Leadership Communication Platform for Assistant Principals

Introduction to Leadership and Pearce's Framework

A solid understanding of the concepts and frameworks of leadership is essential for anyone in a position of leadership who hopes to develop into an effective and successful leader. This paper thoroughly investigates the concepts of leadership from a number of sources, including Terry Pearce's book Leading Out Loud: The Authentic Speaker, the Credible Leader. Based on these concepts, it develops a personal leadership communication platform appropriate for the position of assistant principal.

Terry Pearce describes a framework for developing an effective platform for communication in leadership in Leading Out Loud: The Authentic Speaker, the Credible Leader. This platform includes five main components that Pearce considers essential for success: (1) establishing competence, (2) building trust, (3) creating shared context, (4) declaring and describing a compelling future, and (5) committing.

The Five Components of Effective Leadership Communication

The first component in Pearce's framework for effective leadership is establishing competence. This can be profoundly difficult in a world that is deeply cynical about managers and leadership. Today's employees are often informed and educated individuals whose respect must be earned by leaders. As such, Pearce argues that establishing competence is a crucial first step in gaining this respect. An effective leader carefully demonstrates sound leadership skills as well as expertise in a given area. To achieve credibility, a leader must be consistent in both words and actions.

Pearce also identifies building trust as an important component of effective leadership. Once competence is established, it is essential to develop trust with employees. Pearce notes that today's world is one of sound bites and cynical opinions that often impede the development of trust and effective communication. A manager must therefore be more than competent and respected — he or she must also be trusted in order to become an effective leader.

Once competence and trust are established, an effective leader must create a shared context. Pearce argues that the leader must develop a frame of reference with employees, sharing some of their thoughts and ideas for this process to be truly effective.

With competence, trust, and shared context in place, the next step in Pearce's framework is declaring and describing a compelling future. To fulfill this role, a leader must be personally engaged in his or her vision of the future. As Pearce notes, it is hypocritical to ask others to see a future that the leader does not envision.

Pearce argues that the best way to achieve genuine commitment is to speak from the heart. This differs markedly from achieving mere compliance, where employees follow directives with little passion or investment in their work. Achieving commitment means inspiring people to make the leader's vision their own. Pearce examines the speeches of Ross Perot and Hillary Rodham Clinton, among others, to illustrate this kind of leadership. Above all, Pearce emphasizes that the leader must be personally committed to the ideas and vision being shared. Without this commitment, any message will come across as unauthentic and unconvincing. Leaders who are honest and authentic, Pearce argues, will inspire loyalty in return.

All five of Pearce's steps involve a disciplined process. He advocates an organized practice of reflection, writing, and speaking that reveals an honest and truthful approach to leadership. Ultimately, Pearce argues that leaders must find their authentic voice and speak with confidence and conviction in order to win over their audiences.

Challenges of Leadership as an Assistant Principal

Leadership as an assistant principal can be particularly demanding. Teachers, administrators, school boards, parents, and students often have different agendas, and the assistant principal plays a key role in maintaining continuity and a productive environment. Beyond managing these relationships, the assistant principal must fulfill a number of additional responsibilities, including creating a safe teaching environment, maintaining school records, developing curriculum, monitoring student progress, and maintaining school discipline (Simpson). Developing a clear leadership platform is therefore an important step in managing the challenges of this demanding career.

Applying Pearce's Framework: Competence and Trust

Each of Pearce's five components plays an important role in a personal leadership platform for an assistant principal. Establishing competence is the essential first step. The example of the Orange County Literacy Project illustrates this well: its leader carefully made observations, asked questions, offered interpretations, and took deliberate action. Through this process, competence was established. Staff development programs were also implemented to build the competence of everyone involved in the project.

As an assistant principal, competence can be established in a similar way — by making careful observations, asking thoughtful questions of those in the school community, offering considered interpretations, and taking deliberate actions based on this information. Diligent listening is also a critical component of effective communication (Baldoni, It's the Real Thing). These steps lay the foundation for recognized competence.

After establishing competence, building trust is the next critical step. In the Orange County Literacy Project, trust was built by grounding actions in a competent assessment of the situation and following through with careful planning and implementation of the program (Henslee, Article Three).

Trust is a difficult commodity to establish in an era marked by corporate scandals and a general climate of institutional mistrust. One effective way to build trust is to create authenticity — simply saying what you believe and delivering on your promises (Baldoni, It's the Real Thing). As an assistant principal, establishing trust will in part require overcoming the cynical opinions many people hold about school administrators. Using a unique and authentic voice to address school issues can help build trust with teachers, other educators, students, and parents.

Conclusion

Terry Pearce's leadership framework provides a valuable basis for a personal leadership communication platform for the position of assistant principal. By applying the concepts offered by Pearce — in combination with leadership lessons drawn from real-world examples — it is possible to develop a practical and principled approach to effective leadership. This framework is grounded in Pearce's central recommendation: developing a leadership style built on honesty and the communication of one's authentic voice.

References

Baldoni, John. It's the Real Thing: Authenticity. On Leadership Communication. Darwin Magazine, February 2004. CXO Media Inc.

Baldoni, John. Let Your People Know. On Leadership Communication. Darwin Magazine, January 2004. CXO Media Inc.

Henslee, Elaine B. Article One. Leaders communicate a compelling vision of success. A Philadelphia story: civic engagement and ambitious system-wide reform.

Henslee, Elaine B. Article Two. Leaders communicate a clear set of values. School leadership and student motivation.

Henslee, Elaine B. Article Three. Leaders communicate honestly about performance. Creating a system that gets results for older, reluctant readers.

Pearce, Terry. (Ed.). (1995). Leading Out Loud: The Authentic Speaker, the Credible Leader. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Simpson, Paul R. (2002). Assistant Principal's Survival Guide: Practical Guidelines & Materials for Managing All Areas of Your Work. Jossey-Bass.