Shared Leadership: It's not about your title; it's about your action.
Woven throughout the podcast conversation with Mary Kay Gallagher, Superintendent of Northville Public Schools, is her inherent belief in the tremendous importance of collective work and shared leadership. She was hired in Northville as the Early Childhood Program Coordinator in 1985, and has held various district leadership positions, becoming Superintendent in 2011.
Her leadership journey
Mary Kay Gallagher was hired to begin a pilot early childhood program, "adding a full-day childcare program, along with expanding our after school programs, and involved in K-2 curriculum development.” As Moraine Elementary School Principal, she noted it was “a great opportunity to build leadership capacity across our teachers and students and become a National School of Character as a result of shared leadership.” As Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services, Mary Kay Gallagher “had the opportunity to move our district goals more in the direction of alignment with learning communities and Rick DuFour’s work, which continues to be a foundation.” She noted as superintendent, “moving the district goal setting processes to focus on learning and growth mindset, in a five-year cycle so that long term continuous goal setting really centered around our vision and purpose” is a point of pride.
A culture of learning, leadership and the focus on learner voice and agency
“I think over the course of time in Northville, the growth in our culture of learning and leadership has been really instrumental, along with that focus on learner voice and agency which research bears out to be critical. Our vision work in moving to build on a tradition of excellence along with that whole idea of opening a world of possibilities for and with our students is something that I’m really proud of, our work collectively.”
“Northville has had a longstanding commitment to a multi-tiered system of support (M.T.S.S.) providing intervention and support: bringing students together through peer pals, peer links and our unified teams. We've had the great fortune to have a center-based special education program as a part of our Northville community and that's been a strength of ours, in terms of bringing different learners together and building on each other's strengths... We have marginalized students that we need to continue to give thought to and the greater work that we have to do in fostering inclusive school communities."
In 1997, Northville was one of the founding members of the Galileo Teacher Leadership Consortium. “Galileo impacted Northville Schools through its work on leadership and Linda Lambert’s building leadership capacity. One of the big principles was making sure we had our Galileo leaders on our school improvement teams and that whole idea of building shared vision. Utilizing a D.C.I. Chart (Decision Maker, Consulted, and Informed), we surveyed our staff on their preferred participation in decision making. Those pieces really became part of our school community, our work on intrinsic motivation, student voice, and how you engage teachers in supporting our kids in their learning. The work with Stephen Covey continues to be a driving force.” This reference is to Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and maturity continuum from dependence to independence to interdependence.
Leader in Me Lighthouse Schools affirm the role of shared leadership and student voice
“All six of our elementary schools are Leader in Me Lighthouse Schools and have adopted that framework. Why I think that's so powerful is it addresses what our teachers are doing. There's that teacher lighthouse team and teacher feedback, our student leaders, and then that family connection. That framework involves everyone and also connects academic goals to the social-emotional learning goals.”
Leadership at all levels and voice in the organization
“I think that leadership capacity work rises to the district level because you're really taking a look at how your principals have a voice in what's happening in your district, and then at the building level, teachers are involved in looking at their sphere of influence and taking a look at where they have impact, and that idea of leading from everywhere in your organization. It's not about your title; it's about your action.”
"As I have applied that to the role of the superintendent, it certainly gets more challenging because you have more voices in your ears. You're answering to your community, you're answering to seven individual board members, so there's a lot of variables in the mix. But if you can build systems where that voice is a part of your process, I think that's tremendous. I also think the more recent work on teachers as facilitators, leaders as facilitators, Carolyn McKanders’ work, has been very impactful in terms of having protocols, norms you set up and processes for bringing divergent voices together and still being able to move the work.
During the myriad of challenge so the pandemic, "people either felt left out of decision making or felt like their voices weren't heard. As we come back together I’m trying to figure out those systems that allow you to continue to have the voices and have the right people at the table and make sure you have structures in place for hearing voices. Do that in ways that are effective in terms of moving on decisions a little more quickly...Then set up systems for feedback loops and monitoring and adjusting.
Collaborating and capitalizing on collective expertise
“We, as a profession, need to continue to move forward on how we collaborate and work together, and how we share that work with our students because we can't be reinventing the wheel in every classroom… We've made some tremendous growth with technology expanding access to content area experts, connecting with kids across the world, and finding new ways to gather and support one another... our kids have the opportunity of all these global connections, but they also have the impact of the weight of worry and concern for an entire globe on their shoulders too. “
“We have to capitalize on the collective expertise because we have seen firsthand and more extensively the impact of trauma on learning. We need knowledgeable folks; we need to work together. We definitely have to make sure our teachers, our professionals, our counselors, social workers, mental health providers, all have the tool sets and the materials and equipment and opportunities to impact our kids. We really need as a society to make that investment in the future of our world.”
Advice for aspiring leaders: Create a shared vision and coherence by listening.
If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. - African Proverb
“Leading a school district isn't about your personal vision, it is about shared vision and coherence and you only get there by listening. When you are listening and having conversation, you have to be very thoughtful about facilitation and be mindful of what you say and what you do…The greatest thing that you do as leaders in the thoughtful work is gather folks together. I have had the great fortune to connect with other superintendents. We've move away from the idea of mentorship just across our team, so I think you need to have those thought partners.”
I think the thing about leadership is we all have egos and you can't do this work without having some strength and fortitude and commitment to your values. You do have to check your ego at the door because this is about the work, it's about the kids. It's about our collective work. It's not about you or getting that title of superintendent, it's about our collective work."
Covey, Stephen R., The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Simon & Schuster, 30th Anniversary Edition, May 19, 2020.
DuFour, Richard, DuFour, Rebecca, & Eaker, Robert, Revisiting Professional Leading Communities at Work, Solution Tree, Tenth Anniversary Edition, January, 2008.
Lambert, Linda, Leadership Capacity for Lasting School Improvement, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development; 59843 Edition, Alexandria, Virginia, July 1, 2003.