Superintendents
Statewide
Mentoring
Meeting
Thursday, September 19,
2013
Outcomes:
 Grow
your professional network;
 Reflect on September board agenda;
 Identify strategies and ideas for working
with the board;
 Considered the superintendent’s role as
instructional leader;
 Increase awareness regarding legal
issues;
 Collaborate around relevant issues; and
 Identify strategies for improving individual
leadership-life fit.
Grounding our work today…
How did your September board agenda
flow? What went well? What will you do
differently in planning your next agenda
and board meeting?
Working Effectively with
the Board
Modified Discussion Panel
Welcome, Panelists!
 Chad
Garber, Wapsie Valley
 Mike Haluska, Decorah
 Kerri Nelson, South Tama
 Dave Wilkerson, Waukee
 How
do you involve your board in
supporting a shared vision for learning?
 How do you balance the need to
introduce new ideas and provide
processing time for the board prior to
decision-making with the need to keep
moving forward in a timely way?
 How do you keep the board focused on
the big priorities as opposed to the dayto-day administrative decisions?
 How
do you engage your board in your
own evaluation?
 What are the key outcomes for your
board orientation for new board
members?
 What, if any, decision-making or problemsolving protocols do you use? If you don’t
utilize specific protocols or procedures,
how do you support the board in
planning, making decisions, and solving
problems?
 How
do you engage your board in being
part of the learning organization?
 Describe the communication patterns
between you and the board. With what
frequency and how do you collect
informal feedback from your board
regarding your performance? How do
you ensure you continue to share
common expectations with the board for
the focus of your work?
Break!
Grow your professional
network—choose a new
table!
The Do’s and Don’ts of
Instructional Leadership
Steve Westerberg, Oelwein
3-minute Quick Write
Describe the superintendent’s
responsibilities as an instructional leader?
Ink-pair-share
 Mentor-mentee
share
What I wish I had known at the
beginning…
Setting Priorities
 Review
the list of Do’s and Don’ts
 Highlight/circle the top 3 ‘Do’ priorities
that you would like to address
 Share your priorities in your mentoring
partnership—each explain rationale for
choices
 Identify the one priority that you will work
to move forward in your district in the next
month—how will you approach this work?
Following up
 Revisit
in your monthly mentoring
meetings over the next months
 Plan to share progress at our January 22
Statewide Mentoring Meeting
LUNCH!
Reminders from the Legal
Vortex
Matt Carver, SAI
Open Forum
What upcoming issues/concerns need our
attention?
http://padlet.com/wall/suptopenforum
Engaging in Critical
Conversations
Dana Schon, SAI
By the end of this session, you
will have…
 Considered
conversation skills and
behaviors that contribute to the building
of successful relationships and
extraordinary leadership
 Participated in a structured conversation
 Engaged in collaborative problem-solving
Susan Scott, Fierce
Conversations
Our lives are a series of relationships, the
success or failure of which happen one
conversation at a time. Extraordinary
leadership is the result of having fierce
conversations with ourselves first and then
with others. Only then can any of us hope
to provide the caliber of leadership that our
organizations need and desire.
Using a structure to facilitate
the conversation
1.
Be clear about what you want from the
conversation and what you do NOT
want from the conversation:
 What
do I want for myself?
 What do I want for others?
 What do I want from the relationship?
 How would I behave if I really wanted
those results?
Using a structure to facilitate
the conversation
2.
Establish a mutual purpose and find
common ground:
 Find
a shared goal—it reduces stress
 Clarify the common outcome
Using a structure to facilitate
the conversation
3.
STATE your course:
 Share
your facts (start with least controversial
and most persuasive)
 Tell your story (explain what you are
beginning to conclude)
 Ask for other’s facts and stories
 Talk about what is fact and what is
assumption
 Encourage differing views
Using a structure to facilitate
the conversation
Actively listen to understand
4.





Express interest
Respectfully acknowledge emotions
Restate what you have heard to reflect
understanding
State your agreement, where fitting
When there are significant differences,
compare the two views as opposed to
pointing out right and wrong
Using a structure to facilitate
the conversation
Finish clearly
5.



Determine any action to be taken and by
whom
Establish any timelines for completion of
actions
Schedule a follow-up time
Experience the conversation
 Choose
a scenario that reflects an area
where you would like practice
 Take a few minutes to think about what
you want from the conversation
 Role play or process the conversation you
might have
 Process the role play
Windshield work
 Role
play/process the other scenarios
Break!
Grow your professional
network--choose a new
table!
Leadership-life Fit
Dana Schon, SAI
By the end of this segment,
participants will have…
 Revisited
the concept of balance as
compared to fit
 Identified strategies for reducing stress
and creating an ebb and flow that works
for you
Challenging the Notion of
Work-life Balance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3moh
M05yxs
The Notion of Balance…

Is discussed most frequently discussed in the negative

Keeps us focused on the problem rather than the solution

Assumes we are all the same

Infers there is a “right” answer

Leads us to judge

Results in unproductive guilt

Suggests the goal is a 50-50 split between work and life

Leaves no room for periods where there is more work and
less life and vice versa; and

Ignores the constantly changing reality of work and life
You are one person, so there is no need to
try to separate your personal life from your
work life.
Why a work-life fit?
 Honors
our unique situations throughout
various points in our lives
 Leads us to inspire
 Recognizes multiple options based upon
each person’s current circumstance
 Acknowledges the ebb and flow of life’s
events
 Values flexibility
Strategies for a Better Fit
 Schedule
Your Life – both work and free
time
 Create
Lists – Know what needs to be done
and put it on your schedule
 Set
priorities – Complete the most important
things first
 Create
Systems for anything you do more
than twice
 Know
when to say No – Delegate and stop
trying to do it all.
Keep working to find
your leadership-life fit!!
Final Thoughts & Evaluation
http://bit.ly/StatewideSupt