Cynthia McCabe, Director of Elementary Schools for Carroll County Public Schools in Westminster, MD and the author of the new book, The Fearless School Leader: Making the Right Decisions, joins us to talk about the nature of fear and how it impacts school leaders. In this interview, she also explains how school leaders can face up to their fears and turn them into positives, the best way to handle conflicts, and why school leaders need to develop “the courage to welcome healthy conflict.”
Q: You make a very interesting point at the beginning of your book about how, despite all the work of thought leaders like Michael Fullan and Doug Reeves on how to make change happen in schools, very little change has actually occurred. Why do you believe that’s the case?
Cindy McCabe: While I think they have great points, I think the changes that they bring up require us to do things and have conversations that upset a lot of people, including teachers and parents, and principals and district administrators already have to handle a lot of conflict in their jobs. So, by making the fundamental changes that Fullan and some others suggest, your conflict is actually bound to increase, at least in the short term. When most of us are wired to avoid conflict, it is no wonder that those fundamental changes never actually take place.
The Fearless School Leader: Making the Right Decisions
By Cynthia McCabe
Paperback or e-book
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Q: What is the nature of fear and how does it manifest itself in the daily life of a school leader?
Cindy McCabe: First, I would say that our emotions control most of our decision-making. So in essence, we feel, we decide, and then we rationalize, if we let ourselves go unchecked. So, fear as an emotion is a very powerful and primal feeling and it triggers the fight or flight response in order to protect us and keep us safe; so fear is good in that respect. The trouble with it is that it’s uncomfortable, it’s unpleasant, and it is even painful, so in our quest to alleviate these sensations, we often end up running away from just the situations we ought to be confronting. For instance, in my book I talk about the walk throughs that principals do on a daily basis. You know, you come to the classroom that you know you are going to find things in that you are going to have to confront. Often times, folks will just keep on walking.