Wisconsin ASSOCIATION of School Councils

Name: Kavari Braan
Occupation: Senior @ Bay Port HS (Green Bay, WI)
Experience: WASC SHS State President (2023-'25)

1. Law of the Lid

A flea finds itself alone in a jar, with a lid screwed into place overhead. No matter how much effort the flea puts into escaping, the jar blocks its freedom and the flea falls back to the bottom. The flea tries jumping lower than before, avoiding hitting its head – success! The flea tries jumping higher than the previous attempt – failure once more. The flea learns its limitations, and doesn’t dare to jump higher than what it knows is safe. The lid was removed, but the flea kept jumping the same height despite its obstacle disappearing. While this flea was jumping the same height, a second flea in a taller jar found a similar struggle; it also was unable to leave, only jumping just beneath its lid. The first flea was added to the taller jar, but it initially kept to itself, jumping its familiar height. The flea hesitated when it saw the second flea – it was jumping so much higher! The second flea had its own lid, but it was covering ground the first flea had never been able to discover. The first flea learned from the second flea, until the two were both happily jumping to new heights. 

The story of the fleas represents a condition called learned helplessness. Learned helplessness occurs when an individual is repeatedly experiencing stress or failure; this leads to the belief that they cannot control or change their surroundings, even if opportunities present themselves. To translate this to leadership, a leader’s greatest flaw can be believing they have nothing left to learn, like how the first flea was taught there was nowhere higher to jump until it fully believed there was nowhere higher to jump. It wasn’t until the flea was surrounded by a new flea in a different environment that it learned its potential for growth. As a leader, it’s important to surround yourself with people who you can learn from, so your lid can be set higher with each new experience. New knowledge can be used to better your own leadership skills, but also to become a teacher yourself to those with lower lids. 

It’s possible that outstanding leadership seems out of reach – the greatest leaders known project their qualities with confidence, but even the greatest leaders possess skills that have room to grow. With so many skills that aid a leader in their work, it is impossible to instantly be a master of every aspect, but taking the time to identify personal areas of proficiency and limitation creates a foundation for growth. Learning from those who have unique experiences and perspectives to share is a crucial part of the process of raising your lid. As leaders, the practice of teaching others is powerful, but it is important to not overlook the rewarding challenge of continuing to seek personal growth.

Name: Scott Willis
Occupation: Retired teacher
Experience: Governing Board (20 yrs), Long Range Planning Committee Chair (20 yrs), Camp Director (20 yrs), State Conference Host (4x), Competition Host (8x), Reunion Host (4x), Standards of Excellence, Regional Spirit of Excellence (11x), State Spirit of Excellence (2x) Regional Advisor of the year, Meritorious Member, Region VI Fall Conference Host (4x) 

2. Law of Influence

Who is the leader of your group?  Most of the time it is the person 

who has influence to get others to get the job done. The author states that

“If you don’t have influence, you will never be able to lead others”.  I believe that a true leader has earned the respect. The author went through his five myths about leadership. First, he thinks it is a myth that managers are the good leaders that are needed. You have to have influence to manage well. Second, entrepreneurs aren’t always what you need either, they have to be able to influence people to go after an opportunity.  When I was at AFHS, and our basketball team made it to state for the first time, I thought we could sell buttons and t-shirts and I encouraged the kids to design and make them.  We sold over 1500 buttons and 500 shirts in a week. The kids had ownership of the project. Thirdly, the author believes just because you have knowledge you will be the leader. Book smart isn’t always the best.  The fourth myth was, that being the pioneer and being out front makes you a leader. Not always true either. In our student council, the officers up front weren’t always the ones that influenced the rest of the council. The last myth he believed was that just because you have a position or title you will be a good leader.  I worked with many students who wanted to run for a class officer and said “I don’t have to be the President, I just want to be part of the team to get things done”.

The author goes on to explain the factors that he believes make a good leader. Character- who they are, are they a good person. Second is relationships- who they know.   Thirdly, knowledge of what they know.  I was the head negotiator for the teacher union for over 25 years. I understood the facts and envisioned what teachers should be earning and how to do it. I was always prepared with comparables when we negotiated. Fourthly, was the intuition or what is the feel of the people you are trying to lead? Fifth and sixth are experiences or where they have been and past success or what they have done. I ended up being a leader in the WASC, I think, because of my track record. People could see I had “Been there and done that.” I could advise on hosting any WASC event. I wasn’t a big rah-rah person, but it seemed that people respected my opinion when I did say something. Lastly, the author believes that leaders can deliver. When AFHS applied to host something with WASC, we were selected a lot of the time so kids kept working with council for the positive feedback. 

I worked with Don Larsen and Roger Chambers, two of our executive directors,  who were two of the first “true” influencers.