Leading Alone is not Sustainable - Build Your Council of Advisors

Who do you talk to about the decisions you make? Candidly, honestly?

Who do you seek out when you want to calibrate expectations, frustrations, or new ideas?

Who either anchors you to the ground when you’re just a little bit much?. . and who encourages you to throw caution to the wind when you’re being your responsible self?

I’ve been thinking a lot about who sits on my own Council of Advisors. Some know they are there and some might be surprised that I count our conversations, texts, or exchanges as guidance for me and my next stages of leadership and development. 

When you are in a role with a great deal of leadership responsibility, it’s easy to get absorbed in the “asks” of each day and the managing of tasks and workflows and to get away from the people who have provided you the most precious guidance over your career. It’s easy to keep thinking, on repeat, “I need to call Vicky”, “I should send a message to Mike”, or “After the kids are in bed, I’ll ping Patricia”. School and district leaders, who are the points of contact for all the things personnel, discipline, mental health, short-staffed classrooms, and items that have community impact, run out of minutes in the day repeatedly. 

And then they get up and do it again. I know. I was that leader for a long stretch. Even when I lead as a member of healthy, vibrant, joyous teams. Even when my supervisor was wise, universally respected, and my unequivocal champion. Even when my co-workers remembered my birthday and I celebrated theirs because we were connected, not obligated. Even then, I would forget to lean on my self-selected and unofficial Council of Advisors until I learned that that was exactly what made leadership restorative and something that moved me forward. 

What do I mean?

I mean when I would step out of the grind culture of schools - that is the culture that asks educators to do more with fewer people, more energy, a calm demeanor, and greater ingenuity, day in and day out until you are burnt out. When I interrupted that narrative, that we just had to do more, more, more, and realized that the connections with the people I consider my wisest advisors were what allowed me to act with more care, more intention, and more efficacy, I truly enjoyed my roles as a leader. It was when I paused and laughed with my colleagues and then dove into the work again that I was sustained. It was when I realized that I didn’t have to solve each puzzle all on my own, that I felt restored to see what the next day held.

So, in this last stretch of the current school year, as you are looking at weeks of events during the day (teacher appreciation, graduation prep, final exams, state testing, exhibition projects, open houses, and the rest) and even more at night (end of the year drama banquet, honors banquet, spring concert, prom, baseball playoffs and the rest), who would you want to stop and talk to about one of the following:

• What was the impact of your words and actions as a leader this year?

• Who will sing your praises?

• Who will name the places where you could grow and do so with clarity and love?

• Who will workshop your plans for launching the next year with you?

  I’ve been having these conversations the past few weeks - a quick phone call from the friend I met twenty years ago earning our admin credentials as she gives me feedback on my communications, an email and phone call from two former bosses who are ever ready to be my champion, a Zoom with a reflective partner from years of leading coaching sessions, and a text exchange with a superpower of a program leader. Each time I lean into the people who have given me the most choice moments of growth in my career, those who were there through challenges and stayed alongside me, I gain the next layer of learning from them and the jolt needed. 

  
  

   

  In the week ahead, connect with three people whom you would consider your own Council of Advisors. 

  These are the ones you would work for, with, and alongside in any role again. They are your Council and even without the formal title or agenda, they can circle up and sustain you in your work. 

   

   

  And, as it turns out, as I have been working through the impact of the folx you bring into your life to show you the way, a phenomenal resource came into my LinkedIn feed from leader, coach and consultant, Tara Robertson. She has created what she calls your Personal Board of Directors.  This image is hers (Tara Robertson Consulting) 
  With credit to Tara Robertson of Tara Robertson Consulting, I’m sharing her work on the idea of a Personal Board of Directors. Her work is specifically directed to supporting and amplifying the work of women of color in corporate settings. The grid she made above is intentionally designed for that audience. However, she notes that it is also useful to anyone and I am sharing it in that spirit. 

 

For the leaders in education, how can you start building up your own Council or Personal Board of Directors so that you can continually re-engage and deliver on your leadership with joy and energy? Would that help you lead in alignment your truest vision of schools?