At Teach For America – Charlotte-Piedmont Triad, we’re working to strengthen our program and will spend the next year gaining clarity on the strategic bets we should be making about how leaders develop in our program throughout their journey as a member of our network. We will leverage our learnings from this year as the foundation of our ongoing program strategy.
In FY19, the Director, Leadership Development will lead four Leadership Coaches in working together to strengthen our support of first-year corps members as they work to fulfill their visions for student outcomes in their classrooms. These coaches will also apply their learning to help shape and contribute to the development of a strong, local theory of leadership development in Charlotte. The Director, Leadership Development will also manage a small cohort to help contribute to the development of a strong, local theory of leadership development in Charlotte.
This position will report to the Managing Director, Program Strategy and will manage four Leadership Coaches. The Director will also work closely with the Directors of Program Design & Data Strategy, District & School Strategy, and Leadership & Learning.
Teacher Leadership Coaching & Development Strategy (90%)
- Create strategy for first-year teacher leadership
- Plan and execute a week-long Induction program for 100+ incoming teachers in coordination with Director(s) of Program, Director of District & School Strategy, and Director of Alumni Strategy & Engagement
- Plan and execute a week-long School Kick-off program for 200+ first- and second-year teachers in coordination with Director(s) of Program, Director of District & School Strategy, and Director of Alumni Strategy & Engagement
- Plan and execute monthly professional development nights and occasional full-day events
- Coach and manage four Leadership Coaches
- Manage six part-time instructional facilitators in conjunction with the Director of Leadership & Learning
- Plan and execute team development/meetings for Leadership Coaches
Regional Team Responsibilities (10%)
- Participate in shared regional commitments such as biweekly staff meetings, quarterly staff retreats, communicating regularly with incoming corps members, and interviewing applicants to Teach For America
- Meet compliance expectations for timesheet, expense report, and performance management documentation and submission
- Support and participate in regional events, requiring occasional evening and weekend work
- Exhibit a desire to learn and develop your cultural competence and understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusiveness
Specifically, to be successful, you must be:
- A learner and iterator. You are hungry to learn and regularly seek out opportunities for feedback and growth. You see feedback as a path to strengthening your work, actively seek it out, and respond positively to it. You are open and collaborative and love working in a team environment to strengthen your practice. You view mistakes as a way to learn and are therefore eager to dissect them with peers to find a path for improvement.
- Passionate about coaching. You love your corps members, see their full potential (even when they themselves doubt it) and see your job as doing whatever it takes to help them achieve their visions. You are able to have high-stakes feedback conversations that drive towards outcomes, strengthen relationships and broaden perspectives. You define your success by how successful your corps members feel they are and actually are.
- A strong culture builder. You have experience creating a thriving, inclusive, connected culture amongst a group and believe it is mission critical to achieving short- and long-term success. You are passionate about creating a culture among adult learners where they are mutually accountable to one another and lead their learning amongst peers. You model our core values and regional values in all your interactions.
- Obsessive about outcomes. You have an incredibly strong past record of results of achieving ambitious goals, specifically in direct and lateral coaching engagements, despite obstacles and have experience doing so in complex situations with diverse teams. Your decisions are data-driven. You also have experience in change management and are motivated to achieve extraordinary performance and cultural outcomes in the midst of change.
- Self-driven and highly mature. You demonstrate an uncommon level of personal responsibility for achieving results, define broadly what is within your control persevere in the face of challenges and you’re exceptionally optimistic about what is possible. You take initiative to do what it takes to achieve success, including sharing your successes and failures openly and fully with your team.
- A conscious leader. You are always oriented towards social justice and equity. You have a pattern of modeling a set of values for others through self-reflection, curiosity and exploration, and an ability to connect and empathize with people. You have a history of operating in the spirit of our commitment to diversity and a strong understanding of the dynamics of race and class in America. You lead, and believe others must lead, through a culturally responsive lens and in a way that empowers others in our network.
- 6+ years of professional experience required
- Previous Teach For America experience preferred
- Experience designing and executing teacher development programming for first-year teacher leaders
Work Demands
- Ability to work an average of 50 hours per week, majority during business hours
- Occasional evening and weekend work required
- Occasional travel to in-person meetings in various US cities (2-3 times per year)
Skills
- Ability to set vision and direction for a team and invest others in a compelling vision
- Operate with an orientation to innovation
- Willingness to internalize and align strategy to Teach For America’s Theory of Leadership, Position on Adult Learning, and the Teaching as Leadership Broader Outcomes
- Desire and readiness to coach and support a team for leadership coaches who will execute the first-year teacher leader strategy