Page 12 - Leadership Basics 4

The Political Dimension

Have you ever felt powerless to implement an important
new idea in your school?

Have you ever been "blind‐sided" at a staff meeting?

Have you ever seen a good teacher resign from your school
and felt it was your fault because you were powerless to help
her to overcome her stress and problems with other staff
members?

These are just some examples of issues arising from workplace politics. Most of us have become
enmeshed in workplace politics from time to time, and we've also known some leaders who seem to
be particularly ‘good’ at it (maybe you are yourself?). Some leaders use an assortment of ‘political’
tactics to influence others in order to accomplish their ends. Here are some ‘tactics’ to look out for.

Hit and Run (jumping ship)

When someone moves on from one high profile activity to another while the current effort is still
underway. Just after they leave the project fails miserably but amazingly the person who should be
responsible is blameless and has already moved on.
He or she might have had knowledge (or suspected) that the current project is at risk or doomed. They
often talk up the project and them ‘jump ship’ leaving the ‘team’ to live with the mess.
As an example, consider a ‘star’ leader from another district, recruited at the expense of internal talent,
to ‘revamp’ and ‘renew’ an ‘ailing’ school. Known as a transformational leader, the new leader brings
in bus loads of new and innovative ideas, affects great change (with great suffering) and then takes a
position in another school (often in another district) within 2 years.

The Proxy Target

In trying to gain advantage, a teacher may attack someone, spreading innuendo, stories of inefficiency,
rumours, etc. Sometimes an attacker's true target isn't the person who's attacked. Rather, it could be
the supervisor or mentor of the person attacked. By attacking the proxy target, the attacker diverts the
attention of the true target, and often harms the true target's reputation. The true target may actually
be the whole faculty or even the whole school, and the proxy target is just the poor sod who was
earmarked as the target.

If you find that someone is attacking you for reasons that you cannot fathom, don't assume that you're
the true target. You could be a proxy. The harm done to you might be just as real (especially if your
respond badly), but knowing what's actually happening can be extremely helpful in formulating a
response.

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