've got the right EQ pieces, emotional intelligence pieces to support you in working toward that goal. And then in setting a goal that you can actually monitor your progress on. And this whole process came out of research on what doesn't work in leadership programs and ensuring that when you set this goal, you're setting it up with things that will actually help you develop as a leader, not just meet the goal, but actually come out of the process, understanding better how to do it right for another goal, how to actually be

[24:13]

as you said, that kind of holistic leader that can see things from multiple angles. And so, you know, as much as I love it when people just stay up and read a book all night, I really hope they'll, you know, take my word in chapter one to look at chapter 16, where the whole process is outlined and use it with a goal and see how that plays out in developing as a leader.

[24:34] SPEAKER_01:

So the book is Holistic Leadership, Thriving Schools, 12 Lenses to Balance Priorities and Serve the Whole Student. And Jane, if people want to get in touch with you, where is the best place for them to find you online?

[24:45] SPEAKER_02:

My website is janekeesey.com and there's a contact form through there and I'd love to hear from you.

[24:50] SPEAKER_00:

Thanks so much for joining me on Principal Center Radio.

[24:53] SPEAKER_02:

Thank you for having me.

[24:54] Announcer:

Thanks for listening to Principal Center Radio. For more great episodes, subscribe on our website at principalcenter.com slash radio.