How can I provide leadership that maximizes effective outreach into the community?
I can build on the knowledge that…
- Leaders who can position their organization for the future embody several qualities…they are called MOVERS.
- The ability to see the future possibilities is a critical element of leadership.. It is called visioning.
- Effective leaders are able to create a vision, and communicate the vision in a way that inspires others which greatly extends outreach in the community.
- Head Start leaders use a variety of strategies to meet the requirement of establishing ongoing collaborative relationships with community organizations.
- Leaders who reach out to the community create strong partnerships that that local programs need to fulfill another important leadership role…the role of change agents.
- Building leadership in the program and community requires experimentation and risk.
Key Concepts
- Dynamic leaders have a unique vision for the future of their programs. This vision provides the focus and direction for the services programs provide.
- Leaders know how to communicate the vision for their programs to Head Start staff and members of the community. They strive to inspire others to share in achieving it.
- Ensuring that children and families receive quality services requires leaders to advocate for their programs. They continually seek to develop partnerships by working with the community to build trust and integrate strategies that benefit everyone.
- Leaders are change agents. They are risk-takers who seek innovative approaches to developing their programs and improving how they relate to the community.
MOVERS
Leaders who can position their Head Start programs for the future embody several qualities. They serve as Mentors to their staff and community partners, encouraging communication and collaboration to create and sustain trusting relationships. They promote Outreach, bringing community institutions together on behalf of low-income children and families. They are clear about their programs' Vision and can express it so that others want to be a part of it. The shared vision Empowers others to experiment and take the risks needed for innovative projects. And they always act as Role Models, showing by example how to forge partnerships founded on the Head Start goal of promoting the social competence of children. To sustain Head Start as a symbol of hope for a better life for children and their families, leaders must be MOVERs who are ready and able to move the program into a flourishing future.
Visioning
The ability to see future possibilities is a critical element of leadership. This capacity is called visioning; it may also be called envisioning, imagining, even dreaming about what the organization will look like in the future. What a vision does is remarkable; a clear vision that is communicated and shared by others creates a direction for the future and provides a framework for today's activities.
Dynamic leaders have a unique vision for the future of their programs. These leaders have a clear vision of how things should be. Their vision provides the focus and direction for the services their programs provide.
How do Head Start leaders begin to envision the future? It can begin with a vague desire to do something that would challenge them and others. The internal energy around this idea encourages more and more thinking, enabling them to dream about and clarify what they really want to happen. Leaders begin to sense what the organization or project would look like, feel like, and be like. The image of the future program takes shape in their minds. The vague notion becomes crystallized into something concrete that they can write down, draw, or express in some way. This process has probably happened to all of us many times.
Each of us has the capacity to invent some aspect of the future. Ask yourself this question, Would I rather invent the future or just experience the future? Those grantees that have recently added new programs…had someone who could take a dream, share it, and build the necessary partnerships to create a new reality.
Inspiring Others
Effective leaders are able to create a vision and, just as important, communicate the vision in a way that inspires others to want to be a part of it.
Why is it important to communicate the vision and enlist others to support it? When Head Start leaders can translate the vision into a reason for being for each staff person and family member in the program, everyone has a part in the vision and can accept it. Leaders strive to communicate what others can embrace and support as their own ideal. This ownership gives potency and power to the vision. It produces positive results. It helps the dream become a reality.
How do dynamic leaders effectively communicate their vision? They articulate the vision into a philosophy that is easy to grasp and understand — a concept that has meaning to every parent, staff person, and member of the community.
To communicate in a way that moves others to share the vision, leaders appeal to a common purpose, communicate expressively, and have a sincere belief in what they are saying. In other words, they know how to connect with their audience and how to communicate their ideas clearly.
They do this by using language and cultural metaphors that individuals can relate to; they relate to each individual's cares, concerns, and work. They make contact with parents, program staff, volunteers, and the local community, attempting to understand their concerns and the impact the vision has on them.
This "high touch" approach distinguishes outstanding leaders. Being able to relate to the personal concerns of individuals builds trust and promotes a desire to be part of the team. Developing trusting relationships is extremely important so leaders can effectively forge community partnerships and collaborative goals.
The Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion had a vision: An expanded and renewed Head Start that serves as a central community institution for low-income children and their families in every American community. This vision requires leaders to form alliances with all sectors of the community and to communicate how these partnerships are mutually beneficial to everyone. Head Start partnerships allow organizations to make a positive investment in the future of the entire community.
In the leadership role envisioned by the Advisory Committee, Head Start will play a central role in emerging national initiatives such as health care reform, education reform, family preservation and support, and welfare reform. This vision has already started to take shape, with many state collaboration offices propelling Head Start's concerns for children and families into state and national priorities.
Local programs must also forge partnerships that are constantly renewed and recrafted to meet changes in families, communities, and state and national policies. The Head Start Program Performance Standards require grantees to participate in community planning, to encourage strong communication and cooperation, and to share information among community partners. This vision is a widely expanded leadership role for a Head Start program.
How can Head Start leaders meet this mandate of establishing ongoing collaborative relationships with community organizations?
- They can form or join local networks and coalitions that promote the needs of children and families.
- They can seek to expand representation on the board of directors and policy council to include representatives from community health care providers, agencies that serve children with disabilities, family preservation and support services, child protective services, local elementary schools, libraries, museums, and other child care providers.
- They can participate on commissions, task forces, or advisory boards at the local and state levels, or they can at least influence these bodies on behalf of Head Start children and families.
- They can build community awareness and support by planning special events and speaking to civic groups about program needs and projects for children and families.
Acting as Change Agents
When leaders reach out to the community, they create the strong partnerships that local programs need to fulfill another important leadership role — the role of change agents. In Head Start, this means that leaders must challenge the status quo — business cannot continue as usual. Head Start leaders must seek challenging opportunities for themselves and their programs to change, grow, innovate, and improve. Is any program so good that it cannot become better? Innovative leaders never rest on their past accomplishments; they are always looking for ways to improve services and policies. They break free of the routine. They actively search for something new. They take risks.
This can be done by constantly questioning routine procedures. Are they working well? What changes can be made to make them better for children, parents, or staff? Ask the staff, children, and parents for their suggestions because they feel the impact of the procedures or routines and can be a source for ideas. By example, the innovative leader can help others in the program break useless old habits and look for projects that are fun, exciting, and challenging.
Taking Risks
Building leadership in the program and the community requires experimentation and risk, with the understanding that mistakes are lessons to learn from. Taking risks invites some mistakes, some degree of error or failure. Strong leaders have experienced failure, but they have learned from their mistakes and grown in the process. Innovative leaders allow children, families, and staff to learn from their own mistakes.
To implement the Head Start Program Performance Standards, Head Start leaders clearly need to establish community partnerships, promote access to community services for children and families, and ensure that the Head Start program responds to community needs.