{"id":442,"date":"2012-04-07T07:16:01","date_gmt":"2012-04-07T07:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/?p=442"},"modified":"2012-04-07T07:16:01","modified_gmt":"2012-04-07T07:16:01","slug":"tlp-david-toze-superintendent-at-international-school-manila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/tlp-david-toze-superintendent-at-international-school-manila\/","title":{"rendered":"TLP: David Toze, Superintendent at International School Manila"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr. David Toze is the Superintendent at the International School Manila.\u00a0 Wait a minute did I misspeak?\u00a0 Certainly I must have meant Dr<\/em>. David Toze, right?\u00a0 If one looks at the School Head Welcome Message<\/em> on most international school\u2019s website, they\u2019ll notice a similarity between most heads, three letters\u2026PhD.\u00a0 During my conversation with Mr. Toze, he explained why he chose not to pursue a PhD and how he and other leaders have developed independently.<\/p>\n

Since starting the process of interviewing different International ED Leaders, David Toze had been recommended numerous times by his peers as a bright, innovative, and unique leader in international education.\u00a0 Admittedly, Mr. Toze has his own style, which influences the way he leads ISM, but his decisions are always based on core experiences and values.<\/p>\n

He was kind enough to share with me how he established these values, and how they integrate into his leadership style during an interview last week.<\/p>\n

(If not specifically quoted I\u2019ve paraphrased his responses to these questions)<\/p>\n

How have you developed from place to place?\u00a0 Did the big development happen as you took on new roles, or as you matured in a role?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The majority of my development came from maturing in a position.\u00a0 \u201cThe longer you can stay in a particular place, the more you experience.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s the daily challenges and \u201cconfrontation that comes from a wide variety of experiences that is the key to growth.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>I believe it\u2019s the opportunity to learn from experience that has benefited me the most.\u00a0 This is why I chose not to get a PhD, because I\u2019m not convinced that it\u2019s worth the three years of salary and lost experience it requires.\u00a0 It can certainly help open doors, but even a degree from Harvard can be worth less than consciously working at development.<\/em><\/p>\n

If one of your administrators at ISM wanted to pursue a PhD would you support their decision?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, one of our principals is working on a PhD at the moment.\u2019\u2019\u00a0 However, if someone asked me for advice \u201cI\u2019d say, be sure you know of what you\u2019re getting into.\u201d\u00a0 There are many PhD students who spend all that time and money, and then don\u2019t complete the dissertation.\u00a0 However, I don\u2019t expect my administrators to have doctoral degrees, but when they ask for my support, it\u2019s my obligation to help out\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your greatest priority when choosing administrators and teachers at your school?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve interviewed hundreds of people and sometimes it simply comes down to that \u201cblink moment\u2026that moment in the interview, very early on, when I know viscerally that this is a person I can work with.\u201d\u00a0 Admittedly I\u2019ve picked some lemons, but that usually happens when I\u2019ve said \u2018yes,\u2019 despite my instincts saying \u2018no.\u2019 Although it\u2019s not just me making hiring decisions, we\u2019ve had administrators who really like a candidate that I didn\u2019t feel strongly about, and despite my hesitations, we\u2019ve said \u2018yes,\u2019 and sometimes it turns out to be a mistake, but that\u2019s how you learn.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201c[Ultimately] connection is key\u2026if you can\u2019t make that human connection, then it doesn\u2019t matter how many degrees you have, you\u2019re doomed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>Who do you want on your team at ISM?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI look for clever people.\u00a0 You can do a lot with smart people, and you can\u2019t do much when people are dull.\u201d\u00a0 After that, I look at their experience and where they want to go, and what they want to bring to the school.\u00a0 \u201cI like people who are young and ambitious.\u201d\u00a0 One of the benefits of working at an international school like ISM is every year there is a new bunch of smart and ambitious teachers who bring great ideas to the school, and help our school constantly evolve.<\/em><\/p>\n

How did you help ISM raise its standards when you arrived?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I arrived it wasn\u2019t difficult to make speedy and significant changes because we had to just take the bad stuff away.\u00a0 What\u2019s difficult as an administrator, is replacing the bad stuff with good stuff.\u00a0 One of ISM\u2019s most difficult problems was that it lacked high-quality teachers.\u00a0 So one of our first challenges was to change some of the personnel.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201c[Since then] the structures of the school have all changed and\u2026a lot of people have played important roles in all of it.\u201d\u00a0 We try to get teachers who will stay beyond four years, and although continuity isn\u2019t always the most important factors in a school, I believe it\u2019s not until a teacher\u2019s third year that they start to make a real impact at our campus.<\/em><\/p>\n

Where do you find your inspiration?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I find my inspiration like any other person, through books, speakers, conferences, etc.\u00a0 In particular, I find conferences valuable because they give you time to think. \u2026\u201dEven if the conference is crap, the fact that you have two or three days where you have thinking time, away from the school, I find that really useful and a lot of my better ideas have happened because I\u2019ve just had time to think\u2026I used to go to conferences expecting to learn something, and be really frustrated by them\u2026until I realized I didn\u2019t have to go there and grab something tangible\u2026. The most significant decisions I\u2019ve made at this school have happened while I\u2019ve been at conferences and been away to think.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Obviously our success at ISM doesn\u2019t just come from me.\u00a0 \u201cThere is a huge amount of momentum here and there are loads of great people with great ideas, [in fact] sometimes we have too much going on\u2026so we try to work on balance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What advice do you have for the next generation of administrators?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDo a lot more listening than talking.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>“Understand that to be a leader you must have followers\u2026so pay a lot of time and attention to the people you\u2019re trying to lead.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cBe pro-kid and a decent human being.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cAlthough the \u2018goal posts\u2019 are changing in terms of international education, they aren\u2019t shifting so fast that the experience of [veteran administrators] isn\u2019t important.\u00a0 At the end of the day, although the techniques and technologies may change, the intentions of education remain the same.\u00a0 It\u2019s about building community and you need leaders who are able to do that building.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cTeachers respect administrators who know their trade and can teach\u2026it gives you credibility with the faculty.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr. David Toze is the Superintendent at the International School Manila.\u00a0 Wait a minute did I misspeak?\u00a0 Certainly I must have meant Dr. David Toze, right?\u00a0 If one looks at the School Head Welcome Message on most international school\u2019s website, they\u2019ll notice a similarity between most heads, three letters\u2026PhD.\u00a0 During my conversation with Mr. Toze, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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":[72,138,139],"class_list":["post-442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-leadership-project","tag-david-toze","tag-international-school-manila","tag-interview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5BJbv-78","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442","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=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}