5 essential school leadership skills in a post‐pandemic environment

The impact that COVID-19 has had on public schools across the nation is yet to be fully measured in terms of how long it will take children to fully recover and have a true sense of balance in their lives. Teachers and school administrators have had to take on additional social-emotional training skills in order to address the demands of schools, parents, health care systems and the community at large. When you put the pandemic in context with traditional school expectations, we have students across the nation who experienced a great deal of trauma, economic hardship, family disorientation and a changing school environment. Why Leadership Will Always Be Critical to School Success Everyone knows that leadership is essential in any effective organization. After serving 42 years as an educator in the state of Ohio, I am convinced that the leadership skills necessary to navigate in a post-pandemic environment will require a new kind of leader for public schools. While strong management, organizational, strategic and logistical skills are still essential, it is important that post-pandemic educational leaders have a combination of strong instructional capacity combined with the ability to embrace a multi-level integration framework of social, emotional, collaborative and team-building skills. It is likely that state exams and standardized tests will have a reduced role in measuring school effectiveness and success. In the coming years, new school leaders will need a higher level of compassion, sensitivity to cultural, economic and social elements of parents and students, in order to lead public schools over the next five years. Here is a list of five essential school leadership skills in a post-pandemic environment. Essential Leadership Skill #1: Leadership Understanding the Evolving Educational Marketplace One of the clear lessons learned during the excessively impacted period of COVID-19 is that schools achievement can occur where the traditional role of the teacher being in front of the classroom is not the only way children can experience academic growth. While there is wide agreement among educators that the digital educational delivery design is not the ideal method for students to learn, it became clear that while few of us liked the total digital format, we did learn that with some planning and design support, educators were able to create a flexible learning environment that led to success for some of our students. The growth in public funds being diverted to private schools, increased enrollment in charter schools, and schools being forced to create more digital and innovative options, can only lead to significant change in the next five to ten years. Parents and students have more choices in the educational marketplace. As a result, this will require educational leaders to focus on more than just reading, writing and arithmetic. It will require them to focus on enrollment management, recruitment and retention strategies at the building level, and the need to review quantitative and qualitative data from parent surveys and focus groups to ensure the district remains a primary option for parents who are "school shopping" much like we do at the supermarket. The marketplace means more choice, more options, which will demand increased investment in marketing and communications methods. Essential Leadership Skill #2: Enhanced College and University Training The credentialing, certification, licensure and training of post-pandemic educational leaders will require a different level of pre-service skills and competencies. Undergraduate and graduate educational programs will likely need to focus more on human relations and communications skills, in order for leaders to embrace the need to customize and personalize the school experience in a post-pandemic context. While the growth of securing an undergraduate and graduate degree in an all-digital format over the last two decades, colleges and universities will have to utilize a hybrid instructional design that includes a strong sharing of digital and in-person learning, combined with some level of ongoing follow up professional training. Essential Leadership Skill #3: The Educator as Transformational Leader There has always been a debate among educational leaders about shifting our top job responsibility from a management function to an instructional leadership priority. While this debate rages on, I propose another level of required skill, the need to be able to understand, implement, monitor, evolve, modify and reinvent the school delivery model in a way that transforms the traditional school environment into a series of acceptable options for students and parents. Transformation involves the need to have vision, passion, and strong communication skills to bring diverse groups together to achieve organizational goals. It does mean the organizational leader cannot remain stagnant. Successful post-pandemic leaders will be required to be more intellectual, business-minded, attain strong fiscal management skills, inspiring, motivational and able to engage with multiple stakeholders. Elevating the parent engagement role in public schools will be more essential in this new era. Essential Leadership Skill #4: Become Comfortable with Discomfort The pandemic impacted everyone in the school setting. Traditional school leaders were taught to be somewhat distant, even a bit aloof, and always focused on making sure faculty and staff understood there was a difference between the leader and the rest of the group. Needless to say, the post-pandemic educational leader will be required to become more comfortable with discomfort and ambiguity. Flexibility, fluidity, changing, evolving and reassessing school rules, protocols and engagement strategies will become necessary professional training expectations. School leaders love the notion of predictability and consistency, but the post-pandemic leader will be required to become comfortable with multiple levels of discomfort. Essential Leadership Skill #5: Embracing Technology, Personality Management and Politics School leaders already understand the important role that technology plays in delivering high-quality instruction. The pandemic forced leaders to advance their investments in technology and that investment will only become a higher priority going forward. A more robust, aggressive, and enhanced technology plan will be essential for post-pandemic leaders. The personalization, customization and multiple options design for access will be essential priorities going forward. Customer service will become a significantly more important priority for schools. Managing staff, students, parents and board members during the pandemic proved to be a major challenge for most school leaders. The raging debate about whether or not to wear a face covering, implementing social distances protocols, addressing staffing shortages from bus drivers to teachers and being open to receiving feedback from all segments of the community about whether not COVID-19 was real has led many leaders to reassess their career choice. The pandemic has been the culprit that has resulted in several superintendent vacancies across the nation. Board members, who largely run for office because they want to help children, families and their community were suddenly thrust into heated emotional debates about the pandemic. While managing personalities has always been part of the leaders' job, the ability to manage multiple personalities and build a consensus-building school team has proven to be quite a challenge. Politics have always been a part of educational policy; the post-pandemic leader will now have to manage a more vocal, less cordial, less professional and less respectful constituency. This requires leaders to utilize every skill set available to ensure that the key priority of focusing of student growth is maintained in the midst of the process. We have been amazingly fortunate and blessed to have an informed, poised, and strategically focused Board of Education in the Sandusky City Schools. They understand that the priority is about children and families. School districts across the state of Ohio could benefit from their framework. About the Writer: Dr. Eugene T. W. Sanders is the Chief Executive Officer and Superintendent of the Sandusky City Schools. If you want to submit a Local Voices column, please email it to brandonaddeo@tandemnetwork.com. Columns should be 500-750 words and include the writer's headshot, or other photo.