Tag Archives: Leadership

A School Board Improves Its Focus Using the Baldrige Framework

28 Wednesday Sep 2016

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This post reprinted in its entirety courtesy of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, Gaithersburg, MD, http://www.nist.gov/baldrige and author Christine Schaefer. Posted as “A School Board Improves Its Focus Using the Baldrige Framework” on September 27 by Christine Schaefer.

BlogrigeThis past Saturday (September 24, 2016) was a proud day for Greg Gibson, a member of the Judges Panel for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. As superintendent of Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District (ISD) in Texas, Gibson was delighted to see his district’s board of trustees publicly recognized for its performance at the annual convention of the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA).

Specifically, the board of trustees for Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD is one of five (among school boards for about 1,100 public school districts across Texas) named a “2016 Texas Honor School Board” by TASA. Selection criteria for the annual award include “support for educational performance, support for educational improvement projects, commitment to a code of ethics, and maintenance of harmonious and supportive relationships among board members,” according to the TASA website.

scuc-board-portrait-blogrigeSchertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD Board Members:
Front row, from left to right: Mr. John Correu, Trustee; Mr. Robert Westbrook, Vice President; Mrs. Amy Driesbach, Trustee; and Mr. Jerry Perkins, Asst. Secretary.
Back row, left to right: Dr. Greg Gibson, Secretary of Schools; Mr. Mark Wilson, Trustee; Mr. Gary Inmon, President; and Mr. David Pevoto, Secretary.

Describing his board’s recent achievement, Gibson explained, “Starting about five years ago, we took the bold step of wiping our slate clean of our previous agenda in order to focus our actions at board meetings on student achievement and staff satisfaction and engagement. Previously, we had wasted too much time at meetings on other issues.”

He added, “We started with the definition of governance in glossary found in the back of the Baldrige Excellence Framework booklet (which includes the Education Criteria for Performance Excellence). The definition, which reflects the systems perspective that is a core concept of the Baldrige framework, begins as follows:

the system of management and controls exercised in the stewardship of your organization…

“We built on that definition and the Baldrige Criteria concepts in item 1.2 [the section on an organization’s governance system],” explained Gibson.

To improve its focus on the school district’s true priorities during board meetings, Gibson said, the seven board members and school system leader initially worked on improving the governance board’s performance in relation to 29 indicators of excellence from a longstanding state self-assessment tool.

“Once we maxed that out, we looked to continuously improve by moving to the Baldrige Criteria,” said Gibson. “The new self-analysis we built—it’s an inventory for good governance—is based directly on the Baldrige Excellence Framework. We’ll start using it in the next school year.”

For the statewide award received by his board last weekend, Gibson noted, “We wrote our application around the work our trustees are doing with the Baldrige framework.”

Congratulations to the board of trustees for Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD—and kudos to all boards of directors that similarly are using or plan to use the Baldrige framework to achieve and sustain good governance!

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Special thanks to Blogrige blogger Christine Schaefer for providing the opportunity to reprint Blogrige posts for WRIE readers. Reprint courtesy of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, Gaithersburg, MD, http://www.nist.gov/baldrige.

Our mission at Studer Education is to help education systems achieve measurable results that produce positive outcomes in student achievement, employee engagement, support services, and financial efficiencies and productivity. Our goal is to help school systems provide students with a great place to learn, teachers with a great place to teach, and parents with confidence that their children are getting a great education. Follow us on Twitter at @StuderEducation and visit us online at http://studereducation.com. Studer Education is a division of Studer Group, a recipient of the 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Drive Performance #EdLeaders, Every Day Counts. #WRIE

15 Monday Aug 2016

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Leaders and teachers are under tremendous pressure to perform, yet most school districts (and organizations in general) struggle with performance management. This means we may not even begin to think about driving performance of our high and solid performing colleagues because we spend all our time “managing” low performers.

Performance Conversations Research from Straight A Leadership Assessment shows that 52% of people  who are not meeting performance expectations are aware of it. This means the remaining 48% are not only not aware of it, but they do not have a corrective action plan to improve performance

Where to begin? First, diagnose; determine which category members of your team fall into: low, solid, or high performers. In a video on driving performance, Studer says that we often move into the second phase (treatment) too quickly without first effectively diagnosing individuals’ levels of performance. What’s the importance of first diagnosing? From Maximize Performance:

For the most part, we’ve found there are some proven ways to deal with each type of performer to move the organization to the next level. And deal with them we must, because less than optimal performance can have a devastating effect.

Continuous ImprovementOne important lesson is that moving low performers up or out of an organization heavily influences whether it can move from bad to good, good to great, or sustain greatness. It’s a message also delivered by Jim Collins in Good to Great when he stresses getting the right people on the bus, and in the right seat, and the wrong ones off! The same holds true for school systems seeking to improve performance. Begin today. Diagnose.

Studer Education

 

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Each year in August Studer Education showcases select partners and school district executives at What’s Right in Education in Chicago. In 2016, more than 200 educational leaders attended. During the month we’ll share some of the Twitter feed (#WRIE) takeaways from the event which highlight how school district leaders are all in, all of the time when it comes to improving their school districts and their students’ learning experience.

Learn more about attending Studer Education’s What’s Right in Education for cross-district leadership teams or Destination High Performance for executive leaders by emailing Erica at Erica.Callaway@StuderEducation.com or Ryan at Ryan.Hess@StuderEducation.com.

Our mission at Studer Education is to assist education systems achieve measurable results that produce positive outcomes in student achievement, employee engagement, support services, and financial efficiencies and productivity. The goal of our work with school districts and executive leaders is to provide students with a great place to learn, teachers with a great place to teach, and parents with confidence that their children are getting a great education. Visit us online at http://studereducation.com. Studer Education is a division of Studer Group and a recipient of the 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

WRIE Evidence Based Leadership @StuderEducation

02 Tuesday Aug 2016

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Each year in August Studer Education showcases select partners and school district executives at What’s Right in Education in Chicago. This month, more than 200 educational leaders attended. Over the next couple weeks we’ll share some of the Twitter feed (#WRIE) takeaways from the event which highlight how school district leaders are all in, all of the time when it comes to improving their school districts and their students’ learning experience. Today’s focus is Evidence Based Leadership.

Evidence Based Leadership CI 1 LeadershipLeadership 2 All In

Why Evidence-Based Leadership? Why What’s Right in Education? Great education leaders show our school board leaders, school leaders, teachers, staff, and our students and parents that we care about their well-being. In doing so, we connect with the hearts and minds of those we lead, and in turn, we provide “life opportunities” to the kids we serve. Leader behavior, grounded in Evidence-Based Leadership, means we are proactive to solve problems in an execution framework and maximize performance through continuous improvement. When we do these things, we champion great places to work, learn, and achieve.

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Our mission at Studer Education is to provide students with a great place to learn, teachers with a great place to teach, and parents with confidence that their children are getting a great education. For more information about building a culture of high-performance in your education system contact Ryan Hess at Ryan.Hess@StuderEducation.com. Studer Education is a division of Studer Group, a recipient of the 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Follow us on Twitter at @StuderEducation.

Mentor New Teachers, Leaders || #StuderEdTips

26 Tuesday Jul 2016

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EmployeeEngagementHigh performing leaders know they really can do a task more quickly and effectively and it’s easy to let new employees just observe. However, the best way for employees to learn and grow their skills is to complete tasks themselves with coaching and support from their leader.

Great leaders intentionally create structures and processes that produce transparent results in their organizations—results that create passion in their employees and organizational cultures in which employees have purpose, do worthwhile work, and make a difference.

Mentor New Teachers, Leaders. The first few months are critical for new teachers and leaders. Consider conducting 30- and 90-day one-on-one meetings with new hires to your school district. In addition, establish a mentor to new hires. Leaders of new employees play an important role in their overall happiness. By providing a mentor, and conducting 30- and 90-day conversations, leaders show new teachers and leaders that they are interested in and have a sense of ownership for their personal success.

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Adapted from The Great Employee Handbook by Quint Studer. The book is available at https://www.firestarterpublishing.com.

Our mission at Studer Education is to provide students with a great place to learn, teachers with a great place to teach, and parents with confidence that their children are getting a great education. For more information about building a culture of high-performance in your school district connect with us on Twitter @StuderEducation or visit http://StuderEducation.com. Studer Education is a division of Studer Group, a recipient of the 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Execution of Leading Practices Paves Way to Culture of High Performance

04 Saturday Jun 2016

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“It’s not a matter of knowing what to do…it is the execution of how.” This is a quote from Quint Studer, founder of Studer Group, in a September article in Becker’s Hospital Review (Dunn, 09.05.2013). Studer is not alone in his focus on execution. Brandon Dixon of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, the Double A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, has seen his per game batting average steadily increase over the last 10 games, from .263 to .317, moving to .471 overall. Recent articles headline his bat coming alive with titles, “Dixon goes yard twice again for Wahoos: Reds infielder plates five runs in second straight two-homer outing” (MiLB) and Dixon’s reflective practice to higher performance:

“You can just kind of tell [when things are good], by how your outs are, if you’re making hard outs, drawing walks, seeing the ball well… It’s not necessarily just based on hits or stuff like that. The entire scope of [each at bat] lets you know you’re feeling pretty good and trying to keep it rolling.”

DixonIndeed, Dixon at bat is “feeling pretty good” for the Blue Wahoos and moves manager Pat Kelly to be committed to getting the high-performing slugger into the daily lineup. Of course, for Kelly and the first place Wahoos it’s more than getting high performing players on the field  if they want to continue to stay at the top of the league; and for educational leaders it’s more than getting high performing employees “on the bus” and “in the right seat” on the bus.

Once we recruit and retain high performing employees, the challenge for us as educational leaders is to align our actions and our district practices to five practices common among high-performing organizations, and then execute them. Five practices common among one industry’s high-performing organizations as identified by Studer (Dunn, 09.05.2013) are:

1. Executive and senior leadership commitment.

2. Leadership evaluation and accountability.

3. Leadership institutes and training.

4. Communication and employee forums.

5. Know this was the right thing to do.

As educational leaders we must think about and describe how our district or school embodies these five practices. In doing so, we:

  • identify how each practice is executed,
  • describe “what right looks like” for each practice,
  • identify a metric or measurement for each practice,
  • identify individual responsible, and
  • reflect on how well our organization executes each practice.

Why? When we do these things we show our colleagues (school board leaders, school leaders, teachers, and school staff) that we as leaders care about their well-being. We must connect with the hearts and minds of those we lead. In turn, they allow us to be proactive about solving problems in an execution (evidence-based leadership) framework and maximize performance through continuous improvement. When we do these things, we champion great places to work, learn, and achieve.

Huron SE Logo

 

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Photo Cite: Screen shot of Dixon statistics via MiLB.com accessed online 6.4.2016 here.

Maun, Tyler. (06.01.2016). Dixon goes yard twice again for Wahoos. Reds infielder plates five runs in second straight two-homer outing. Accessed on MiLB.com online 6.4.2016 here.

Dunn, Lindsey. (09.05.2013). Building a Culture That Works: 5 Traits of High-Performing Healthcare Organizations. Becker’s Hospital Review. Accessed online 6.4.2016 here.

Our mission at Studer Education is to provide students with a great place to learn, teachers with a great place to teach, and parents with confidence that their children are getting a great education. For more information about building a culture of high-performance in your education system contact Dr. Janet Pilcher at Janet.Pilcher@StuderEducation.com. Studer Education is a division of Studer Group, a recipient of the 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.