Teaching as Leadership

3 lessons in leadership from the front of the classroom

Every classroom is unique, so teaching requires strategy, curiosity, empathy, and authenticity.

Today’s reflection explores how the years I spent as a classroom teacher fostered leadership capabilities that are essential in real-world situations.

Also in this issue:

• What else are we reading?

• Findings from the first pulse survey

“The Hub,” my destination subway station in the South Bronx every school day for four years.

Teaching is Leading in the Real World

1. Lack of Time Demands Strategy

Becoming a teacher introduced me to the first situation where I truly didn’t have the time to do everything that felt important.

I tried powering through and doing it all, but even working around the clock didn’t enable me to personally execute every task needed to drive ambitious growth.

My job responsibilities forced me to learn the first lesson of real-world leadership, which is you have to make trade-offs.

• Do I polish a lesson plan, or finish grading papers?

• Do I call parents, or analyze data?

• Do I tutor a student, or meet with a colleague?

All the options for how to spend my time and energy had merit, but there was no “all of the above” option. I had to say “no” or at least “not now” constantly, and my choices had real consequences for me and my students.

I needed a strategy.

Do you remember facing something similar early in your professional career?

Having a strategy for pursuing big goals streamlines decision-making. I discovered how a few key investments of my time (like curriculum planning or setting up an online grade-book) simplified some decisions and rendered others irrelevant.

An improved strategy set a blueprint for managing my time. It also called for a critical investment in trust-building to bring the strategy to life.

2. Lack of Trust Demands Curiosity and Empathy…

During my first year teaching I had a student who arrived chronically late to school, if at all. By November she had a string of zeroes next to her name in the grade-book.

One day after class, I asked her to stay behind.

“Destiny*, what’s going on? I haven’t seen you in a few days.” I asked. (*name changed)

“Mr. Ballou I’m sorry. I’m commuting from Brooklyn now,” she replied, eyes downward.

“Brooklyn?? How come? That must be a long commute.”

“Yea it take me almost two hours. We’re at a new shelter down there. They ran out of space where we were staying in the Bronx.” We made eye contact, and I invited her to sit down.

Listening to her story, I had a whole new appreciation for the challenge she faced in getting to school and completing her homework. We discussed how I could help her catch up, and she started spending her lunch period in my classroom to do her homework. This allowed her to reverse some zeroes, and get ahead of work that she couldn’t do once she left the relative comfort of campus.

From homelessness to gang violence, teenage pregnancy to learning disabilities, many of my student had significant life hurdles. In the same classrooms, I also led students from stable middle class homes, loving families, and value systems that deeply appreciated education.

My students’ diversity taught me a second lesson of real-world leadership, which is that you need to know who you lead.

The range of circumstances in my classrooms was vast. No stereotype, academic study, or pop culture tutorial could prepare me to lead them. Instead, I needed to understand their unique stories and build solutions and experiences that reflected their goals, values, and life circumstances.

Once I started meeting them where they were, they became more open to following my lead.

But not completely.

3. …Lack of Trust also Demands Authenticity

My students wanted to know what drove me and what I believed in. Why was I even teaching them in the first place?

“You rich, Mr Ballou?” a student asked me one day during my fourth year teaching.

Stunned, I looked at him. I wore oversized slacks and a dress shirt that reflected the ~2010 style but also my bargain hunting off the rack. I thought about my $54K salary and my rented Harlem apartment. I’m not rich. What’s his deal?

I then noticed him looking at the watch on my wrist that my wife gave me as a birthday present. I remembered how my family helped me complete college debt-free. I thought about my roots in Westchester county and how I was the only white person in the room.

I took a deep breath.

“It depends on what you mean rich. I’m probably technically middle class. What do you want to know?” I replied.

I put my Industrial Revolution lesson on hold, and went up to the whiteboard. I proceeded to break down my salary and savings, monthly expenses like rent, how taxes work, and comparable economic trends across the country.

I also talked about my passion for teaching, my gratitude for my salary and benefits, and the challenges of building a career as a public servant in an expensive city.

My students’ skepticism about my motives taught me a third lesson of leadership, which is you have to exercise authenticity to earn followers.

As a classroom teacher, boundaries with my private life helped me feel safe and act professionally. However, too high of an emotional wall creates friction and distrust. As I learned to let down my guard and share more about my story, values, and goals, I found that my students could do the same.

In summary, how did I learn to lead in the classroom?

• I built a strategy for shared success (and managing scarce time)

• I got to know my students and built solutions that worked for them

• I let me students know me, so they could trust me to lead them

How about you? How have you used strategy to address time scarcity? How has showing up with curiosity, empathy, and authenticity helped you build trust and activate that strategy? Drop a comment to add to the conversation.

What else are we reading?

If you’re reading these words, thank you!

I’d love to know, what else are you reading right now?

Reading helps us to learn and build connections, but there’s a huge opportunity cost.

So what’s worth the time? Why? Drop a comment to help curate our reading choices.

For my part, I’m subscribed to 35 newsletters(!) here on Substack (3 of them paid). I actually read a lot of them. I also read a fair amount of content on LinkedIn, news reporting in the New York Times, and a mix of other newspapers and journals.

The books I’m most engrossed in right now are The 15 Commitment of Conscious Leadership, Going First, The Portfolio Life, The Leadership Engine, and Sell Like Crazy.

Comment below to share your reading priorities at the start of 2024. 😁

Results from the First Pulse

Earlier this month I sent out a survey to take a “pulse” 1/3 of the way into this first season of Timeless Leadership. My intent is to do this quarterly, and share results after.

Seven of you responded - approximately 10% of the current subscribers.

Quantitative Feedback

Overall sentiment is warm but not intense enthusiasm, which tracks with other metrics (60-70% open rates, a few comments and likes, and no unsubscribes (yet 🤞)).

Qualitative Feedback

Qualitative feedback celebrates my “creative voice” “thoughtful POV” and “enthusiastic” “authentic” approach.

Constructive feedback recommends that I get “more to the main point” and consider “shorter snippets.” (Ok - noted! I’m working on getting there…)

Interest for Future Seasons

The greatest interest for next season would be to focus on “Team and org leadership” or “Leadership Development (as a function or Industry)”.

Limited Sample

Unfortunately, the sample of this survey is small and not fully representative of current or projected future readership (indexed on folks currently in senior organizational leadership roles). Therefore, I’ll be working to connect with more of these folks (you!) and incorporate their perspective as I flesh out the 2024 roadmap.

The Seeds of Community!

Fortunately, 5/7 respondents offered to help build the Timeless Leadership Substack content and community in some way. The most popular responses were “Editing or proof-reading a post pre-publication (10-30 minutes per post)” and “Being a podcast or event guest or interview / case-study subject (<3 hours)”. If this was you - thank you!! I’ll be reaching out soon. :)

Finally… It's an incredible privilege to have you as a readers in these first two months. When I look at the list of subscribers, most of whom I know personally, I am touched by your interest.

It’s an honor to have so many folks I deeply admire joining me here at the ground level. If I never added any new subscribers but was able to only write for you, it would be worth it. ❤️

Time to go, time to lead,

-Joe