See It, Communicate It, Maintain It

It was a great day of celebration at the Civic Center in Selmer, Tennessee. The time had come to honor the memory of Estel Ray Mills, a former educator who served in a variety of leadership positions during his illustrious career. His family, friends, and former colleagues were all there. Tables located around the gym floor were filled with pictures and memorabilia that helped give a perspective of his great accomplishments. Mr. Mills had died a few months earlier but because of Covid restrictions the family had waited to have his day of celebration until now.

Early that morning I had reflected on how this man had helped to shape my professional life.  And as I made my way to the event, those memories of the past seemed like yesterday.  My mind raced back to those days when I was a young thirty-year-old high school principal at Adamsville High School. Mr. Mills was the Superintendent of the McNairy County Schools and hired me to replace Mr. T.E. Chisholm, who was retiring. I had served as a basketball coach and teacher at AHS prior to my appointment to this new assignment.

My professional life as an administrator for thirty years (1979-2009) was built upon the foundation I gained by learning under this great man. He was a very demanding leader with high expectations for those who worked under him. He did not pass out many compliments. He simply wanted you to do your job and be responsible without making excuses for failures or mistakes. Incidentally these characteristics corresponded with my training as an athlete playing baseball for Coach Ken Dugan at David Lipscomb College in the late 1960s and early 70s.

 As I reflect now on his example, I believe that Mr. Mills exemplified three outstanding characteristics that are so important in the field of leadership. He had the unique ability to be able to visualize what he wanted the McNairy County School System to become. He could see it. The system that he inherited in the late 70s had facilities that needed improvement. Employee salaries were low. Morale and unity were approaching an all-time low. But he had a vision of what his home county school system could become, could look like.

 He also had the ability to communicate the vision. Nothing exemplifies this more than when he and his colleagues visited every location of significance, i.e. schools, churches, stores, city commissioners, and citizens at the community centers, promoting the recommended sales tax increase for the citizens of McNairy County. He would talk to groups large and small--sometimes as small as five people. 

The day came in 1979 when the citizens passed the referendum with a 92% vote. The school building program was off and running with this great victory. He had the unique ability to share his vision and communicate to the citizens in such a way to help them see themselves and their children benefitting from the improved conditions.

 And finally he possessed the strength to maintain the communicated vision. He was able to keep his focus and correct or communicate to others in such a way to prevent their being sidetracked from the vision at hand. He was extremely intelligent. 

It is interesting that I did detect these three strong points of his leadership when I was working for him as a young educator. It was only in my last few years as Assistant Director of Schools, long after he had retired, that I was able to identify and label these three steps which he exemplified.

 They (the three steps) came to me when I was observing a non-tenured teacher at one of our elementary schools. We were in the post conference when I was trying to convey to the teacher suggestions to help her improve her effectiveness.

 During the conference I asked the teacher if she could describe the ideal classroom. She proceeded to describe what she would be doing and what the students would be doing. Boy, was I shocked and pleased with her description! 

Then I asked her if the students knew of her vision. She indicated that she didn't know. She requested time to survey her students and evaluate the results to see if they indeed understood her vision. We agreed to meet in a week and  to follow up. When we met again seven days later, she was excited to tell me that yes, her students understood what her vision was for the class. 

It was after this reporting that the problem became crystal clear! She had seen the vision.  She had communicated the vision. But she had failed to maintain her vision. Her music class was not orderly. Many students were off-task. We then developed an improvement plan that would help her maintain and monitor her communicated vision for the classroom.

The scope of that observation enlightened me greatly.  It is rare to find leaders who can encompass all three of these characteristics. Many are usually strong in one or two of them, but I believe that Mr. Mills was one of those great leaders who manifested all three of them with excellence. And I was so fortunate to have him as my mentor. 

Without his leadership ethic and influence, I am convinced that we would have never been able to achieve what we did at Adamsville High School.  One of our greatest accomplishments during that time was in 1987 when our school was selected as one of the Top Ten Schools in Tennessee. In a short period of time Mr. Mills would leave as Superintendent and take the position as Assistant Commissioner of Education for the State of  Tennessee. What a legacy he left behind! He could See it, Communicate it and Maintain it.

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