Leadership has shed some skin in recent years. Management use to be the sole responsibility of admin. Now we are asked to both manage (paperwork, discipline, organizational work) and to innovate, especially via becoming experts on curriculum.
When discussing with a fellow administrator the amount of effort one should put into managerial tasks, we came to the conclusion that while managerial tasks are necessary, and they should be done well, highlighting one's abilities and insights, they should also occupy a minor portion of one's creative attention.
Exploration
How does this work? Well, it appears that the answer lies in relationships and systems.
Relationships allow us access to two very important assets in management. Firstly, they allow us to create a true team for each managerial project. A team, in this case, recieves instruction that leads to both the delegating of responsibilities and the distributing of key tasks. Without this support, we are mired in a mix of time consuming work and minutia. The relationship work should open up the possibility of finding the strengths of others and allowing them to highlight and strengthen the project with their insight and capacity.
Relationships also allow us access to advice from those who have experience in stretegic execution. Especially with the new administrator, but also the case with veterans, strategic advice can save a lot of trouble in the long term.
When working on managerial tasks, systems are the underlying operating factor. When one comes into a task, the current system must always be revised and corrected to make the system sustainable and repeated in the absent of the current work force carrying out the tasks. If a system depends on one person, a quick fix or informal agreements, then the risk is run of depending too mich on the individuals who allow for the system to run so informally. Systems also require attention to the synergetic networks depending on the current system, so that when change occurs to the one system, adjustments are also made to other linked systems.
Conclusion
If relationships and systems are maintained and kept relevant, then the administrator is allowed the space and time, and especially the security and confidence, to focus on the more innovative projects that should be occupying the mind of the creative person. The administrator as manager should be considered with keeping things running, but only to the extent that he or she is concerned with those things running virtually self-sufficiently.
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