Our Savvy Education Technology (EdTech) blogs are dedicated to delivering fresh, insightful content centered on EdTech leadership. Drawing from key chapters of The Savvy EdTech Leader, we explore strategies for crafting impactful and innovative systems that drive success. This series introduces a dynamic approach to measuring organizational success, leveraging a performance excellence maturity-level framework to guide continuous improvement and inspire growth.
Why is measuring organizational success important? Now is the time in your career journey to amplify your impact and measure your leadership success like never before! Team members need to know where the organization stands to break higher barriers and continually make adjustments to improve themselves and the organization.
Savvy EdTech Leadership focuses on what truly matters: your organization's success. Success is about the collective achievement of the entire organization under your leadership. It is measured by how well you guide and empower the whole organization, ensuring every part thrives together.
To get started, consider these two questions.
Savvy EdTech Leadership focuses on what truly matters: your organization's success. Success is about the collective achievement of the entire organization under your leadership. It is measured by how well you guide and empower the whole organization, ensuring every part thrives together.
To get started, consider these two questions.
First, what is the recommended standard for measuring EdTech Leadership success?
With over 30 years of experience as an EdTech Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and active involvement in every EdTech professional association at the state and national levels, we have curated a collection of invaluable resources. These resources serve as a baseline for measuring EdTech leadership success.
Yet, the absence of a definitive formula for success, a recommended EdTech leadership framework, or a system to measure results is a huge opportunity for us to take our leadership to the next level. Here, are some of the best resources available.
There are other frameworks and systems within each state and pockets of innovation nationwide. It may be safe to say that a standard or recommended framework for measuring EdTech leadership and organizational success isn't clearly defined.
Yet, the absence of a definitive formula for success, a recommended EdTech leadership framework, or a system to measure results is a huge opportunity for us to take our leadership to the next level. Here, are some of the best resources available.
- The Consortium of School Networking (COSN) Certified EdTech Leadership (CETL) framework includes 15% of essential knowledge and skills in the Leadership and Vision category.
- The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards target the knowledge and behaviors required for leaders to empower teachers and coaches.
- The Association for School Business Officials (ASBO) for the Certified Administrator of School Finance and Operations (SFO) includes 5% in management and information systems.
There are other frameworks and systems within each state and pockets of innovation nationwide. It may be safe to say that a standard or recommended framework for measuring EdTech leadership and organizational success isn't clearly defined.
Second, how do you measure the impact of your leadership, ensure your organization is performing at its peak, and identify the critical improvements needed to drive performance excellence?
That's a loaded question!
Let's propose a performance excellence framework and a system called an EdTech leaderboard to get started and keep it simple. Many other names, such as a scorecard, performance board, success tracker, or just results, could be used. Whatever we choose to call it, here are some of its characteristics.
Where can we find an EdTech leaderboard? You could use your EdTech leadership experience to design a leaderboard that suits your leadership style or school system. You could also initiate a cohort and collaborate with peers to develop one. Or you could start with a well-defined, comprehensive leadership framework and tailor it to your needs.
Let's propose a performance excellence framework and a system called an EdTech leaderboard to get started and keep it simple. Many other names, such as a scorecard, performance board, success tracker, or just results, could be used. Whatever we choose to call it, here are some of its characteristics.
- An EdTech leaderboard is a visual display that measures the performance of staff, teams, organizational units, and the organization in a specific activity, Key Performance Indicator (KPI), or metric.
- For example, how do you know if you are winning the game? A leaderboard is a motivational leadership tool that encourages your team to improve their performance based on a well-defined framework or rubric.
- A leaderboard builds on the foundation of a leadership framework, a structured approach to evaluating and enhancing leadership. It combines qualitative and quantitative metrics to assess how leaders influence organizational performance, employee engagement, and goal achievement.
- Usually, a leaderboard is updated in real-time or at regular intervals to reflect the latest standings. If it's out of date, you lose credibility.
Where can we find an EdTech leaderboard? You could use your EdTech leadership experience to design a leaderboard that suits your leadership style or school system. You could also initiate a cohort and collaborate with peers to develop one. Or you could start with a well-defined, comprehensive leadership framework and tailor it to your needs.
Some Education Technology (EdTech) leaders combine elements from multiple frameworks to suit their goals and contexts. Here are ten widely recognized leadership frameworks. Each provides unique insights and tools for measuring leadership success. You probably know others. If you do, please comment. We would love to hear from you.
- Balanced Scorecard (BSC) - Developed by Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (1992). The Balanced Scorecard—Measures That Drive Performance. Harvard Business Review, 70(1), 71–79.
- Situational Leadership Model - Developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard and first introduced in their book, Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. H. (1969). Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- The McKinsey 7-S Framework - Developed by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman while working at McKinsey & Company and introduced in their book: Peters, T. J., & Waterman, R. H. (1982). In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies. New York: Harper & Row.
- Harry, M., & Schroeder, R. (2000) developed and popularized the Six Sigma methodology. Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World's Top Corporations. New York: Doubleday.
- Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) - Developed by Anderson, R. J., & Adams, W. A. (2015). Mastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
- OKR (Objectives and Key Results) Framework - Popularized by John Doerr, who introduced it at Intel and later brought it to companies like Google: Doerr, J. (2018) Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs. New York: Portfolio/Penguin.
- James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner developed the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership framework in their book Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations (6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- Daniel Goleman popularized the Emotional Intelligence (EI) Framework in his book Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. New York: Bantam Books.
- Agile Leadership Framework popularized in his book, Denning, S. (2018). The Agile Leader: How to Lead with Agility, Flexibility, and Speed. London: Kogan Page.
- NIST Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework--Developed and published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the content is continuously updated and available at https://www.nist.gov/baldrige.
This 10-part blog series introduces the NIST Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework, developed and published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), as an example of an EdTech leaderboard performance excellence system. The framework provides guidelines for organizations in education to achieve and sustain high performance. The content is continuously updated and available at https://www.nist.gov/baldrige.
We will use the NIST Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework as a blueprint for implementing an EdTech leaderboard to drive organizational success and propel growth. You might use this blueprint to jump-start or improve your Savvy EdTech Leadership success!
Unlock Performance Excellence Blog Series
- Why Use the NIST Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework as an EdTech Leadership Blueprint?
- Organization Description: Examining EdTech Organizations with Clarity and Transparency
- Leadership and Governance: Navigating an Award-Winning Goal Standard
- Future-Focused Strategy by Design: Leading with Foresight and Performing with Purpose
- Customers
- Integration
- Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management
- Workforce
- Operations
- Results