I just returned from NAIS’s Institute for New Heads in Atlanta, where we welcomed nearly 80 new leaders into the fold. It was a diverse group in many ways — their schools range in size from 20 to 1,750 students and serve many different types of audiences: coed, single sex, language immersion, etc. There was more gender diversity than has been the norm — the group was split almost 50/50 between men and women. However, less than a handful were of heads of color. (We hope new research that NAIS is conducting on barriers to headship for women and people of color will shed some light on how to change these statistics.)
While at the Institute, I had the opportunity to engage in one-on-one conversations with many of the new heads. They all had interesting stories to tell about their paths to leadership and why they thought this school was the right fit. Although many had taken the traditional path to independent school leadership, teacher to division/assistant head to head of school, a few had come from business and/or other administrative roles at our schools, such as enrollment managers.
What struck me was how many new heads were facing significant issues from day one. Some were arriving to enrollment challenges like many NAIS schools, but others were facing inherited issues around sexual abuse or financial malfeasance. They all seemed up to the challenges. I was impressed by their quick grasp of issues, their creative strategies, and their willingness to learn.
The Promise of Behavioral Economics
As I spent time with them, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of leadership skills would serve them best in the years to come. Two related research-based theories seem particularly useful for our school leaders to consider.
The first is one that has been extensively researched by Gallup, that is, the importance of behavioral economics to organizational performance. Gallup CEO Jim Clifton suggested that “leading with in-depth understanding of states of mind” would be the most important attribute of next generation leaders. In a Gallup report on this topic, authors John Fleming and James Harter explain that leaders need to “see employees and customers as people first and employees and customers second and understand that they are subject to all the inherent contradictions, flaws, and emotions that come with being human.”
Collecting data to understand human behavior can provide leaders with new strategies for enhancing performance. They provide an example of a study of radiologists, which uncovered that when a patient’s photograph was attached to the medical file, the radiologist was more empathetic, resulting in longer, more thorough reports. Put simply, the promise of behavioral economics is that by connecting with employees and customers emotionally, and understanding what drives those emotions, we can radically improve outcomes. For schools, this can translate into building stronger workforces and/or gaining more insight into how families make enrollment decisions.
The second, somewhat related theory, came up last November when NAIS board member Michael Horn, consultant and former head of the Christensen Institute, introduced the NAIS board to the jobs-to-be-done framework.
According to the Institute, this framework “is a tool for evaluating the circumstances that arise in customers’ lives. Customers rarely make buying decisions around what the ‘average’ customer in their category may do — but they often buy things because they find themselves with a problem they would like to solve. With an understanding of the ‘job’ for which customers find themselves ‘hiring’ a product or service, organizations can more accurately develop and market products or services well-tailored to what customers are already trying to do.”
Although independent schools are not developing consumer products, both the states of mind and jobs-to-be-done theories can have important applications for school leaders. The jobs-to-be-done framework uses a model called “progress making forces” to describe the forces involved when someone makes a new choice. For example, this could be determining whether to send their child to a new school. The framework, as seen pictured below, outlines the forces that both promote and block a change.
Credit: The Re-Wired Group
When considering the human challenges facing schools, the “states of mind” theory aligns well with the important work of those at Hartford Hospital who created the Independent School Health Check. This 45-minute, 105 question survey provides a comprehensive look at student behaviors and attitudes, helping a school to identify risk factors and develop protective strategies. The survey covers topics such as academic achievement and motivation, academic pressure, alcohol and substance abuse, bullying, and sexual activity. Results are benchmarked against a database of more than 50,000 students. Given the rise of depression and anxiety among adolescents that can often result in self-harming behaviors, gaining insight into prevention through quantifiable data is essential for school leaders.
Four Qualities for Leaders to Develop
If this nod to the behavioral sciences will help new leaders achieve in their jobs, are there other attributes that will help them remain in those jobs? The Center for Creative Leadership suggests four:
- Be a Seeker. To boost learning agility, leaders need to seek out new and diverse experiences and immerse themselves in situations that broaden their skills and perspectives.
- Hone Sensemaking. In today’s high-stakes, complex, ambiguous, and fast-moving situations, leaders don’t have the luxury of time. They need to dive in and start making things happen. This means taking an active approach to making sense of new challenges. Ask: “Why?” “How?” and “Why not?”
- Internalize Experiences and Lessons Learned. Leaders need to solidify insight and lessons learned for recall and application later. They must ask for feedback, be open to criticism, and take time to think about what happened and what they are learning.
- Adapt and Apply. Through experiences, leaders create principles and rules of thumb to guide them. Over time, they get better at applying these principles to navigate new and challenging situations. They need to use their intuition, be flexible, and not shy away from experimentation when they venture into new territory.
Although we cannot see into the future, we know the education landscape will continue to grow more complex over time — with myriad new challenges and opportunities arising. Leaders will need to be aware of their strengths and build leadership teams with varying skills and abilities to face these challenges together. It’s a whole new world of leadership.
NAIS congratulates the 2016 class of new heads and wishes them the best in the years to come.
