Effective Leaders "Make Time"

Two leaders who worked magic with the clock and calendar

At Democracy Prep, everything revolved around the clock. The best leaders used that as an advantage - so well that it worked almost like magic.

Welcome to Timeless Leadership! This week I share a powerful take-away from two Timeless Leaders I worked with closely at Democracy Prep from 2013-2016. How did they make the most of longer school days and school years? How did they channel intensity for a mission into sustained performance? I share my own observations and recollections on the special ways these leaders consistently showed up for me and others.

Also in this issue:

• What’s to come with the rest of Season 1

• Calls for guest authors! (March-May)

---

What does a wizard do? 

They command magic to shape the world to their liking. 

In the real world, we don’t have wizards… but we do have leaders.

A skilled leader, like a wizard, uses their power to shape the world around them.

Crucially, part of shaping the world is developing a schedule and keeping pace.

Ten years ago, I met two leaders especially skilled in this shaping. 

“Time wizards” you might say. 

Image generated with DALL-E.

No Excuses

I joined Democracy Prep Public Schools (DP) in the summer of 2013. They had just received a $9.1M grant from the US Department of Education to power the network’s growth far beyond New York City. My role was to help open several new, high-performing high schools.

This was the heyday of the “no excuses” charter school era. KIPP, Uncommon, Achievement First, and Success Academy regularly made the news for their high standards and high performance. 

DP followed a similar model, with the added complexity of preparing students not only for college, but also for citizenship. 

Time as a Key Lever

To deliver outstanding results for kids, DP had partnered with the organization Building Excellent Schools to help develop leaders and codify the culture and management playbook. 

One of the five key pillars from the BES model that DP adopted was time. 

Specifically, that students would have more time to learn. 

In support of that, leaders needed to create the opportunity for students to have more time to learn. They would also have to ensure teachers and students made use of that time. 

In concrete terms, this meant: 

• Teachers were expected to work at least one Saturday per month. 

• Teachers’ mandated work day went from 7:30-5:15 - or longer. 

• Teachers’ summer “break” lasted about six weeks - or less.

Meeting these expectations was not left to chance or the staff’s intrinsic motivation. The hours and calendar were literally written into employment contracts. 

This was the baseline expectation. For many staff, hitting their ambitious teaching goals called for working even more hours and more days. 

These expectations were the biggest complaint from our recruiters when trying to close top talent. They also were a leading cause of staff turn-over. 

Yet when the adults showed up, students undeniably advanced. 

How To Lead Like Clockwork

I had the privilege of working very closely with two leaders in particular who had found the spell-book for creating and using time effectively.

Natasha and Steve led, respectively, DP’s flagship (first) High School and its first expansion site. Over time they worked through tremendous challenges and eventually would advance to leadership positions over the entire national network.

When I look back I’m struck by how they fundamentally changed the relationship with time for their staff, students, and themselves. Specifically, I believe they understood three core levers for gaining command of time:

• Mindset like an elixir to sustain energy. Natasha and Steve dedicated themselves authentically to the mission of their organizations through the personal allocation of their time, energy, and attention. They got up early and stayed up late every day to manage the complex demands of their organizations. Yet over the years, they didn’t allow this to become a grind. They both seemed to sustain their energy by genuinely enjoying the hustle of this relentless routine. Their mindset was their elixir. 

• Systems like an alchemy for schedules. Steve and Natasha disproportionately obsessed about how well schedules were laid out, how they would be experienced by staff and students, and how to squeeze value out of every transition moment and every professional development session. I consulted with them on some of these decisions, and observed them on many others. They paid consistent, deliberate attention to this foundational system for their organizations.

• Delegation like apprenticeship for leaders. Steve and Natasha consistently elevated members of their teams to take on leadership. They nurtured grade team and subject area leaders, and supported entrepreneurial teachers establishing new programs and capabilities. They each fostered several sorcerer apprentices that went on to lead their own schools and initiatives.

This reflection is based entirely on my observation and recollection of Steve and Natasha’s leadership - so it’s inevitable that there’s more to the story! That said, I am confident these patterns were real and influential - they stand out in my memory even years later as lasting impressions of impact.

In conclusion:

Winning in a competitive market or solving an intractable social problem takes sustained intensity. Part of creating that boils down to the judicious use of time.

The best leaders use time so well, it’s almost like they conjure more of it from thin air.

What do you think - have you ever met a Time Wizard? Any spells you’d like to share?

Season 1: The Final Stretch

It’s been exciting to launch this Substack and build a writing routine with all of you. In case you missed it, I’ve approached this first phase of the project by committing to writing a first “Season” to go through the end of February.

This season is all about the “origins” of Timeless Leadership. It’s a chance for me to document and share some of the key influences that have helped me find a new and better way to develop and practice leadership.

I hope it creates a chance for you to reflect on your own leadership influences. I also hope it helps you to find a new appreciation for the power of time as a lens into leadership.

So what’s in store for the last four issues?

• A post about my time at Stanford GSB

• A post about my time at Box

• A post about my new job

• A post introducing my Timeless Leader frameworks, which I plan to make open source and to continually develop, hopefully with you all as my collaborators

I hope you’ll continue reading and sharing your feedback as we complete this phase of the adventure. It’s going to be awesome!

Calls for guest authors!

After Season 1 my goal is to feature some guest authors while I prepare for Season 2 and focus on my day job. Would you like to write a guest post sometime between March-May? The kinds of topics you can write about could include:

• A story of when you had a “time crisis” and how you led through it

• Your philosophy of managing time as a leader across personal, organizational, and societal spheres

• A specific tool, resource, or framework that has helped you as a leader when facing time pressure - and why it helps

• Something else that’s personal, unique, and thematically relevant to the Timeless Leadership topic!

If you’re interested, fill out this quick form and I’ll be in touch.

That’s all for this week.

Time to go!

-Joe