School Leadership and Metrics

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Enhancing School Leadership by Using Metrics

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August is here! And schools are beginning to welcome students, teachers, and families back for another year. Most schools have a calendar and events that are part of a predictable cycle of school life. Fall, winter, spring, or football, basketball, baseball; winter holidays, spring break, final exams; welcome back events, holiday parties, commencement ceremonies and the beat goes on.

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As comforting as it may be to have a predictable schedule, we understand that when we continue the same routine year after year, we can become stale and stuck in a rut. Those who try to use the same methods and procedures year after year without an examination of effectiveness may hinder the potential of their schools. Leaders who examine and evaluate the effectiveness of their operational and strategic goals and objectives can make adjustments to advance their schools. They can change the way they determine goals, measure success and assign responsibility for on-going progress.

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In reviewing the strategic plans of over 20 independent schools, I was surprised to see that all of them have a version of these strategic goals:

●?????Attract, retain, and support faculty and staff

●?????Focus on the social and emotional health of students and other community members

●?????Ensure Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are considered in all areas of study and operation

●?????Strengthen academic programs to ensure opportunities for college admissions at competitive universities.

●?????Enhance extra-curricular programs to provide the highest level of athletic, arts, and academic specialization

●?????Instill global awareness

●?????Build programs that advance students' ability in all STEM-related fields, including AI

●?????Strengthen the long-term financial health of the school

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How can something be strategic if everyone does the same thing? That’s a subject for another post, for now, let’s focus on successfully advancing (achieving) strategic goals.

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We know that some schools will do a better job than others in providing students, teachers, and school communities with the benefits of achieving their strategic objectives. A cynic might say that those schools with the most financial resources will go the furthest. Funding can be advantageous, but history has shown that it takes more than money to develop programs that enrich the lives of students and school communities.

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I recently listened to a webinar from Steven Granese at Compass Productivity about the work they do in the for-profit and nonprofit?worlds using OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). Organizations that effectively use OKRs or some other systemized, measurable way to focus on goals tend to be the most successful, or to quote management guru Peter Drucker, “What gets measured gets improved.” Drucker also said, “If you can’t measure it, you can not manage it.”

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OKRs can help an organization develop clarity, alignment, and accountability. While Mr. Granese and Compass focus on the business community, there is an opportunity for schools to benefit from using OKRs. As OKRs are metric-driven, they may push some schools and administrators out of their comfort zones. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) bring a simple, straightforward process to measure progress even when the strategy or goal may seem too “squishy” to measure. Granese would say that the exercise of collaborating to determine the right thing to measure, and the practice of regularly measuring… is what creates alignment among a team and across a larger organization. Good Key Results are unambiguous, which implies that alignment must occur first before a team can settle on good metrics.

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Take the strategy to attract, retain and support faculty. To reach that goal using OKRs, one could write an objective related to retention. For example:

●?????The Objective is: We are the most desired school for faculty to work for.

●?????The Key Results might be:

○?????95% of the faculty will remain at the school for five years or longer

○?????Annual teacher retention will be in the top 1% of comparative independent schools.

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Effective Key Results are those that can be measured (what), are time bound (by when), and when accomplished, will advance and enhance the organization (school).

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Once an Objective and Key Results are defined, the school understands how it will measure progress. Then the?leadership team and teachers can develop tactics that will lead to improvement toward the objectives and, ultimately, the goals, which are the Key Results.

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For example, using the example objective “to retain outstanding faculty,” tactics may include:

●?????Survey faculty annually to learn their most desired benefits

●?????Develop a different way to attract desirable candidates to consider your school as a good place to work

●?????Create a compensation and benefits committee with faculty and administrators. Charge them to develop a compensation and benefits plan that is considered the best for teachers compared with competitive schools.

●?????Institute a professional development program that focuses teacher learning and improvement on the areas of curriculum and program develop considered most critical for student success

●?????Organize a faculty lead committee to develop a professional evaluation and improvement plan.

●?????Bring in a consultant to teach the board, administration and faculty how to effectively use OKRs

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The consultants at Compass believe weekly review meetings to continually clarify the OKR will ensure that everyone is aligned with the importance of the objective, tactics, and goals (Key Results). This clarity and regular review enhances the opportunity to hold each other accountable for progress. This gives the team an opportunity to see if their tactics are working.

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However, what may stand in the way of implementing OKRs? It seems in schools today, administrators, teachers, and even board members, have taken on or created so many duties and responsibilities that they rarely have time to think strategically or to meet regularly to ensure that they can focus on strategic goals and objectives that will move the dial on the strategic plan towards a successful outcome. In other words, you do not have a resource problem, you have a prioritization problem. Strong leaders (boards and heads) find ways to assist administrators and staff in prioritizing duties. Sometimes it takes an unbiased set of eyes to help well-meaning people to delegate or drop an activity that does not or will not benefit students, colleagues, and the school.

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We want people to engage in activities they enjoy and find meaningful. In an aligned, high performing organization, all the professional staff bear responsibility for strategically advancing the school’s mission and strategic priorities for current and future students.?Beyond finding time for administrators, staff, and faculty to focus on Key Results and tactics, the board and head of school need to know when their schools will benefit from an unbiased third party expert who can help clarify and advance plans. It is understandable how focusing on goals, objectives and key results can easily be pushed to the side and ignored because of other day to day duties. However, great organizations find effective ways to overcome those obstacles.

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Boards and heads who are striving for excellence employ the use of strategic workshops and highly skilled coaches and subject-matter experts to work with teams, cast members, or any other competitive programs for students. The same high level of coaching is often needed for faculty and staff, especially when engaging in something new and innovative.

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What are you going to do this year to strengthen your game? Heads and boards will best serve their schools when they challenge each other to grow. It takes a plan with strategic objectives, clearly defined results, and the desire to move beyond the ordinary and routine to be extraordinary, and high performing. Now is the time to consider your Objectives and Key Results.

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