Jeff Janssen and A.B. Combs Principal Muriel T. Summers
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Leadership Lessons from the Nation's Best Principal - Part 1
Jeff Janssen, Janssen Sports Leadership Center
Discover Some Great Ideas from One of the Nation's Top Elementary Schools With another school year kicking off, I wanted to share some leadership best practices and ideas from one of education's top leaders, Principal Muriel T. Summers at A.B. Combs Elementary School in Raleigh, NC. Faced with the daunting task of losing her school's magnet status 10 years ago when she first took over as principal, Summers was told that she needed to create a specialized magnet school "like no other in the U.S, and you will have no additional resources to do it with" to maintain their magnet status. After much deliberation, she had once heard 7 Habits author Stephen Covey speak and came up with the brilliant idea to focus the school's stagnant culture and curriculum to be all about Leadership. The rest is history. Summers and A.B. Combs Elementary have won nearly every prestigious national and state school award for having one of the nation's top elementary schools. Check out the school's website below: http://combses.wcpss.net/node/15 Because of Combs pioneering success in teaching leadership, hundreds of administrators and teachers from around the world come to the school's "Leadership Days" twice a year to learn of their amazing leadership program, in hopes to implement a similar version in their schools. Combs program has been so successful that the school and Muriel Summers are prominently featured in Stephen Covey's new book, The Leader in Me. After reading Principal Summers' inspiring story, I felt compelled to meet her, see the school, and learn more. I immediately knew the school was special when I walked in the front door and a young kindergarten student approached me unprompted, looked me in the eye, gave me a firm handshake, and said in a welcoming and clear voice, "Good morning sir. My name is Michael. We are so happy to have you here at our school." This warm, sincere, and professional greeting was then followed by similar ones from other students of all ages as I walked toward the office. The visit was amazing and I discovered so many ideas that we could adapt with our leaders at the college and high school levels.
LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM ONE OF THE NATION'S TOP PRINCIPALS In addition to encouraging you to read The Leader in Me, here are some ideas that you can use with your program.
1. Invest the time to teach and reinforce social skills and etiquette with your team.
The kindergartner greeting I mentioned above was so impressive that I still use the example in my workshops with college and high school students. If a kindergarten kid can learn these simple yet crucial social skills, certainly our athletes can as well. Not only will these simple skills serve them well throughout their lifetimes - they will also build and enhance your program's reputation in the school, in the community, and beyond. As I've written about before, Pitt women's basketball coach Agnus Berenato is fantastic at teaching her players the social graces of life as part of her program. Visit a Pitt practice and at the earliest opportunity each player will come over, shake your hand, introduce themselves, and welcome you to practice. It's a little thing that makes a BIG difference. A great resource and framework for teaching the social graces is Ron Clark's, The Essential 55. My wife and I are using it with our children.
2. Leader of the Week Program
Combs features a different Leader of the Week with their students. Often this person comes in from the community and shares their thoughts and experiences with leadership. They have had leaders from business, sports, military, politics, non-profits, education, etc. all come to the school to discuss leadership. The various leaders provide them with different perspectives on leadership, reinforce key principles, and expose the kids to leaders in the community as well as career options down the road. You could even feature and study historical leaders (Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr.) in your Leader of the Week program. As Covey writes in The Leader in Me, "They gather and present stories and insights from past leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mother Theresa. They identify successful leadership traits and stories from current leaders in science, politics, the arts, and sports, including leaders from their community. They read about leaders, watch DVDs about them, and talk about what makes them leaders."
3. Hamburger Rubric to Understand Quality
Are you sometimes frustrated because your athletes don't train and compete at the kind of quality level that you expect? Here's an analogy that Combs uses to help their students understand how important quality and effort is in achieving successful results. It's called the Hamburger Rubric and goes like this: Imagine walking into a restaurant and ordering a hamburger. After waiting an abnormally amount of time, the waiter brings you a hot dog in a soggy bun. Obviously not what you wanted! This is level 1 in quality.
Level 2 is you get the hamburger on time but it is barely warm and does not have the ketchup and mustard you requested.
Level 3 is you get the hamburger as you requested, hot off the grill.
Level 4 is getting the hamburger as you expected on time, with a side of fries and a shake for free - clearly more than what you expected.
Level 3 is obviously what is expected - but students are encouraged to find ways to go above and beyond to Level 4 when possible. Just as your athletes would be frustrated with less than level 3 quality when ordering at a restaurant, so too should coaches and captains be frustrated when athletes efforts are at Level 2 or worse.
Our Championship Coaches Network members can click on the link below to read Part 2 to learn more great ideas from A.B. Combs Elementary School...
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Inspire Your Team
