Book Update!

Imperfect Leaders! My book, An Imperfect Leader: Leadership in (After) Action is available on Amazon.com. If there is no hyperlink to follow, please go to Amazon.com or peterstiepleman.com. You can order it there.

 

INTRO: Hello, Imperfect Leaders!

Evaluations.

In every single profession, employees are evaluated. They are evaluated by their direct supervisors or evaluated by a board of directors. Often they are evaluated by the people they lead in the form of a survey (often referred to as a 360 survey). Plus, there are informal evaluations conducted by the community over social media – those can be brutal.

Formal evaluations can be difficult to navigate if there is not a clear process and protocol established at the very beginning. How often have you entered an evaluation meeting only to discover that what you thought you were being evaluated on was very different than what your evaluator thought? A shared image of what success looks like is paramount.

 

My guest today, Dr. Jennifer Cheatham, has incredible advice for school and district leaders about goal setting, reporting on progress, and even tips for how leaders can formally request authority over the evaluation process as part of their contract (I hadn’t thought of that one – so wise!). During her After Action Review, she talks about something very important to me – the tackling of a major system of oppression – a district’s code of conduct (also known as discipline).

It’s a great episode full of incredible insights! Thanks for tuning in!

 

BIO: With over twenty-five years of experience in the field of education in San Diego, Chicago, and Madison, Wisconsin, Dr. Jennifer Cheatham has served as a teacher, a teacher leader, a professional developer, a central office leader, an area superintendent, and a superintendent. In each of these roles, she focused on a number of things, including cultivating strong teams, designing enduring systems, and strengthening routines for organizational learning – all to make the lives of children better. She is now a Senior Lecturer on Education and Co-Chair of the Public Education Leadership Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

FURTHER INFO: A few months ago, I had a chance to speak with Max Silverman at the University of Washington’s Center for Educational Leadership. Our conversation was wide ranging, but we kept returning to the role of evaluations. Leaders in every profession are interested in growth. Personal growth and the growth of those they supervise. This is a big topic for educational leaders as well. It wasn’t a day or so later that I came across an article by Jennifer, Can Superintendents’ Evaluation Lead to Their Own Growth? In the article she points out the unintended consequences of a traditional school board process of evaluation and how that the lowering of one point might lead to a superintendent’s quick demise. She references the incredibly disturbing national trend when it comes to leader longevity (we are losing superintendents at alarming rates). As we continue to read the article, we learn more about the shared process she created with your board in Madison, Wisconsin, which included self-reflection. Give it a read!

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This episode is brought to you, in part, by the Waters Center for Systems Thinking. The Waters Center helps people understand what systems thinking is and how to incorporate the Habits, tools and concepts of systems thinking into their work and life to achieve desired results. To learn more, go to waterscenterst.org.  

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An Imperfect Leader: The Superintendents and Leadership Podcast is supported by ILAA, LLC, a firm dedicated to supporting aspiring, new, and established leaders. For more information, please find them at www.human-centeredleaders.com.

Music for An Imperfect Leader was written and arranged by Ian Varley.

Sam Falbo created our artwork, a wood-print inspired daruma doll butterfly.

www.peterstiepleman.com

 

Book Update!

Imperfect Leaders! My book, An Imperfect Leader: Leadership in (After) Action is available on Amazon.com. If there is no hyperlink to follow, please go to Amazon.com or peterstiepleman.com. You can order it there.

 

Intro: Hello Imperfect Leaders! Hope is a powerful theme for today’s conversation.

My guest today starts with a quote from poet, activist, and National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman. I found it to be such a perfect way to start our conversation because my guest, Ms. Hattie Tate, speaks to hope. She speaks to how important it is to maintain hope. In fact, she reflects on the words of Amanda Gorman and reminds listeners how “every day, we have not lost hope.”

 

And the key to maintaining this hope is a simple one to say aloud and sometimes so hard to achieve. It’s relationships. The influence and impact that comes from a deep and genuine relationship. So to kick off this really inspiring conversation with Hattie Tate, a district leader in Oakland, CA, I give you four more stanzas from an Amanda Gorman poem New Day’s Lyric, written and performed as the pandemic began to experience a waning (vaccines we on the horizon and brighter days appeared to be imminent). She wrote:

 

Are now these moments we make,
The moments we meet,
And our hearts, once all together beaten,
Now all together beat.

 

Never is that more important than those working with our children struggling to achieve their promise. Often labeled as at-risk, Hattie discusses this with honesty and optimism. In her After-Action Review, she reflects on career choices - a deeply personal conversation. Thanks for tuning in!  

 

BIO: Ms. Hattie Tate has many titles. They include educator, principal, and administrator in the Oakland Unified School District in Oakland, CA. She has been the principal of an alternative school, has worked with the Department of Violence Prevention/DVP, Oakland, CA 2011-2023, has served as an Administrator/Coordinator for the Juvenile Justice Center, has been a leader with Youth Diversion and Re-Entry Strategy, and has been an important piece to Stanford University’s Impact Labs as a researcher.

   

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This episode is brought to you, in part, by the Waters Center for Systems Thinking. The Waters Center helps people understand what systems thinking is and how to incorporate the Habits, tools and concepts of systems thinking into their work and life to achieve desired results. To learn more, go to waterscenterst.org.  

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An Imperfect Leader: Leadership in (After) Action is supported by ILAA, LLC, a firm dedicated to supporting aspiring, new, and established leaders. For more information, please find them at www.human-centeredleaders.com.

Music for An Imperfect Leader was written and arranged by Ian Varley.

Sam Falbo created our artwork, a wood-print inspired daruma doll butterfly.

www.peterstiepleman.com

Book Update! You can preorder my forthcoming book, An Imperfect Leader: Leadership in (After) Action. Click on the link here. Or if there is no hyperlink, go to peterstiepleman.com and order it there.

Imperfect Leaders! This week, Matt Hornbeck is my guest. He is the principal of Hampstead Hill Academy in Baltimore, Maryland. In our conversation, we talk about the importance of relationships in schools and we talk about restorative practices (he describes the process of fixing what has been broken so so well).

In his After Action Review, we talk about the early years of leadership and what can be learned when a leader focuses more on what they want as opposed to documenting what they don’t want. The topic is staff attendance. Thanks for tuning in!

BIO: Matt is an established leader in Baltimore, Maryland. Before becoming a principal at Hampstead Hill Academy, a Baltimore City charter school, he was an educational consultant with large urban districts on resource allocation and principal training. He holds a master’s degree in educational administration as well as a law degree.  

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An Imperfect Leader: Leadership in (After) Action is supported by ILAA, LLC, a firm dedicated to supporting aspiring, new, and established leaders. For more information, please find them at www.human-centeredleaders.com.

Music for An Imperfect Leader was written and arranged by Ian Varley.

Sam Falbo created our artwork, a wood-print inspired daruma doll butterfly.

Claire de Mézerville López and Abdul Malik Muhammad, Ph.D. discuss the revolutionary aspects of Restorative Practices. Dr. Muhammad references Affect Psychology (Tomkins, 1962; Tomkins, 1963) and the Compass of Shame (Nathanson, 1992). View this descriptive video to learn more about these principles and their integration with Restorative Practices.

 

For nearly three decades, Abdul-Malik Muhammad, Ph.D. has been serving both youth and adults as an educator, transformational leader, entrepreneur, and author. Always working with the underserved in urban and rural areas, he has focused on the development of boys to men, been active in social justice, and building progressive organizations. His previous leadership journeys have included being a principal, career college president, corporate director of education, and regional vice president of a national mental healthcare organization. Throughout this time, he has launched 18 schools and specialized programs, led a staff of 2,400 across 11 states, and spoke on leadership and community-building in 4 continents. He is currently the CEO of Akoben LLC, a professional development company, and Transforming Lives Inc., a provider of alternative education services, both of which he founded. He is the author of The Restorative Journey – Book One: The Theory and Application of Restorative Practices and contributing author of the recently released Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing Our Realities. He has a BA in International Affairs from Franklin & Marshall College, an MA in Educational Leadership from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Delaware.