As I’ve previously written, I’m a neophyte to Twitter and this will only be the 7th post to my blog. I’m not sure I have the correct lingo and have much to learn but I continue to explore and more importantly use these medias in my work. This year, we have seven new formal leaders in our system. For a system of only 13 schools, that is considerable change. Given that, it is important that we provide some excellent mentoring support to all of these individuals and certainly in the area of 21st Century leadership. In terms of leadership, I would suggest two pieces of advice fit especially well for school technology.
1. Engage in the technology yourself! Try it out and have some fun. Understand what it is like to learn a new skill again. People feel far more comfortable when their leader is involved in the technology that he/she is requesting others to be involved in. Leaders lead people they don’t simply tell them what to do!
2. Closely related to my first point is creating risk-taking environment. When you are engaged in a technology that you are still learning you are bound to make some errors along the way. Celebrate them! It is how we learn best. Encourage your staff to take risks and accept that the first time through might not be perfect. Reward attempts and consider failures as just learning steps. Creating a risk-taking environment with your staff will filter down to your students as well. That in itself is a good thing!
I hope this helps someone in their leadership journey and would welcome any feedback or comments.
