Personal Leadership Platform:

Kristen Reihl

EL 501 Dr. Mandy Capel

University of Mount Union

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The district I currently work for is “Somewheresville” City Schools. “Somewheresville”

City Schools is located in Some County Ohio. The “Somewheresville” community is a

combination of both rural residential area and some business development. The district is

comprised of students of the “OtherTown 1” and “Somewheresville” communities and allows

students to openly enroll. Based on the 2000 census, the “Somewheresville” community equates

to approximately 11,500 people. Of this population, our enrollment is approximately 2,500.

[ CITATION Wag19 \l 1033 ] Presently, “Somewheresville” City School District is a member of the

Four Cities CTPD between “OtherTown 1”, “OtherTown 2”, and “OtherTown 3”, and

“Somewheresville” City Schools. This allows the districts to share pupils throughout the school

day through their commitment to be career technical planning districts.

As indicated on the district report card from the 2017-2018 school year, the ethnicity

represented at “Somewheresville” High School is 92.8% White, Non-Hispanic, 3.2% multiracial,

2.0% Black, Non-Hispanic, 1.1% Asian or Pacific Islander, and 0.8% Hispanic. Of these

students, approximately 18.7% are classified as students with disabilities and 0.7% are English

Language Learners. The majority of the “Somewheresville” community speaks English as their

primary language. Of all the students in the district, 38.4% are classified as economically

disadvantaged. [ CITATION DeM18 \l 1033 ]

As a result of the “Somewheresville” community not having many large businesses, the

tax revenue does not bring as much money as the surrounding districts. Because of this, there has

been contention between “Somewheresville” City School District and some of the surrounding

community members. However, in November 2018, the district successfully passed an income

tax levy. Throughout this struggle, I have observed that the culture of “Somewheresville” City

Schools appears to be that of a family. The administration expresses how important the faculty
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and staff are to the district and act on those expressions. Recently, there have been some contract

misunderstandings between the teacher’s union and administration. This has strained that

“family-like” culture. Prior to the misunderstandings, the culture I observed was comprised of a

collection of people who would do everything in their power to give back to the community and

provide for their students. Later I will explain our vision as being able to reach “Every Child,

Every Day.” I think that the staff takes this vision to heart no matter how external factors affect

them.

The culture I have been exposed to throughout my first year in the classroom has been a

large contributor to my current leadership platform. To me, leadership is the act of guiding

another person or group of people towards a vision or goal. This goal should be something

attainable through the support and inspiration of the leader. Educational leadership involves

guiding staff, students, building/district personnel, parents, etc. towards a shared vision. In our

first module, we were exposed to various theories on leadership. One of the theories was the

Great Man Theory which states that great leaders are not made, they are born. I can confidently

state that I disagree with this theory given that I have spent the past six weeks learning strategies

to become a more effective leader. In this time, I have developed a clearer understanding of

myself by focusing on my strengths, the relevance of continuous reflection, the benefits to

effective communication, and the importance of decisional capital.

Strengths Based Leadership is a book that focuses on the concept of using strengths to

drive individual leadership on which Gallup has focused over 30 years of research. Leaders need

to know their own strengths and build those strengths in order to be successful. The strengths

that individual leaders are evaluated on can be organized into four domains of leadership—

Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. According to Tom Rath
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—author of Strengths Based Leadership, “...it serves a team well to have a representation of

strengths in each of these four. Instead of one dominant leader who tries to do everything or

individuals who all have similar strengths, contributions from all four domains lead to a strong

and cohesive team…” [CITATION Rat08 \p 23 \l 1033 ] Based on the results of the strengths finder,

my top five themes of strength are as follows: discipline, achiever, focus, analytical, and

responsibility. Overall, the domain that I represent the most is the executing domain.

According to the text, the discipline theme suggests that I can incorporate routine and

structure into my leadership practices. This will be beneficial for me as a leader because it would

help me to remain organized on addressing important business in a timely fashion. The achiever

theme suggests that I work hard and possess a great deal of stamina. I have always been willing

to put in the necessary work to do something correctly, and I find that my building/district will

appreciate that trait as well. The theme of focus suggests that I am capable taking direction and

doing what is necessary to keep on task. As I undergo long-term projects and plans, I should be

able to remain on task in order to properly complete them. The one theme I am strong in that is

not of the executing domain—rather the strategic thinking domain—is analytical. This will be

useful for me because I am someone who considers subjects from all angles. I will be able to

consider policies and plans from not only the staff’s view, but that of the parents', students',

remainder of the community, and the state. My last theme is responsibility. This theme suggests

that I am committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty. One of the main attributes great

leaders are suggested to have is trustworthiness. By remaining honest and loyal to my followers,

I should be able to show that I am a trustworthy leader. By focusing on these strengths, I will

have a starting point for the type of leader I choose to be. I will develop my style of leadership

around these five strengths.

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Continuous reflection is necessary to become an effective leader. During my shadow

experience with the head principal at “Somewheresville” High School, a reoccurring suggestion

was to constantly reflect and reevaluate my decisions and process in order to grow as a leader. In

the collection of articles reviewed by the Harvard Business Review, the article, What Makes a

Leader?, mentioned that emotional intelligence is necessary for effective performance in leaders.

The components of emotional intelligence are as follows: self-awareness, self-regulation,

motivation, empathy, and social skill. [CITATION Gol11 \p 2 \l 1033 ] One way to improve a

leader’s emotional intelligence is to practice, use feedback from others, and reflect on one’s

actions. Without taking the time to consider one’s actions and their outcomes, one cannot

improve. Neglecting to consciously reflect on one’s leadership qualities will not lead to growth

in emotional intelligence, which will not lead to growth in effective leadership performance.

Followers want leaders who they can trust and feel supported by at all times. Emotional

intelligence can allow leaders to strengthen those attributes.

Communication skills are transferrable through all professions. One must excel in

communication in order to effectively lead an organization. Followers want leaders who they can

trust, feel supported by, and have a vision in which they can believe. A leader will not be able to

guide an organization toward a shared vision if that vision cannot be communicated properly. In

addition to being able to effectively present and communicate the vision, leaders are going to

have to inspire opposers and bystanders to move toward this ultimate goal. Throughout this

course, we have addressed some of the components to structural dynamics—action stances,

communication domains, systems in control of speech, and childhood experiences—as they were

presented in the book Reading the Room: Group Dynamics for Coaches and Leaders. [ CITATION

Kan12 \l 1033 ] As explained in Reading the Room, for a leader to be successful, he/she must be
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proficient on “reading the room.” Leaders need to understand the personalities present in

meetings and use those personalities to benefit the organization’s vision.

Decisional capital is expressed in the book Professional Capital as “The capacity to judge

and judge well depends on the ability to make decisions in situations of unavoidable uncertainty

when the evidence or the rules aren’t categorically clear.”[CITATION Har10 \p 93 \l 1033 ]

Throughout our readings and my shadow and interview experience, I have concluded that leaders

have to make decisions. Not always will we make decisions that are popular, but we still have to

make them with our organization’s best interest in mind. Some of the theories I support involve

the contingency and situational theories. I believe that as a leader it is necessary to focus on both

the environmental and situational variables in order to make necessary and informed decisions.

Similarly, incorporating the participative theory is important to consider during appropriate

situations. If a leader has the ability to hear first-hand opinions from the faculty and staff, then

the leader can decide how to use the input. If the leader’s audience is uninformed on the matter,

then either the decision could come to a standstill or one person could dominate the decision by

voicing his or her personal opinion. As leaders, it is necessary to know when and how to

incorporate the input of our team. We need to be aware of the times we make decisions on our

own and the times we incorporate feedback from others. Leaders need to know when to ask

questions and to whom those questions should be addressed. Ultimately, it is up to a leader to use

proper judgement based on all surrounding variables.

As leaders, we must establish, monitor, and model our organization’s mission, vision, and

policies. In order to be successful at my current organization, “Somewheresville” City Schools, it

is critical that I take the time to incorporate the concept of “Every Child, Every Day” into my

approach. According to an article included in the Harvard Business Review by Peter F. Drucker
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—What Makes an Effective Executive—there are eight practices that allow leaders to be

effective. The practices include the following: Ask what needs to be done; Ask what’s right for

the enterprise; Develop action plans; Take responsibility for decisions; Take responsibility for

communicating; Focus on opportunities, not problems; Run productive meetings; and Think and

say “We,” not “I.” [CITATION Dru11 \p 23-25 \l 1033 ] At the beginning of this list, “Ask what’s

right for the enterprise” is listed. If leaders do not follow their mission, vision, and policies, then

what do they hope to accomplish? What would a leader create an action plan to try to do? I do

not believe that anything beneficial can result for an organization if the overarching goal is not

kept in sight.

At “Somewheresville” City School District, the mission is “to inspire life-long learning in

a caring, safe environment through challenging educational experiences for every child every

day.” This mission is achieved by ensuring that all decisions are made with the vision statement

in mind, “Every Child, Every Day.” [ CITATION Oli19 \l 1033 ] To me, this means supporting,

caring for, and challenging each of the students to become better versions of themselves every

day. Today’s educators are expected to prepare students for the world of tomorrow and it is the

educator’s responsibility to do so in a way that is maintained through technological and

pedagogical methods conducive to connecting the students to this world of tomorrow.

My personal leadership goals that directly relate to our mission and vision are goals that I

would like to implement at the high school. The first goal is to redesign open house during the

first week of school. In my experience, I have learned that open house has always been on the

night of the first day of school and is not well-attended and awkward in the sense of interactions

between teachers and students/parents. In order to help foster an environment that students and

parents can see will provide a challenging educational experience, I would like to change open
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house to being one of the days during the week before school. This way, there is no awkward

encounter between teachers and students/parents and you can meet the students there for the first

time. Additionally, I would like to require students to pick up their schedules then so that they

are required to come in to the building and participate. I would like to create an environment at

open house that strengthens rapport between the district’s families and the high school. Students

could come in and play some games, teachers could hang up examples of things the students will

be doing in the upcoming year, art from the previous year could be displayed, etc. The goal is to

get students and families excited and comfortable with the upcoming school year.

The second goal I would like to implement in “Somewheresville” High School that

supports the mission and vision of the district is to address students involved in the four cities

compact—students who are members of specialized career technology programs—who arrive

between fourth and fifth periods. So that every child can be accounted for every day, I would like

to restructure the panther time—fifth period study hall—schedule so that all students involved in

career tech programs have one study hall they are expected to report to. Depending on numbers,

this might result in more than one career tech student study hall. We would also have to consider

the responsibilities/duties of homeroom teachers throughout the day in order to determine who

will take on these study halls. Again, the goal is to have every child be accounted for every day

and this past year, I noticed many students were unaccounted for at various times during those

periods. This way, the attendance of the students arriving at a later time can be accounted for in a

more accurate way.

The third goal I would like to implement that supports our district mission and vision is to

raise the high school math proficiency by increasing productive student use of the Panther Time

Math Lab. This will support the intention to create a challenging learning environment for every
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student, every day. In order to implement this goal, each student would receive his/her own

standardized time log with spaces for the date, work completed, and teacher’s signature.

Depending on the number of visits assigned, a grade would be assigned to impart value and

importance for the students. It would be at the discretion of the instructor to determine the

number of hours assigned to each student—perhaps differentiate based on the students’ previous

quarter grade or the last recorded quiz grade. Some of the benefits from this goal would be that

students would receive additional help outside the structure of a typical math class, the

responsibility of asking for and receiving help is put on the student, and the concept of the math

lab already exists on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The first challenge I can identify is

having students wait until the last minute and then create an extremely busy math lab. This could

be addressed by having two teachers in the math lab during the scheduled days.

In an attempt to produce valuable input on my third goal, I presented the goal for

implementation to the entire math department—including the intervention specialist who focuses

on math. I chose the entire math department because all math teachers are expected to work in

the math lab one day per week—three take part in the first semester and the remaining three in

the second semester, and they would be the ones who would have to implement the concept into

their syllabus. Because this goal had to be presented during the summer, I chose to create a

handout with the goal, the benefits associated with it, and a chart of examples relating to how the

goal could be implemented in each level. Some insights and perspectives that I gained after

presenting my goal to this group of teachers are centered around how flexible this goal would be

with differentiating for students. The teachers started to share their ideas about how they could

adjust this idea to work well with their own teaching styles.
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Overall, the teachers reacted positively towards the presentation of my goal. One teacher

voiced his excitement in hearing that this could lead to an improved Panther Time in general.

Other teachers expressed their interest in seeing the math lab becoming a regular tutor center

rather than a place to try to socialize. The entire department felt that this goal collectively

represents the needs of our organization and is representative of the interests of the entire

community. One teacher commented that he felt that having a goal that could lead to raising test

scores and student performance is always going to be a district focus and be supported by the

community. Several other teachers liked how the goal could support individual and collective

groups of students. They mentioned how the concept of requiring students to fill out their time

logs could be stretched to having the students meet with teachers one-on-one during Panther

Time when said teacher is not “on duty” in the lab, or the students could just attend math lab if

the have more general questions.

While there was much interest in the implementation of said goal, some concerns were

raised. Based on experiences from the previous year, teachers were concerned with students

taking Panther Time seriously. Some students would show up to math lab to try to socialize and

pretend to work. This would just require a bit stricter of an environment for math lab and for all

teachers to operate with the same expectations. One teacher expressed the difficulty in helping

students in different classes—Algebra I, Geometry, Statistics, etc.—at the same time. This is

especially a concern because the majority of the courses offered have three levels to them. Some

ideas to address this issue would be try to get more than one teacher in the lab at a time, or have

a teacher “on call” who could provide additional help if necessary. The idea of having student

tutors was also discussed, but not a popular idea. The last main challenge addressed was the extra

paperwork that would be required and how teachers would determine for how many hours each
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individual student would have to go to the math lab. The teachers discussed the idea of seeing if

they could try a pilot teacher or level of class to run this with for one year. This way, some of the

challenges could be addressed on a smaller scale and then adjusted for the next year if it appears

to be beneficial.

Throughout this course, I have developed a clearer understanding of myself in relation to

leadership by focusing on my strengths, the relevance of continuous reflection, the benefits to

effective communication, and the importance of decisional capital. I have considered my current

organization in its entirety and created goals that relate to the district’s mission and vision. I have

also started the process of implementing one of my goals related to improving the high school’s

math achievement scores. My next step is to further develop my strengths, continue to reflect and

communicate, and become more confident in making important decisions. This will allow me to

continue to shape my perspective of what a leader is and who I will be as a leader.

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References

Goleman, D. (2011). What Makes a Leader? In Harvard Book Review's 10 Must Reads on

Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.

Hargreaves, A., & Fullan, M. (2010). Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every

School. New York: Teachers College Press.

Kantor, D. (2012). Reading the Room: Group Dynamics for Coaches and Leaders. Jossey-Bass.

Ohio School Report Cards. (2018). Retrieved from Ohio Department of Education Web site:

https://reportcard.education.ohio.gov/district/overview/044552

Oliveri, A. (2019). Curriculum and Instruction. Retrieved from Norton City Schools Web site:

https://www.nortonschools.org/CurriculumInstruction.aspx

Rath, T. (2008). Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow.

New York: Gallup Press.

Wagler, A. (2019). Community Information: Community. Retrieved from Norton City Schools

Web site: https://www.nortonschools.org/Community1.aspx