0.4 Davis, s., & Leon, r. the big 20: critical principles and  (Page 5/9)

8. Sophisticated Diagnosticians

The challenges that face leadership are often entangled by multiple competing factors, differing points of view, and the need to fully (and clearly) understand the issues at hand. Part of solving problems and making informed and successful decisions is the ability to carefully diagnose a problem before embarking on a course of action. Great leaders are sophisticated diagnosticians. They consider the interests, needs, and demands of students, staff, and parents; ask the hard questions; analyze appropriate data (when available); conduct targeted research; and when possible, consider the implications and parameters surrounding a decision before making it. Diagnostic skill is essential to effective strategic planning, conflict resolution, and resource allocation, and must inform the decision choices and problem solving strategies that are continuously made by administrators and teachers (Leithwood&Steinbach, 1995).

9. Champions of Data

In 21 ^st Century schools the use of data and what is commonly called “data driven decision making” occupies an increasingly important role in the work of school leaders and the decisions they make. Given the prominence of information technologies and accountability movements in American public schools, great leaders competently use, plan with, and interpret multiple sources and types of data to advance student learning and effective teaching practices. In addition, great leaders communicate the results of their data analyses to illuminate the facets of school operations that are well aligned with key organizational goals and objectives as well as those that are not. Great leaders also teach others (e.g., staff, parents, community and even students) how to make sense of school data and how the data reflect important aspects of student learning and teaching. The great leader is a “champion of data,” and as champion continually translates, streamlines, and puts into context the multiple sources and types of information that bombard the school-community and reflects its progress (Boudett, City,&Murnane, 2005). Finally, and most importantly, great leaders know how to apply the analyses of data toward improved teaching and organizational practices that promote student learning.

10. Judicious Decision-Makers

To lead is to decide. Decision-making is the sine qua non of leadership. It’s what leaders do day-by-day and often minute-by-minute. In highly pluralistic organizations like schools, perceptions of a good executive decision often have less to do with objective or quantifiable measures of effectiveness than with subjective feelings of satisfaction that one’s interests have been met. Decision-making in schools and school systems is an intensely human and highly apperceptive endeavor that relies on the ability to skillfully combine rational deliberations, heuristic judgments, and intuitive insights. At its core, great leadership is about the exercise of judgment (i.e., what to do and how), timing (i.e., when to do it), discrimination (i.e., what matters most), navigation (i.e., charting the correct course), and performance (i.e., behaviors used to achieve desired outcomes). Sometimes not to decide is to decide, and often the most important decision choices faced by school leaders are between “right and right” rather than “right and wrong” (Davis&Davis, 2003).