A Strengths-Based Approach to School Leadership: How a What’s Right With Me Paradigm Engages The School Community Teri Marcos, Ed.D., Chair Department of Educational Leadership Azusa Pacific University

Strengths Philosophy “Individuals gain more when they build on their talents, than when they make comparable efforts to improve their areas of weakness.” --Clifton & Harter, 2003, p. 112

Writing Challenge  Write your name 5 times…

What Was the Difference?  Could you write with your non-dominant hand?  With practice, could you get better at this?  Could you write as WELL or as FAST or as EASILY as with your dominant hand?

The Strengths Perspective “You start seeing people in terms of who they are … rather than in terms of who they aren’t…” --Chip Anderson, 2000

What Are Strengths? Talent + Knowledge + Skills = Strength --Clifton & Harter, 2003 Ways of seeing the world and interacting with it that enable excellence.

The Highest Achievers  Spend most of their time in their areas of strength  Use their strengths to overcome obstacles  Invent ways of capitalizing on their strengths in new situations

The Focus Changes FROM:  Problems  Attendance  Preparation  Putting into the student  Average TO:  Possibilities  Engagement  Motivation  Drawing out from the student  Excellence

The Global Language of Data  Data cognitively drive the current global language we speak in education.  Strengths-based training affectively rooted in the field of social work, psychiatry, and business, draw on the strengths of individuals as an effective replacement of commonly accepted deficit models which ask ‘what’s wrong with me’ to a ‘what’s right with me’ approach.

What’s Right With Me?  This question offers a powerful counter to the largely data-driven landscape of public education in America.  “Becoming more aware of one’s strengths can build excellence in future achievements, relationships, and other life experiences” (Clifton and Anderson, 2004).

What is a Strength?  In their book, StrengthsQuest, Clifton and Anderson define a strength as “the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in a given activity.”  The Gallup organization’s Clifton StrengthsFinder Inventory was prescribed within this research as a personal lens through which school leaders viewed their strengths.

The Standardized Language of American School Leadership Practice  Competent American school leaders are required to provide consistent, near- perfect performance within the six contructs of their duties, as defined by the Interstate School Leadership Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) National Standards for Educational Leadership.  These are:

ISLLC Standards 1. Facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community. (Visionary Leadership). 2. Advocating, nurturing and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth. (Professional Culture).

Cont… 3. Ensuring management of the organization, operations, and resources for a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment (Efficient Management of Operations). 4. Collaborating with families and community members, responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources (Responsiveness to Community).

Cont… 5. Modeling a personal code of ethics and developing professional leadership capacity (Ethical Leadership). 6. Responding to, and influencing the larger political, social economic, legal, and cultural context (Politically and Culturally Sensitive Understanding).

Know Thyself  Globally, we are experiencing exponential growth in new knowledge, new fields of scholarly practice, and new technologies that facilitate our creation of, access to, and distribution of information.  School leaders must ‘know thyself’ (Glickman, 2004) in such a world to effectively lead others.

The Language of Identity  Knowing thyself through identity is crucial to learning and to leading.  1,500 individuals were surveyed in 1988 (by Kouzes and Posner) to determine what values (personal traits or characteristics) they admire in their superiors.  Findings – followers admired leaders who were honest, competent, forward-looking and inspiring.

The Language of Strengths  The findings of Kouzes and Posner showed that followers hold dear the relationship of the personal values of decision makers to the values of their organization.  Values are communicated in everything a school leader does, writes, and speaks. This second set of skills includes the ability to be empathetic, to listen attentively, to pay attention to another and to value others.

Strengths  Strengths are naturally occurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior which can be productively applied.  “Strengths are among the most real and most authentic aspects of a personhood” (Clifton and Anderson, 2004).

34 SignatureThemes AchieverDeliberativeLearner * ActivatorDeveloperMaximizer Adaptability **DisciplinePositivity AnalysisEmpathyRelator ** ArrangerFocusResponsibility BeliefFuturisticRestorative CommandHarmonizerSelf-Assurance CommunicatorIdeationSignificance CompetitorIncluderStrategic ConnectednessIndividualizationWinning Others Over (WOO) ConsistencyInput * **= Strongest Student Themes ContextIntellection * = Strongest Faculty Themes Source: Dr. Laurie Schreiner, APU

Strengths and School Leadership  As school leaders identified their own top five strengths, they began to recognize the strengths of others.

Method Objective: This research examined the perceptions of K- 12 public and private school leaders on the effects their top five identified strengths had on their leadership skills within the American school setting. Sample: 75 American school leaders were randomly selected to respond to a questionnaire regarding their perspectives on the effects of their top five identified strengths on their leadership skills within the American school learning environment. Instrument: Three sections: Demographics, Four element Likert Scale, qualitative section to gather school leaders’ perceptions of the effects of their strengths within their leadership role at their school. Procedure: School leaders were sampled through public mailings, and APU’s master’s degree program in educational leadership.

Reliability StrengthsFinder Inventory:  Used with over 4 million people in 17 languages – over 100,000 college students  Previous Gallup studies: 17-month test- retest reliability across all populations ranges from.60 to.80  College student validity study: 3-month test-retest reliability among college students ranges from.70 to.76

Three Primary Findings 70% of all respondents identified Achiever and/or Learner as their top or second strength. 1. Overall leadership capacity increased 2. Building Communities of Practice was enhanced 3. Increased understanding of group dynamics Strengths:Total N % of 75 Respondents Achiever//////////////////////////2635% Learner//////////////////////////2635% Maximizer////////////////////2027% Responsibility////////////////1621% Harmony////////////////1621%

Overall Leadership Capacity Increased  99% of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that an increase in their overall leadership capacity was positively attributed to knowing their strengths.  80% agreed or somewhat agreed that leading change, and decision making capacity (90%) were each impacted significantly through knowing their strengths.

Building Communities of Practice 93% agreed or somewhat agreed that building community was enhanced through knowing their strengths in the following areas: 1. Valuing others’ strengths (91%) 2. Team building (91%) 3. Valuing diversity (96%) 4. Parent contact (93%) 5. Increased adaptability (89%)

Group Dynamics 88% of respondents identified an increase in the understanding of group dynamics. Sub-categories within group dynamics emerged as: 1. Improved professional relationships (91%) 2. Facilitation of meetings (83%) 3. Student discipline (93%) 4. Communication with students (96%) 5. Communication with staff (99%)

Conclusions  As knowledge increasingly relates to feeling it continues to appreciably affect behavior.  In our data driven society, school leaders, teachers, and designers of curriculum and assessment need to recognize that motivation and engagement are at the heart of all learning.  This can be accomplished well through a strengths-based approach.

Recommendations  A renewed vision of the importance of balance through each of the three learning modalities of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor must be raised.  Educators need to well espouse each of the three domains of learning and leading, and do our very best to employ the use of the affective domain in teaching students.  It is recommended school leaders become empowered by knowing their strengths to pursue excellence for their organizations.

Summary  Affectively, strengths-based models fit well into the area of knowledge for training school leaders, teachers, and students.  Participants in this study said: “I know my unique strengths now”; “I use my strengths everyday, and I observe others and can identify their strengths”; “I now understand why and how I can be successful.”