Kick the Seduction of Power Before It Turns Toxic.

Anyone who has been around education or any organization has witnessed and probably experienced the paradox of power.

Consider the case of Janet, an intelligent and articulate young woman who follows the coaching of her university mentor and begins work on a doctorate in educational administration. Almost immediately her mentor orchestrates her first administrative position as an assistant principal. A high school principalship and assistant superintendency follow in quick succession and now her colleagues refer to her as "Dr. Janet."

Janet demonstrates competence, is well liked and is encouraged to apply for the district superintendent's post. Once on the upper rung of the leadership ladder, Janet experiences the stimulation of power, and her professional effectiveness starts to decline. She begins to withdraw and becomes isolated. Eventually Janet falls out of favor with district staff and members of the school board. Janet is asked to leave her leadership position.

Is it the person or is it the system that surrounds power that causes the rise and fall of leaders? We believe a leadership seduction theory accounts for a significant rate of leadership attrition in school systems. Our theory looks at the interactions between school systems and school principals or central-office administrators to explain the all-too-predictable outcome; it assumes that both the cause and cure most often rest in the interactions within the system surrounding the leadership role.

Cycle of Seduction

The school leader probably enlisted support from school staff en route to the top. Interactions with the school leader helped staff members feel included and increased the organization's effectiveness. So when the disconnection begins, the seeds of leadership downfall are sown. As problems or breakdowns occur, the toxic effects may even increase. The leader is pushed away from interacting with staff.

This leads to more erosion of support, decreased effectiveness and greater dysfunction. As this cycle of seduction continues, it becomes detrimental to the leader and sometimes to those who remain as supporters. The organization's leader is on the way to being an attrition statistic.

The symptoms of leadership seduction are readily identifiable. We have developed a seduction/intoxication checklist to help school leaders gauge their own situation. (The checklist is available from the authors.)

Six Strategies

Understanding is the first step toward prevention. David Langford, writing in his Quality Learning Training Manual, states, "The dual tendency to attribute the causes of behavior to personal factors, while underestimating the effects of the situation, is known as the fundamental attribution error. We typically try to explain a situation in terms of personal traits without sufficiently considering the power of the situation."

So what can superintendents and principals do to keep from experiencing the seduction and toxic effects that leadership can bring? How can they avoid becoming a victim of their own success?

Being aware of symptoms and prevention measures can help leaders avoid the seduction of power or allow them to get back on course.

* Monitor communication patterns. Resist always bringing people to you. Go to your constituents, colleagues and even your critics. Seek broad communication that gives a complete picture of the organization. Good communication is more than written or oral; it is frequently face to face.

Have someone assist you in monitoring your organizational language. Which is most prevalent: "We/they" or "us/our"? "Win/lose" or "win/win"? Your objective should be for the organization to perform well, not to have you look good.

* Seek balance in your personal, professional and spiritual life. The effective leader's work is founded on relationships. In order to foster strong relationships, you need to feel good about yourself. A connection exists between relationships and a need for a balanced spiritual, personal and professional life.

Two goals should be emphasized. First, seek stimulation and systematic focus in all three areas of your life. Then, when conflict occurs in one area of your life, you can find support and self-fulfillment from one of the other areas.

Second, create a feedback loop that provides you with a sense of balance. Administrators who suffer from toxic egotistical seduction are usually in denial and cannot accurately assess whether they are in balance. An outside mentor can be of value in assessing balance.

* Stay oriented. Only by keeping focused on people or groups can one serve as a leader and keep the organization responsive and effective. Sound leaders do not get caught up in working harder to keep a job than in doing the work.

* Practice. Stay focused on relationships that supported your candidacy to the leader role. You are not the organization. Relationships are the foundation of getting anything done. Stay focused on initiating new relationships and maintaining current relationships. Self -reflection and honest feedback from friends are great tools for cultivating humility.

* Learn from adversity. No one wins all the time. The person who eventually succeeds is the one who uses setback as an opportunity to re-examine a plan. Every defeat carries the seed of an equivalent benefit. Overcome the natural tendency to be hindered by the fear of trying again or to accept a defeat as final. Only when we are severely tested do we develop the strength of character to sustain us when we face inevitable adversities that come in life.

Every temporary failure someone experiences is simply one that has to be eliminated on the way toward ultimate success. Seldom is anything worthwhile achieved on the first attempt or with little or no difficulty.

* Monitor your effectiveness. W. Edwards Deming quotes David Peterson, a former president of Ford Motor Co., as saying: "A system cannot know itself." The leader needs an outside set of eyes to assess personal effectiveness. Colleagues, university professors or consultants could act as the other set of eyes. Whoever you choose needs to understand organizational dynamics. To be effective, the feedback must be objective and the relationship trusting, honest and ongoing.

Steven Schmitz is associate professor and director of education programs at Central Washington University-Wenatchee Center, 604 Ringold, Wenatchee, Wash. 98801. E-mail: [e-mail]. London Fitch is executive director of learning and teaching in the Wenatchee School District.