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A Pathways Leadership Lesson from WWII

Posts

/ April 27, 2017

 

Do you have your leaders deployed where they can do the most good or the most harm?

This week I’ve been doing some school consulting visits in New Orleans, and I took a break to visit the National World War II Museum.  It was an incredible experience.

This visit brought to mind an important lesson about leadership I learned in reading two books about key figures in World War II.  One book was “Eisenhower in War and Peace” by Jean Edward Smith, and the second was “Brothers, Rivals, Victors” by Jonathan W. Jordan.

Here’s the lesson I discovered –

  • Great leaders who are deployed in the right role can do great good, but the same leaders deployed in the wrong role might do great harm.

This truth really played out in the differences between General Dwight David Eisenhower and his friend General George S. Patton.  Eisenhower was a genius logistician and had excellent strategic thinking and alliance building skills.   Even though he longed for battlefield command experience, the experience he had was not inspiring, and most of his career was spent in planning and staff leadership roles —  roles that coordinated the work of multiple forces.  When the U.S. entered WWII, there was a critical need to coordinate the forces and efforts of multiple nations fighting to defeat the German-Italian-Japanese Axis.

Eisenhower was bestowed the title of Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, but he privately joked that the title was a farce.  He said he wasn’t really commanding anyone and he wasn’t supreme.  Rather than supremely commanding, he was coordinating and communicating with the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, the U.S. president, the British prime minister, and all the chief commanders from the allied forces. He was also responsible for keeping some level of coordination with Soviet Russia’s forces, and then had to also untangle the rivalries among the French nationalists.  Rather than commanding, he was tasked with building consensus.

Eisenhower was not known as a very good battlefield commander, but he had excellent interpersonal, political skills that were essential for the allies to work together and to be successful.

Patton, on the other hand, was a daring, brave and relentless battlefield commander, and led a number of historic campaigns.  But he had terrible judgment and a propensity for angry outburst and amateur gaffes.  If he had been given the role that Eisenhower played, the alliance could have fallen into complete disarray.  Even Omar Bradley, who was a great battlefield commander and had good interpersonal skills and judgment, still had a deep distrust and rivalry with the British that would have precluded him from the cross-alliance role.

So I would suggest to you, think about your leadership team and ask –

  • Who are my Patton and Bradley battlefield commander types who can buckle down and get the tough work done – even if they don’t “play well in the sandbox”?
  • Who are those Eisenhower-type leaders – still results oriented,  but who have the empathy and interpersonal skills to build the inter-district and cross-systems partnerships that really bring synergy to the pathways system?

Take time to identify each individual’s natural strengths, shore up their weaknesses as much as possible, and then see if there is a role that plays to their innate strengths.

In the end, you need both your Eisenhowers and you also need your Pattons!

Hans Meeder is President of NC3T, the National Center for College and Career Transitions.  (www.nc3t.com).  NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education.

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Here’s a Quick Answer to the Question – What’s Driving our Local Economy?

Posts

/ April 20, 2017

A critical factor of success in the pathways movement is aligning pathway programs to high value industries that drive economic growth and offer good career and earnings prospects for workers.

Here’s a great tool to help with alignment.

The Brookings Institution has provided an excellent resource for local leaders to tap into – it’s their work on America’s Advanced Industries.  These are the industries that invest a larger than average percent of resources in research and development, and that require a higher than average STEM knowledge among their workers.  These industries are filled with STEM workers, many of whom need college degrees, but almost half of the jobs require less than a four-year degree.

Brookings identified 50 industries that constitute the advanced industries sectors.  Contrary to the myth that America’s economy is all about internet-based apps and services, these advanced industries are heavily weighted toward manufacturing.

Some of the notable manufacturing advanced industry sectors are: aerospace, agriculture, construction and mining machinery; electrical lighting equipment; engines, turbines and power transmission equipment; motor vehicle parts; motor vehicles, other chemical products; ship and boat building, and medical equipment and supplies.

The energy sector advanced industries consist of: electric power generation, transmission and distribution; metal ore mining, and oil and gas extraction.

In the services sector, some of the advanced industries are: computer system design, medical and diagnostic laboratories, satellite communications, and wireless telecommunications carriers.

While these advanced industries represent about 9 percent of the total U.S. employment, they produce $2.7 trillion in value added annual revenue, about 17 percent of all U.S. gross domestic product, more than any other sector.

Discover Your State and Regional Advanced Industries

An excellent feature of the analysis is that it is broken out state by state, and also for the 100 largest metropolitan areas.  You can see in your state or region where there is a concentration of advanced industries, and what percentage of the local GDP they represent.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/americas-advanced-industries-what-they-are-where-they-are-and-why-they-matter/

Learning to speak a new language

Education leaders, especially those leading the work in pathways, need to become bilingual.  They need to speak the language of education, and but also be passably fluent in the language of economics and workforce development.

Take a look at your region’s advance industries and ask yourself, “Do the pathway programs we offer right now match up to the advance industries?  If not, where are the gaps, and what can we do to create better understanding about these industries and get our programs into better alignment with them?”

Conversation Starter

If you haven’t done so already, find out who is the head of your local economic development authority and schedule a sit-down introductory conversation.  They should be very receptive to a conversation with someone from the education sector.  Remember, you are the talent pipeline delivery system for the future workforce, so don’t be shy to reach out.

Here’s a link to the Economic Development Agency with links to every state’s economic development authorities:  https://www.eda.gov/resources/

Talk to them about the high value industries in your region. Tell them about your current pathway programs, and ask their advice about what future programs might be needed.  Ask about what local business and industry organizations are already at work and how you can make new connections.

Also ask them if they know about this resource from the Brookings Institute.  It might be a great resource they’ll want to know about.

Just have the conversation.  You never know where it might lead.  You may find yourself quoting the words of Humphrey Bogart at the end of the classic film Casablanca,“I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

 

Hans Meeder is President of NC3T, the National Center for College and Career Transitions.  (www.nc3t.com).  NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education.

 

 

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Getting Clear about Career Readiness and Planning

Posts

/ April 13, 2017

A couple of months ago, I met and listened to a wonderful presentation by fellow consultant and pathways traveller, Kevin Fleming.  Kevin is the author and producer of the viral video called “Success in the New Economy” (https://youtu.be/zs6nQpVI164).  This video explains how being well fitted for an average-earnings career is better in the long run than being poorly fitted to a high earnings career.  And it also explains the hot market for so many jobs that require excellent skills, but don’t necessarily require a four-year college degree.

Kevin has recently produced another excellent video that’s a little shorter than the first, and it is super practical for any student or parent.  It’s called Four Skills and Four Steps.  Watch it here: https://youtu.be/twWcxIfa2zo.

Did I mention — Watch it!

It only takes 7 minutes, and I’m sure you’ll want to start sharing it immediately.

So here’s the quick summary —

The Four Skills:

  • Academic Skills
  • Life Skills
  • Employability Skills
  • Technical Skills

These four skills are very compatible with the way we at NC3T talk about “Career and Life Skills” with our pathway system clients.  You can take a look at the Career and Life Skills framework here: http://nc3t.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/CCLR-Integrated-Definition-2-3-2016.pdf

And here are the Four Steps:

  • Know Yourself (core talents, skills and interests)
  • Explore Career Options
  • Plan for a Career
  • Create a 10-year Plan

We talk about these four steps in the Career Development section of our Pathways System Framework. (See “The Power and Promise of Pathways”).

Some Helpful Links

The video also makes references to some excellent free resources created for the California Department of Education.   No promises, but I think you might be able to set up an account and try out some of the services, even if you don’t live in California.  But more than likely, your state or school district has already invested in similar career development systems.

https://www.cacareerzone.org/

http://www.cacareercafe.com/

And here’s the link to the federal job information system referenced in the video, O-NET:

https://www.onetonline.org/

Keeping it Simple

One thing that we all need in life is more clarity and simplicity.  Thanks to Kevin for breaking it down into Four Skills and Four Steps.

P.S.  If you want to learn more about Kevin’s work, you can find him at Telos Educational Services.

 

 

Hans Meeder is President of NC3T, the National Center for College and Career Transitions.  (www.nc3t.com).  NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education.

 

 

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Engage.Connect Webcast Series

Posts, Multimedia

/ April 7, 2017

Through my travels, consulting and participating in various education conferences, I’ve met some wonderful people who are doing some amazing work.  We decided to start a webcast series highlighting important innovations in education relating to the pathways movement. Hearing what others are doing around the country can help us gain important insights and real life examples that we can use in our own state and local work; and just as important, it can also motivate us to continue our efforts to make the biggest possible difference for our youth and young adults that we serve.

In my first webcast, I interviewed Sonja Wright-McMurray, Associate Director for Career and Technical Education – Special Projects for The Arkansas Department of Career Education. She and her team are doing some fantastic work through their Arkansas Career Coaching Program. In this webcast, we explore Arkansas’ innovative approach to getting college and career specialists into the schools to supplement the counseling department and help students develop plans and strategies for accessing postsecondary education with a solid career plan.

To ease the burden of a busy schedule, you can view/listen to these webcasts anytime day or night!

Watch it here!

 

And here’s a sneak peak.  In the next webcast we release, we’ll learn about the exciting efforts of Illinois’ High School District 214 to take work-based learning to scale.  Stay tuned for the next installment!

 

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The NC3T Approach

The National Center for College and Career Transitions (NC3T) in Maryland, founded by Hans Meeder and Brett Pawlowski, fosters regional college-career pathway systems that are supported and led by alliances of educators, employers, and civic organizations.

NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems.

Contact Us!

Mailing Address:
10320 Little Patuxent Parkway, STE 300
Columbia, MD 21044

Phone: 410-740-2006
Fax: 410-696-7511
Email: info@nc3t.com
Website: http://nc3t.com/

Copyright ©2016 The Pathways Sherpa

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    • The Power and Promise of Pathways
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  • Explore NC3T