Perhaps one of the greatest needs in our schools is godly, competent, and visionary administrators. Administrators have a great gift to offer to their schools, their families, their churches, etc., is if they are willing to pay the price of developing into godly men and women. Drawing from Ezekiel, Steven develops a biblical basis for the work of an administrator. Administrators are called to build up the wall and stand in the gap.

What does that look like? What must administrators do that no one else can do with the same positive impact? For those of you who are lead teachers, principals, or administrators, what tasks are you uniquely positioned to perform? And what potential can you uncover for your school by performing those tasks with competence?

Steven emphasizes three things that administrators must do:

Lead himself
Define the environment
Connect the stakeholders

Steven explains and illustrates these tasks.

For the first one, have a look below to see the lists referenced in the talk.

In addressing the administrator’s need to define the environment, Steven describes the reality that administrators set the culture directly or indirectly. They are never exempt from this role. They either proactively model and shape a culture or else a culture develops in response to their lack of initiative. He offers three components that are helpful in defining an environment where teachers love to teach.

Caring for our people
Asking the important questions (There are lots of examples in the talk.)
Dealing with problems

Due to running out of time in the original talk, there’s very little here on connecting stakeholders. To hear Steven talk more about this, you can listen to his earlier episode on this podcast, Why Administrators? One of the big ideas here is that the administrator stands at the intersection of all the parties involved in school, including parents, teachers, board members, and students. Thus, the clarity and leadership or lack thereof provided by the administrator has widespread influence on the school. You can uncover great potential for your school by bringing stakeholders together into strong partnerships. Perhaps more than anyone else, administrators have the responsibility to steward the vision and embody the values of the school.

Lists for leading ourselves

2 Pt. 1:5-8
Oswald Sanders, natural leadership vs. spiritual leadership
- self confident / confident in God
- makes own decisions / seeks to know God’s will
- ambitious / self effacing
- originates own methods / taught by God
Bill Hybels
- Is my calling sure
- Is my vision clear
- Is my passion hot
- Is my character submitted to Christ
- Is my pride subdued
- Are my fears at bay
- Are interior issues undermining my leadership
- Are my ears open to the Spirit’s whisper
- Is my pace stable
- Are my gifts developing
- Is my heart for God increasing
- Is my capacity for loving deepening
What are my big rocks/roles? What do I want in relationship to those realities? How will it impact my schedule?

Links

[Book] Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey
[Book] Seven Laws of the Learner – Bruce Wilkinson
[Book] Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer – J. Oswald Sanders
This talk was first published as The Administrator's Job Description - Teachers Week 2012
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