From ACE Remick Leader Newsletter

Below is a post I wrote for the ACE Remick Leader Program that ran last week. The theme was purpose and it has resonance to all our work in Catholic schools.

Purpose in the Time of Coronavirus

(with apologies to Gabriel García Márquez)

I had another post partly finished for this piece on purpose that I was excited about but then the coronavirus pandemic turned things upside down and I felt it necessary to start anew from scratch. To say these times are unprecedented is a bit of an understatement, even with the vast majority of students learning from home and schools being shut down in most of the U.S. On top of that many dioceses have suspended the celebration of public Masses, leaving the faithful to navigate these uncertain times without access to the Eucharist. It is a time that demands us to consider our purpose as individuals in our own faith lives and in our professional lives as Catholic educators.

Nietzsche famously said, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Perhaps this is the most succinct expression of purpose – for when we know why we are here on earth, it orients us through storms of challenge, difficulty and, even, grief. This speaks to the idea of having a vocation versus having a career. A vocation calls out to us, it isn’t something we seek out and choose for ourselves. We are compelled to do the work because it is a cause that drives us beyond simply making money and achieving success. For me, that vocational call has always been centered around my believe that Catholic schools, especially those located in low-income communities, are the best educational environments to transform lives through faith so students can grow to become leaders both for the Church and for society in general.

One of the things my family did last weekend was go to the library and check out lots of books. We have many books at home already, but it gave us an opportunity to beef up our reading options in anticipation of the extended time we will be spending at home in the coming months. One book I checked out was Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. It had been on my reading list for a while and I am glad that I got it at this time. It is a remarkable book about humility, simplicity and, yes, purpose. I encourage all of you to read it yourself, but I want to share one quote that particularly struck me, considering the challenges and doubt many are feeling in these uncertain times.

The context is Fr. Joseph speaking to Bishop Latour about the Shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The time is the mid-1800’s in New Mexico in the early days of the diocesan settlement. Fr. Joseph comments how especially wonderful the Shrine is for those without means saying, “Doctrine is well enough for the wise [Bishop]; but the miracle is something we can hold in our hands and love.” And Bishop Latour replies,

“Where there is great love there are always miracles. One might almost say that an apparition is human vision corrected by divine love. I do not see you as your really are, Joseph; I see you through my affection for you. The Miracles of the Church seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.” (p. 50)

In times of uncertainty and doubt, which are inevitable aspects of an individual’s faith journey, it is great to be reminded that miracles surround us every day. It is often our human eyes, clouded by our broken human nature, which can’t see the miraculous true beauty and purpose of our lives. May our God of grace and goodness grant you the strength to see divine love with your human vision and understand and embrace the purpose for which you were born.

Leadership in Times of Crisis

Leadership is  a key component of any organization's success. When I completed my doctoral work over 15 years ago (!), my key finding was the impact a strong principal has on a school's academic success. Leadership's importance is born out in numerous research studies and is assumed to varying degrees by all serious analysts of organizations. However, good leadership is especially important during times of uncertainty and crisis. So what are some traits that leaders should exhibit in a time of crisis?

The first characteristic that should be present prior to experiencing a crisis is character and integrity. Michelle Obama famously said that, "Being president doesn't change who you are, it reveals who you are." Another way to put this is that leadership and character are amplified in times of stress and crisis (since being president is essentially dealing with daily stresses and crises). For schools, this can be wonderful when the principal is a strong leader. But the amplification goes both ways and, if the leader is not strong, that also will be made evident during a time of crisis. "Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching" according to C.S. Lewis.  Catholic schools especially should be focused on recruiting and developing principals of integrity and character who live their faith through daily actions and behaviors. This will prove beneficial at all times but especially during times of crisis.

It is important to be calm and confident during the chaotic early moments and days of crisis. This may present a challenge because there could be conflicting information with advocates for certain approaches who try and convince the leader to move in a definitive direction. Understanding the facts of the situation and making decisions in both a timely and deliberate fashion is very important. Collect the facts, talk to those you trust and make decisions in a collaborative manner.

Being calm and confident is also important because there will be many others at the school who will feel tremendous anxiety and concern about the future, and they will express this through their, at times irrational, actions. The challenge for the leader is that he or she might also experience anxiety and doubt but it is important for people to see the leader as being in charge. One of the reasons leadership is so difficult is that it is hard to outwardly express positive  confidence when one is filled with other, more conflicted emotions. But it is important in times of uncertainty. 

As much as possible, leaders must be honest and transparent during times of crisis. I clarify this point because there may be things that leaders are unable to share for valid reasons. But everything that can be shared with the community should be shared. This gives people confidence that they are hearing the truth and they know where things stand. And factual knowledge is often what is most intensely desired during a rapidly (or even not so rapidly) changing situation. The principal has cultural capital within the community and this should be treated in a sacred way so that when he or she communicates information, it is widely held as being accurate.

The secondary part of being honest and transparent is a leader also has to always express vision and hope in the future. This should not manifest itself as blind optimism but rather as honesty regarding the storms that may lie ahead and confidence and hope that the school will ultimately get through them. This is communicated by establishing a vision for what will be and how, if at all possible, it will be better than before. When the reality of the situation is communicated to the community, and the principal then follows that with a positive vision of the school's ultimate future, people feel reassured. 

A final note, crises are unique, and the one we are experiencing now with COVID-19 was the impetus for this post. But leaders have to be adaptable. For example, some circumstances (like an earthquake) will require more rapid, on the spot decision-making. But the tenets outlined above do hold true, trusting that leaders use their own sound judgement in each circumstance. 

In the Age of Coronavirus

The level of disruption taking place in American society due to the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented. The scope of the current situation is already such that students are learning remotely and most adults who are able to do so are working from home. The bigger issue and concern is where it goes from here. There are projections that some of the protocols in place now could last six months to a year and there are models for the spread of the virus that has 50-60% of the U.S. population being infected over time. Actually, unprecedented doesn't do this current situation justice.

Catholic schools, like all schools, have had to move to remote instruction and learning in a rapid fashion. Many are rising to the challenge and are doing incredible work. Social media has a mixed reputation, and I am one who has gone on 'fasts' in the past because of the level of distraction it provides. But for teachers during this time there are countless resources available to educators about how to move classes online. You have to separate the wheat from the chaff a bit but there are really credible, high level resources that can impact what you are doing today. 

For school leaders, communication must be the focal point, especially in this early period of transition. Communication is an important component of leadership in the best of times but during times of crisis it is absolutely essential. Leaders need to communicate calm while also delivering the true reality of the situation. It reminds me of the Stockdale Paradox which balances optimism and hope that better days lie ahead while confronting the brutal facts of your current situation. 

The Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, gave a speech to his country on St. Patrick's Day that is a template for all leaders. It was honest but hopeful, true to the brutal reality but inspiring at the same time. Those who have the responsibility to lead and guide others should look to such examples for ideas in how best to balance those two different aspects of reality. And that is an accurate description - one reality is that our current situation presents unique and extremely daunting challenges but the other reality is that we will get through this at some point and our belief, especially as faith leaders, is that we will be better because of the experience. 

That is the aspect of the Stockdale Paradox that always amazed me the most. That Jim Stockdale realized, while he was a prisoner at the Hanoi Hilton being tortured nearly daily, that his current experience would be something he would look back and value to the point where he would be glad that he went through it. That the experience itself would be transformative for him and make him a better person. 

I have used this for years with Catholic schools that have faced the brutal fact of potential closure while at the same time hoping that growth was possible. The message centers around the idea that the challenging times are what shape you and form you to become the school you are meant to be. So when the growth does come, you look back on the challenging times with gratitude because they forged the community in a way that led to the growth.

In the current reality of coronavirus, more Catholic schools are faced with this dire prospect. And I know it is hard to see where the growth or future success lies in the midst of such uncertainty. However, the best advice for schools to address the current reality is to look in an honest and transparent way at the core facts, whether it is low enrollment, financial strain, confidence with online learning, technology infrastructure or something else and own that reality. Then view the challenge through the lens of the long term - what path gets the school to the point of sustainability? 

The hard fact is that crisis reveals the truth - who we are as leaders and what we bring to our communities. My prayer is that each of us can rise to the challenge we face today and realize it will be something we look back on as event that helped shape a future for Catholic schools that will be better than ever before.