UTILIZING YOUR
HUMAN CAPITALDonna Peduto
WVDE Office of Leadership
“HUMAN CAPITAL”
Is arguably the most valuable asset held by any organization today … But
often the most elusive to manage
“THE STARFISH AND
THE SPIDER”
COMPARE: ‘Spider’ Leadership
Spiders are “centralized” in that they have a head that governs the rest of the body. If you cut off
the head, the spider dies.
‘Starfish’ Leadership
If you cut off a tentacle from a starfish, the starfish will
probably grow a new one. In some species, the tentacle
might even grow a whole new starfish.
WVDE 2009 SETLA
CHARACTERISTICS OF A SPIDER ORGANIZATION:
Top-Down Leadership
Centralized
Clear Organization
“You know who is in charge”
There is no one person “always in charge”
If you “thump it on the head” it survives
There’s an amorphous division of roles
If you “take out a unit” the community survives
Knowledge and power are distributed
The organization is flexible
CRAIGLIST
CHARACTERISTICS OF A STARFISH ORGANIZATION:
“The harder you fight this force, the stronger it gets. The more chaotic it seems, the more resilient it is. The
more you try to control it, the more
unpredictable it becomes.”
WHO ARE YOUR FORMAL TEACHER
LEADERS?
Teacher Leadership Institute
Special ED Institute
Technology Integrations Specialist
National Board Certified Teachers
Classroom Assessment for Learning
SKILLS OF TEACHER LEADERS IN WV
SCHOOLS
21st Century Teaching and Learning
Assessment for Learning
Co – Teaching Expertise
Collaborative Teaching
Technology Integration
Coaching
Teaming
SKILLS OF TEACHER LEADERS IN WV
SCHOOLS
Variety of Content Area Knowledge
Focus on School Improvement
Implementing PLC
Designing PBL Standards Based Assessment Units
Skilled in Depth of Knowledge/Unpacking Standards
HOW ARE YOU UTILIZING YOUR HUMAN CAPITAL?
How are you utilizing your human capital to positively affect school
improvement?
How are you utilizing your human capital to positively impact culture
within your school?
ROADBLOCKS
ROADBLOCKS TO TEACHER
LEADERSHIP:
Not utilizing or underutilizing
Praising a select teachers consistently
Inequitable Professional Development opportunities
Failing to allow time for collaboration
Micromanaging
Criticizing or devaluing leadership efforts
ROADBLOCKS IN UTILIZING HUMAN
CAPITAL:
Gravitating to teachers that think like us
Placing teachers in an isolated rather than a collaborative situation
Withholding/controlling power from teachers in decision making
Not ensuring well-defined roles
Utilizing teacher leaders as a source of administrative help:Fixing ComputersSupervising the cafeteriaSubbing for absent staff
WVDE 2009 SETLA
Time
Game Plan
Relationships
Anticipation
Interaction
Knowledge
Communication
Effective Leaders
“A principal assumes a new role – from an instructional leader to a
developer of community of leaders. The relationship of the
principal and TL is one of the significant factors influencing the success of teacher leader.”
- Joe Murphy Connecting Teacher Leadership and School Improvement
THE CEO VS. THE CATALYST
CEO CATALYST“The Boss” A Peer
Command and Control Trust
Rational Emotionally Intelligent
Powerful Inspirational
Directive Collaborative
In the Spotlight Behind the Scenes
Order Ambiguity
Organizing Connecting
EFFECTIVE ROLES
Teacher
Leaders
Advocate
Change Agent
Team Leader or
chair
PD coordinator
Academic Coach
PLC Facilitator
Mentors
Data analyst
… AND YOUR OTHER TEACHERS
Informal Leaders
Connectors
Salesperson
Mavens
“THE TIPPING POINT”
INFORMAL LEADERS
A Yiddish expression meaning “one who accumulates knowledge”
Have information on a large range of topics that many of us do not
Connect us with new information
Become information brokers by initiate discussions
Al GoreRemember Al before he was
cool? He often spoke at length about global warming and the Internet. Very few understood it and even more made fun of him because of it. But when
the public began to care about climate change and “being
green,” Vice-President Gore’s wealth of knowledge and
PowerPoint archives inspired an Oscar®-winning film.
Mavens
National Service-Learning Partnership
INFORMAL LEADERS
Have a “knack” for making friends and networking
Connected to numerous types of people
Believe in the importance of “Global Learning”
Paul RevereHis ride was effective because he had a wide-range of contacts along the countryside. Rather than crying out in the dark, he knew exactly
whom to inform and where to find them.
Connectors
National Service-Learning Partnership
INFORMAL LEADERS
Have the skills needed to persuade others (stubborn teachers)
Often described as expressive, charismatic, “mesmerizing”
Oprah WinfreyIf I go to a movie or buy a book, it’s usually because Oprah “told
me” to do it. I’ve never met her—and probably never will—but she
feels like family and for this reason, I trust her opinion. Heck—
she’s the person who convinced me to buy The Tipping Point.
Salespeople
National Service-Learning Partnership
HIGH EXPECTATIONS
High Expectations
TEACHER LEADERSHIP
SURVEYCreating a Collaborative Team
for School Improvement
I. Involvement in School Improvement
II. School Professional Development
III. Leadership Abilities
IV. School Improvement Target Areas
V. Finding Time for School Improvement
- Institute of Educational Leadership
“Teacher leadership is not about ‘teacher power.’ Rather, it is about
mobilizing the still largely untapped attributes of teachers to strengthen student performance at ground level
and working toward real collaboration, a locally tailored kind of shared
leadership in the daily life of the school.”
How to Grow Teacher Leaders
How to Grow Teacher Leaders
Use the handout to brainstormeffective strategies for expanding
the teacher leaders in your school. As a group, share
your group’s top 5 strategies and place on the starfish using
Post-IT Notes.
Franklin Covey
“True leadership is communicating people’s worth and potential so
clearly they are inspired to see it in themselves”
THE STARFISH STORY
Starfish and Teacher Leadership