Developing Authentic Leaders

There is a plethora of research on what characteristics define the truly great leader. Integrity, honesty, vulnerability, vision are all descriptors of the outstanding leader. There is also a prevailing belief (in which I concur), that you cannot ascend to the highest level of leadership without being relational. 

At Vianney we take the leadership development of our students seriously!  For years our students have been required to take a freshmen leadership course, we were the 1st school in St. Louis to have our upper-level leadership course approved for dual-enrollment through Drury University, and the list of leadership opportunities is extensive and impressive! 

One thing we always stress to our young men during their leadership development is that Relationships Matter! Gifted leaders, ones who are well-respected, trusted and liked, understand that relationships must also be authentic.

Weak or passing fad leaders confuse authenticity with the art pleasing the people. Pleasing people is more often about self gain, about getting votes or being liked (although those might be great end results). Authentic relationships are formed by leaders who do the right thing, make tough decisions and have difficult conversations. Building authentic relationships is a great skill for teenagers to develop and for all of us to continuously work on and improve.

The challenges of effective leadership are immense. Chris Lowney writes in his book, Heroic Leadership, "it is not easy for the leader to set the course, get everyone onside with the direction and then maneuver in and around the barriers that exist to ascertain the preferred future."

Getting people committed to the cause requires authentic relationships. The leader’s ability to build effective and authentic relationships with one’s employees,colleagues and the general community is simply non-negotiable. Authentic relationships where everyone is committed to a common cause has been a strength of Vianney since our establishment in 1960 and something we hope to continuously work on and improve for many years to come! 

I highlight the word “authentic” because too often relationships are viewed as one way, shallow and superficial. In other words the default becomes to please others. Employee groups or leaders sometimes revert to the position that if you truly cared about this relationship you would do “X”. This is simply not authentic. In fact it's is immature and dare I say, "adolescent?"

Effective and authentic relationships are mutually beneficial and based on respect. It is not centered on getting your own way and is not structured with the mentality of win/lose. It is also not without struggle, tough decisions and disappointment. Authentic relationships value the messiness of the interactions and understand the complexity of leadership life. 

It is crucial for students to recognize upon graduation that it is impossible to please
everyone. They need to understand that any decision made will have people lined up on both sides of the fence. It is a no win scenario and therefore should be avoided at all costs. However, authentic relationships allows leaders to make tough decisions without major fallout. Pleasing people is fleeting and superficial at best. It requires no strong and enduring commitment which is why these leaders typically don’t have a long and successful shelf life and never create a legacy!

Our goal in developing Men of Character & Accomplishment is that they will grow in to leaders who will be authentic in their relationships rather than simply desiring to please people. That's the legacy we hope to leave behind. 

Building Character-there's a science to it!

Anyone who has spent anytime at St. John Vianney High School knows how serious we take the Character Development of our students. It has become our motto, our rallying cry, and statement of who we all aspire to be, an example we hope to set for others--"Men of Character & Accomplishment."

Similarly, anyone who has spent five minutes with me has likely heard my speeches or even viewed my presentations on the importance of school culture.  I believe culture fuels everything in a school. The more positive people are, the more open, and willing people are to take risks, the more caring and loving the people are, the greater the outcomes will be!

Of course, one reason our culture has been so strong and so outstanding in improving student learning is our commitment to implementing neuroscience and groundbreaking brain research.

While most of our implementation has been on brain-based instructional strategies, the research also demonstrates that we can "train" our brains and shape how we approach the world and complex problems. 

We understand that our brains have tremendous capacity to take on challenges and learn new things. While this may seem obvious, it takes some training to tap into our potential. Often, we fool ourselves into thinking we can't do something. (How often do you hear someone say,"Oh, I am no good at math"?)

Some people have trained themselves to operate with a “fixed” mindset. At Vianney, we want to promote a "growth" mindset, and science tells us that it is possible to teach both young and older brains how to expand their potential. 

It all comes through practice. If we respond to the world with disappointment and doubt, we reinforce that mindset in our neural pathways. Essentially, "We are what we practice." Through practice and deliberate effort, we can train our brains to see the possibilities and opportunities that sometimes even failure presents.

Check out this short 8-minute video that captures this science in an amazing way.

The video was produced by Tiffany Shlain & The Moxie Institute Films.

Defining Excellence

It is carefully placed in every publication, hangs in every classroom, fills the bottom of our emails, and any Vianney employee, student, or alumni can recite it:

"St. John Vianney High School is dedicated to forming young men for spiritual, academic, and personal excellence in the Catholic, Marianist tradition."

Of course, these are merely words unless we have a shared understanding of what they mean for our school. I reflect on these words often.  As principal I think it's important that I at least have my own understanding of what the words mean to me. I always find myself coming back time and time again to the word “excellence.” I often ask myself some tough questions:

• What exactly what about this concept is important for us at Vianney?
• What organization doesn’t want to be excellent?
• What school doesn’t want its students, employees, and alumni to be excellent?
• How, exactly, does my understanding of excellence differentiate our school?

So here are some of my quick thoughts/ramblings on what excellence means for Vianney...

To me, Vianney recognizes excellence as meaningful growth resulting from dedicated pursuit of individual and shared goals.

This view is not meant to discount what might be traditional measures of excellence such as our Average ACT score, number of National Merit finalists, or state championships in soccer. Instead, we want to dig deeper, to recognize how excellence is defined by individuals or groups depending on a host of factors.

Lory Hough has written a terrific article in Harvard Education Magazine where she highlights the dangers of using “averages” to define excellence in student achievement. The design of school, says Harvard professor Todd Rose, is built around a mythical “average student,” with the result being that systems, textbooks and curriculum don’t fit about 80% of the students sitting in the classrooms — we end up treating students in one-dimensional terms.

At Vianney we are dedicated to helping discover and unlock known and unknown potential in all our students. We help them understand standards of individual excellence and to develop the self-awareness and skills to achieve realistic goals. We also work to develop the group and social skills necessary to achieve in interdisciplinary, artistic, and athletic endeavors. 

In this way, we can say that we are all constantly striving for excellence at Vianney. The target is moving, and we are excited to be on the journey.

Catholic Schools Week--THANK YOU Vianney Teachers

It is with great enthusiasm and gratitude that we conclude 2016 Catholic Schools Week!

This week always arrives at the perfect time for me and gives me so many reasons to pause and be thankful for the blessings I have had in my life and career in Catholic education.  As if my career was not blessing enough, I now leave my house each morning and arrive home each night knowing my daughter is educated by some of the most passionate, inspiring, and faithful people I could ever imagine.  That's a gift!

This week as I reflected I thought of how proud I am of our wonderful students and the many contributions of all those who make Catholic education possible: dedicated teachers, our cafe and maintenance staff, secretaries, volunteers, committed parents, and board members who all ​provide excellent leadership and stewardship of our Catholic, Marianist mission.

Thank you for all you do to support Catholic education!

This week as we hosted Back-to-School Night and prepared to send off our acceptance letters to the Class of 2020 I could not help but think of how blessed Vianney is to have the most dedicated and talented faculty in Missouri! Parent after parent approached me on Tuesday night saying how excited THEY were to spend time with our teachers.  How excited THEY were to learn about the course content, projects, and brain-based learning!  It reaffirmed what I have known for 5 years.  Vianney is blessed with great educators!

The amount of work and energy our teachers pour into their work and into educating our ​students is astonishing! It is a crime that they don’t all make ​$5​50K a year. Since they couldn’t possibly do it for the money, I ​​​can only assume they love their job and love our young men. I hope they know how much I ​appreciate them for that!

 Our teachers do far more than teach ​students​ the building blocks of knowledge and learning; they are help ​to  develop them in to tomorrow's leaders! Our teachers provide an environment in which students have to practice respect, obedience, teamwork, and diligence​. T​he high standards they set for students both in their academic work and behavior is amazing! ​

Thank you Vianney faculty & staff! 

Thank you for insisting on kindness and respect, excellence and persistence! Thank you for sometimes saying, “This ​work is garbage and you can do better." Thank you for making our young men tuck in their shirt, sending them to the office to shave, and calling them out when they are wrong! Thanks for ​constantly ​requiring their best.

 ​After nine years in administration I guess it's safe to assume my career has officially ended as a classroom teacher.  But as someone who sees the quality of students our faculty produce year after year, it NEVER escapes me how magnificent you all are! 

I've seen you in your brilliance and in your most difficult times.

I've seen you instruct our students that struggle as much as you have celebrated the success of those who achieve remarkable feats. 

I know there are students battling academic and personal struggles and I've marveled at your tireless patience with them. I know they require so much of you in the midst of your regular responsibilities, and your patient attentiveness cannot possibly be over-celebrated.

​Please remember, at least during this Catholic Schools Week, that you are so respected, so important! Your work impacts your ​students for the rest of their lives.

I am 3​6​-years-old and still talking about my old teachers: Mrs. ​Meltner, Doug Thaman, Mrs. Meyer,

Mr. Mana, and even Sister Louise Wagner. Educators don’t get the credit they deserve, so I am standing up today, applauding YOU, cherishing YOUR investment in the next generation. I see the incredible amount of work YOU do, and I am forever grateful! YOU are heroes; there is no lesser designation.

Please remember when you are grading papers at 10:30pm on Sunday night, or tweeting another incredible idea, or writing our ​students another encouraging note​ or letter of recommendation​, or ​updating your website, ​I ​see you, ​I ​ appreciate you, and ​I think our school is abundantly blessed to have you!

 Your life matters so much and your legacy will go on long after you’re done teaching. You are sending out visionaries, thinkers, activists, and leaders into the world, and ​I ​owe you a debt of gratitude that ​I ​can never repay.

 Happy Catholic Schools Week! You are amazing! From the bottom of my heart, Thank you​!