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Monthly Newsletter
January, 2011
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Greetings!
Welcome to 2011! The theme of the January Newsletter is  "Mind the Gap: The Ideal vs. the Real in Leadership." At our leadership seminars, we often offer a session that focuses on this very topic, and we thought it would be a perfect way to start the new year. We are sure that many school leaders begin the new year with a resolution or two. And even if you do not believe in that kind of thing, a new year does offer something of a tabula rasa that inspires hope, optimism, and even idealism.
How will I do my work as a school leader better than last year?
An essential quality of good leadership is having an ideal in mind - a picture of oneself as an ideal leader, grounded firmly in one's personal values, mission, vision and history. Equally important is having an honest sense of the reality of how we lead and how others perceive us coupled with a clear grasp of the ideal and the real of the schools we lead and the systems that exist within those organizations. The articles in this month's newsletter address the real, the ideal, and the gap in between. We invite you to comment on any of these articles or to just write about your own experiences "minding the gap" on our website.
The SFLC has set the complete calendar of seminars for 2011. March 20-23 we are offering "The Spirit of Leadership: The Formation and Reformation of School Leadership" with guest faculty, Peter Cheney, a longtime school leader and former Executive Director of the National Association of Episcopal Schools. This seminar is designed for experienced school leaders. This summer we are excited to take the Santa Fe Leadership Center to the Bay Area for "Leading from the Middle (or vital center!): A seminar for Team Leaders." We will be holding the seminar at Hillbrook School in Los Gatos, CA, July 10-14. The village of Los Gatos is a charming spot at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains and is approximately an hour from San Francisco to the north and Monterey to the south. Finally, we will be back in Santa Fe in November for our signature seminar "Deciding to Lead: the Art and Experience of Leadership." If you have questions about any of these seminars including which one would be best for you to attend, contact Carla Silver at carla.silver@santafelead.org or 408-348-8617.
The SFLC will be at NAIS next month and we hope you will join us for our session at NAIS, Emerging Paradigms for Leading at the Santa Fe Leadership Center, Thursday from 1:30-2:30 pm. Come learn what we have discovered through the work of our 2010 fellows. We will also host a reception at the Westin Hotel at 5:00pm Thursday evening for all of our past participants, members of our advisory board (Los Sabios), and for anyone who is interested in learning more about the SFLC, our work, and upcoming seminars. Please join us. RSVP to Carla Silver and specific location details will follow.
The recent events in Arizona have certainly called for leadership at national and local levels, and at schools too. Gary wrote a profound post this week on the SFLC blog, Rejecting the Conspiracy of Silence. We urge you to read it. Our thoughts are with our many friends and colleagues in Tucson.
Sincerely,
Gary Gruber Timothy McIntire Carla Silver
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UPCOMING SANTA FE SEMINAR:
The Spirit of Leadership: Formation and Reformation of School Leadership
Guest Faculty, Peter Cheney
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 The 2011 Leadership
Seminar Schedule
March 20-23, 2011 - The Spirit of Leadership: The Formation and Reformation of School Leadership
for experienced school leaders Santa Fe, NM
July 10-14, 2011 -
Leading from the Middle: A Seminar for Team Leaders BAY AREA LOCATION: Hillbrook School, Los Gatos, CA REGISTRATION OPENS JAN. 21.
November 13-16, 2011 - Deciding to Lead: The Art and Experience of Leadership for leaders at all points in their career Santa Fe, NM
Join us for one or all of the seminars in 2011. Click here for more information or contact Carla Silver with any questions.
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Join SFLC at NAIS
| Thursday, February 24, 2011 Block 3 - 1:30-2:30pm
Emerging Paradigms for Leading at the Santa Fe Leadership Center
SFLC Directors Tim McIntire, Gary Gruber, Carla Silver, and Paula Carreiro, Head of School, Beauvoir School, Washington DC
SFLC Meet and Greet 5:00 pm
Stop by our spot at the Westin for refreshments and meet the SFLC team. RSVP to Carla Silver. Location details will follow.
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Mind the Gap:
Perceived discrepancies between the "real" and the "ideal" OR What my mentor forgot to tell me!
After two years of living and working in London, "mind the gap" became more than a popular phrase used on the underground transportation system. There, of course, it referred to the distance between the train and the platform, an area of obvious danger. The imperative announcement was offered frequently, especially in the older stations that had not been updated. While the discrepancy between our ideal and our real selves is not necessarily a danger, it can have some implications, especially if the gap is wider than we can see easi ly and well.The London Underground was the first under-the-surface train system in the world, opening in 1863, and it was the first to have electric trains as well. It is also the second longest metro system in the world, after the Shanghai metro. In London, this system is commonly referred to as The Tube. And it's the third busiest system in Europe after Paris and Moscow. We liked it because it made travel in and around London so easy, at least most of the time, but not when there was a strike or mechanical malfunction.I do not want to push the metaphor too hard nor too far but there are some similarities between The Tube and the traffic between our perceptions of real and ideal, whether in our job, in our relationships or with our own selves. And I am not talking about the mechanical parts of the system nor necessarily it's management. Regardless of those similarities, let's take a brief look at what we might learn and how we can use this information.In the first place, many of our perceptions are unseen because they are "underground" and either not spoken aloud or not readily apparent. To bring our perceptions of real and ideal to the surface and to the light of day can be a helpful exercise. We can do this through an open, honest and candid discussion or through a paper and pencil exercise with ourselves or in partnership with another person or group. The classic question is what is the difference (gap) between how I regard my ideal self and my real self? Or what is the distance between how I see myself and how I am seen and regarded by others?In our work as school leaders, our roles are often defined by others through a myriad of expectations, and we know that the assignment comes frequently with something called a job description. We often end up establishing our own priorities and hopefully helping others to be in concert with ours. We merge our expectations and priorities with those of others. When those two perceptions - self and others - have too much space between them, you can count on increased stress and frustration, as well as conflict between the two sources.We can minimize the conflict or at least reduce the distance between real and ideal by understanding how to moderate our idealism with a healthy dose of realism. Think about your relationship with another person, significant other or colleague. What are your ideal and your real perceptions of the other and what are the other's perceptions of you? Honest and open dialogue can help greatly to bring the two together and strengthen the working relationship.A new year, calendar year or school year, often provides the opportunity for assessment, looking back and looking ahead. This is another place where the gap cannot be too great in terms of what has and has not been accomplished and what the goals are for the months and year ahead, whether personal or institutional. So, dear friends and colleagues, mind the gap, and all good wishes as we leave this station and move along to the next one. (Click here to comment on this article.)
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Chaos Theory at Play in the Middle School: A Redeeming Vision
by Tom Rosenbluth
Tom Rosenbluth is the Head of the Middle School, Francis W. Parker School. He recently attended the SFLC Seminar, Deciding to Lead. In this article he writes about the gap between the ideal and the real in his work in a middle school environment and the role of chaos theory and quantum physics.
I am a romantic. Each day I wake eager, excited to get to school. What happens inside classrooms has always been tremendously compelling to me. The dynamics of exploration between student and teacher, student and student, student and subject have the potential, at any moment, to become perfect epiphanies. During my 7:00 a.m. morning commute, I imagine that the day will be spent working to ensure that lessons and units reflect an understanding of developmental theory and brain research about the way humans learn or that the various teams in the middle school will reach perestroika and reach across departmental boundaries to plan interdisciplinary units or that the parent education series I have been working toward to help parents with this very challenging age group will materialize or that I will be able to help each teacher to move closer to fulfilling his/her potential as the penultimate middle school teacher.
The reality of the day, however, sometimes intrudes on my vision. (Continue reading . . .) |
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The Ideal is Orderly; the Real is Complex
Paul Wenninger
Paul Wenninger lives, writes and teaches in Albuquerque, NM. He was an SFLC Fellow in April 2010.
The Ideal.
In a very predictable manner television can deliver a full array of drama, action, romance, irony and opinion. If we like the personalities we generally approve and feel stimulated or at least entertained. TV reports on life and exaggerates life. It is orderly but it's not real. While television speaks to us, it is never able to bring all the variables or issues to the surface. Even the "reality" shows are not real. The truth is that most television controls for complexity, it downplays the truly complicated. By filtering out the real life complexities, it becomes more entertaining, and more appealing. This is why we love it; it isn't like life.(Continue reading ...)
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About Us
We are excited to meet you. We are the Santa Fe Leadership Center team, Gary Gruber, Tim McIntire and Carla Silver. Click here to read more about our careers and leadership experiences.
Please visit the Santa Fe Leadership Center to learn more about our programs and our other leadership services and opportunities.
Santa Fe Leadership Center
17 Camino Redondo, Placitas, NM 87043
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