The Secret to Great Leadership

The NC Ed Leaders Summer Blog Series continues with a post this evening from Dr. Myra Cox, Superintendent of Elkin City Schools. Dr. Cox has a wealth of educational experience, having served as a teacher, curriculum specialist, school-level administrator, and district-level leader. I had the privilege to work with Dr. Cox when she was the Assistant Superintendent of Yadkin County Schools during my first year as principal of Forbush High School. While I was sad to see her leave our district, I was excited for her when she was named Superintendent of Elkin City Schools in 2016. Myra has always been committed to motivating, teaching, and inspiring all students to learn more and do more to make the world a better place. In her post below, Dr. Cox describes a book study completed by members of her staff that focused heavily on the importance of leadership. As she describes below, the most important quality a leader can have is the ability to "SERVE." Check out her post below and be sure to connect with Dr. Cox on Twitter @elkinsupt.

In the spring of 2018, I introduced the book The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do to the Elkin City Schools Core Team. This book is authored by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller. Our Core Team is comprised of school-based administrators and the central office directors. Mr. Chad Tidd, owner of the Chick-fil-A Restaurant located in Mt. Airy, NC, recommended the book because the Chick-fil-A company values the leadership model described in the book. Come on, I am no dummy! Chick-fil-A is a highly successful business with exceptional service and food. I knew I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Now that the book study is complete, I have learned that some of the Core Team members were less than excited about reading a book. Let’s face it, we have all been there. Our leader gives us a book to read with the plan of “doing” a book study each month. Then, everyone dreadfully anticipates which chapter he or she will be responsible for presenting to the group. We all know that when the chapters are divvied up at the beginning, the chances of everyone reading the book in its entirely is slim to none. Human nature tells us to only focus on the chapter assigned to us. Why? We are busy people!

I was hooked after reading the first chapter. The crux of the book stems from the question, "What is the secret of great leaders?" which surfaced within the first 25 pages. The book is an easy-to-read fable focusing on the working relationship between a young, business executive and her mentor. I immediately knew that the answer to this critical question would be revealed in the following chapters, and that everyone on the Core Team needed to read it firsthand. So, I broke the typical book-study mold and challenged all of the leaders in Elkin City Schools to read, absorb, and apply every word. I intentionally left the monthly book study topics and agendas open so that our conversations surrounding the concepts would evolve organically.

We started with a self-assessment prior to the actual reading. It was located at the end of the book. We, of course, used it as a pre-assessment. Individuals on the Core Team rated themselves on a series of questions related to the leadership model in which they would become very familiar with by reading the book The leadership model is the acronym "SERVE." What is the significance of SERVE? That is the answer to the all-important question, “What is the secret of great leaders?” Great leaders serve. You might say we began with the end in mind.

Let me quickly break down the letters in the acronym, SERVE.

S stands for See the Future.
E stands for Engage and Develop Others.
R stands for Reinvent Continuously.
V stands for Value Results and Relationships.
E stands for Embody the Values.

The question in my mind, and probably everyone else’s too, was is this going to applicable? If we know great leaders serve, what do we literally do with that information? Ironically, as the book study unfolded, it aligned beautifully with the development and implementation of Elkin City’s new, five-year strategic plan. The plan was approved by our Board of Education in May of 2018 and the summer retreat was held in June. Rich discussions were held each month during Core Team meetings throughout the 2018-2019 school year as a result of our reading. These discussions naturally lent themselves to the comparison of the secret to great leadership and the progress made toward attaining our school system goals. Little did I know that the book would be a powerful tool for guiding our team through the first year of the strategic plan's implementation and evaluation. This is not to mention that our school system theme for the 2018-2019 year was KAPOW, which stands for Kids Are the Purpose of Our Work. Who can effectively carry out that theme without having a servant’s heart?

Understanding that great leaders SERVE has strengthened the Elkin City Schools’ Core Team. The pre-assessment was only the beginning to understanding where we were and where we wanted to go as a leadership team. The book study grew from a dreaded reading to a meaningful event. For example, each individual on the core team wrote a professional goal related to the SERVE model. They completed a written reflection at the end of the year describing the impact the SERVE model had on their work. Upon reading those, I gleaned that everyone felt the book was motivating and inspirational. At least one director asked her staff members to read the book because the five concepts resonated so deeply with her. Testimonies, success stories. and high-fives were common whenever the Core Team was together this past year. Most of all, the concepts provided a unifying set of leadership tools that represent who we are and what we are about.

Where will SERVE fit in the Elkin City Schools for the 2019-2020 school year? In a few short weeks, when the core team is gathered for the beginning of the year meeting, I plan to ask everyone to take the assessment from the book once again and use the results as a post-assessment. As we review our mission and vision statements as well as our belief statements and overall goals, I will ask the team to determine which letter(s) and concepts(s) will be their area of individual focus going forward. The “secret” to great leadership will continue to be our leadership framework. And the Core Team should be happy that they will not receive a different book to read this year as my goal is to spend another year diving deeper into the five concepts.

Dr. Myra Cox in the Superintendent of Elkin City Schools, located in Elkin, North Carolina. She can be found on Twitter @elkinsupt.