Becoming a Leader

Think back to your very first day as a ____ (fill in the blank). For me, it was as a?#teacher. Did you "know" how to be a teacher? Most assuredly, the answer is no. We all had a projection in mind about what it was to be a teacher, and for the first days, weeks, and maybe months we were actors. We acted like the teachers we'd observed, learned under, or remembered. Police Officers do the same thing when they first start. So do?#doctors?and?#lawyers?and?#accountants. The list is endless because everyone does it.

The seminal book on the subject is "Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" written by Erivng?Goffman in 1956, a sociologist who founded the study of performative theory. I became fascinated with this when I started as a?#principal?because I recognized it in myself as a teacher, and again when I started as a principal. In my mind, I knew how a principal was supposed to act so I acted that out for weeks and weeks, but it was like a suit that didn't fit. You see, my mental model of?#schoolleadership?wasn't whom I was meant to be as a?#leader. This was a "mind blown" moment for me.

In the decades since, I've found my?#leadership?voice.

As I pursued?my?#doctorate, I learned nobody had tried to take the entire field of performance theory and mash it up with?#leadershiptheory. Most of performance theory gets hung up on?#culture?(think performing the role of clergy, or performing tribal culture, or gender stereotypes, etc.). I studied both cultural performance theory and leadership theory and then set off to write my dissertation on how leaders (school board members and?#superintendents) perform their role in an effort to build, maintain and create?#schoolculture. I've written several articles since my dissertation mostly around school culture (one titled "Dancing Around the Tribal Fire: How School Board Members Inculcate New Members). This isn't because I have some amazing intellect or insight... it's because I'm really interested in this one thing that almost nobody else on the planet is interested in.

Over 2 decades as a school leader and professor have given me amazing access to other leaders. Having new School Board members join the board, mentoring new superintendents, new principals, principal and superintendent preparation courses have allowed me access to study leaders at various points in their careers and maturation and although I could write for days on end, I think it boils down to this.?

Your courses and your degree don't make you a leader. Your position and/or title don't make you a leader. You don't "become" a?leader at all.?You become yourself, completely.?Your skills, gifts and energies will help make your personal vision of yourself manifest.?Withhold?nothing of yourself.?You must, in sum, become the person you started out to be and enjoy the process of becoming. Three rules for your mind to help facilitate this process:?

1. Speak it

2. Question it

3. Learn from the consequences of 1 and 2

#teachers?#school?#leaders