It doesn’t take being an expert hashtagger on social media in order to use it effectively as a superintendent. All you have to do is to provide your district with a window, a viewing glass, if you will, into the work that you do each day. And be聽real.
Dr. Joe Sanfelippo, superintendent of the Fall Creek School District in Wisconsin, is a one-minute walk away from his school. On most Saturday mornings, he ventures over to the school to get some work done. And walks are a great time to think and reflect. So one day he decided to take out his phone and began recording his thoughts out loud. Thus, sparking the creation of his series.
鈥淚t just started taking off and it grew organically,鈥 he says. 鈥淧eople wanted to hear stories about what was happening in the school.鈥
For him, it was a way to dish out some quick and easily digestible leadership tips for others to learn from, but also to reflect on his own experiences as superintendent.
鈥淗ow can I learn from some of the mistakes I made and put them out there and be vulnerable,鈥 he says. 鈥淢aybe other leaders will be willing to say, 鈥楬ey, maybe I don鈥檛 know everything.鈥欌
Since starting the series, not only has he seen the impact it’s had on other leaders, but he鈥檚 grown as a leader himself.
鈥淚 think the first thing that I learned was that you don鈥檛 have to be right all the time,鈥 he says. 鈥淵ou have to be real. The more that you try to be right, the less you can be real. Me going and doing these walks and being vulnerable enough to say, 鈥楳an I really screwed this thing up鈥 and talking about it because I don鈥檛 want you to screw it up as a leader in your space, I think is important. I think 90% of those thoughts are things that I messed up, and I鈥檓 just trying to figure out ways I can help out other people. The other 10% are things that were just really cool that happened to people in our building or to kids so we can amplify those voices too.鈥
For him, social media ought to play a substantial role in the lives of every superintendent. It creates transparency, or else your community simply won’t know what it is that you do.
鈥淭he idea that people need to keep in mind is when people don鈥檛 know what you do as a superintendent, they make up what you do as a superintendent,鈥 he says. 鈥淚f you are using social media to not only celebrate the great things that are happening in your district, but also give people a window into what you do as a leader in that space, then they鈥檙e less likely to start slamming you for things that they don鈥檛 know that you do, because you do a lot of things behind closed doors that people don鈥檛 hear about.鈥
What ends up happening in this scenario, he explains, is that you become less of a leader and more of a number.
鈥淧eople start saying, 鈥榊ou know what, for all that money I don鈥檛 know what that person does,鈥欌 he says. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e the highest-paid person in your entire school district. You lose leadership credibility because people are asking what you鈥檙e actually doing in the space.鈥
It鈥檚 transparency that you should be able to control, he adds. As a superintendent, you will face scrutiny and critique. So why not let those critiques at least be accurate and reflective of the work that you actually do as shown through social media?
鈥淭he more that we can get that out there for people the better chance I think we all have to not only amplify, but also give ourselves some credibility in the work that we do,鈥 he says.
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