Discussing how to effectively nurture educators with Diane Egbers
In this episode, we launch a series of podcast themes that we are calling The Triple A’s to Nurture Educators: Advocacy, Authenticity and Alignment.
Diane Egbers from Leadership Excelleration (LEI) and co-author of The Ascending Leader joins Carole Dorn-Bell to kick off the series with a discussion around Advocacy.
Carole asks about the connection between business advisory councils and school districts. To have students that are future ready, Diane says, partnerships and business advisory councils are critical.
“And sometimes that will be for internships, sometimes it will be for career-ready students, sometimes it’s government and military, other times it’s partners with higher education—giving students a prelude to college opportunities,” Diane says.
It’s especially important to have advocates when unfortunate things happen, as districts shouldn’t be on their own while navigating crises.
The effectiveness of a business advisory council, Diane says, depends on understanding the strategic plan of a district and how it creates future-ready students. The clearer a superintendent and board are about their future-ready strategy, the more business leaders know how to fit into that and to serve and support the district.
It takes a collegial forum for districts to learn about diverse businesses and all the opportunities students might have and create the lines of communication when vital support for the district is needed.
Diane gives specific examples, mentioning a large district that partnered with a business council and forged a technology partnership to create internships and opportunities for students.
“Our business leaders really want to be great corporate citizens and they really want to be a part of the community,” Diane says. “And it’s up to educators to ask and invite them to the table and really try to forge that future-ready opportunity for students together.”
Diane says school districts of the future will have dedicated liaisons and community partnership leaders.
“Students are our future, and the community has as much responsibility in that as the school systems do,” she says. “And when you invite them into partnerships and remind them students are our community’s future, not just the responsibility of the school systems, you can really forge some amazing partnerships that create all kinds of new innovative opportunities for students, whether they’re going to enroll, enlist or engage as a career professional.”
There are lots of opportunities to create partnerships with the community that the school can provide.
Carole closes out the episode by noting that building capacity is not only better for the community but also makes a school system more representative of the community.
Read the full We Love Schools podcast episode about how to adjust to changes in an urban school district.
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