9 Questions Every School Leader Needs to Ask Right Now...
The ‘Hotshot’ Test, The Keeper Test, and 7 More Questions That Will Challenge How You Lead...
The last week in Washington D.C. was a whirlwind of keynotes, deep dives, in-between conversations, and reconnecting with colleagues – old and new – at a conference with 600+ school leaders from around the world.
One of my favorite things about conferences where the participants aren’t in direct competition is the openness. Everyone is willing to pull back the curtain on their work—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
As I head home, I’m reflecting on everything I’ve heard and decided to share the nine questions I think every school leader should ask as we return to school next week.
Why does your school exist?
One of the keynote speakers shared this statement, “the entire point of school is to teach young people something they don’t know.”
He was being provocative and doesn’t actually believe this but there are school leaders who still live in this space. And, it’s no longer a good “why.” The capability of AI tutors is unreal and only getting better. If you think your only purpose is knowledge transfer, you may as well shut down now.
But if it’s not solely about knowledge transfer, what is it?
Babysitting?
Social development?
I heard one school leader say their why is “student agency.” And over the years as I’ve looked at hundreds of school websites I’ve seen variations on that and others like these:
“prepare students for the future”
“creating changemakers”
“all students can learn at high levels”
“shaping compassionate leaders of the future”
I think these are all great but don’t get to the heart of the “why.”
I think school today should be summed up in one word…
Becoming.
As educators, we partner with students and parents to support student progress on their journey of becoming.
I use this tense because “becoming” is a lifelong process and there’s no end. The word “become” would suggest that you made it to some imaginary finish line which doesn’t exist.
This means our school exists to:
help students understand who they are now
help students develop the aspirational version of themself they’re becoming
help students understand how to make progress on that journey
help students see how the different components of school that we force on them each day are actually part of the most important work they will ever engage in—their OWN PERSONAL journey of becoming
Think of the ninth grader who hates math. The teacher could say suck it up and just do it.
Or the teacher could connect with the student and ask them about who they’re becoming and the aspirational version of themself. So maybe the student says, I want to be a YouTube star someday, I don’t need math.
The teacher could come back and talk about the need to calculate YouTube revenue and how many views it will take at a specific watch time duration to make that happen.
The point is that we want the student to see the school as a partner in their own personal journey of becoming.
What questions do you want your graduates to be able to answer?
“Unlike the vast majority of high-achieving students graduating from independent schools, a Hewitt senior knows how to answer three important questions:
What brings you joy?
What are you good at?
What does the world need?”
(Dr. Tara Christie Kinsey, Hewitt School)
Speaking of being clear on why your school exists, I thought this was an interesting way to look at what you hope your graduates can do as they leave your care.
The last two questions are kind of the foundation of your entire professional life. Finding the venn diagram overlap between your skills and what the world needs is a fantastic way for discovering what to do next.
Do your grads know these things?
What other questions would you hope your graduates can answer?
Where are you paying attention?
One speaker said the role of a school leader is to show people where to pay attention.
I have never heard it phrased exactly like this but there’s a lot of truth to it.
We live in an attention economy. Everyone and everything is fighting for our attention.
As a leader your objective is to help direct attention to where the best return on investment will be found in that moment.
Think about it—”paying attention.” The phrase itself signals there is a cost that must be paid and the assumption is that you will get something back in return.
As a leader are you getting the best return on investment on the costs you’re paying? You probably spend a ton of time going through your budgeting process each year. We do too.
What if we treated our attention with the same degree of intentionality as we treat our P&L? (Click here to read our latest newsletter about this topic of attention)
What’s in your user guide?
I attended a session where a superintendent shared all of their personality profiles and strengths/areas of growth. The presentation was fantastic and was a great example of transparency and trying to build a team of complementary pieces.
AND….
I left thinking—there’s one more step needed.
You need to turn those pieces into concrete statements. It’s not practically helpful to simply know someone’s strength is empathy. It still leaves me guessing what that might look like in our day-to-day interactions.
I want to know what the empathy looks like in action. I’ve written about user guides before and have a list of questions to use as starters for building your own user guide. It might also be worth asking the people you lead if they have certain specific things they want to know about working with you.
What would the hotshot do?
You aren’t going to want to hear this.
Someone wants your job.
And, they might even do it better than you.
This question comes from Kat Cole, a billion-dollar brand leader who has had tremendous professional success.
Here’s how it works:
Think about the role you fill—principal, superintendent, communication director, etc.
Ok, now imagine that a “hotshot” (someone who is incredibly talented, hard working, ambitious, and on the rise) steps into that role tomorrow morning. You have absolutely no time for a transition. They just show up and take over.
What will they see? They have the benefit of a fresh perspective and will jump in on day one believing that the current state of things will be the worst it will ever be. For them this is the first day of massive transformation.
What is one thing this “hotshot” would immediately improve?
Kat then asks herself, “why can’t that be you?”
This is the most important piece of the process.
You have to become the “hotshot.”
I couldn’t help but notice that in some of the conversations I overheard there was complacency. I overheard one leader say something like, “so much change - maybe I should just retire…”
I’m not saying they should retire.
But I’m saying that all of us (myself included) need to know that there is a hotshot waiting in the wings and if you want to stay in power you need to become the hotshot. (Click here to read the latest newsletter covering this question in more detail)
Would you try to change their mind?
When you get together with other folks in your industry you will inevitably hear about the crazy customers and colleagues.
What’s interesting in these conversations is that almost all of the time, the person complains but if you ask them about what happened next, they shrug and say some version of, “just doing the best I can to make it work.”
In the Book, No Rules, Rules, Netflix founder Reed Hastings shared a retention test he has each of his leaders conduct called, “The Keeper Test.”
Keeper Test
“If a person on your team were to quit tomorrow, would you try to change their mind? Or would you accept their resignation, perhaps with a little relief? If the latter, you should give them a severance package now, and look for a star, someone you would fight to keep” (p. 171).
I already know school leaders won’t like this question because it’s uncomfortable and will force them to sit in the tension of potentially knowing they wish a teacher would leave but can’t or won’t exit them out of the school.
How can you adjust the process so this doesn’t happen again?
Someone asked me about my work with our superintendent, specifically about feedback and I shared this question with her.
When I make a mistake, my boss asks some version of this question.
I love it.
I never feel like it’s a personal attack or about me. It’s all about the process. It’s a solid “third point” (which we as educators love) that allows me to turn my attention to fixing a “process” which is the best use of time after a mistake has been made.
I highly recommend this if you’re a leader who needs to give feedback.
Who do you need to be in this moment?
I attended a session where a superintendent asked us to consider our leadership style in the context of fruit. Some leaders are like a durian with a prickly exterior. Some are like a mango where it’s a little tough on the outside but very sweet inside.
He then said that leadership is not about the leader—it’s all about context.
You might need to be the durian at one moment and then be a mango 10 minutes later in a different situation.
This question is a reminder that each of us contains a wide range of versions of ourself. A skilled leader is able to read the situation and know which version of themself needs to show up in that specific moment.
What’s going to be the same?
I was in a session where we focused on the question, “what’s next?” In fact, I was in several really provocative discussions about AI this week. We love trying to predict change.
“I very frequently get the question: ‘What’s going to change in the next 10 years?’ And that is a very interesting question; it’s a very common one.
I almost never get the question: ‘What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?’ And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two — because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time…
In our retail business, we know that customers want low prices, and I know that’s going to be true 10 years from now. They want fast delivery; they want vast selection. It’s impossible to imagine a future 10 years from now where a customer comes up and says, ‘Jeff I love Amazon; I just wish the prices were a little higher,’ [or] ‘I love Amazon; I just wish you’d deliver a little more slowly.’ Impossible.
And so the effort we put into those things, spinning those things up, we know the energy we put into it today will still be paying off dividends for our customers 10 years from now. When you have something that you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it.”
(Jeff Bezos, Amazon)
You can’t ignore the future but if you spend all your time focused on “the next big thing” you might lose sight of what will always be true.
What’s timeless in education?
As AI and new technologies emerge, we can’t ignore the future.
But if we focus only on the next big thing, we might lose sight of what will always be true.
If you’re a school leader, educator, or even parent reading this, what hits for you? What did I miss? If you got any value out of this, pass the link along to someone else who you think might enjoy (or need) one of these questions!
Keep Asking,
Kyle