Every year around St. Patrick’s Day, someone brings up four-leaf clovers.

As a child, I believed they were magical. People would always say that if you found one, something good was bound to happen. You didn’t question the odds. You just dropped to your knees in the grass and started searching.

Late-Lee, I’ve been thinking about that feeling. The excitement of finding the lucky clover. This past weekend, I walked over to the barn and saw a thick patch of clover stretching out in front of me. From standing height, it all looked the same. It was just an ordinary green patch. But just as I did when I was a child, I knelt with curiosity and hope.

I leaned in close, and moved the leaves gently with my fingers. I studied them one by one. I didn’t find a four-leaf clover that morning. What I did find, or perhaps realized, was this: it’s easy to assume you’ve seen everything when you’re only looking from one perspective.

Leadership is like that. We celebrate the start of the school year. The excitement in preplanning is contagious! Launching the year’s initiatives can feel like winning gold. Everyone is excited and eager for what the future of the school year holds. We communicate the goals, deliver the expectations, and review the details of the professional learning plan we created so that support clearly aligns with the actions needed to meet them.

From standing height, the field of opportunities looks full. But by March, something shifts and energy changes. Fatigue settles in, and data hasn’t moved as much as we hoped. When working with schools where the data are flat, we often hear the same reasons echoed over and over. It’s this student group or that one. They’ve been low every year. We have a large number of new teachers who don’t have the capacity to teach at deeper levels yet. The district’s demands regarding the curriculum resources that must be used keeps us from implementing your recommendations. We are just tired and overwhelmed. Rarely do we ever hear anyone say (after sharing a plethora of reasons)…we still need to do better for the students. I’m baffled by the lack of acknowledgment. Aren’t we educators? We chose to be in the business of educating kids. No one said it would be easy. 

Leaders feel the pressure. They worry about overwhelming teachers. So often times, they reach for a new strategy, hoping something different will spark movement and renew excitement. Strong leaders, however, don’t reach first, they lean in closer. When the data hasn’t moved, they don’t panic or pivot too quickly. Perhaps one of the most distinct lines that separate effective leaders from those who may be okay with status quo is effective leaders aren’t looking for excuses in the data. They are looking for evidence of effective planning and delivery of instruction. They know the data reveals the level of alignment between instruction and standard expectations. They identify when and where to respond or celebrate. They kneel into the work inspecting each data point one by one by asking better questions: Is collaborative planning actually happening consistently, or does it just live on the master schedule? Am I physically in the room enough to know what teachers are saying and rehearsing? Once we plan the strategies, are they delivered with fidelity in classrooms? Is student achievement reflecting the planning and delivery of lessons? When I provide feedback, do I check back in to see if the practice changed? What should high-quality implementation look like? Then they respond honestly. They don’t respond defensively or with a laundry list of excuses or by shifting blame to student groups or staffing challenges.

One very important thing effective leaders do is answer the hard questions about themselves first.

Have I been present enough?

Have I monitored closely enough?

Have I followed through consistently enough to expect different results? 

The fourth leaf in leadership, follow-through, is rarer. It’s not flashy or loud. It’s a disciplined return. Follow-through means carrying out the plan consistently and pervasively across the school and in every classroom. It means listening long enough to hear patterns and digging in to the data to see them too. It means revisiting walkthrough data instead of assuming or letting feelings drive the conversation to say it’s improving. Discussions move from “The instruction we are seeing is great” to “The observation data reveals the following practices in delivery of instruction are showing strong improvements.” It means not making excuses for the observations that took place revealing ineffective delivery of instruction. They don’t say…We had a program. We were out of school yesterday. Last week was great! Follow-through means closing the loop after feedback instead of moving on to the next initiative. It means kneeling in the grass and inspecting the data closer.

A four-leaf clover grows in the same soil as every other clover. The difference isn’t the field, it is formation. In leadership, formation happens in the follow-through and honest reflection.

As we move toward testing season, the field shouldn’t look like it did in August. Goals should be consistently reviewed, updated, and communicated.  The question isn’t whether you launched the work. The question is whether you are tracking the plan into classrooms, following up after feedback, and staying with the work so it shows up in student learning. Because the rare thing in leadership isn’t luck, it’s preparation and follow-through.

Reflection Questions

1. Where in your school have you launched strong plans but not consistently followed through to see if they are changing classroom practice?

2. What evidence do you have that your follow-up efforts are showing up in student learning, not just in meeting notes?