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Lessons in Change Leadership from Ren Parikh
Some leaders impress you with their intelligence. They seem to have mastered every angle of their work.
Other leaders impress you with their emotional intelligence. They make sure people feel seen and known and cared for.
And then there is a leader like Ren Parikh, the founder of Ideal Institute of Technology (“Ideal”). He’s more like a force of nature…
The Three Currencies of Leadership
My recent conversation with Adam Bryant has me thinking about leading change in schools. Three particular things stand out from that chat:
Focus on “impact” rather than “intent.” Adam pointed out that if we over-index on purpose and mission (“intent”), we may lose sight of the reason to lead: to create positive impact.
From Principals to Principles
We know that teachers can expect feedback on their craft substantially less than 1% of the time. Yet to foster genuine growth and development, merely increasing touch points is necessary, but insufficient.
From Uneven Levels of Agreement to Tools of Cooperation
This is precisely the moment that school leaders need to lean on what Michael Horn calls “tools of cooperation” in From Reopen to Reinvent. It’s not enough to have a powerful vision. It’s not enough even to know how you can get to that vision. As Horn says—and as I can confirm from experience earned the hard way—“Once a school leader has clarity around what they want to change, they still need to convince other individuals who will play a role in the change.”
From Hygienic Factors to Motivational Factors
Hygienic factors include things like compensation, status, and work conditions. These are “table stakes” for schools. Just as poker requires each player to pay an ante (the “table stakes”) to join the game, so too must schools invest in “good enough” hygienic factors to attract and retain faculty and staff.
Michael B. Horn’s From Reopen to Reinvent: A Must Read for School Leaders
He cohosts the top education podcasts Future U and Class Disrupted. He regularly contributes to Forbes.com and writes the Substack newsletter The Future of Education. Michael also serves as an executive editor at Education Next. His work has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, and NBC.