Understanding key principles of leadership can make your charter school organization great in the way that matters most: ensuring that children are prepared for success in college, work and life.

1. LEADING YOUR TEAM
TO GREATNESS
LEARNING FORWARD 2014 ANNUAL CONFERENCE
DECEMBER 8, 2014
JASON SARSFIELD

2. WWW.CHARTERINSTITUTE.ORG

3. National Charter Schools Institute
• The Institute is a values-driven, nonprofit organization
founded in 1995.
• Our mission is to strengthen the performance and
productivity of the charter schools sector.
• We coach and consult with boards, schools, authorizers,
support organizations and policymakers.
• Our team is composed of passionate professionals.
• We seek to understand, honor and support our clients.
• We believe in and strive to uphold the Golden Rule.
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4. WWW.CHARTERINSTITUTE.ORG
Goals for Today
Share a Framework for
Greatness
Strengthen & Support
Leaders
Inspire Hearts & Minds
Answer Questions
Have Fun!
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5. WWW.CHARTERINSTITUTE.ORG
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THIS SLIDE DECK IS ACCESSIBLE AT

6. RELATIONSHIPS
“People don’t care how
much you know until they
know how much you care.”
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8. “Good is the enemy
of great.”
Jim Collins

9. What Is Greatness?
Superior Performance
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Distinctive Impact
Lasting Endurance

10. Collins’ Good-to-Great Framework
OUTPUT RESULTS
INPUT PRINCIPLES
STAGE 1: DISCIPLINED PEOPLE
Level 5 Leadership
First Who, Then What
STAGE 2: DISCIPLINED THOUGHT
Confront the Brutal Facts
The Hedgehog Concept
STAGE 3: DISCIPLINED ACTION
Culture of Discipline
The Flywheel
STAGE 4: BUILDING GREATNESS
TO LAST
Clock Building,
Not Time Telling
Preserve Core,
Stimulate Progress
DELIVERS SUPERIOR
PERFORMANCE
Relative to Its Mission
MAKES A DISTINCTIVE IMPACT
On the Communities
It Touches
ACHIEVES LASTING ENDURANCE
Beyond Any Leader,
Idea or Setback

11. Building for
Breakthrough

12. “Greatness . . . is largely a
matter of conscious
choice and discipline.”
Jim Collins

13. The First Person You Lead Is Yourself
WWW.CHARTERINSTITUTE.ORG
“Know
Thyself”
Who Said…

14. The Most Consistently Admired
Characteristics of Leaders
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Honest
Forward-Looking
Competent
Inspiring

15. How Leaders Earn Credibility
• “They practice what they preach.”
• “They walk the talk.”
• “Their actions are consistent with their words.”
• “They put their money where their mouth is.”
• “They follow through on their promises.”
• “They do what they say they will do.”
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The Leadership Challenge

16. Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders
Model the Way
Inspire a Shared Vision
Challenge the Process
Enable Others to Act
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5 Encourage the Heart
Kouzes and Posner
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17. Leadership
Pyramid

18. WWW.CHARTERINSTITUTE.ORG
Level 5 Leaders
• Ambitious first and foremost for
the cause, the organization,
the work — not themselves.
• Display a paradoxical blend of
personal humility and
professional will.

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Chickens and Pigs!

20. How clear is your organization about its ...
Vision
Mission
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What is the organization really trying to accomplish?
Is it compelling? Will it make a significant difference?
How will the organization proceed with making this
vision a reality?
Values What are the core things the organization will use to
guide and evaluate all of its actions and behaviors?

21. WHAT REALLY MATTERS
Ensuring all students
are prepared for success in
college, work and life.
WWW.CHARTERINSTITUTE.ORG

22. “Doing everything keeps
us so busy we don’t have
time to think about what is
really important to us.”

23. The Power of Clarifying Values
TEAMWORK
• We recognize that no one of us is as good as all of us.
• We will put the team’s goals before our own.
• We will collaborate.
• We can be relied upon to fulfill commitments.
• We are accountable for ourselves and to each other.
• We will celebrate our successes and have fun.
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24. Where Do You
Spend Time?
First Things First

25. Four Disciplines
of a Healthy
Organization

26. 1: Build a Cohesive Leadership Team
Cohesive teams develop trust,eliminate
politics and increase efficiency by…
• Knowing one another’s unique strengths
and weaknesses
• Openly engaging in constructive,
ideological conflict
• Holding one another accountable for
behaviors and actions
• Committing to group decisions.
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27. Healthy organizations minimize the
potential for confusion by clarifying…
• Why do we exist?
• How do we behave?
• What do we do?
• How will we succeed?
• What is most important — right now?
• Who must do what?
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2: Create Clarity

28. 3: Over-Communicate Clarity
Healthy organizations align their employees around
organizational clarity by communicating key messages through …
• Repetition: Don’t be afraid to repeat the same message again
and again.
• Simplicity: The more complicated the message, the more
potential for confusion and inconsistency.
• Multiple Mediums: People react to information in many ways;
use a variety of mediums.
• Cascading Messages: Leaders communicate key messages
to direct reports; the cycle repeats itself until the message is
heard by all.
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29. Organizations sustain their health
by ensuring consistency in…
• Hiring
• Managing performance
• Rewards and recognition
• Employee dismissal.
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4: Reinforce Clarity

30. Resources for Pursuing Greatness
Good-to-Great Diagnostic Tool
www.jimcollins.com/tools.html
The Advantage
Comprehensive Check List
www.tablegroup.com
Institute for Excellence in Education
www.ExcellenceInEd.org
Illinois Mathematics and
Science Academy
www.imsa.edu
WWW.CHARTERINSTITUTE.ORG
IIT Boeing Scholars Academy
blogs.iit.edu/boeing_scholars/
Chicago Scholars
(88% to-and-through college in 6 yrs.)
www.ChicagoScholars.org
Project Lead The Way
www.pltw.org

31. The Five
Temptations
of a CEO

32. “Set the standards higher
for yourself than others
would set them for you.”
John Maxwell

33. THANK YOU!
VIEW THIS SLIDE DECK ONLINE AT
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