Leadership Matters: A Conversation with Tamara Konrade
Our guest today is Tamara Konrade, a true learner and leader. Tamara is a teacher at heart and LOVES to lead! She has had many leadership roles in Kansas, including instruction coach, principal, curriculum leader and now the Director of Professional Learning at ESSDACK, a Kansas service center.
Today Tamara focuses on the role of leadership during change and implementation of change. She believes that building relationships is at the heart of leadership. Leadership is not a title, it is an action. It is important for leaders to address both the cultural procedures and structural procedures as they go hand-in-hand. Leadership inspires hope and creates trust among buildings, districts – all teams. It is a BOTH/AND!
What do leaders do? Again, leadership is an action. Leaders communicate clarity of purpose and outcomes. In fact, they over communicate the purpose. Building trust is also important. Coaching plays a huge role in leadership. It allows others to bring to light their own assumptions and beliefs on what they are doing and why they are doing it. Coaching allows educators to think differently. The coaching model, IPEC, focuses on engagement. As a coaching leader one advocates for developing capacity for leading and learning. It supports learning communities, provides resources, and creates systems that support learning for ALL. IPEC connects engagement with levels of energy. The coaching leader focuses on the WHY and creates an environment of commitment and not compliance.
Tamara describes a framework for leaders that support change, including CELEBRATION of small successes while continuing to focus on moving forward. Again, leadership is connected to energy and engagement!
Learn more about Tamara’s thoughts on leadership, professional learning, and systems. She sees all of the PL standards connected – like a beautiful quilt!
Last words from Tamara….EVERYONE IS A LEADER!! They will do whatever it takes! They are excited about learning! We “get to” work with our students and with each other. Continuous learning is a way of being!!
