“There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.”
– Indira Gandhi

In this blog post I am highlighting the great work of the teachers, students, parents, support staff members, administrators, community members and the Board of Education of the Deerfield Public Schools District 109. Our leadership team has been following the research of Kouzes & Posner. In their book The Leadership Challenge they share decades of leadership research across industry and they proffer that the five practices of exemplary leadership are: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart (MICEE). The focus of this post rests with the Inspire a Shared Vision Practice, and at the end of the post I share a recently published journal article about our District’s shared vision and its direct connection to actions.

From an August 23, 2013 post:
Leaders build relationships. I believe that each person is a leader in one way or another. Some are leaders by nature and talent, some are leaders by situation or role. Leadership is both an art and a science, and there are many books, articles, research reports, and findings about what leadership is and what leadership can do. Two great books on school and district leadership are: School Leadership that works and District Leadership that works. One of the main charges that I have as the superintendent of schools is to support leadership so that leaders emerge in all parts of the organization to Engage, Inspire, and Empower. While I am visible in the schools, and while the classroom is the most important “place” in the school district, I also work very closely with the administrative team in an effort to support their work and their leadership.

This year [2013-14] as a leadership team (district center administrators, and building level administrators) we are working on a book study with The Leadership Challenge. The authors of this classic and highly regarded leadership book Kouzes and Posner detail and describe Five Main frameworks for leadership (Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart).

Our Leadership Challenge is to fulfill our district mission every day in every classroom and in every interaction. One tangible, observable way in which we can guide our leader’s work is found in the Five Main frameworks.

Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart (MICEE)

The Mission of the Deerfield Public Schools, DPS109:

Provide educational experiences of the highest quality that engage, inspire and empower each student to excel and contribute in a changing world.

Our Vision: District 109 students will excel and contribute when they have the knowledge and skills to be: • Lifelong, self-directed learners, • Critical and creative thinkers, • Effective communicators,
• Collaborative team members, • Respectful and responsible members of society

This month (March 2016) Deerfield Public Schools District 109 Assistant Superintendent for Finance & Operations, CSBO Greg Himebaugh & I published an article in the Illinois Association of School Business Officials (IASBO) Journal UPDATE (see below). This article is about how WE in DPS109 have been inspiring a SHARED vision that has lead, leads to, and will continue to lead to ACTION and LEADERSHIP on behalf of students, staff, and community!