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Scott McLeod- Dangerously Irrelevant: Ruth Simmons on Leadership: March 19, 2018

Scott McLeod's blog post this week was focused around a quote by Ruth Simmons discussing leadership.  While this blog post was short, it was very powerful and one that should be read by anyone involved in leadership of any kind.

The quote by Ruth Simmons discussed a misconception of leadership that exists, where it is often thought that a leader would need "specific skills" for specific jobs.  However, Ruth Simmons says this is not what leadership is to her.  Ruth states, "I think of leadership as more of a disposition- the ability to step into a situation to learn about the history of the enterprise, the opportunities that it faces, the culture that exists, and the people who are served by it." Ruth discusses that there should not be one specific type of leadership, but instead leaders should learn about an institution and find ways to improve it instead of coming in ready to put into place all new practices and routines. Ruth ends with, "I think leadership is a community affair."

This quote by Ruth Simmons really allowed me to reflect on my view and opinion on leadership.  While many of us in this course are working toward a Teacher Leadership degree, I believe that this quote speaks to us.  It is not about the knowledge that we gain and taking that knowledge and trying to completely change institutions, but instead it is about understanding how specific schools may work and how our knowledge can fit into those practices.  With this technology course, we have seen that we cannot just go into a school and put all new technology mandates in place, but instead we must gather teachers and support around us and slowly implement technology and grab for the "low hanging fruit" and over time use what works for each school.  As Ruth states, we must be the leader that is "A person who is able to come in to show a community a picture of what it is, to provide some insight into what it could be – how it could be different or improved perhaps – and then enlist the help of people who are there and others who support that institution in order to move forward together."

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