One of my wonderful @hewittschool parents submitted a question in advance of an Q&A session. Instead of asking about the fall, he asked me how I was holding up as I lead our school through this challenging time. I thought to share my response. #leadership #education #Covid_19 1/9
This spring has been, hands down, the most challenging professional moment of my career so far. I imagine that if you polled other #leaders they would say much the same. 2/9
I refuse to act out of fear. Fear makes us do unwise things. I refuse to panic or overreact. I refuse to have my head in the sand & pretend like everything will sort itself out on its own with time. 3/9
And I refuse to allow this pandemic to halt the progress we at @hewittschool are making towards realizing our vision of being a school where girls who want to become women leaders can learn how to effect positive change in our world. 4/9
I don't think I've ever been more tired than I am right now, and I would be lying if I said I was sleeping well. But if anything, I have become more focused, more resolute, more determined, and more willing to make tough and unpopular calls to achieve our mission. 5/9
That doesn't mean that I've become rigid in my thinking. In fact, I am cultivating a concerted practice in which I allow myself to become very open to many possibilities as this crisis shakes up the education sector. Much of the change will be welcome change we seek. 6/9
My focus is making sure that I am leading my school to benefit from the tectonic shift that will reorder the education status quo. We were already on that path, but we didn't know that a virus would be a disruptive force to catalyze our path at an accelerated pace. 7/9
Our students deserve to have the best school possible so they have the best possible chance of making a positive difference in our world. I believe that some schools are better positioned to #pivot than others. It comes down to #culture and #strategy. And that is #leadership. 8/9
In healthy cultures and healthy schools, everyone exercises leadership, not just those at the top. But that means EVERYONE needs to be dedicated to the vision. A vision that's going to take a lot of blood, sweat, & tears. But that's the only way anything difficult gets done. 9/9
