Chapter 4 --  The Jossey-Bass Reader on Educational Leadership
"We Need Noncoercive Lead-Management From The State Superintendent To The Teacher"

The crucial factor in educational reform is replacing boss-management with lead-management.  Boss-management limits the quality of work and productivity of the worker.

Boss-management contains four basic elements:

1. The boss sets the task and standards for what workers do.
2. The boss tells the workers how the work is done.
3. The boss inspects the work.  Because the boss does not involve the workers in the evaluation, they tend to settle for just enough quality to get by.
4. When workers resist, the boss uses coercion to try to make them do as told creating a workplace in which the workers and manager are adversaries.

Boss-management is more concerned with the needs of the boss than of the workers.

The most obvious reason for boss-management is tradition!

Research shows that boss-management is less effective than lead-management.  This has had no effect on schools for two reasons:

1. Managers do not know choice theory and do not know why lead management works.
2. Managers do not realize that quality being the key to increased productivity has been demonstrated.

Quality always leads to increased productivity.

The lead-management approach is not known well enough to be considered.  Many are leery of it because they fear it lacks control.  Boss-management fails to deliver control!

As soon as a boss uses coercion the boss and worker become adversaries.  People will work for an adversary because of their own needs.  Workers will rarely do the high-quality work they are capable of.

By the end of the seventh grade, more than half our students believe teachers and principals are their adversaries.

Boss-management works better if the boss uses rewards instead of punishment.

Most schools depend on hazy, long-term rewards!

Young people will not work hard for distant rewards.

Boss-management is most effective where workers and the boss have the same agendas and the boss rewards more than punishes.

The higher level at which boss-management is employed, the more damage it does to quality of the work and productivity of the worker.  Teachers who use boss-management will limit the learning in their classes.

Lean Management is the Basic Reform We Need

Persuasion and problem solving are central to the philosophy of lead-management.

The lead-manager spends his time and energy finding out how to run the system so workers will see that it is to their benefit to do quality work.

• A manager is responsible for consistency of purpose and continuity to the organization
• The workers work in a system.  The manager works on the system.

Four essential elements of lead-managing:

1. The leader engages the workers in a discussion of the quality of work (and fits the job to skill and needs of the worker).
2. The leader shows the job and workers are asked for input for a better way.
3. The leader asks the workers to inspect their own work for quality.
4. The leader is facilitator who does everything possible to provide workers with the best tools, workplace, and atmosphere to do their jobs.

Small cooperative groups are a very need-satisfying way to teach.  Competency and quality are the rule.

All students (individuals AND groups) should evaluate the quality of their classwork, homework, and tests.

The best lead-managers make a constant effort never to coerce.

There is a very fine distinction between coercion and a coercive style of teaching

Coercion-  Never caring.

Coercive style of teaching-  Very caring.

To workers, caring means they believe their welfare is more important to the manager than his welfare.

The essence of good managing is caring and hard work

Any style is within the confines of lead-management.

To be a successful lead-manager, you will have to develop your own style!

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Jossey-Bass Publishers.  The Jossey-Bass Reader on Education Leadership.