Competency 11

Promote academic excellence.

Educational leaders must have the ability to:

• Consider the challenges to academic excellence in relationship to accountability demands and other constraints.
• Consider the impact of collaboration, teamwork, and deeply interconnected systems on establishing and maintaining a productive organizational climate.
• Assess the response of the culture of the organization to changing demographics.
• Incorporate twenty-first century skills and competencies into academic programs.

For centuries, it was believed that the four-minute mile could not be eclipsed. Once one runner broke the four minute mark, dozens were soon to follow. Was man suddenly faster, or did his belief systems change wherein he redefined a level of excellence and believed it was possible? Effective educational leaders have the unique capacity to set extraordinary standards for themselves and others. They are able to clearly point to higher ground, articulate a vision, and help the organization achieve that goal. In fact, educational leaders with high expectations perceive this type of growth potential as an absolute culture that the organization must embrace without exception.

Reaching these high expectations as an educational leader comes from the notion that what we say we want and the actions we take to get what we want must be congruent with one another (Wheatley, 1999; Montgomery, 2008). In other words, the capacity to actually make change happen requires both the articulation of a clear and measurable goal as well as taking some type of action toward reaching that goal. If the goal and actions taken toward reaching that goal are not congruent, it is not likely that the organization will respond with vigorous energy or enthusiasm (Wheatley, 1999). Therefore, a leader who stimulates those around him or her with inspiring notions of possibility and hope and challenges the organization to achieve helps create the necessary environment to make the change happen.

Second, educational leaders who set and achieve high standards have a sincere belief system that change and high levels of performance are, in fact, possible (Reason & Reason, 2007). This is probably why many of the best leaders excel in sports, academic endeavors, and other personal and professional challenges. They believe that high levels of performance are achievable. Even in the face of an opponent who challenges them or well-intended friends who unwittingly attempt to discourage them by suggesting they be more realistic in their thinking, the very best educational leaders maintain a belief system that is much more rigorous and unrelentingly positive than those around them.

Effective educational leaders also have developed the capacity to reach the highest heights by creating a sense of emotional group synergy that for many becomes almost

palpable (Hargreaves, 2007). When a group comes together and creates a sense of energy and focus, it is clear that special things can happen. Small groups of people working together in a deeply inspired way can dramatically shape important outcomes (Wageman, Nunes, Burruss, & Hackman, 2008). Leaders understand that it is the power of these synergistic groups working together that makes the unachievable suddenly tangible and within their grasp.

References

Hargreaves, A. (2007). Resourcefulness, restraint and renewal. In The Jossey-Bass Reader on Educational Leadership (2nd ed.), pp. 445-472. San Francisco, CA:  John Wiley and Sons.

Montgomery, C. (2008). Putting leadership back into strategy. Harvard Business Review, 54-60.

Reason, C., & Reason, L. (2007). Asking the right questions. Educational Leadership, 65(1), 36-40.

Wageman, R., Nunes, D., Burruss, J., & Hackman, J. (2008). The structure of success. Associations Now, 22-26.

Wheatley, M. (1999). Leadership and the new science. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.