Corner Office Lessons in Leadership
SEPTEMBER 29, 2013
From time to time I like to pick up useful advice intended for people in business, and apply it to education. One of my favorite sources is the New York Times feature “The Corner Office.” Adam Bryant interviews business leaders who share their insights and advice about management, and on September 26, the interviewee was Robin D. Richards, chief of the CareerArc Group. The title caught my eye: “Dissent Isn’t Just an Option. It’s Everyone’s Obligation.” What follows are some key quotes that are applicable both to teaching and to school system leadership.
What you learn as you develop as a manager is that balance of respect, approachability, empathy and friendship, so that you can say, “We’ve got a job to do and you have to do it, and it has to be done fast and properly.” I learned to be comfortable with those boundaries.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan could use some leadership tips from The Corner Office (2011, photo by the author)
I think there’s useful advice here for the classroom and the administration – though I might want to tease out the meanings of “friendship” with students. Certainly we can be friendly, and work with each other in a spirit of friendship, but that doesn’t make us buddies or peers. Much has been written in recent years about the importance of empathy, and it seems to be in short supply among the leaders of some of the most distressed school systems in the country. Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, and