Pub. 3 2013-2014 Issue 2

29 teacher quality, administrative leadership, etc. Second, memories and stories play a powerful role in defining a brand. These memories and stories often revolve around how well expectations are met, unmet, or exceeded. Finally, every brand represents a set of relationships. In a school community some of those relationships include: parent to teacher, teacher to administrator, teacher to student. When these elements work together in a positive way, people are more likely to “choose” our brand over another one. While many elements of your schools brand can impact the brand, the first and most important element of your school’s brand begins and rests squarely on the leadership brand of your school. But creating a leadership brand isn’t just the responsibility of the administration or board. Any discussion about leadership branding begins with YOU. Why? Because in an education environment, everyone from the principal to the janitor is a leader. We are not always leading the same groups of people, but we all have leadership roles in our school community. How Do I Build a Better Leadership Brand? Start With You. Building a powerful brand for your school has to start at the individual leadership level. For us to begin to build a strong brand for a team or school, we first have to know what our own brand is and how it is impacting the larger brand. As you begin to evaluate and develop a personal leadership brand, the following three questions are extremely useful in evaluating what your brand is and what it needs to be: 1. How is my leadership brand helping me build my school, board or classroom? 2. How is my leadership brand hurting my school, board or classroom? 3. Based on the answer to the previous three ques- tions, what are some ways I can change/improve my brand? Once, we have developed our own personal inven- tory of responses to these questions, we can then ask these same questions at a team and organizational level. Get Some Data. While the questions above provide great insight, I have found that we often need a third party view of how we show up to others and what their brand experi- ence is with us. One of the tools I have found effective in helping clients get a clearer sense of their brand is to use a validated profile test like DiSC or Meyers-Briggs. These tests are not perfect, but they can provide profound insight into how you show up to your employees, students, and parents. Further these tests can provide important insight into how you can interact with others and where you can leverage the strengths of a fellow teacher or administrator. Be Passionate About Getting Feedback. This step is closely related to Get Some Data, but it is different in two key ways. First, we can get feedback in real time and in specific areas of performance. Second, it comes from those we interact with versus comparing our answers to a database of other responses. When we look at great athletes like Roger Federer, LeBron James or Annika Sorenstam, we find a common thread. These great performers are not only unafraid of feedback but are also relentless in seeking it out, whether it’s game film or some tough words from a coach. We should be no less fearless. Focus on Strengths, Mitigate Weaknesses. When looking to create a powerful leadership brand, start with your strengths. We will get the most bang-for-our-buck by improving on our strengths versus weaknesses. This does not mean that we ignore our weaknesses. Our focus on weaknesses should only be to improve upon them to the point that they don’t get in the way of our strengths. How Does a Leadership Brand Benefit Us? In my work with individuals and organizations, I have found that those who focus first on branding at a personal in three key areas: • Strategic Succession Planning: With the data and feedback created in developing a personal leader- ship brand, school leaders are better equipped to identify individuals who have the right strengths for current and future needs. • Strong Culture: The four items listed to build a strong leadership brand are also powerful tools in creating a culture of excellence. It also helps the or- ganization avoid a common business pitfall – trying to be all things to all people. Once individuals and organizations are clear on what their strengths are they can leverage those strengths to build a culture that can create strong demand for their brand. • Effective & Strong School Leadership: No cutting- edge curriculum or set of test scores can overcome poor leadership. As teachers, board members and administrators work together to build a powerful leadership brand, they position themselves to have the kind of leadership at every level that enables students to succeed and the school to flourish. When it comes to education, there is a wide range of brands available for parents and students to choose from. Developing a leadership brand at every level in your school community is a powerful way for you to create the “ex- pectations, memories, stories and relationships that when taken together will account for” an ever growing number of parents choosing a charter education. Lyall J. Swim is a managing partner at Junto Strategy (www. juntostrategy.com ), where he develops innovative organizational solutions that drive improved results in organizational effective- ness and leadership capability. Mr. Swim is the creator of Extreme Leadership Makeover: Building A Powerful Personal Leadership Brand and The Balancing Act: Creating an Ethical Culture that Builds Trust. He also regularly blogs about all things leadership at www.lyallswim.com . Mr Swim holds an MBA from Brigham Young University and is currently pursuing a doctorate in organizational leadership at Pepperdine University. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25