This post was contributed by Dr. Michael Boyle Director of the Andrew M. Greeley Center for Catholic Education and a clinical professor in administration and supervision at Loyola University, Chicago.
Please join us on Wednesday, March 30 (9:15-10:30AM) as Dr. Michael Boyle will present “Come Follow Me: Building Leadership Pipeline for Catholic Schools”.
Come, Follow Me: Building the Leadership Pipeline for Catholic Schools.
Join us at the Convention for a session devoted to learning a five-step process to build the leadership pipeline in Catholic schools. Using the model proposed by Gordon, the IL-PART parochial partners are working on building an explicit system to identify candidates with leadership potential, develop the capacity of the current building leadership to provide effective mentorship and create systemic supports to enculturate these approaches. The five-step process is as follows:
Leadership Needs Audit:
The first step is to create an on-going audit leadership needs over the next five years which helps to focus the organization in a more systematic manner. This helps promote a proactive stance as opposed to a reactive one when it comes to leadership development.
Recruitment and Selection:
Most school-based organizations approach the idea of leadership recruitment “too late in the game”. The development of teacher talent is critical because it defines the quality of the pool from which most schools select candidates for aspiring principal programs.
Leadership Development:
Effective leadership development programs should span the leadership continuum from aspiring leaders to those that have a good deal of leadership experience. These programs should focus on recognized leadership standards. Standards based leadership development programs explicitly focus on the knowledge and skills that schools believe that their leaders should demonstrate.
Performance Coaching:
Performance coaching is a process in which a mentor, advisor, or supervisor provides structure and assistance for participants. Critical for aspiring Catholic school leaders is to explicitly identify the critical competencies that Catholic principals must exhibit in addition to the instructional leadership skills fostered by most leadership programs.
Review Talent Pool and Systems:
As Gordon (2012) suggests, the leadership pipeline should be annually reviewed by the central office administration in terms of the output of the program related to quality and quantity. “ Do the program alumni have the right stuff-the talent, knowledge, skills and experiences-to lead the district schools?” In addition to this, Offices of Catholic Education would ask to the graduates have the faith dispositions to effectively lead Catholic schools?
Session Outcomes:
1 The attendee will be able to describe a five-step process for building a leadership pipeline
2 The attendee will be able to identify the necessary supports to implement a systems approach to build the pipeline
Reference
Gordon, G. (2012) The school leader pipeline: Student success and leadership succession. Gallup, Inc.
