Day 26: Leadership in Uncertain Times
We're back from "vacation" although it's not clear how that week was different from this week. It may be my main roles are somewhat removed from the students and teachers daily work and the weeks are more distinctly different for them.
Although I don't think I'm doing that much (although it seems my days are full and a lot of my time is related to "work"), I think leadership in this situation involves shepherding the whole school in short and longer term sustainability. Maybe that is what leadership always is, although what "sheep" you're herding probably differs greatly depending on the circumstances. I guess this goes back to the old idea of "situational leadership" (Ken Blanchard I believe, if I recall my grad student days:)--the idea of what leadership entails based on the situation.
This situation seems to be calling for a couple areas of attention.
First of all is financial stability. This involves some relatively simple financial management and projections of our current year budget. Most expenses are pretty set, although you can subtract a bit of savings from closure (such as heat, food, electricity, some materials). Revenue at this time of the year is mostly in hand, fortunately (although it has proven unfortunately difficult to get public tuition payments with their business office all working remotely). So we should be okay for this school year.
We also applied for the stimulus bill Payroll Protection Plan money and were approved in about 20 minutes! It took another almost two weeks to get the paperwork processes and the e-signing documents (completed today!) This should help immensely with the school's financial picture looking ahead to summer and next year and all the uncertainties that may bring.
The second role is managing this uncertainty, which, in truth, is kind of unmanageable. One piece of this is trying to evaluate what the uncertainties actually are and what might be happening in the next weeks, months and years. So I'm drawn to take in lots of input (where did all these folk get my email to send invitations to countless panels and webinars and reports on what's next????). This feels like it could be endless, so I pick and choose (and listen a lot to VPR) but feel I'm pretty well informed (with the caveat that it seems so much is unknown even by the most scientific experts).
Foremost, I think leadership here depends on projecting calm. As someone said, while fear is contagious, so is calm. It doesn't seem that anxiety or fear or panic helps us manage in these challenging times. So I think it's valuable to reflect calmness and express confidence that our school and staff are well positioned and that we believe our students and families have the capacity to step up for what's needed now. In addition, while this school year is the immediate concern for many, we want to be sure people know Compass will be here in September when we hope we can all be back together in person.
While calmness is valued in the immediate time frame, thinking about more long term planning for the school (not to mention the economy, the social fabric, and the health of the planet) is tricky. There are so many unknowns from what it will mean to open things up and when these steps might happen to what might be possible for graduation to if we can be back in school in September or if there will be a respike in problems in the fall. Trying to plan for all possible contingencies from being totally back to normal to being totally remote learning in the fall is just too big a range, for me, to dig into. For now, I am focusing on the presumption nothing is much more open for schools this year and that next school year we will assume will be back in the building. If we have to plan for more remote learning, we will know much more of this over the summer but until then, it seems too distracting of energy and time to plan for multiple scenarios that we have no way of evaluating now.
Maybe finally, I think an aspect of leadership now is helping keep focused on the right things (and relatedly, helping figure out what to filter out, at least for now). So things worth focusing on for me: personal health and well-being, immediate relations with those closest to me (and in these times, this can literally means closest physically), the work of school educationally, financially, and emotionally through to June, keeping up with useful news, and while I'm thinking there should be more, maybe that is enough (see my way earlier post on non-ambition).
What I feel less important to focus on: Long term planning, learning new skills, worrying, trying to replicate experiences from the normal world that would be second rate in some on-line manner, or putting pressure on myself (or others) to maximize this time to do more than what feels right at the moment as I learn to listen to my body and mind to help lead me in the right direction.
I hope others are learning to listen to the rhythms of their own internal compass. This is so alien to most people whose lives are prescribed by contingencies of work and family and other demands on our time. In this more fluid (and limited) world of the pandemic, this opportunity to be in touch with your own rhythms may one of the silver linings of difficult times.
Be kind to yourself, be kind to others, and be appreciative for the blessings in our lives.
Although I don't think I'm doing that much (although it seems my days are full and a lot of my time is related to "work"), I think leadership in this situation involves shepherding the whole school in short and longer term sustainability. Maybe that is what leadership always is, although what "sheep" you're herding probably differs greatly depending on the circumstances. I guess this goes back to the old idea of "situational leadership" (Ken Blanchard I believe, if I recall my grad student days:)--the idea of what leadership entails based on the situation.
This situation seems to be calling for a couple areas of attention.
First of all is financial stability. This involves some relatively simple financial management and projections of our current year budget. Most expenses are pretty set, although you can subtract a bit of savings from closure (such as heat, food, electricity, some materials). Revenue at this time of the year is mostly in hand, fortunately (although it has proven unfortunately difficult to get public tuition payments with their business office all working remotely). So we should be okay for this school year.
We also applied for the stimulus bill Payroll Protection Plan money and were approved in about 20 minutes! It took another almost two weeks to get the paperwork processes and the e-signing documents (completed today!) This should help immensely with the school's financial picture looking ahead to summer and next year and all the uncertainties that may bring.
The second role is managing this uncertainty, which, in truth, is kind of unmanageable. One piece of this is trying to evaluate what the uncertainties actually are and what might be happening in the next weeks, months and years. So I'm drawn to take in lots of input (where did all these folk get my email to send invitations to countless panels and webinars and reports on what's next????). This feels like it could be endless, so I pick and choose (and listen a lot to VPR) but feel I'm pretty well informed (with the caveat that it seems so much is unknown even by the most scientific experts).
Foremost, I think leadership here depends on projecting calm. As someone said, while fear is contagious, so is calm. It doesn't seem that anxiety or fear or panic helps us manage in these challenging times. So I think it's valuable to reflect calmness and express confidence that our school and staff are well positioned and that we believe our students and families have the capacity to step up for what's needed now. In addition, while this school year is the immediate concern for many, we want to be sure people know Compass will be here in September when we hope we can all be back together in person.
While calmness is valued in the immediate time frame, thinking about more long term planning for the school (not to mention the economy, the social fabric, and the health of the planet) is tricky. There are so many unknowns from what it will mean to open things up and when these steps might happen to what might be possible for graduation to if we can be back in school in September or if there will be a respike in problems in the fall. Trying to plan for all possible contingencies from being totally back to normal to being totally remote learning in the fall is just too big a range, for me, to dig into. For now, I am focusing on the presumption nothing is much more open for schools this year and that next school year we will assume will be back in the building. If we have to plan for more remote learning, we will know much more of this over the summer but until then, it seems too distracting of energy and time to plan for multiple scenarios that we have no way of evaluating now.
Maybe finally, I think an aspect of leadership now is helping keep focused on the right things (and relatedly, helping figure out what to filter out, at least for now). So things worth focusing on for me: personal health and well-being, immediate relations with those closest to me (and in these times, this can literally means closest physically), the work of school educationally, financially, and emotionally through to June, keeping up with useful news, and while I'm thinking there should be more, maybe that is enough (see my way earlier post on non-ambition).
What I feel less important to focus on: Long term planning, learning new skills, worrying, trying to replicate experiences from the normal world that would be second rate in some on-line manner, or putting pressure on myself (or others) to maximize this time to do more than what feels right at the moment as I learn to listen to my body and mind to help lead me in the right direction.
I hope others are learning to listen to the rhythms of their own internal compass. This is so alien to most people whose lives are prescribed by contingencies of work and family and other demands on our time. In this more fluid (and limited) world of the pandemic, this opportunity to be in touch with your own rhythms may one of the silver linings of difficult times.
Be kind to yourself, be kind to others, and be appreciative for the blessings in our lives.
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