Daily Disciplines of Leadership

Information for this page was gleaned from: Reeves, Douglas. (2002). The Daily Disciplines of Leadership. San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass.

The Daily Disciplines of Leadership - Summary

In "The Daily Disciplines of Leadership", Douglas Reeves outlines a number of critical insights related to leadership and learning. Reeves discusses how to create change even if there is initially no consensus in favor of change. He presents a leadershp and learning profile that helps all leaders systematically analyze decisions in order to focus on the practices with the greatest impact on success. He discusses strageies for mastering time management. He also describes a new way to look at the concept of accountability that offers leaders insight into the antecedents of excellence for their schools. And he provides direction on how to identify the next generation of leaders and begin mentoring them to become more effective. Throughout the book Reeves challenges paradigms and forces leaders to critically think about their craft and their purpose.

The Unique Elements of Educational Leadership

Educational Leaders are the architects of improved individual and organizational performance.

• The leader designs but does not do the work.
• The leader is by definition dissatisfied with the status quo.
• Inclusive emphasis on individual and organizational performance.
• The seminal contribution of the leader is to make connections among all the other contributors.* The effectiveness of the leader is guaged by the results over two, five or ten years- not last year.

Effective leaders understand the "antecedents of excellence."

• Always trying to discover what really works; what causes improved performance.
• Working from data rather than hunches.
• Asking questions, testing hypotheses rather than simply restating perceptions of research.
• Leading by learning rather than having all the answers; creating moments through questions, errors, admissions of ignorance, persistent investigation.

Change

The dilemma of leadership: building consensus or creating change:

• Effective leaders know the task is to render accomplishment of a difficult task more rewarding than avoidance of the task.
• Effective leaders understand the “human equation” and frame change around “What is in it for me?”
• Being fair doesn’t mean treating people identically.
• Leadership through the human equation means respecting the notion that individual needs have value and personal fears deserve consideration.
• Change is not really a choice. It is how we change; wisely based on data, values and vision or unwisely based on whim, chance and guessing.
• First why then how. Explain why the initiative is needed- move away from egocentric concerns.
• Change by consensus is a myth. You can’t wait for consensus if it compromises values and essential practice. (ie. cafe workers washing hands.)

Overcoming resistance to change:

• Individual resistance from several sources: disbelief in change effectiveness, personal experience making change appear unwise, fear of personal impact-inconvenience to embarrassment.
• Address resistance based on effectiveness with data and research.
• Address resistance based on fear and embarrassment with time, listening and empathic understanding.
• Celebrate small victories along the way.
• Celebrate the right things
• Create data friendly environments that answer: “What are you learning today? How do you know if you are successful?”
• Measure student and adult performance side by side. Use data not as a weapon but as a guide.
• Measure a few things many times rather than many things a few times.

The Daily Disciplines of Leadership

The effective leaders uses time differently than an ineffective leader does. The most effective leaders do not necessarily have more money, fewer unions, more enlightened stakeholders, or longers days. Rather, they know those areas where decsions have the maximum impact on essential results, and they focus their time on areas within their control.

The Daily Disciplines of Strategic Leadership

1. Define objectives on the basis of the mission.
2. Create standards of action. What must the organization do?
3. Develop an assessment tool. How do you know if you are successful? How do you know if you are exemplary? How do you know if you have not yet achieved success?
4. Implement an accountability system. Measure organizational results and the specific actions of individuals and of the organization that are indended to cause those results.
5. Provide continuous feedback. Analyze the relationship (or lack of relationship) between action and results, and refocus organizational energy and resources on the strategies that are most closely related to desired results.

Essentials of Time Management

• Create a Master Task List. Write all tasks on a single list and all scheduled obligations on a single calendar.
• Break Projects into Tasks. Anything on the task list that cannot be accomplished in a single block of time is not a task, but a project. Projects should be listed on a separate project tracking sheet.
• Prioritize & Date Each Task. A simple system of A, B, C suffices. Tasks with an A priority are important and must be completed. Tasks with a B priority usually require leadesrhip participation, but if there is limited time, they give way to A tasks. Tasks with a C priority represent requests for leadership action, but they are not necessarily tasks that can be accomplished only by the leader.
• Sort Tasks in Priority & Date Order. The physical act of writing the most important tasks the first thing every morning or the last thing every evening places a framework around the entire day.
• Highlight Today's List. From the many tasks on today's list (and possibly from the many A-level tasks on the list), dentify the six most important tasks for today.
• Work Today's List in Priority Order Commitment to working today's list in priority order implies clear recognition that note every voice mail, telephone message, e-mail, and letter is of equal importance.
• Conduct a Prioritized Task Audit at Least Once a Week. Leaders are responsible not only for their own time management decisions, but also for those of colleagues. At least once a week, and preferable more often, a brief stand-up meeting should be held by top leaders in any organization in which the top six tasks are shared. The key question that leaders must ask of one another is ths: "Do your top priorities as reflected on the task list really reflect the top priorities of our organization?"

Guidelines for Maintaining Your System Leadership Focus

1. Find one time management system, and then stick with it - all tasks are centralized in a single location, prioritized, and worked in priority order.
2. Answer e-mail only twice a day.
3. Answer voice mail only three times per day, entering calls on the task list in priority order.
4. Answer only urgent and important mail daily; same all other mail for a weekly review.
5. Schedule a two-hour block of "project work time" at least once per week.

Daily Disciplines Resources

Click the links below to access documents that Sweet Home administrators have used to build understanding around the concepts presented in The Daily Disciplines of Leadership.