Footprints or Fingerprints – What marks a leader?

1. Footprints or Fingerprints –What marks a leader? Allan Walker The Chinese University of Hong Kong

2. The work of education leadership should be work that is simultaneously intellectual and moral: an activity characterised by a blend of human, professional, and civic concerns; a work of cultivating an environment for learning and that is humanely fulfilling and socially responsible.(Starratt, 2003). 2

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4. Your signaturewhat marks you? • What are you known for as a leader? 4

5. Signature - what marks them? An internationally recognized Northern Californian chef and specializes in wine country cuisine. He has authored books like 'American Game Cooking: A Contemporary Guide to preparing Farm-Raised Game Birds and Meats'. Cream Almond Fresh Oysters and Chocolate Truffle Trot are some of his delicacies that enjoy international acclaim. 5

6. Your signature • What are you known for as a leader? • What would you like to be known for? • What ‘mark’ do you want to leave as a leader? WHY? 6

7. NOW FUTURE LEADERSHIP SIGNATURES NEXT LEADERSHIP ESSENTIALS WELLBEING SELF WORK Leader development Framework E T H I C S 7

8. NOW FUTURE SELF WORK Framework E T H I C S LEADERSHIP SIGNATURES What marks you as a leader? WHY? 8

9. E T H I C S LEADERSHIP SIGNATURE Framework What marks you as a leader? 9

10. Outline • Leadership fingerprint and/or footprint • Pointing the finger • The fading footprint • Putting the foot down (or embedding the imprint) 10

11. Fingerprints • We leave our fingerprints in the heads and on the hands of students and our society 11

12. Footprints 12

14. Leader Footprints • On minds, hearts, conscience and souls • Encoded in authentic relationships, caring communities, social justice. • As such that are about morals and ethics. 14

15. Fingerprint Head Hand ability, competence, skills Heart Mind Conscience Soul relationships, beliefs, generativity Leader Footprint 15

16. The work of education leadership should be work that is simultaneously intellectual and moral: an activity characterised by a blend of human, professional, and civic concerns; a work of cultivating an environment for learning and that is humanely fulfilling and socially responsible.(Starratt, 2003) 16

17. Why are we in the game? • Why did we become school leaders? • What do we want to achieve? (and WHY?) • What does it all mean? 17

18. Pointing the finger • That teachers give greater attention to tested content and decrease emphasis on non-tested content. This narrows the content and skills taught and learned within a discipline. • A high-stakes test pre-empts time and coverage from disciplines not tested. This narrows the curriculum across subject fields. • There is a “trickle down” effect. The content and skills covered on the high-stakes tests at the upper grades displaces the content and skills of non-tested lower grades, altering the curriculum across grades. (Madaus, Russell & Higgins, 2009) 18

19. Pointing the finger • IS IT ETHICAL? • What do you as a leader want to be know for? • What do you want your ‘signature’ dish to be? • Do you want to be marked only by an indelible academic fingerprint and a barely visible footprint. Or is your purpose as a leader more than this? Does leaving a fingerprint alone allow us to fulfill our purpose? • What does it mean to be a leader? 19

20. Putting the foot down 20

21. Footprints • Footprints don’t appear from nowhere. • Footprints can’t be manufactured from boxes, books or bank accounts. • Footprints are not something we leave when we retire • Footprints come from the day-to-day and ‘big’ things we do – they are cumulative • Footprints are about generativity. 21

22. Putting the foot down • Leaders are marked by and model moral purpose and alignment • Leaders are marked by how they manage dilemmas • Leaders are marked by and model moral literacy • Leaders are marked through the relationships they build, mobilise and sustain • Leaders are marked by their passion, energy and integrity • Leaders are marked by the multiple tastes they champion • Leaders are marked by the networks they inhabit, build and stimulated • Leaders are marked by their authenticity. 22

23. Putting the foot down – everything works together 23

24. Moral Purpose Putting the foot down …effective (school) cultures establish more and more progressive interactions in which demanding processes produce both good ideas and social cohesion. A sense of moral purpose is fuelled by a focus on value-added high expectations for all, raising capability, pulling together, and an ongoing hunger for improvement.(Fullan, 2005) 24

25. Individual Care Truth/justice Long-term Development Common Good Rules Loyalty Short-term Status Quo Ethical Dilemmas Putting the foot down right right

26. Moral Literacy Putting the foot down • Involves complex skills and abilities: • To recognize moral problems and to assess the complex issues that they raise; • To evaluate moral problems from many perspectives; • To assess disagreements on and proposed responses to these problems; • To choose to act with wisdom and responsibility. • (Tuana, 2007) 26

27. Moral Literacy Putting the foot down • Ethics Sensitivity • The ability to recognize moral problems and appreciate the full significance of an ethical situation. • Ethical Reasoning Skills • The ability to evaluate moral problems through an understanding of the major ethical frameworks • Moral Imagination • The ability to understand and analyze a wide range of disagreements about and proposed responses to these problems. • (Tuana, 2007) 27

28. Relationships Putting the foot down • The art of calling others to seek the truth as to what it means to be human; to explore the essence of being, to discover the spiritual chemistry of relationships, to make judgments about significance, rightness, wrongness. (Duignan, 2007) • What relationships flourish in my school, my life? • Do I trust those I work with? Do they trust me? • Do I know those I work with, even if they are from a ‘different place’? Openness, trust, affirmation, invitation, freedom, consensual 28

29. Passion, energy Integrity Putting the foot down • Leadership is passion. Without passion, a person will have very little influence as a leader. I believe passion provides an individual with the light of leadership and creates an undeniable drive to make a difference. What are you passionate about? What keeps you awake at night? What will you fight for? What do you bore people with? What will you argue with your boss about? Are you resilient and ‘fit to lead’? 29

30. Champion Putting the foot down What do you champion? Are you seen as a champion? Why do you champion ‘that’? 30

31. Inhabit, build stimulate Putting the foot down What learning networks are you in? Why are you in them? What do you contribute to them? Which networks should you be in? Do you help others get into worthwhile networks? 31

32. Authenticity Putting the foot down • Respects others • Serves others • Shows justice • Manifests honesty • Builds community 32

33. Footprints or Fingerprints –What marks your leadership? We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its origins. At last, we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made the footprint. And lo! It is our own. "Arthur Eddington Take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints

34. Footprints or Fingerprints –What marks a leader? Allan Walker The Chinese University of Hong Kong

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