Personal Leadership Platform

John Betz
Department of Education, University of Mount Union
EL 501: Introduction to Leadership and Organizational Change
Dr. Donna Bishop
June 29, 2020
 Organizational Profile

Olentangy Local Schools is a school district located in southern Delaware County

with a small portion entering Franklin County. The district is comprised of 95 square

miles, has 4 high schools, a stem building, 5 middle schools and 15 elementary schools

with a 16th under construction. The fastest growing district in the State of Ohio, OLSD

has managed to keep the growth and the success of the students by placing a high degree

of importance on ensuring all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential

inside and outside the classroom. With over 22,000 students in the attendance, the

district is the 5th largest in the state, only trailing Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and

Toledo. By school year 2029-30, OLSD is expected to have more than 27,000 students

enrolled in the district. In U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 Best High School Rankings

report, Olentangy Schools claimed three of the top 25 spots for best high schools in Ohio

as well as having students at all grade levels succeed at state and national levels in

competitions for geography, spelling, STEM, robotics and much more. All high schools

boast an average ACT score of 25, with many students earning college credits while still

in high school, offering 26 Advanced Placement (AP) and College Credit Plus courses.

While the district mission is “To facilitate maximum learning for every individual”, the

vision is “to be the recognized leader for high performance and efficiency in education”.

The district is comprised of close to 76% white students with the other 24% a mixture of

black, Asian, Hispanic, and American Indian. The district is a high achieving district by

design, and with the support of our community, we will continue to be a recognized

leader in education. The district relies on 4 pillars encompassing the

students/stakeholders, Resource Stewardship, Internal Processes, and

Leadership/Organizational Development to ensure to ensure the growth and well-being

of all students within the community (OLSD Website, 2020).

Leadership Theory

Looking back through the statistics that make up not only Olentangy Local

Schools but also the previous schools districts I have been associated with has helped

me develop a sounder leadership platform that I believe is best suited for me. Knowing

your past, understanding where you are, and being able to adapt to different situations

and philosophies only enhances your ability to lead more efficiently. While there are

many concepts, styles, and philosophies that comprise leadership, finding your own

strengths, sticking to those as a base for your decisions and style, helps ensure you are

thought and looked upon as a genuine, sincere, and morale leader.

As we have progressed through the readings, discussions, and videos these past 6

weeks, I have been able to look into my strengths and styles of leadership more in depth,

not only learning new but also solidifying what I have believed throughout my career. I

have not only used my past experiences to help build these philosophies and styles, I’ve

also learned to adjust some of what I thought to be my strengths, when in actuality those

traits were how I “thought” I should be leading. Understanding why people follow, what

they look for, how they react, and who they follow all were ideas that stuck through me

readings and discussions. Through the following examples and situations that I present,

I hope to not only enhance my leadership but also solidify why I lead a certain way.

Olentangy Berlin High School has 28 varsity sports, with 22 different head

coaches. Being the Director of Athletics of all those sports/coaches, I have found that I
must be many different things to many different people. That does not change the fact

that I also need to focus on my beliefs. Through the process of learning more about my

own strengths, I found that these traits align with my leadership style. Feeling very

confident and relying heavily on my past experiences, I utilize being a “team” in every

sense of the word. While all of my individual teams might have their own mini cultures

and make-up, we as Olentangy Berlin Bears have to have a common culture through the

department, sharing beliefs and goals as a whole. This “power of the unit” as described

in Urban Meyer’s Above the Line, aligns perfectly to this belief.

Being as large as we are, and having so many different teams/individuals

participating, we have to have common a culture to keep it all together. Through the

process of building the department and staff, we interviewed over 400 applicants. As we

interviewed, a common theme became apparent in those questions and discussions….it

had to do with TRUST. We zeroed in on what each applicant’s definition of trust was,

keenly aware that all would be different, but all would be sincere. This helped develop

our staff and when we all came together at the end of the process, those that were hired

developed what we now follow as our “Bear Claws”.

These “Bear Claws” became a common thread, a culture that we could all share, a

bond that all students and coaches could refer to when they were questioning

themselves or the team. They are located in every locker room, weight room, training

room, prominent for all to see.

1) Be Committed and Accountable

2) Peruse Excellence in Expectations and Behaviors
3) Celebrate Everyone’s Success
4) Support All Bears
5) Stay Together, Play Together
 6) Be Positive. Be Resilient. Be Relentless
I find these 6 traits within our Athletic Department to be very clear and concise

but most of all, I find these traits to mirror my leadership style. I consistently drift

towards arranging, achieving, and activating (Rath, 2008), while leading, but in this

example, I let the “units” develop the cultural themes they wanted to follow. What I find

most interesting is that these traits are a majority, if not all, are aligned to my strengths.

As I read and discussed the findings with different coaches and athletes within our

building, I started to notice my leadership style was evident within them as well. When I

started to think about the original question in our interviewing process, combined with

alignment of these “Bear Claws”, I understood that by relying on my leadership

strengths, it only allows those that are “following” to be more secure of themselves,

sharing the leadership and beliefs with all within the department.

I also found through my leadership strengths and styles, I choose to maximize

and communicate more so than others. Taking something that is average, capitalizing

on the gifts I have been blessed with, and developing it, making it the best it can be

drives me. I want to feel productive, see projects through. And while this may be more

demanding, I feel it is more rewarding through the experience and in the final outcome.

I enjoy telling the stories of my past, making these experiences help develop others,

using what I have gone through and experienced to enable others to gain greater insight

into what they may be feeling. Through these experiences I have found that I have

become more thoughtful and caring, not rushing to conclusions as I may have in the

past. As I continue to lead, I find that being compassionate, caring, and improving my

listening skills will only help me become a better leader. While I find it difficult to be a

bystander, I know that it is imperative in some circumstances to be able to adjust to all

four action stances that we were brought to light in Reading the Room (Kantor, 2012).

These action stances are so important in being able to identify the group of people you

re interacting with, leading a discussion in a productive manner, not allowing for

distractions of the personalities to take over.

In reflecting and developing goals that I could implement over the next few

weeks, months, and possibly years, I found a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic

goals. Meaning, some of the goals were meant for the group of people I was leading but a

few of the goals were self-centered, concentrating on how I could become better for

myself. While I find myself often wanting and making sure others are taken care of, I

rarely take the time to understand my growth, not allowing the time to focus strictly on

the how and why I can become a better leader.

The first goal I have is a combination of both examples I listed above. I have

listed my first goal as becoming more involved with personal philosophies while

intertwining our specific teams. I chose this goal as part of becoming more involved with

my Twitter account, as when we first started, I was constantly posted/commenting. I

have found over the past year or so, I have become more distant in this communication.

The odd part for me is I enjoyed doing this part of my job, and somehow got away from

it. I need to make the conscience effort to “re-develop” this and become more involved

with our teams/community in this manner. I feel it not only will help myself but also

will help our teams/athletes.

I have decided to dedicate Wednesday’s this upcoming year to “Betz’s Best” on

my Twitter account. The name comes from the student section of a previous school

where I was the basketball coach. I figured I could either use the platform to update the
week’s progress on the field, courts and/or retweet quotes, videos, and articles that have

touched me in a certain way. I believe this will allow not only the community but more

importantly our coaches/athletes a little more insight to my thoughts. As I have

progressed in education, it seems the further “up the ladder” you go, the farther away

from the students you become. While I know being an administrator always brings a

little more edge to the relationships, I also understand that by allowing others to gain

insight into the position will only enhance their leadership capabilities.

The second goal I have is more self-centered, only concentrating on myself. This

goal I have for myself is to be more focused in the moment. I have found myself racing,

often missing some of the most important conversations/relationships because I have

not allowed myself to slow down. I have already used the connotation “nexting”, coned

by Dr Bishop herself, and after I have said it others, you can just the light bulb turn on;

they totally get it, as simple as it seems. While I have a vast circle of connections and

relationships, I feel I can build these relationships more in depth. As coaches stop by the

office, I attend practices, and/or have conversation’s through the hallways, I want it to

be clear that “I am where my feet are”.

I know this will be a difficult goal to adhere to as it seems my time and input is

never enough for my colleague’s. Having said that, I also want these conversation’s to

have meaning, as I feel it is my job to help others develop and become the best they can

be. Not always, but a majority of the time, I feel as though I rush through conversations.

In reality, as I reflect on a few of the most recent “nexting” situations, I often ask myself

was the task that pulled me away that important and typically the answer was it could of
waited. That being said, selfishly, this goal is something I really look forward to

implementing and concentrating on.

The last goal I want to focus on is the overall growth and development of our

coaching staff. I want our coaches to feel as they are part of a family, sharing ideas, and

spending time outside their comfort zones with each other. This goal will take time to

implement as I do not want to rush this process.

Purposefully, I plan on having more gathering outside the normal school day.

Picnics, retreats, Professional Development led by our coaches themselves will all be

ways of helping these coaches grow. We have built a staff of very knowledgeable,

professional individuals and giving them the platform to explain how/why/what they

are going through will help the entire group.

I plan on setting up cohorts of coaches, some veterans with some of our youngest

to meet in small group settings. Hopefully this will allow for more communication and

give the cohorts a sense of belonging. After we have broken out into the smaller groups,

when we meet for planned retreats, the groups can share with the entire group their

findings, frustrations, hopes, and goals. Having meaningful, purposeful conversation

within peer groups will not only force some conversations but enable our entire staff to

become more aware of everyone.

The last but most import facet of this goal is that turnover within our staff is

inevitable. While I would always like to have the same staff year after year, different life

circumstance’s and decisions of some coaches to move on will always happen. To have a

base culture and solid core of coaches always being able to lead and teach the newest

members of our team will only speed up the learning curve that happens with change.
 In conclusion. looking back over the readings, reflecting on the voice threads we

have participated in, and purposefully diving into what makes up my personal

leadership style will only enhance my role as a Director of Athletics. I look forward to

concentrating on the goals I have set and implementing the processes that I have

become more aware of by this self-reflection on leadership. We all have different styles;

the ultimate goal of leadership is to understand yourself better than you understand

anyone else. Once that has happened, the continual work of transformational leadership

begins.

your life bemoaning

what you lack.
Rather, you want to
capitalize on the gifts
with which you are
blessed. It’s more
fun. It’s more
productive. And,
counterintuitively, it
is more demanding.
 REFRENCES

Bishop, D. (n.d.). Comments from Voice Treads, Feedback on Decision Making Dropbox

District Profile. (2017, July 27). Olentangy Local Schools. Retrieved June 22, 2020, from

https://www.olentangy.k12.oh.us/

Kantor, D. (2012). Reading the Room: Group Dynamics for Coaches and Leaders. John Wiley &

Sons, Inc.

Meyer, U., & Coffey, W. R. (2015). Above the Line: Lessons in Leadership and Life from a

Championship Season. Penguin Publishing Group.

Rath, T. (2008). Strengths-Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People

Follow. New York, NY: Gallup Press.