Success Profile: Regional superintendent

This success profile is one in a set of complete functional and behavioral qualities that, when fully realized, can help lead to professional success. View all competencies.

Overview

When you are considering and interviewing candidates for a regional superintendent position, use the following responsibilities and competencies to evaluate candidates. This information can help you identify people who are likely to be successful in this position.

Primary responsibilities

When interviewing for a new regional superintendent, look for a candidate who will be able to perform these primary responsibilities:

Manages schools in the region, representing the district's mission and values
Implements and ensures policies, procedures, contracts, special education policies/procedures, and educational integrity
Enforces effective crisis management, both during and after a crisis, to solve root causes
Engages and informs all stakeholders through two-way, open, and ongoing communication
Coordinates school programs to ensure academic growth of all children
Provides leadership and oversees professional development for everyone
Manages and aligns resources (both human and natural)

Core Competencies

Candidates who are likely to be successful in this position will demonstrate a basic grasp of the following 13 Education Competencies. Those who will be the most successful will further demonstrate a desire to improve their skills in—and eventually master—these competencies:

Building effective teams: Builds cohesive teams of people within the organization; shares wins and success such that each team member feels valuable and appreciated; guides teams to establish and achieve goals.
Decision quality and problem solving: Uses analysis, wisdom, experience, and logical methods to make good decisions and solve difficult problems with effective solutions; appropriately incorporates multiple inputs to establish shared ownership and effective action.
Developing others: Is a people builder; provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; pushes direct reports to accept developmental moves.
Directing others: Establishes clear directions; sets stretching goals and assigns responsibilities that bring out the best work from people; establishes a good work plan and distributes the workload appropriately.
Drive for results: Pursues everything with energy, drive, and a need to finish; does not give up before finishing, even in the face of resistance or setbacks; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
Integrity and trust: Is widely trusted; is seen as a direct, truthful individual; presents truthful information in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; doesn’t misrepresent himself or herself for personal gain.
Managerial courage: Tactfully dispenses direct and actionable feedback; is open and direct with others without being intimidating; deals head-on with people problems and prickly situations.
Managing and measuring work: Clearly assigns responsibility for tasks and decisions; sets clear objectives and measures; monitors process, progress, and results; designs feedback loops into work.
Managing vision and purpose: Communicates a compelling and inspired vision or sense of core purpose; makes the vision sharable by everyone; can inspire and motivate entire units or organizations.
Motivating others: Creates a climate in which people want to do their best; can assess each person’s strengths and use them to get the best out of him or her; promotes confidence and optimistic attitudes; is someone people like working for and with.
Negotiating: Can negotiate skillfully in difficult situations; can settle differences with minimum noise; can win concessions without damaging relationships; thoughtfully fashions creative solutions that satisfy all parties.
Organizational agility: Knowledgeable about how organizations work; gets things done both through formal and informal channels; effectively maneuvers through complex political situations.
Strategic agility and innovation management: Anticipates future consequences and trends accurately; brings creative ideas to market; recognizes strategic opportunities for change; creates competitive and breakthrough strategies.

Copyright © 1992, 1996, 2001-2003 by Robert W. Eichinger and Michael M. Lombardo. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This work is derived from the LEADERSHIP ARCHITECT® Competency Library developed and copyrighted by Robert W. Eichinger and Michael M. Lombardo for Lominger Limited, Inc.