Superintendent Competence: Understanding the Paradoxical Nature of the Position

Superintendent success, as we all know, is the result of mastering multiple competencies. Many of these competencies seem logical for an educational leader, but others are paradoxical. Although certain of these competencies can hold the power to control our destiny, we often don’t think about them from this perspective.

In a paper titled Exemplary Superintendents’ Experience with Trust, written by two professors from Northern Arizona University (Drs. Frank Davidson and Thomas Hughes), they outline a few of these skills which I believe we can learn from as we seek to better understand superintendent competence. The skills can be seen as paradoxical from the perspective that they don’t pertain to curriculum, assessment, instruction, or any other educational knowledge-base, but rather how one interacts with and manages stakeholders.

“Given such varied groups to which a superintendent must answer, a superintendent’s competence is often not necessarily attributable to one’s expertise or training as an educator, but instead to one’s acumen in actions such as correctly judging public sentiment, understanding and reconciling competing sources of power, managing conflict, engaging in symbolic actions of importance to stakeholders, or wielding political influence” (Davidson & Hughes, 2019, p. 53).

Let’s take a deeper look at each of these competencies and discuss briefly how one might successfully navigate these items.

Judging Public Sentiment: Superintendents develop competence in this area when they seek out advisors within the school district who are knowledgeable regarding the dynamics of the community, but also honest and trustworthy. The relationships must individual (not group oriented) and informal with the goal of helping the superintendent “keep their ear to the ground”. Checking in with these individuals should happen multiple times each year, or more frequently if there is unrest in the district.

Understanding and reconciling competing sources of power: Identifying and understanding competing sources of power within a district typically occurs quickly.  Once understood, the question is how do superintendents work to reconcile these competing sources?  It is my experience that this comes through finding a “sliver” of common ground. Normally this is situational, for instance when the district is running a bond, levy or override; but it requires creativity. As an example, when putting forth a tax initiative in my former district we had a neighborhood which was 1/2 retirement community and 1/2 family housing. On the retirement side we discussed how the initiative might bring more families to the area which would be necessary to attract a grocery store, while on the family side we discussed the benefits of ongoing financial resources for the school. In this case the sliver of common ground was that by coming together to pass the override each community might benefit in its own unique way. 

Managing conflict: I will not spend time reviewing this skill here as I believe there are many great resources which one can use to master this competency. If for some reason you are in need of resource related to managing conflict, but can’t find anything suitable, please reach out to me at hcarlsonthesupt@gmail.com and I will assist.

Engaging in symbolic action of importance to stakeholders: Clearly this is different for varying stakeholder groups, yet it is important from the perspective that it builds relationship and shows respect. To build support for ourselves as superintendents and the work we do we must be engaged and thoughtful related to these symbolic actions. It might be an annual celebration, a periodic activity, or a weekly gathering which has now shifted to Zoom. Regardless, we must seek to know our stakeholder groups at a level where we understand what is important to them and find ways to be appropriately involved.

Wielding political influence: Superintendents must possess the emotional intelligence to seek out and establish relationship with a cross section of stakeholder groups, which ultimately leads to the building of political capital.  Political capital makes a difference when we need action to occur.  Like our savings account we must be diligent in building our capital, but also thoughtful in terms of how it is spent.  It can only be spent once and therefore its use requires careful consideration.

The five competencies identified by Davidson & Hughes, although paradoxical regarding their importance for superintendents, are truly items which must be mastered to be successful.  Superintendents operate in an increasingly political context and each of these components points to that fact. 

I hope this information is of use to you and I would appreciate hearing examples of how you implement these competencies in your work.  As always, we all gain wisdom when we share our thoughts and ideas with each other.