October 2010
1 post
New Website and New Blog
The Santa Fe Leadership Center has a new website — same URL, new look. Check it out at www.santafelead.org. The new site includes our blog and we will no longer be posting here at Tumblr. Thanks, Tumblr!
Now you can read the SFLC blog and stay on top of all of the SFLC seminars and activities even easier.
- The Santa Fe Leadership Team
September 2010
3 posts
Role Play
By Carla Silver
Whether you are starting a new leadership position at a school this fall or returning to one you have held for years, the first weeks of the year provide an opportunity to explore the dynamics of the teams and groups with which you work and the role you play in these groups. The word “role” in this case, is not synonymous with “job title” or...
Entry Revisited: A Roadmap to a New Headship
by Mark Silver, PhD Head of School, Hillbrook School, Los Gatos, CA
As I enter my second year of headship, I find myself once again re-reading and re-visiting two short articles that have served as bedrocks for my personal leadership philosophy and approach - “Entry: The Door to Effective Headship” by Al Adams and “School Burial Grounds” by Al Adams and Debbie Freed.(Click here to access...
Starting With Why
By Gary Gruber
Simon Sinek’s big idea of “Start With Why” appealed to me from the very first time I listened to it and saw him speak on one of the TED talks (Click here to watch and listen). So, starting off this new school year, I decided to use his notion of starting with why, and the two groups I tried it out on were, first of all, my leadership team before school began and...
August 2010
3 posts
Lessons from Robert Louis Stevenson
Patrick J. Roberts, Head of School St. James Episcopal School, Corpus Christi, TX During our recent time together in April my cohorts at the Santa Fe Leadership Center and I wrestled to define and to articulate the challenging concept of “leadership.” In our collaborative working sessions, I was incredibly impressed, a bit intimidated, and truly inspired by my talented...
Another Interim Appointment
by Gary Gruber
I have just accepted my 4th interim assignment and upon receiving this news, one of my esteemed colleagues wrote: “I am glad you’re going to do it, but why would you want to work that hard?” I wrote back and said, “When you love what you’re doing, it’s not hard, it’s a joy.” My first interim headship was back in 1993 at The...
Book Review: The Genius in Children by Rick...
At the annual meeting of the California Association of Independent Schools in June, I found myself with a lively dinner companion and conversationalist, Rick Ackerly. In my years working in Bay Area schools, I had heard about Rick and followed his career as a school head of St. Paul’s in Oakland and The Children’s Day School in San Francisco. It was a fortuitous meeting; I made...
June 2010
5 posts
Thinking About A Move?
By Gary Gruber
Several times a year, I get a phone call from someone that goes like this: C: “Hi, Gary, this is (_name_) and we talked some time ago about a search you were doing for a school in (name a place). At the time I wasn’t interested, partly because I had just started a new job but lately I’ve been thinking about what might be next.” G: “That’s how it usually starts, the thought comes...
Creative Leadership
Greg Papay, FAIA, Lake/Flato Architects
(Greg Papay was our keynote speaker at the April Santa Fe Seminar. His contribution below is based on his remarks. Greg is a partner with Lake/Flato Architects in San Antonio, TX and has been the lead architect on a number of building projects at schools including Francis Parker School in San Diego, CA and Cranbrook School in MI). ...
Good Endowment?
by Timothy R. McIntire “Endowment.” Those in schools who have it are taller, stronger, and handsomer than the rest of us; those who don’t are fraught with not-so-secret envy. But hold on:
What is an endowment?
For what is it used?
Who pays for it and when?
Why should donors invest in it?
Can you spend it?
In January, a pivotal work arrived, not exactly dropped like manna...
The Value of a Retreat (or What I Learned from my...
By Gary Gruber I served as the Interim High School Principal of The American School in London for two years, 2007-09. The head of school offered the notion in one of our regular weekly administrative team meetings that it might be beneficial for all 8 of us to gather for a couple of days off campus before school started the following year. Our group was called Senior Admin.
The main purpose...
End-of-Year Assessment: How did you lead this...
By Carla Silver Summer is finally here. Final grades and progress reports are in the mail (or posted online) so that students can read all about how they did this year, how much they learned, and how hard they worked. They will read comments from their teachers who are evaluating their critical thinking skills, their study habits, their effort, and their passion for the subject. In most cases,...
May 2010
1 post
STRATEGIC DESIGNING &THINKING FOR SCHOOLS and ...
by Gary Gruber
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
The venerable practices of strategic and long range planning have been used for a long time, filled with good intentions and often not-so-good outcomes. There are those who have suggested shifting the focus from planning to visioning and that is certainly a helpful step. The NAIS Strategic Visioning/Planning Process is one such...
April 2010
3 posts
Hiring is a Moral Act
by Timothy R. McIntire
“Moral” means to make something better and not debase it. Whether you have a role in hiring or are ultimately responsible for it, the consequences of your managing the processes that deliver the person new to your school are great: the stakes are high; the rewards, immense; the dangers, many. School leaders worry appropriately about attracting professional...
Spring Term
By Gary Gruber
Schools exercise a variety of calendars but even those that are on two, relatively even 15-week semesters have something akin to Spring Term. Those schools that have quarters or trimesters make it easier to have a legitimate calendar-related Spring Term, but in the minds of most teachers and students, the calendar, other than for exams, grades, and reports, has little to do with...
Summer Reading Suggestions Part I
by Carla Robbins Silver
With the arrival of spring term, you might be starting to put together your summer reading lists - for students, parents, faculty and, hopefully, yourself. Summer may be the only time in the year when you get to sit with a book, undisturbed for hours, without the pull of school work. In each of the next three newsletters, we will provide a few recommendations of books on...
March 2010
3 posts
The Vernal Equinox
March 21, 2010
The rites of Spring vary with cultures and traditions and we know that modern astronomy aside, people have recognized the vernal equinox for thousands of years. There is no shortage of rituals and traditions surrounding the coming of Spring. Many indigenous people celebrated the sun crossing directly over the equator for the basic reason that their food supplies would soon be...
Winning in your Fantasies. . . and Your Realities
I have been a runner for over half my life. I am not a great runner, but I am not exactly a jogger either. I can best be described as a “quasi-competitive-amateur-weekend-road warrior.” Better than many, worse than some. Over the years running has become a habit, as natural and as necessary as brushing my teeth or reading the newspaper. If I don’t do it for several days, I am...
The Seven (not so secret) Secrets of the Savvy...
Rob has done it again. He has hit the proverbial nail on several current topics so closely related to effective and productive leadership in schools. He confirms the most important qualities, characteristics and essential behaviors that separate the really good leaders from those who just keep plugging along hoping that things will change and get better because of their efforts and skills and...
February 2010
3 posts
Love the I-Pad, but love the Keynote even more!
Okay, I admit it. I love Apple and I always have, shamelessly and unabashedly. The first computer I ever owned was a Macintosh Plus, and I have never looked back. Each day I relish the opportunity to work on such a sublime machine as the MacBook Pro. I couldn’t love my iPhone more if it raised my children for me - and I am fairly confident there will be a Childrearing App in the near future. ...
Combining Jim Collins with Jonah Lehrer –Mixing...
Take one cup of Collins, two cups of Lehrer, a teaspoon of salt, some liquid of choice, mix thoroughly and let it sit overnight before baking for one hour at 350 degrees. Recipe for understanding or further confusion? Time is an important variable although as Lehrer says, there are those instances that require immediate action and we do not always have the luxury of time.
One such example that...
1 tag
Here's to the Groundhog!
Today being Groundhog Day brings up several memories, some of which may be worth sharing, others better left out. However, I will admit to shooting a number of the pesky varmints with a .22 caliber rifle in a former setting in Pennsylvania. I have not seen a groundhog in New Mexico nor have I shot anything but I might be tempted if the beavers keep taking my trees. Beavers are the largest...
January 2010
5 posts
Open Source Leadership
In the next SFLC newsletter, we will be discussing Daniel Pink’s new book, Drive:The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, in more detail. In the meantime, I thought I might share one aspect of the book that caught my attention. Pink opens his book with the story of Wikipedia. He wonders if anyone 15 years ago would have anticipated that something like Wikipedia - hoards of unpaid...
2 tags
David Mallery
All of us at the Santa Fe Leadership Center were terribly sad to hear about the death of our colleague and friend David Mallery. I personally got to know David when I attended his Westtown Seminar in 2000. For those of you who knew David, he was one of the warmest, most enthusiastic and most joyful people one could meet. Despite the large number of seminars he held over the years and all of the...
3 tags
SFLC Discourse on Leadership: Revisiting One of...
Across the universe of school leaders with our many shades, stripes, and conditions, the basic tenets of Jim Collins’ work have perennially rung true — both experientially and expectationally. While on the one hand, Mr. Collins has framed our work in language we have appreciated - for example, the importance of building a clock, not telling time - on the other hand, wise practitioners...
2 tags
Decisions, Decisions: The Dynamics of Executive...
Deciding to be a leader requires a conscious commitment, and the courage and confidence to take it all on, to accept the mantle of an awesome responsibility for making decisions that affect the lives of others. Experience along the way helps as does study, reflection and renewal. Talking with others who are experienced leaders helps too, as does taking time out to gain additional insights that...
5 tags
Transforming the American Psyche One Billboard at...
During the mid 1990s and early 2000s, the freeway from San Jose to San Francisco was one of the busiest commuter arteries in the country. Anyone making that commute during those years will remember Alfred. Each day on the marquee of the Clarion Hotel, Alfred would post a phrase, quotation, thought, or question of the day. Come rain or shine, through boom and bust, Alfred’s work was as reliable...
December 2009
1 post
