How Clear is Your Mission?
I believe sustained organizational health and success begins with a clear and concise mission statement.
Here is what I mean.
Great organizations continuously follow their mission and rarely stray from it; as even a deviation can result in a flutter of ineffective activity and confusion.
As marketing expert Donald Miller says, “When you confuse, you lose.”
The most effective schools I have studied sustained their mission through stable school leadership, clear education plans, effective teachers, and highly engaged parents.
As a consultant, and strategic thinking partner to hundreds of school leaders, I investigate and analyze schools at all years of existence and achievement levels. There is one thing I know for sure.
The school’s whose faculty understand who they are and why they exist are able to clearly articulate and communicate their education plans and overall programming.
They have learned to prioritize their time and focus their resources...
Communication is the Oxygen for Execution
The one thing any school leader never wants to happen is a failure to communicate clearly.
When it comes to communicating the mission, vision, goals and values, and expectations, a leader must consistently communicate with clarity.
Here is the rule we start from: Once you’ve talked about your mission, vision, values and goals, a hundred times, the average employee has heard and understood it less than ten.
Shocking, right?
But it’s true.
One of the great failures of school leaders happens when they think everyone else ‘just gets it.’
They don’t.
That is assumptive leadership, and it is the most dangerous leadership style.
As a school principal, you may be passionate and inspired by your mission and vision. Compelled by your WHY! It's the reason you jump out of bed every day ready to change the world.
Here is a newsflash.
Most of your teachers and employees do not.
To bring them into the mission and vision you created, it must be...
