thatcherpose

“Being a leader is like being a lady. If you have to remind people you are, you aren’t.” That’s my favorite quotation from the Iron Lady, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died today. She understood that leadership is not about titles or photo ops or posturing. True leadership is about authenticity, standing up for principles, even (maybe especially) in the face of strong opposition. To her fervent admirers, Maggie was an iconic national heroine who ended Britain’s post-World War II cycle of decline. Her angry critics saw her as a pugnacious destroyer of industry. But no one doubted her nitty-gritty resolve…

Unfortunately, much of today’s psychobabble about leadership has the wrong focus… Popular definitions of leadership also tend to be externalized. Many of the definitions focus on the outer manifestations of leadership—such as vision, judgment, creativity, drive, charisma, podium presence, etc.—rather than getting to the essence of leadership itself…  (1) What produces the external results?, and (2) What enables the sustaining of good external results? The answer to the first question is leadership. The answer to the second question is great leadership, the authentic variety.

Authentic leadership is a product of honesty. Honesty about putting the needs of others ahead of your own. Honesty in communicating information, both positive and negative. Honesty in accepting—welcoming—viewpoints different from yours. Honesty in integrating the values you profess with the behaviors you exhibit (sounds a lot like “integrity,” doesn’t it?). Authentic leadership is also a product of clarity. Clarity in what you stand for, and what you will not stand for. Clarity in your navigation through the sea of limitless choices, using the “True North” of your values to keep you constantly on the right path and enabling you to make the necessary course corrections when you temporarily stray.

What is authentic leadership? We can take a cue from another Margaret Thatcher quotation. On the surface, it seems to be about politics and economics. But it underscores the importance of rejecting the trappings of leadership in favor of self-reliance on principle: “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

Rodger Dean Duncan in Forbes explaining why Margaret Thatcher achieved so much during her tenure as Britain’s Prime Minister. Those lessons should be embraced by all reformers in their effort to transform American public education.

glendaritzoffice

After four years of Tony Bennett, defenders of the status quo and opponents of education accountability hoped they’d get a superintendent of public instruction who would pump the brakes on education reform, lower expectations and generally leave them alone. Well, they got one. So when Superintendent Glenda Ritz took some heat for making her first – and to date only – major initiative a $100,000 renovation of her Statehouse office space, the education establishment breathed a huge sigh of relief. Symbolic perhaps, but a message had been sent. No more harping from the superintendent’s office about improving academic standards for students. No more pressure to increase graduation rates, AP offerings and participation, and no more emphasis on those dreaded measures of student performance known as tests. Nope, the Ritz administration is going to be one that prioritizes the truly important issues in education, like office space, the Statehouse equivalent to expansive high school football stadiums…

As a kid I marched with my mother and her fellow teachers’ union members around the Kentucky Statehouse in Frankfort (though not understanding why) but have, in the intervening years, become convinced that we are not doing a very good job educating children. Too few of our children can perform at grade level. Too few take classes that will adequately challenge them and prepare them for college or a career.  Too few graduate from high school and too few go on to college. Too few of those who do go on to college are prepared for its rigors when they get there, and not surprisingly, too few matriculate with anything resembling a meaningful degree. Many of those who do, and many who do not, start their adult lives saddled with a suffocating amount of debt. These are the facts and they are not disputed…

I am an avowed Bennett acolyte, but that’s not why I’m disturbed our new superintendent spent $100,000 to renovate her office suite. I’m disturbed because of the message it sent to teachers, parents and students. Our last superintendent of public instruction began his term by setting goals that 90 percent of Indiana students would graduate from high school, that 25 percent would receive Advanced Placement credits (that means they’d succeed in classes that would prepare them for college) and that 90 percent would pass both the math and language arts I-STEP assessments. Educators warned him not to do it; they said it wasn’t achievable…. That was never the point. The point was to set high expectations and challenge schools and school corporations to achieve more for their students. Bennett went so far as to cut $100,000 from his own office budget and use that money to provide merit pay incentives – cash – for teachers and principals in schools who did the most to improve graduation rates…

Symbolism should not always be dismissed. Symbolism can be important. For example, how did Ritz pay for that $100,000 renovation to her office? According to the media, the “money came from savings created by the previous administration.” Are you getting the message?

Indiana-based political strategist Cam Savage reminding Hoosier State voters why leadership — and in the case of current Supt. Glenda Ritz, the lack of it — matters for our children.