Leaders Must Take and Support Risks

In our schools there are managers and there are leaders. For our students in our most struggling schools we need leaders. Moreover, we need leaders who are willing and able to take measured risks, as the status quo will not achieve the learning outcomes that we must get from our students if they are to compete and excel in our modern society.

Be willing to do things differently

Taking risks does not mean blindly stepping into the muck. Rather, it means being willing to do things differently than they have been done previously. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. In a healthy organization leaders at all levels understand this. To positively impact the learning outcomes in schools that have struggled over time leaders must be able to identify existing strengths within their buildings. They must be able to support those who are willing to innovate and try new things. In short, they must be willing and able to support and encourage change. They must understand that risks and change will sometimes be messy as they break from the status quo. Doing things differently inherently means breaking from the status quo. It also means that people will likely be outside of their comfort zone. This is one source of risk for leaders who are trying to implement change.

Ways to overcome the status quo

The status quo typically pushes back as people’s comfort zone is deeply tied to what they know. Doing things differently means taking the organization, a class or a school out of their comfort zone. Wise leaders understand this and help support staff, students, parents and the community through the change process. These supports can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Open communication about the reason for the change; the change itself; and, the progress tied to the change is a crucial aspect of supporting risk takers through change efforts. Other supports involve a willingness to stay the course in spite of the pressure exerted by the status quo. Often keeping the reason for the change in front of people is key here. Another tool involves being a cheerleader of the change effort, and getting others to do this same work. A friend and colleague provided a sage example of this as we worked on a major change effort at Brookhurst Junior High in the early 2000s: “We jointly and joyfully put our shoulder to the millstone of educating these children.” (Michael Buss, 2000)

Be bold when taking risks

Change is risky and it involves significant sweat equity. It also often costs political capital. The wise leader supports those who are willing to take the risks necessary to effect the changes that must be attempted as we work to improve the learning outcomes for our most marginalized students. Kouzes and Posner have written extensively on change and leadership and pulled from meta-studies across industries in their work.

To achieve the extraordinary, you have to be willing to do things that have never been done before. Every single Personal-Best Leadership Experience case speaks to the need to take risks with bold ideas. You can’t achieve anything new or extraordinary by doing things the way you’ve always done them. You have to test unproven strategies. You have to break out of the norms that box you in, venture beyond the limitations you usually place on yourself and others, try new things, and take chances.
Leaders must take this one step further. Not only do they have to be willing to test bold ideas and take calculated risks, but they also have to get others to join them on these adventures in uncertainty. It’s one thing to set off alone into the unknown; it’s entirely another to get others to follow you into the darkness. The difference between an exemplary leader and an individual risk-taker is that leaders create the conditions where people want to join with them in the struggle.
Leaders make risk safe, as paradoxical as that might sound. They turn experiments into learning opportunities. They don’t define boldness as primarily go-for-broke, giant-leap projects. There are mistakes and false starts. They are part of the process of innovation. What’s critical, therefore, is that leaders promote learning from, and building upon, these experiences. (Kouzes and Posner, 2017)

Again, change is risky and often messy. The new will not look like the old and it is likely that some in the organization will feel a sense of discomfort during the implementation of the change effort. It is here where the leader’s support is crucial. As Kouzes and Posner wrote, the leader must help risk takers by supporting them through mistakes and false starts, looking at these as learning opportunities to be built upon. Failure to do this will result in resurgence by the status quo and an institutional hesitancy to take risks in the future.

Visionary leaders are willing to take risks and must support risk takers and risk taking within their organizations. In schools this is all about improving learning outcomes for our students. Things will go awry when we take risks. We are in the learning and learning outcome business. Leaders who want to positively impact learning outcomes for the students in their schools must take risks and must own and support the mistakes and false starts as change efforts are implemented. This is how growth is achieved in the long run in our schools for our most marginalized students.

Stuart Caldwell has been in public education since 1991. After having taught at both the middle school and high school levels for seven years, he then moved into administration, serving as an assistant principal at both middle and high school. Woodworth-Monroe TK-8 in Inglewood is his third principalship. The entirety of his educational experience has been in Title I inner-city schools.

Beyond his site administrative experience, Caldwell has taught in the MAED and Ed.D. programs for Concordia University Irvine since 2006, helping to prepare teachers for leadership and leaders for advanced leadership positions. He believes strongly in the power of education as a way to increase equitable access to all of the benefits of our society for our students and families. He loves the work he does in both his day job as a site leader and as an adjunct professor.