Tips for Leadership

[wrldtrvlr123]

Recognize that you are losing it and becoming the thing you (or at least most of us) hate if you find yourself doing or saying any of the following:

-Calling a teacher in and asking them if they are "happy", and/or telling them they are being too negative, without offering any details or context

-Calling a teacher in and telling them there have been parent complaints about xyz, without telling them by whom, in what context, etc.

-Assume that the negative thing you have heard from a student, parent, other teacher, etc. is true and proceed on that assumption without even looking into the situation

-Play favorites with class assignments, teaching assignments, schedules, etc. because you like one teacher more than another (and/or one teacher kisses up more than the other

-Take credit for someone else's accomplishments and/or pass the blame when it really was your fault/mistake

[Lastname_Z]

sid wrote:
> I disagree about waiting and seeing. Sometimes yes, but other times there
> are things going on that are plain and simple bad for kids and need to
> change. I will not wait on those. Nor am I here to do things for teachers.
> I’m here to do things for kids. I want teachers to be happy and supported
> too, but first come the kids.
> No apologies.
> There is plenty I can and will do for teachers. Lots. Teachers need a fair
> shake, resources to do their jobs, support in balancing work and life and
> family, a listening ear, decent contracts, good working conditions, faith
> that they will be treated right, and I do my best to give that. But I’m
> here, first and foremost, for the kids.

I would think supported teachers will naturally support the students (with guidance for less experienced teachers). Trickle-down effect and all.

[Lastname_Z]

wrldtrvlr123 wrote:
> Recognize that you are losing it and becoming the thing you (or at least
> most of us) hate if you find yourself doing or saying any of the following:
>
> -Calling a teacher in and asking them if they are "happy", and/or
> telling them they are being too negative, without offering any details or
> context
>

This one is a big one I've seen. Negativity can have good reasons sometimes and it should be addressed.

[sid]

Lastname_Z wrote:
> sid wrote:
> > I disagree about waiting and seeing. Sometimes yes, but other times there
> > are things going on that are plain and simple bad for kids and need to
> > change. I will not wait on those. Nor am I here to do things for teachers.
> > I’m here to do things for kids. I want teachers to be happy and supported
> > too, but first come the kids.
> > No apologies.
> > There is plenty I can and will do for teachers. Lots. Teachers need a fair
> > shake, resources to do their jobs, support in balancing work and life and
> > family, a listening ear, decent contracts, good working conditions, faith
> > that they will be treated right, and I do my best to give that. But I’m
> > here, first and foremost, for the kids.
>
> I would think supported teachers will naturally support the students (with guidance
> for less experienced teachers). Trickle-down effect and all.
The good ones will. And, happily, there are lots and lots of good ones.
But that doesn’t mean that my job is done if I make the teachers happy. Just like a teacher’s job isn’t done just because he made the students happy. I still have to make sure we all have a shared understanding of what needs to be done, get us pulling in the same direction, ensure students are benefiting from a coherent approach and well-designed educational program, rather than suffering from the vicissitudes of several dozen well-intentioned, knowledgeable, good teachers who are working as individuals, shutting their doors and doing their own (good) thing while unintentionally interfering with each other or sending conflicting messages. When there is no clear direction for the school, good teachers put their heads down and do their job by educating kids the best way they can. But they do it alone, and that never works as well as when good teachers work together with common purpose and complementary methods. It’s part of my job to build that common purpose and the structures that support it.

[buffalofan]

If you are a principal, don't operate as if you are a CEO. I don't care if you have a business background or have school director aspirations - a principal is a much different position than school director and you will kill morale quickly if you operate CEO-style.

[expatscot]

On waiting and seeing, I'm going to add an example from my previous career in finance.

I was working for a life insurance company which was a large subsidiary of a major UK bank. Our Chief Executive, who had been with the company for donkey's years going back to when it was a mutual, was suddenly fired and a new CE appointed by the Bank. His remit, he eventually admitted, was to prune back the life insurance company with a view to selling it within 12 months.

He didn't do that. He told us, in a speech to staff, that he had intended to do that - but when he got there, he quickly saw that there was some good things going on. So he had a good look round - "kicked the tyres", as he put it - and went back to the Bank to tell them that there was no reason to sell the company and, in fact, if they developed it more it could run even better.

It would have been easy for him to recommend the bank to sell - he could have done it, and been back in the City within 12 months. Instead, he held out, waited, and the company has, in the last 10 years or so, actually kept the bank solvent.

That's what I mean about "waiting and seeing." Yes, if something desperately needs changed, then do it. But you don't know if it needs changed until you've had time to work out what it is, and why it's like that. If you've been asked to introduce IB, if you don't already know your staff and how they work and why, how can you be even remotely certain that you'll be able to do it?

[sid]

Are you honestly suggesting that a staff wouldn’t have the capacity to become an IB school?

[expatscot]

sid wrote:
> Are you honestly suggesting that a staff wouldn’t have the capacity to
> become an IB school?
Some staff, no they wouldn't. But knowing your staff goes way, way beyond just knowing them as teachers. It includes knowing them as humans and how to get them to do what you want / need them to do. If you tell someone to just do something, then you will almost always meet resistance. If, however, you work with them, show them what you want them to do and explain why, then you are more likely to succeed. Knowing how your staff are likely to react to something is absolutely vital and going in as a new head, you can't just assume that either the board has told them or that they will just humbly submit to your authority. Throwing your weight around in the first month telling people what to do might make you feel big and powerful, but you'll have major problems come contract renewal time for staff.

[sid]

Philosophical, naive questions: Who has the right to determine what sort of school a school should be (IB, UK national curriculum, American (whatever that means))? Board? Director? SLT? Teachers? Families? Students?

[mysharona]

Ultimately its the parents, they are the ones paying the freight and if they don't want an IB school, an AP school or any other type of school they won't enroll their kids and the school goes under. It happens all the time.

[expatscot]

Ideally, all of them, with equal influence. I suspect if you look closely at the schools which most would consider to be the top schools, that's what you'd find.

[mickeymoo]

1. Model expected behaviour.
2. Watch your body language.
3. Get to know your staff.
4. Its not always about jumping in and changing things, but perhaps there is some low hanging fruit and easy win wins to get yourself started on the right track.
5. Set the tone for expectations. Don't respond to messages straight away and let staff work methodically through any issues.
6. Over communicate details like schedules, etc.
7. If you get off on the idea of power and control, please choose another profession.
8. Build positive relationships with kids.

Best of luck to all administrators out there. Mistakes will be made, but don't be too hard on yourself.

[PsyGuy]

1) Have a decision making strategy and mantra. When X people come to you with Y problem, you want some fast, quick, internal guidance schema that gives you a solution quickly. Too many young leadership come right out of academic backgrounds and the academic and research strategy is rarely efficient. While @Sids "Im in it for the kids' is trite (insert eye roll), its also difficult to argue against it if leadership is ever called to the line, few would argue against the virtue of deciding on a course of action that favored the best outcome for the students.

2) Learn not only from your failures but your successes. If your good in leadership you really should have plenty of time to watch cat videos and spin around in your chair and have meetings, because youve adapted successful policies and procedures and a communication strategy that implements all of that. If your working too long or too hard your not working very smart or well.

3) Figure out what youre good at and what you arent, and the tasks your not good at either get good at them or better identify the people who are and even if unofficially and informally delegate them as contact points. If SPED/SEN/LD is not your thing, either make it your thing, or create a procedure that inserts someone (such as an HOD or coordinator) with a strong SPED/SEN/LD background as your contact point. IT X has a SPED/SEN/LD issue, tell them to discuss their concern with contact point person Y, and have them copy you with an update.

4) Recognize who you work for and what their goals and are objectives are. While its easy to say you work in the best interests of the students, thats not usually who you report too and may not be their goal. understand that as leadership your job is to be the day to day presence of ownership (usually) and if they want profits and student enrollment increases, than student concerns may be peripherally related to that, but its not your first or likely even your top priorities. While @buffalofans statement not to be a CEO, that may be exactly what ownership (the "board") wants, and if thats what they hired you to do, you arent going to last long going in a different direction.

5) Dont be afraid of change just because of what seems to work for ITs. If you were hired too reach some objective, it may very well require you to make some seemingly random changes, you dont need to understand the IS culture if one of your stipulated goals is to change/update the IS culture. Again, ownerships goals may not be ITs goals. We have rubber tires inflated with air instead of stone disks or wooden wheel and spook wheels because someone int he past decided to reinvent the wheel, its how you get better wheels.

6) Figure out your friends and enemies weaknesses and vices. Having something on someone makes manipulation a lot easier than 'good will' or 'respect'. "i know you have a lady friend you want to get to on Friday by 4, before getting home to the family but I really need you to stay late to supervise a student English fair" is a lot more effective than asking.

7) Absolutely latch on to Pop.Ed fads, because impressing ITs isnt very rewarding, you want to impress people who know very little about education or classroom education, and making a positive first impression often means identifying with the majority. It may be better to be one of the few then among the many, but conformity is a lot less work.

8) Dress the part and do it well. You always want to look like your informed, confident, and a professional, appealing to preconceptions of authority means less work for you, you want to look like you look good because you have the time to look good as opposed to looking like you handle every situation like its a crises. Be first, be smarter or cheat, being first is easier.

9) Learn deflection when working with subordinates, there is nothing really gained by being wrong and even less by admitting your wrong. It changes the power dynamic, ITs will think you being wrong means they get to be wrong sometime int he future, and they will forever thing you are wrong again in the future. Adapt a strategy that frames quality of issues as a matter of perspective, youre never wrong if your open to changing your mind to good ideas as long as you can spin it as your idea to begin with and they just didnt understand. This is different when working with superiors and supervisors where you want to acknowledge small trivial mistakes and errors (better if you can create them yourself) than acknowledge them, and apologize you will build trust and create a sense of humbleness.

10) Identify and cultivate spies early often the difference between good and great leadership is access to information, and your going to need ITs and staff on the inside to provide you the pulse of whats going on out of sight.

@Sid

None of them, there is no "right" to a curriculum. The most significant influence to adaptation though is senior leadership, if they arent invested fully or at least enough to play the part as the senior most authority in day to day operation they are the ones overseeing implementation.

Trickle down student support works as well as trickle down economics works, which is to say it doesnt work.

@expatscot

Faculty have little to do with becoming an IB IS, an IS could give their staff a day off and hire actors to give model lessons, and they would become an IB IS, as long as the right vocabulary are being used, and the setting looks IB and the documents are satisfactory, and most importantly the coin, the only way an IS doesnt become an IB IS is if faculty decide to sabotage it purposefully.

[shadowjack]

I think the biggest message a middle level leader can give is that she or he is there to support and help teachers. They are the filter between the top level and the teacher in many ways. Coming in telling teachers what to do and how to do it or making wholesale changes is NOT the way to make a positive mark.

[PsyGuy]

@SJ

Unless thats what your hired to do is be the hatchet guy in leadership who does all the dirty work, the designated bad guy?