Who Would You Rather Work For?

One of my favorite courses is titled Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Learning. Toward the end of our first module we learned about Jan Carlzon, former head of Scandinavian Air Systems.

Jan Carlzon saw SAS through the oil crisis and helped the company reach record profits in a time of market stagnation. This interview gives a sense of his leadership philosophy and style.


Frank Borman addressed his workers on a Sunday evening 1983 as Easter Airlines faced a major crisis.


How many of our school leaders are like Jan and how many are like Frank? I know that in my short time I saw a lot more of Frank's style, from principals all the way up to the Mayor. I wonder what our schools might be like if we had leaders who sought to create buy-in from their teachers and other employees, empower them to make decisions, and "flatten the pyramid" as Carlzon did.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I do not see any links and videos with
Diane Ravitch,
Deborah Meier,
Dr. Tamar Jacobson (early childhood professor in Lawrenceville, New Jersey),
Dr. Doris Fromberg (early childhood professor/chair of curriculum and teaching at Hofstra University).
John Dewey (Father of Progressive Education)

While learning about business leaders is nice to listen and read about, how about doing some reading on Progressive Education? THE BUSINESS MODEL FOR EDUCATION AND MAYORAL CONTROL IS NOT WORKING!Maybe this will be more helpful in re-framing one's thoughts on education.

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2336/Progressive-Education.html

http://www.publiceducation.org/pdf/20070216_Progressive_Education.pdf
Ruben Brosbe said…
Did you get a chance to check out either of the videos before making your comment? Either way, your point is well taken, but I think that there are universal principles of leadership that our school and district leaders might benefit from adopting. Jan Carlzon found a way to engage all of the workers in SAS in the fight to make the airline successful. I don't think that the progressive leaders you mentioned would argue against education leaders translating his style to education by giving teachers more power/autonomy.

Popular Posts