In this episode of the Engaging Leadership Show, hosted by CT Leong, the focus is on navigating the intricate balance between culture and strategy in schools, and the age-old question of whether leaders are born or made. CT Leong, co-founder of Engage Rocket, sits down with Dr. Shawn Tennenbaum, the Superintendent of San Benito High School District, to explore effective leadership in education and its impact on teacher retention, engagement, and student achievement.
Dr. Tennenbaum delves into the rich history and vibrant culture of San Benito High School District, emphasizing the importance of tradition coupled with innovation. Their conversation spans various aspects of leadership development, how early experiences in athletics and education shaped his leadership qualities, and the pivotal role of calculated risks and embracing failures in nurturing resilient leaders. Dr. Tennenbaum discusses the strategies he uses to create alignment within the school district, including setting clear parameters, promoting earned autonomy, and fostering a collaborative environment that touches on the vertical and horizontal integration of goals and strategies.
Key Takeaways:
Balancing Tradition and Innovation: The importance of honoring historical roots while embracing future-driven innovation within a school district.
Leadership Development: How early experiences and role models shape leadership qualities, and the value of providing young leaders with opportunities to lead, fail, and grow.
Creating Alignment: Techniques for ensuring vertical and horizontal alignment in educational organizations, and the significance of cascading goals and creating flexibility for teachers.
Feedback-Driven Approach: The use of regular feedback loops to ensure continuous improvement and alignment, involving one-to-one rounding and anonymous surveys.
Impact of Leadership on Students: The direct correlation between the stability and synergy of a
Chapters:
0:00
Balancing Tradition and Innovation in School Leadership
2:43
The Journey of Leadership Development and Embracing Failure
10:16
Leadership Dynamics in School Districts
16:14
Strategic Planning and Feedback Loops in School Districts
22:41
The Impact of Leadership Stability on Student Success
Music Credit: Shake it Up - Fesliyanstudios.com - David Renda
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Mentioned in this episode:
Engaging Leadership Intro
Engaging Leadership Outro
Transcripts
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My name is Chee Tong or C. T. and I'm co founder of Engage Rocket. We're a leadership listening and insights tool to help school district leaders use and improve teacher retention engagement and student achievement outcomes. Today's guest has been the association of California school administrators, region 10 superintendent of the year and the ACSA State of California HR Administrator of the Year. It's a great privilege to be interviewing Dr. Shawn Tenenbaum, Superintendent of San Benito High School District. Dr. Tenenbaum, welcome.
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It's 128 years of tradition and legacy and generational development. It is a culture built on tradition and family engagement and generations of families that have gone through The school in the district and everybody is so connected. They feel a part of it. It's vibrant, it's alive.
there's stories from the:
They're embracing innovation [:
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And in our conversations, it certainly sounded like you had those leadership qualities in you from pretty early on that caused someone to tap you on the shoulder. What do you think was that initial spark that caused you to become self aware that, hey, maybe I have some of this leadership juice going on and take this opportunity.
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But also just outstanding teachers and how to be a role model in a classroom. And it came naturally. I think, I had incredible role models whether it was playing football or baseball or basketball early on from my coaches, but also outstanding teachers that really helped put me in a position to continue to develop leadership.
found myself in these really [:
They can lead by example or lead a group of people. And maybe they don't succeed at first, but we encourage them to keep trying.
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I think that pattern helped develop and form who I am and a lot of my leadership capabilities. But I have been around some fantastic leaders who are not as extrovert, Who may be a little bit more of an introvert or, a little bit more subdued in their outgoing personality.
I think leadership is, defined by many different characteristics.
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But I think the leaders I have been involved with and I have been, privileged to work with, almost all of them, if not all at some point in their career took a calculated risk and didn't succeed. And you learn so much from that. So I would say, most leaders, if not all probably have exhibited that sense of failure at one point, and it's great reflection.
s move forward in a positive [:
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But also I can tell you, C. [:
And those failures and the ability to reflect and adapt have been, with me for 32 years in my career now.
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abilities for others to grow [:
And then the second is, to make sure that all of the leaders that we're working with are collaborative in nature, both vertically and horizontally in the organization. Those two principles have really guided me and been my foundation as a superintendent. I must provide them with the space to grow, but also encourage them to collaborate with their peers and their colleagues, so that we have synergy and symmetry and consistency, throughout the school district.
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So when we actually get that autonomy, we feel like we've grown and we're willing to invest more effort to get to the next level. Talk more about how do you drive that level of alignment, horizontally and vertically. Maybe for adults it's easier vertically because we're hierarchical species.
It's relatively easy for humans to in most cases, accept the authority. But, with peers, that's where it gets tricky.
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As a leader in a school district, you're nurturing the development of maybe in some cases, four to five different generations. We have folks in their early twenties, all the way to their late sixties. Those generations are much different in their philosophical approaches, their belief in leadership, their belief in society. And how they were raised and, Their own belief as adults. But you have to be able to create a safe space where colleagues horizontally can come together, with a set foundation of parameters of how to operate, and what is expected of them.
alance the autonomy with the [:
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The principle is guiding, [:
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are, we discuss what we had [:
We may be still striving to attain it. But to get to the point of how do we drive that vertical integration and alignment, it starts with the executive cabinet. Then we filter down to our upper leadership and our upper management group. We're sharing those same goals to the middle management.
the school district. My role [:
So we cascade down and then probably the key that we've had a lot of success with recently is creating feedback loops. To make sure that as we're progressing through the school year, we're still on point. But we're also capturing, maybe we're deviating a little bit too far in one way or another. And those feedback loops provide us with an opportunity to hear from the field and the classroom what is and what isn't working.
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We all have, set questions that, we've developed, in concert with, our leadership team. And then we do what's called rounding and rounding is a one to one conversation, with a set group of employees. usually it's, 10, 12 minutes, maybe 15, you and I might meet, and then I might meet with the custodian, then I might meet with an English teacher.
I might meet with a bus driver, a food service employee, and then we take all of the feedback, we synthesize the information, we capture it all, and then we code it and theme it to find out on this particular question, how did our staff members respond? Are we on point? What are the challenges?
we synthesize everything, we [:
And then, we correlate the two and it's been giving us tremendous results.
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It's not like a, tick the box exercise that you're doing. They're fully invested and fully involved in that strategic plan and they can see the impact of their feedback and their voice.
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logue, and treating them, as [:
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ip team on impacting student [:
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I think those are some great ingredients for a young leader.
