Leadership magazine Nov/Dec 2014 V 44 No 2 | Page 21

Characteristics of effective leaders
The following are five skills, actions and
characteristics of site leaders who can cultivate the land to plant the Common Core
seed:

1.

Transformer of school culture. The
site leader needs to know how to develop a culture where the adults are comfortable being uncomfortable. The leader must
know what will “push” the adults without
pushing them over. Intellectual risk-taking
should be the norm, not the exception.

ing others accountable. They don’t take their
eyes off the prize of teacher support, which
leads to student achievement.
Our current method of developing leaders must be challenged. Despite the belief of
policymakers and the business community
that our students have not been provided the
necessary skills to compete at a global level
– a belief that birthed the Common Core
Standards – we did not develop systemic

2.

Instructional leader. Courageous
Equity Leaders use their faculty
meetings as classrooms and design powerful
professional development as they lead their
staff. Evidence of the elements of an effective
lesson becomes clear as they deliver information to staff. Deep learning activities provide experiential learning of what is effective
teaching and learning.

3.

Data user. Site leaders can leave a
district office meeting or professional development with a cornucopia of information and make it their own, and then
transfer the message or objectives to the staff
to take action. They clearly understand the
power of summative and formative data to
lead instructional practice. They are able to
use disaggregated student achievement data
to challenge and transform teacher mindsets.

4.

Reflective questioner of teacher
practice. Leaders must be able to
empower the adults in the building by asking ref lective questions that give ownership of instructional practice to the teacher.
Teachers must reflect on the critical issues
of teacher efficacy, mind-set, planning and
instructional delivery. For example, a reflective question I use with teachers is, “How
will you ensure that your students exceed
your expectations for mastering learning
objectives?”

5.

91-octane performer. These performers do their most effective
leadership running at 150 miles an hour.
They are able to rank priorities for school
and teacher transformation, and have an
uncanny ability to get things done by hold

rigorous standards for our teachers and administrators.
Many states have adopted core standards
for teacher evaluation and performance as
well as administrator standards. However,
after a deep analysis of several