{"id":1032,"date":"2012-07-28T07:19:36","date_gmt":"2012-07-28T07:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/?p=1032"},"modified":"2012-07-28T07:19:36","modified_gmt":"2012-07-28T07:19:36","slug":"tlp-jim-koerschen-concordia-shanghai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/tlp-jim-koerschen-concordia-shanghai\/","title":{"rendered":"TLP: Jim Koerschen, Concordia Shanghai"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy did you choose to step into leadership?\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ve asked this question many times throughout my interviews, but maybe this question is too presumptuous.\u00a0 Do we choose<\/em> to step into leadership or does it choose<\/em> us?\u00a0 Is effective leadership part nature or mostly nurture?\u00a0 These are some heady questions, and at the end of the day, might make little difference in how effective we are as leaders.\u00a0 Yet, when I asked this question to Jim Koerschen, Head of School at Concordia International School Shanghai, he explained, \u201cI\u2019ve come to the conclusion that there is something innate about somebody\u2019s DNA, that gives them this passion that they\u2019re going to be in a leadership role\u2026and then you learn to become a good leader through experience or education.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 In many ways this idea resonates with me.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s nature or nurture is beyond me, but if the idea of staying within the boundaries of your official job description and avoiding leadership opportunities sounds like torture, then you might be experiencing the passion Dr. Koerschen is describing.<\/p>\n

Unlike some of his counterparts in international education, this is Dr. Koerschen\u2019s first time as the head of an international school.\u00a0 In fact much of his career has been in higher education within the United States.\u00a0 It was perhaps this unique experience that has helped transform Concordia from a school of 22 in 1998 when it was founded, to over 1200 this year.\u00a0 Through Dr. Koerschen\u2019s leadership at Concordia, the school has experienced constant growth, become a leader in tech-integration in the classroom, and built a new campus, all the while keeping the goal of being one of the preeminent schools in Asia.<\/p>\n

(If not specifically quoted, Dr. Koerschen\u2019s responses to these questions have been paraphrased)<\/p>\n

This is your first position overseas, what\u2019s surprised you the most?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a leadership perspective I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s been many differences\u2026maybe the biggest difference is I spent most of my career at the university level, which was one of the reasons I was surprised to be offered the job at Concordia.\u201d\u00a0 What I\u2019ve found is, once you get past the language barrier and figure out how to avoid any major cultural taboos, much of the work is very similar.\u00a0 \u201c[In many ways] when you walk onto our campus, you can feel very much like you\u2019re in the US.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What or who has been most fundamental in your development as a leader?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a lot of things, but primarily \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been very blessed in my career\u2026 I\u2019m here by God\u2019s grace and I\u2019m trying to carry out his will for me and figure out what he wants me to do.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019m in China, because I never figured I\u2019d be here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLeadership is so hard\u2026but it seems like a passion that you\u2019re just called to [and] that you can\u2019t deny, and it starts early in life.\u201d\u00a0 For me, even as early as high school I had leadership roles that I never had aspired to, but felt called to be in that position.\u00a0 As that\u2019s developed, I\u2019ve just been pulled towards those positions.\u00a0 Not for the authority or position, but because my skills have developed me to be effective in that way.<\/em><\/p>\n

What unique set of skills do you bring to Concordia as Head?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was first approached about taking the position, \u201cI was very upfront that I felt that the best way to advance the school\u2019s mission was to develop a vision.\u201d\u00a0 The overall process of developing a vision connects well with my skills and priorities as a leader, which is to empower those around me\u2026 so we created one during my first year.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not adverse to taking some risk\u2026I believe very much in hiring people who are smarter then myself and finding ways to encourage the development of their good {and sometimes risky] ideas.\u00a0 For instance, when I arrived a decision had been made to switch from PC to Macs, but some people felt that they couldn\u2019t fully exploit the power of the computer.\u00a0 So we spent a lot of money to buy accessories and cameras; we even built a green room for broadcasting.\u00a0 Since then teachers and students have taken the equipment and built it into a major part of our schools curriculum and culture.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c[I also] think I have pretty decent people skills\u2026the so-called soft skills of leadership\u2026as well as, I have a lot of years as an executive and therefore I knew what the executives role was, but also had the financial management and personnel skills too\u2026just experience of doing the job.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

You mentioned your faith as fundamental in your development as a leader; Concordia is unique in that it has a Christian-ethos at its center, in what ways does the school\u2019s Christian mission influence school leadership development?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Included in our school\u2019s ESLRs is the goal to create \u2018principled-centered school leaders and enable student leaders.\u2019\u00a0 What I\u2019ve found is\u00a0 <\/em>\u201cthe principled-centered leadership is more of an attitude than it is specifics.\u00a0 It\u2019s the way our culture [and faith] has impacted [those we interact with]\u2026[I\u2019ve found that] when our kids participate in MUN\u2026or APAC events, our students are [often] identified by others as a group who thinks more about other people then they do themselves\u2026We\u2019re more proud of the sportsmanship award then winning the championship, and we try to instill that attitude.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c[In terms of] servant leadership\u2026we\u2019ve tried to build the whole concept of what service means [for our students with service-learning projects].\u00a0 So 3rd<\/sup> and 4th<\/sup> graders pack Giving Tree bags at Christmas\u202610 years ago we started the Yunnan Education Project, where we send kids\u2026into the poorest region of China and work on [labor] projects, digging ditches and laying pipe\u2026other projects have included building libraries\u2026our kids teach English to migrant workers around town\u2026and we don\u2019t give credit for it.\u00a0 Other schools do this at varying capacities and for different motivations, but for us much of it stems from our Christian roots.<\/em><\/p>\n

In addition to service opportunities how do you develop your Christian ethos?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We always try to hire people with similar values.\u00a0 \u201c[So] the Christian filter is a strong one\u2026but it\u2019s [sometimes] hard to judge, because people can tell us whatever they want [during an interview].\u00a0 But I think the school has a strong enough reputation now, that people know if you\u2019re not really a practicing Christian\u2026then you\u2019re not going to feel very comfortable with us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the culture and climate that Concordia is known for, we attract people who want to be a part of that and so it just expands\u2026It\u2019s like the old clich\u00e9 \u2018success breeds success\u2019. Maybe because of our Christian ethos, we truly value [creating that type of environment] and lift [our people] up.\u00a0 So it\u2019s that value-attitude that helps that culture build.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your greatest priority when choosing teachers and administrators for Concordia?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I listen for is how much of a passion do they have for student-learning.\u201d\u00a0 But no matter how much experience they have or how nice their resume looks, often it comes down to a gut feeling that \u201cyeah this person is going to work, and they\u2019ll fit our culture well.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What advice do you have for the next generation leaders in international education?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be able to embrace change as it comes along, but at the same time don\u2019t be afraid to honor and respect tradition.\u201d\u00a0 This is especially true in regards to the use of technology in the classroom.<\/em><\/p>\n

Recognize who you are and what your skills are, and don\u2019t try to use them where they\u2019re not the right [skills]\u2026I\u2019ve seen leaders who were very successful in their leadership position\u201d but as the school\u2019s needs changed, their skills were no longer the right ones, \u201cso you have to be able to recognize when it\u2019s time to move on.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s important to always focus on excellence and to never be satisfied with the status quo.\u00a0 Similar to Philippians 4:8 which says, <\/em>\u201c<\/em><\/strong>Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable\u2014if anything is excellent or praiseworthy\u2014think about such things.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy did you choose to step into leadership?\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ve asked this question many times throughout my interviews, but maybe this question is too presumptuous.\u00a0 Do we choose to step into leadership or does it choose us?\u00a0 Is effective leadership part nature or mostly nurture?\u00a0 These are some heady questions, and at the end of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[65,147,212,244,248],"class_list":["post-1032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-leadership-project","tag-concordia","tag-jim-koerschen","tag-shanghai","tag-the-leadership-project","tag-tlp"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/jkoerschen-header.jpg?fit=900%2C220","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5BJbv-gE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}