The Positive Leadership Blog

The Challenges of 21st Century America

The United States of America, which for nearly seventy years has been the richest and most powerful nation in the world is entering what will be the most difficult period in American history since the Civil War. If we are to come through this next half century with our status as leader of the free world intact, it will require the very best that we have to offer both as a nation and as a people.

                After nearly two decades of war our military services remain powerful but they have not come through unscathed. Our military personnel, particularly those branches that have had to deal with a steady stream of deployments, is beginning to fray at the edges. We are seeing this with the number of returning service men and women who are dealing with emotional problems that are affecting their ability to be good husbands and wives and good mothers and fathers. These emotional issues are also affecting their ability to return to their civilian jobs and careers. We are seeing it in the disturbing number of incidents in which individual soldiers and marines have committed horrific acts of violence against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan; acts that are threatening to undue much of what has been accomplished as a result of dedication, commitment, and sacrifices of the overwhelming majority.

                Sustaining our military strength is also sapping our nation’s economic strength at a time when the economy has been weakened by forces both internal and external. Our national indebtedness, with China as our largest creditor, is spiraling out of control as other players in the international marketplace are challenging American supremacy on almost every front.

                Our political process is also staggering under demagoguery as our elected officials seem unable to be civil to one another let alone find solutions to the pressing problems that are pulling us apart as a people. We now accuse those who oppose us as being un-American and as working to destroy the very form of government they were elected to protect. Gone are times when men and women in positions of public trust can set aside their differences to find workable compromises. Whatever happen to the concept of loyal opposition.

                One of the strengths of America throughout history has been our diversity as a people and our tolerance of people of different races and different faiths. While the super-rich get richer the population of Americans who are economically disadvantage grows at an even faster rate. Even worse is the burgeoning population of Americans who are becoming disenfranchised and who are losing their belief in the American Dream. Sadly some of the people who believe most strongly in the American dream are men and women to whom we are unwilling to grant amnesty. We are becoming a nation of haves and have-nots and this has frightening ramifications for the future of our democracy.

                The growing population of the hard-core unemployed are joining the ranks of the impoverished and are demanding more and more in the way of public support. At the same time, the leading edge of burgeoning population of baby boomers is reaching retirement in huge numbers and many of these men and women will be dependent on a Social Security and Medicare system that threatens to collapse under their own weight. The remaining population of Americans will be expected to work hard to support both of these population groups in an economy that is no longer able to dominate the international marketplace.

                Our systems of public education appear to be failing in communities all over the U.S., particularly in our urban communities and teachers are being unfairly blamed for this failure. As a result of this attack on the teaching professions young people who might have otherwise considered a career in education are having second thoughts. Educational professionals, researchers, and policy makers so badly misinterpret the reasons for public educations perceived failures that they are aggravating and already perilous situation. The problems with public education in American are the result of a burgeoning population of Americans who are developing a disdain for education and as a result these men and women are abdicating their responsibility as full partners in the process of educating their children. As a result, literally millions of American children lack a motivation to learn.

At the same time, policy makers in states such as Indiana are passing legislation for voucher systems and charter schools that siphoning away from our urban public schools huge numbers of families who value education and whose children are motivated to learn. This leaves public schools and their teachers and administrators with a population of parents who do not value education and with children who are not motivated to learn and who make little or no effort to do anything in the classroom other than disrupt.

                Education has always been considered to be the ticket to the American dream and our public schools have always provided the means through which young people could have their ticket stamped. What happens to a society when the promise of its dream is no longer valued and when its population is unwilling and unable to make the sacrifices necessary to keep the dream alive? Unless we address these issues with a fresh resolve and a renewed commitment the future of the United States is very much in doubt. Think about a professional sports franchise when the fan base has lost their interest in the outcome and when its player development system is stagnant and dysfunctional. This, my fellow Americans, is the United States of America as we enter the second decade of the 21^st century.

America's Pre-eminence at Grave Risk

The United States of America, which for generations has been the richest, most powerful nation in the world, is under attack and our position of pre-eminence is at grave risk. This threat is more dangerous than anything Al Qaeda or the Taliban can throw at us and it is also more dangerous than our current economic challenges and our proclivity to spend beyond our means. It is even more dangerous than a stalemated Congress that has forgotten that democracy only works when a people are willing to work together to find common ground.

            The U.S. is like a major league baseball franchise that has become so complacent with winning that it has begun to view success as an entitlement and this entitlement mentality is pervasive. The nation’s payroll of its leaders, whether political or economic, has become so burdensome and disproportionate that operating in the red has become a default decision; but even this is not America's team’s greatest problem.

            Historically, our team’s ability to compete was constructed on the foundation of a player-development system that was second-to-none. Over the years, however, our system of player development has become lackadaisical. On the one hand, we have lost sight of the fundamentals but, more importantly, the percentage of the population of young people who not only want to compete but are motivated to excel has diminished exponentially.

Of course, U.S.’s player development system is nothing other than the American system of private and public education. It is a documented fact that American children are falling further and further behind. According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the U.S. ranks 25th in math, 17th in science, and 14th in reading out of the 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.[1]

In school systems throughout the U.S., teacher’s are being held accountable as student performance on various competency examinations fails to rise to expectations. Even more frightening, in some communities, we are lowering our expectations in response to this decline in performance, which is the absolute last thing we should be doing.

Sadly, our propensity for blaming teachers for the problems of public education, particularly in our cities, is a travesty. Because a number of special schools have been able to demonstrate remarkable results only serves to reinforce our belief that our public schools are doing something wrong. The dramatic difference in the performance of private, parochial, suburban, and some rural school districts only reinforces our misguided notion that urban public schools are failing, miserably. That white students out-perform minority students and that children from affluent families out-perform children from poor families further obscures what should be an obvious truth. The burgeoning gap between African-American students and their white counterparts confuses the issue even more.

So what is the obvious truth that we seem to be overlooking? The truth is that the key to educational success is student motivation which, itself, is a function of the extent to which the parents of those children value education and the level of responsibility those parents accept as partners in the education of their children. The success of special schools, private and parochial schools, and suburban public schools is not because they are better schools populated by better teachers. Their success is the result of the fact that these schools have become magnets that draw-in parents who are committed to the vital importance of education along with their motivated students. So blind are we to this penultimate truth, we fail to see that our mindless insistence on offering voucher programs so that more families can pull their children out of urban public schools only exacerbates the problem. Voucher programs may appear to be a salvation for some families but they are daggers to the hearts of urban public schools and the unheralded professional educators who labor there.

What remains are urban communities where the predominant culture, whatever the ethnic or racial make-up, not only devalues education but, most important of all, they have lost faith and hope in America; they have given up on the American Dream.

In the interim, other nations and their emerging economies, with China leading the way, threaten to supplant the United States of America as the richest, most powerful, and best educated nation in the world. This past holiday season, the American consumer has been asked to pay attention to whether or not the consumer goods we purchase are American made. What we have all seen, if we have taken the time to look, is that the products of China and other foreign economies dominate the shelves of retailers throughout the U.S. This is nothing more than hard evidence that we are losing the war for economic supremacy.

Recalling the performance of American fifteen year-olds in PISA rankings, we should be absolutely terrified by the fact that the nation that leads all categories of the PISA study is China. This author’s prediction is that, if we do not commit ourselves to changing this reality, in fifty years China will look to the U.S. workers for their cheap labor.

This threat to our way of life as Americans is more serious than any threat we have faced since the Civil War and the key to our success or failure in the next half century will be determined by the quality of our systems of education, both public and private.

It is absolutely imperative that our political, economic, and spiritual leaders, at all levels of our society, join forces to revitalize “the American Dream” and to reinforce in the minds of American parents of all racial, ethnic, and economic status that the ticket to the American Dream is a quality education. This will require not only that American parents relentlessly instill the importance of education in the minds and hearts of their children but that they make a commitment to become full partners, working hand-in-hand, with their children’s educators.

This is a formidable challenge that requires an unprecedented level of positive leadership on the part of all Americans. If we fail to rise to this challenge, as a people united in a common purpose, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren's futures are stark. They will never experience what it has been like for us to be "proud Americans."

 

 

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[1] www.oecd.org/edu/pisa/2009. “The Programme for International Student Assessment is an internationally standardized assessment that was jointly developed by participating economies and administered to 15-year-olds in schools.”

Positive Leadership Under Extreme Crisis

Recent events in Japan remind us of how important positive leadership can be in crises of immense proportion.  Less recent events such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and, prior to that, Hurricane Katrina further substantiate our assertion that powerful positive leadership can make an enormous difference in crisis-management outcomes while the absence of positive leadership can aggravate an already horrific situation.

In times of extreme crisis, providing powerful positive leadership is paramount.  This requires that our leaders be visible, transparent, and honest with us while balancing both the right and the need to know with the responsibility for avoiding panic.  It helps enormously if our leaders have already earned our trust but even a mediocre leader can step up in such crises and be a powerful calming influence while also making certain that the things that need to happen, happen.

It requires that our leaders avoid the blame game and instead accept full responsibility for both the successes and failures in their response to the emergency requirements of their people.  Positive leaders are able to convey empathy by assuring people that we are listening to them and that we understand the magnitude of the circumstances with which they are confronted.

Often in such crises it is impossible to accomplish everything that needs to be done as quickly as people think appropriate.  It is vital that we take the time to understand the full breadth and scope of the crises and that we set priorities but this must be done with the greatest possible expediency and, in the interim, it is important that we take whatever action we can to alleviate danger, suffering, and the anguish of the uncertainty that flows from being uninformed.  Getting water to the Superdome during Katrina is the most glaring example of emergency response systems that become paralyzed by the magnitude of the disaster or other crises.

In watching the news coverage of the tragedy in Japan I wondered, as the news helicopter flew over people who were stranded on their rooftops, if anyone was making the point of communicating with those people to let them know that:

1)      they have been seen,

2)      that authorities have been notified of their location and circumstances, and

3)      if rescue is not imminent, making sure they have water, food, and first aid resources as they wait for help to arrive.

 

Human beings have tremendous resiliency as long as they have hope and nothing eats away at one’s hope more than uncertainty as to whether anyone knows where we are and understands the severity and consequences of our circumstances.

Positive leaders are, by definition, pro-active and one of the most important things they do is to plan for worst-case scenarios.  One of the most vital components of any disaster plan is a comprehensive “first response strategy” ready to be implemented without waiting for some official somewhere to give the okay.

Planning for the unanticipated is always a less-than-perfect process and we will always be surprised by things that could not have been predicted.  That is why it is imperative that we do not spend so much time worrying about the criticism that will flow from our mistakes that we fail to learn the lessons they provide.  This is where leadership integrity distinguishes powerful positive leaders from the field. 

Not all crises take on the enormous magnitude of the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan but lesser crises can be just as traumatic to people and this is particularly true in an organizational leadership environment.  Positive leaders in organizations are prepared for the unexpected and they understand that the unanticipated loss of a major customer or the need for significant downsizing can be just as traumatic for our people as natural disasters.  If people know they can count on their leaders to be fully prepared, to keep them informed, to admit their mistakes and imperfections and to learn from those things we will follow such leaders almost anywhere and will give them the best effort of which we are capable.

What preparations have you made for such events?  Should they occur, what will be the caliber of the positive leadership that your people can expect from you?

Positive Leadership Critical to the Future of Public Education

The crisis in American public education could also be described as a crisis of leadership.  As is true in so many venues, we have a tendency to view our problems from a perspective of encapsulation.  Within a system, we examine only those components in which we operate, never taking the time to examine the system as an integral whole or to understand how our own actions contribute to the system’s failures.  As we confront the challenges that flow from the decline in test scores, in cities all over the nation, it is critical that we explore the role of leadership in education, that we apply a system’s thinking approach to the challenges of public education, and that we think exponentially.

For a number of years, while rebuilding my leadership consulting practice and writing books, I worked as a substitute teacher in the public school district of my community.  In my visits to all of the high schools and middle schools, as a substitute teacher, I can usually tell the quality of leadership being provided in the school just by observing the school in operation.  My observations may be from the classroom, from the hallways, or from the faculty lounge.  After seven years of subbing, I have been in each of the nine middle schools and six high schools scores of times.  During the course of a single school year I may have visited a given school building a dozen or more times and there are several school in which I never laid eyes on the principal. 

On one occasion, while taking a break in the faculty lounge, I listened in on a conversation in which several teachers were expressing frustration about their principal.  One of the teachers came to the principal’s defense by commenting that the administrative demands placed on the principals from the school corporation are such that they have time for little else.  This is exactly the wrong focus and contributes significantly to the problem in many schools.

School corporations must do whatever they can to remove the administrative burden from the shoulders of their principals.  This could begin with the addition of a middle level administrator whose job it is to handle all of the administrative demands involved in managing the operations of a school building so that the principal can spend a minimum of seventy-five percent of his or her time in face-to-face contact with faculty and staff, students, and parents.  Let’s face it, anyone can do the paperwork but we need our best leaders providing leadership. 

Every principal and assistant principal in the district should participate in a variety of leadership development programs to hone their skills in selling vision, mission, and values to all of the players in their school community.  They must know how to effectively develop the skills of their faculty through observation, consultation, and feedback; they must be able to relate to the kids through face-to-face interaction, getting to know as many of them as possible and forming genuine relationships with them; they must be able to communicate directly with parents, always selling the mission, always doing whatever they can to pull those parents in, both physically and emotionally.    

When our eldest child was nearing high school age, my wife and I debated whether to send our Catholic daughter to the public school for the district in which we lived or to a nearby Catholic high school.  The decision was made after attending an orientation program at the public high school and was influenced almost entirely by the principal who spoke to us one mid-summer evening.

This man began his presentation with the words, “I am big, and I’m black, and I’m ugly!” and in the next ten minutes he successfully sold himself and his school to us.  He was far and away the best principal that any of our three children had while attending Fort Wayne Community Schools. 

What was it about this man that distinguished him from his colleagues over the twenty-year period during which we had children in public schools?  He was a communicator.  He sold us on his mission and his belief that our kids were special. During the several years that he was principal for two of my children, it was obvious that this man had a special gift.  He spent time in the halls and classrooms and would stop to talk to kids and also to listen.  At every opportunity he talked to them about pride and about respect and they listened; black kids, white kids, and Hispanic kids.  He expected much from his students both academically and with respect to how they conducted themselves and they listened.  Whether it was true or not, every student in the school believed that they had a relationship with this man and that he had a special interest in them.  The school was a special place, indeed.

Just how much a difference this man made for all of his students was not fully apparent until he left for an advancement opportunity.  His successors, accomplished professionals all, were never quite able to reproduce the magic.

No doubt, not everyone comes to their role as a principal in possession of a special gift but what this principal accomplished, through his positive leadership, illustrates just how much of a difference positive leadership can make.  Every principal should strive to model this man.  They should be evaluated on the effectiveness with which they perform to these expectations and they should be selected on the basis of skill sets that would make that possible.  Because positive leadership is craft that men and women develop over time, leaders in all venues must be involved in incessant, ongoing leadership development.

Principals have no business hiding in their offices any more than managers in business organizations belong in their offices.  The challenge of organizational leaders everywhere is to help their people be successful and to satisfy their customers.  In the business of education our customers are the students and parents that we serve, and our people are the professionals who teach those children and the staff that support both students and faculty in that process.  Any school district that allows administrative paperwork to obscure the mission and purpose of its principals will surely fall short of fulfilling its potential.

One of the most important things positive leaders do is to make sure their organization and its people are focused where they need to be.  In the next article we will explore how a systems-thinking approach can provide a meaningful opportunity to transform public education in the United States.

             

The Politics of Intractability

Intractability is not leadership.  Leaders accept responsibility for finding solutions to problems.  Leaders can be strong advocates for their point of view but they are also realistic men and women who believe common ground can be found upon which meaningful construction can rise.

 

We live in a world where it has become more important to keep our opposition at bay than it is to reach across the aisle, whether political or ideological.  No longer are members of opposing points of view reasonable men and women with a desire to make the world a better place rather they have become the enemy.  The sad truth is that when we speak of enemies, our focus shifts to defeating them rather than settling our differences.  What a sad day it is when we are known more for that which we oppose than for that for which we stand.

 

The intractability and divisiveness of Congress has become so profound that dedicated public servants are throwing their hands up in despair and then walking away, with Senator Evan Bayh the most recent example.  However much we might understand his frustration, Senator Bayh has, sadly, let his constituents down when they needed him most.

 

If every reasonable legislator, irrespective of political party, chooses to quit when things get rough, with whom are we left?  Do we really want a Congress full of narrow-minded men and women so encapsulated in their dogma that they are incapable of independent thought and so fearful of inciting the wrath of a growing body of demagogues?

 

What we need is positive leadership from men and women who are willing and able to accept the responsibilities of their office.  We need men and women who are willing to roll up there sleeves and work together; to challenge assumptions and prejudices; and to seek creative new ideas and solutions to our most pressing problems.

 

Healthcare provides a great lesson.  Are that many Americans truly willing to deny access to care to men, women, and children who suffer through no fault of their own or are they simply afraid?  Are they so afraid of their government that they cannot believe we can find a way to provide universal healthcare without relying on socialized medicine?  Are they so afraid that a few individuals might get something for nothing that they are willing to let honorable, hard-working Americans suffer and die because they cannot get access to the care they require? 

 

One of the great ironies of the healthcare debate are the legions of senior citizens, hard working Americans who have reached retirement age, who react with anger at healthcare reform because they perceive it to mean socialized medicine.  These same Americans reap the benefits of Medicare, which is the most obvious example of socialized medicine in America, because, after all, they’ve earned it.

 

Is it so hard to imagine that the American people, the most creative and industrious people in the history of the world, might be able to find a way to provide comprehensive healthcare and prescription drugs to all Americans without relying on socialized medicine?  Is it impossible to imagine that we could find a way to insure that all Americans pay their own way, proportionate to their income, irrespective of source?

 

Is it not ironic that opponents of healthcare reform, so unwilling to place their faith in their government or in their fellow citizens, are content to put their faith in the health insurance industry, companies that put no one’s interest above their own?

 

Whether health care, public education, the environment, racism, poverty, unemployment, renewable energy, drugs, crime, or disintegrating families, our society is beset by problems that threaten to destroy that which our forefathers worked so hard to create.  We need elected representatives who will be powerful positive leaders who accept responsibility for finding fresh ideas and innovative solutions.  We need positive leader who recognize that the power of the American people can and will insulate them from the power of both parasitical special interest groups, and the blind dogma of political demagoguery.

 

The success of American democracy is that it is built upon the foundation of timeless principles the most important of which is the freedom to change.  America became the beacon of hope for the world as a result of its ability to adapt to an ever-changing world and to seize opportunities.

 

The world is changing faster than ever before and this presents us with not only the greatest challenges in our nation’s history but also the greatest opportunities.  How we choose to respond is a matter of leadership.