I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about the importance of relationships, making connections, and collaborating. I have always valued team and the contributions of others. As an athlete, I learned at a very young age the importance of teamwork. I carried this with me into my career as an educator. As a teacher, I was extremely fortunate to have amazing colleagues who loved to collaborate and share. I absolutely believed that we could meet the needs of any student because, as a team, we had many talents and lots of experience and we combined them to support our students. As an administrator, I was also fortunate to be on a large team of administrators who had a wide variety of talents and experiences and they were willing to share and network.
I have recently made a move from the only district I really knew, as a student, as a teacher, as a parent, and as an administrator. As I have worked to learn about the 30 districts in my region, my eyes have been opened to the very wide array of school/district structures that exist in our area. Despite the fact that some districts are so small that they only have one administrator in the entire district, I still hear a common message of shared leadership and capacity building. It certainly looks different in a district of 100 students than it does in a district of 12,000, yet it is crucially important in both.
When you think about the work that educators do and the infinite number of challenges that are faced each and every day these educators, it is quite clear that NO ONE is equipped to have all of the answers. Yet, when you surround yourself by people who have different skill sets and experiences, you have a much greater chance of having access to all (or most) of the answers. One superintendent told me that his greatest leadership quality is the group of people who work with him. When leaders really understand that and value the people around them enough to ask for their help and their thoughts, they can't help but succeed.
As a leader, I have been guilty, in the past, of feeling like I need to know everything and that asking for help is a sign of weakness. The best gift I have given myself is the realization that, just because I am in a leadership role does not mean that I am anything more than one member of a team.
