Running head: LEADERS OVER ADMINISTRATORS 1

Leaders Over Administrators:

Ph.D. in Education Leadership Writing Sample

Jeremy Mitchell

Oakland University
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Leaders Over Administrators:

Ph.D. in Education Leadership Writing Sample

Leadership is a complex and serious business, and strong leaders are the intangible factor

in team success. They are force multipliers who spread purpose and enthusiasm. Leaders drive

culture by constantly tending the intricacies of relationships and spreading organizational vision.

In trying times they are a source of calm; a beacon to follow. Close cousins of, but in opposition

to leaders, are managers. In schools, the title administrator is used but they are no less the same.

These cousins reference rules, manuals, and policies for guidance. They not only cave to the

fears of the unknown, they perpetuate them. The dichotomy presented is not about subordinating

rules, but more about instilling confidence in others to do the right thing, because in their heart

they already know what that is. Managers use power to influence, while leaders influence to

create even more power, and then give it away.

Leaders Are Necessary

The list of responsibilities and to-dos for school leaders are at an all-time high with no

sign of reprieve. It is daunting to make a list of all of the pressing issues facing school leaders

and their teachers these days. Here is a broad start in no certain order: student achievement,

teacher evaluation, budget constraints, school safety, poverty issues, changing demographics,

public trust, politics, special education demands, mental health, and exponential technology

advances to name a few. With this list, it is easy to see that school administrators could spend

every waking moment attempting to plug the leaks in the ship. Through transformative

influence, inspiration and a collaborative spirit, leaders and their teams can meet these challenges

creatively and confidently. The famous words of President Eisenhower could not be more
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important in today’s leadership paradigm, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do

something you want done because he wants to do it.”

Leaders Shape Culture

Culture is the ultimate responsibility of the leader, and it is built through time, trust and

consistent communication. What are we about? Who are we? What are our hopes and fears? Do

we walk the walk? Transformational Leadership researchers such as Stephen Covey, Jim

Collins, John Maxwell, Simon Sinek, Adam Grant and others write and speak about these

concepts at length. Covey, of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People fame, devotes an entire

book to an 8th Habit: “to find our voice and inspire others to find theirs” (2004). Covey

describes leadership as a choice, something that we are all capable of. Leaders in title must

empower their team so that “leadership, the enabling art, is distributed widely throughout

organizations and society, while we manage or control things, we lead (empower) people” (p.

313). Defining and sharing the vision is critical, but especially in the field of education where

we educate diverse learners from early childhood to beyond adolescence. Particularly from the

central office, finding and developing leaders that can be expert voices at their level is the only

way to succeed.

The entrepreneurial and creative aspects of the leader versus manager dichotomy,

especially related to people, is described well by Covey: while “manager” is a title, leadership is

what you do with that title. In From School Administrator to School Leader, Johnson (2016)

describes this paradigm shift in education, “Effective leaders know how to manage things and

lead people” (p. 31). It is promising that administrator preparation programs are emphasizing

organizational leadership, but it still seems that most internship opportunities within school

districts “continue to be too focused on the nuts and bolts of leadership such as, budgeting,
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human resources, and other administrative type duties, rather than developing leadership

qualities” (Johnson, 2016, p. 33). How is it possible to identify and grow leaders from within, or

find them in a talent search, if leadership is an art form that is so complex and multifaceted?

Leaders Build Deep Relationships

One of the major qualities to look for and cultivate in budding leaders as described by

highly respected and widely published Harvard Business School professor Abraham Zaleznik is

the ability to lean into their relationships with employees and coworkers. In contrast to

managers, “Leaders adopt personal, active attitudes toward goals. They look for the

opportunities and rewards that lie around the corner, inspiring subordinates and firing up the

creative process with their own energy” (Zaleznik, 1977). In 1977 when the “traditional view of

management centered on organizational structure and processes”... Zeleznik argued this view

“omitted the essential leadership elements of inspiration, vision, and human passion” (Zaleznik,

2004, p. 1) While leaders will always be responsible and beholden to compliance requirements,

in the instant access information age we live in, transparency and the communication of a

broader sense of organizational purpose must be ever-present.

The unifying theme in all of this research about leadership versus management is the

value that leaders put in people and the relationships they have with them. This cannot be boiled

down to mere motivational speaking and practiced charisma. The more effective and appropriate

reference would be that of Jim Collins Level 5 Leaders, who “build enduring greatness through a

paradoxical combination of personal humility plus professional will” (Collins, 2001, p. 20).

Collins leads the chapter on Level 5 Leaders in Good To Great with a poignant quote from

President Truman, “You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you don’t mind who gets

the credit” (Collins, 2001, p. 17). Transformational leaders understand how important giving
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power away can be. There must be no ego involved. This counter-cultural practice is beneficial

because it multiplies leadership, and in turn has a direct effect on the aforementioned growing

list of demands that school leaders face.

The lynchpin to this trusting and humble leadership model is knowing your people so

well that you have serious conversations beyond just annual formal performance reviews to best

understand their strengths, personal passions, and hopes for their futures. Getting people on the

right seat on the bus is challenging yet crucial, and will make all the difference in their

engagement.

Leaders Foster Engagement

Since 2000 Gallup has conducted a study of employee engagement in the U.S., and in

2015 found that out of 80,844 respondents, only 32% agreed they were engaged in their work.

On top of that number, it’s even starker to consider that 50.8% of employees were “not engaged”

while another 17.2% were “actively disengaged” (Adkins, 2016). While workplace engagement

can encompass many factors, followers are starved for managers to become leaders who

communicate reliably and meaningfully, manage performance beyond annual reviews, and lean

on building strengths over weaknesses. Harter & Adkins (2015) wrap up the impact of engaging

leaders, “When managers help employees grow and develop their strengths, they are more than

twice as likely to engage their team members. The most powerful benefit a manager can provide

his or her employees is to place them in jobs that allow them to use the best of their natural

talents, adding skills and knowledge to develop and apply their strengths.”

Human capital management is one giant chasm the bureaucratic field of education has not

figured out yet, and may never without a significant overhaul. Due to strict certification laws,

local control of school districts, and stagnant or declining student populations, the flexibility of
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personnel movement is very difficult. Adept school leaders flex their creative muscles to find

ways to engage and challenge educators in their specialties, career tenure, and personal passions.

Communicating with staff about the needs of the organization and matching them to the needs of

the professional ultimately impact the needs of the student. A manager would seek to fill holes,

while a leader would seek to fill souls.

Leaders Reflect

Reflection is key to lifelong learning and if you are not looking back to see the effect of

your decisions and actions how can you elevate your organization to the next level? John

Maxwell (1999) describes growing up in rural Ohio and seeing a sign in a feed store, “If you

don’t like the crop you are reaping, check the seed you are sowing” (p. 146). None of the

complexities of leadership can be magnified without this commitment to introspection and self-

analysis in order to gain clarity (Kethledge & Erwin, 2017). You would hope that schools, with

the annual nature of their calendars, would be best poised to take advantage of this, but without

strong leaders, they are just as susceptible to the "business as usual" model as any other industry.

“Clarity is often a difficult thing for a leader to obtain. Concerns of the present tend to

loom larger than potentially greater concerns that lie further away” (Kethledge & Erwin, 2017, p.

3). This message alludes back to all of the demands of a leader's time, and the educational leader

in particular. Letting yourself be drawn into the day to day fires without taking the refuge of

solitude to unplug, think deep, and reflect upon what’s most important is a recipe for being stuck

in the manager/administrator trap. The transformational leaders required in our current paradigm

know that lowering the volume in our “cacophonous age” is the only way to stay committed to

what really matters: people and their unlimited potential to make an impact.

Conclusion
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The conversation about leadership, fortunately, will never end. While trends may come

and go, values-based leadership grown through trusting relationships and cauterized in humility

will always be effective. Leaders will make mistakes, and so will their people, but if the intent to

do good for the sake of others is genuine and communicated transparently, followers will wrap

themselves around the cause. Flatlining managers and administrators with no pulse or passion

for the greater purpose, or the people that actualize, it may crunch their way to results, but they'll

most likely be short-lived and squeezed out through fear and resentment. The love and trust that

leaders put into their mission and followers is the difference.

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References

Adkins, A. (2016). Employee engagement in U.S. stagnant in 2015. Gallup. Retrieved from

http://news.gallup.com/poll/188144/employee-engagement-stagnant-

2015.aspx?version=print

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: why some companies make the leap… and others don’t. New

York, NY: Harper Collins.

Covey, S.R. (2004). The 8th habit: from effectiveness to greatness. New York, NY: Free Press.

Johnson, B. & Sessions, J. (2016). From school administrator to school leader: 15 keys to

maximizing your leadership potential. New York, NY: Routledge.

Harter, A. & Adkins, A. (2015). Employees want a lot more from their managers. Gallup.

Retrieved from http://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/182321/employees-lot-

managers.aspx

Kethledge, R.M. & Erwin, M.S. (2017). Lead yourself first: Inspiring leadership through

solitude. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.

Maxwell, J. C. (1999). The 21 indispensable qualities of a leader: becoming the person others

will want to follow. Nashville, TN: Nelson Books.

Zaleznik, A. (2004). Managers and leaders: are they different? Harvard Business Review.

Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2004/01/managers-and-leaders-are-they-different

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