School Leadership

Many people go out of their way to avoid conflict for fear of an argument; education leaders know how to approach other people in a transparent way, which addresses their concerns. They understand that in the rigors of the school environment, tempers are likely to flare. You just have to learn how to address conflicts head-on.

Dealing with a problem early on will save a considerable amount of time (not to mention headaches) versus leaving it unresolved. For instance, when you see a potential problem brewing between adults in your school or district, take the proactive approach and mediate the dispute before it reaches a boiling point.

Dealing with crucial conflicts

Schedule a meeting with the potential combatants and let them know that you have been sensing the tension between them, and you want to get to the bottom of it before it spirals out of control, ending in something that everyone will regret. Let them know that the purpose of the meeting is to get to the bottom of what is causing the friction and hopefully find a viable solution. Inform them know that this is a safe space, and each will have a chance to address their concerns respectfully. Mediate the conflict in a nonjudgmental way and without choosing sides.

The end result should at least be a truce and a commitment to work together in a professional manner. They don’t have to be friends, but they have to be coworkers. At the very least, both parties will understand the severity of the situation, and most people will fall in line rather than jeopardizing their jobs.

When the situation involves someone who has an issue with you and your leadership, a similar meeting can be arranged. However, I would frame it as more of a heart to heart that allows the other person to discuss their grievances, and you can respond authentically. The other person does not have to like you, but they must respect you, and the end result should be a promise to act professionally in the workplace and keep our personal feelings out of the workplace.

As an education leader, you need to set others up for success by entrusting them to make the right decisions. Empowerment is not only about giving our followers the ability to make their own choices; it is about giving them the tools and processes to make those choices effectively and productively. It signals to them that you believe in them, and you are invested in their growth.

How to empower others

It is not about delegating responsibilities; it is about strategically assigning employees tasks that are are a little outside of their ability level. Why? Because as long as they have the aptitude, their capacity and capabilities will expand in a way that will help them complete the assigned task. As a result, they will grow as a leader.

For instance, let’s say that you are the principal of a high school. From time to time, you want to empower the members of your leadership team by entrusting them with tasks that will help them grow. This may include asking one of your assistant principals to be the acting principal when you are out of the building. Or perhaps asking your literacy coach to attend a meeting at a local college. The possibilities are limitless.

By empowering others, you are putting them in a position to grow. As a result, they will become better leaders and go own to do great things. It has been said that the true measure of a leader is the number of leaders that they create. I certainly concur.

Concluding thoughts

Years from now, what will you regard as your biggest accomplishments? For me, my biggest accomplishments are all of the people that I was able to hire, empower, and help to become leaders. Also, all of the K-12 and college students that helped reach their academic potential. None of the books that I have written I have written or the awards that I have won come remotely close. I am not saying that you have to take my approach, but if you have been to the top of the mountain and you don’t help others do the same, what kind of leader are you? In my opinion, a selfish one.

Education leaders know how to get what they want and can be extremely convincing. They accomplish this by tapping into the desires of others and building a sense of trust with people and facilitating a fair agreement. From settling differences to overseeing a massive deal, education leaders should be practical, fair, and firm in their negotiations.

Think Win-Win, not Win-Lose

Of course, this may seem a little counterintuitive, as many of us were taught that the purpose of negotiations was to arrange the most favorable terms for you and your company. As a result, you emerge as the winner, and the other party ended up being the loser. However, this does not have to be the case. You should negotiate in a way that everyone walks away feeling good about the terms of the agreement. In a sense, you create a win-win scenario.

When mediating disputes, you follow a similar strategy, except you have to remain impartial while creating a win-win scenario for each party. Any substantial connection with either party should be disclosed. If you feel that you are too close to the situation, you can always recuse yourself and ask a colleague to become the mediator.

Education leaders understand that establishing a fair agreement is the mark of an ethical leader. They work hard to treat others the way that they would like to be treated and thus approach negotiations and mediations with empathy and sympathy. In the end, they develop a reputation for being fair, honest, and trustworthy, and people enter into negotiations with them in good faith, just based on their reputation.

Concluding thoughts

If you learn anything from reading this article, let it be that creating win-win scenarios should be the goal of mediations and negotiations. Why? Because in education leadership, we are all trying to help students maximize their potential and go on to live productive lives. When we play hardball with other organizations within the education space, we may win, but we also decrease another organization’s ability to fulfill its mission.

School leaders have a responsibility to be one of the best teachers in their building. They are responsible for ensuring that the instruction that each student is receiving is top-notch. Because of this, you have to know what effective teaching looks like, and be able to help teachers become the best that they can be. How can you do this if you are not an instructional leader?

What does an instructional leader do?

So what does an instructional leader look like in action? Instructional leaders do not spend all of their time in their office. They spend a large portion of their day, conducting informal and formal observations of classrooms. This allows them to evaluate the performance of their teachers and, if necessary, create corrective action plans that are meant to help a struggling teacher’s performance improve.

At the end of the day, the school and superintendent will hold you accountable for test scores and overall student achievement. It will be your job in jeopardy, not the teachers. Poor teachers can easily fly under the radar and outlast their principals, or they can easily transfer to another school inside of the district or move to a school outside of the district. Principals who do not make the grade may not be as lucky. A principal that does not perform may find themselves demoted to the assistant principal or fired altogether.

Do yourself a favor and make being an instructional leader your first priority. Sure, you can delegate this task to an assistant principal or instructional coach, but you need to be able to spot good and bad teaching and help good and struggling teachers grow. Also, you need to be able to train your leadership team to do the same, especially if you plan on delegating instructional leadership tasks to them.

Concluding thoughts

As a concluding note, there has always been a tradition of placing coaches and other school staff without an understanding of instructional leadership in the position of principal. As far as discipline goes, they can get the job done without trying, because of the natural respect they have in the school community. However, if you hire them without requiring them to be or become trained as strong instructional leaders, you are setting your school district up for failure.

Great education leaders can teach, but they also love learning. This involves being open to constructive criticism and having the capacity to have an optimistic and grateful attitude about the feedback and use it make changes that will benefit everyone involved. To solicit feedback, first, make sure that you are strong enough to handle it.

If you are the type of person that is thinned skinned, I would work on this before I solicit feedback from my employees. Educators are a pensive and pedantic bunch, and so they notice every little detail. They will give you honest feedback, but you might not be ready for the deep level of honesty and preciseness that is given.

I don’t feel comfortable providing you with feedback

I once had a principal who had the reputation of being the Judge Judy type. Sure she was fair but in a painful, mean, and uncompromising way. She had high standards and expected everyone to fall in line. She didn’t show empathy and sympathy too often, so compassion was not her strong suit. She had a habit of asking us for feedback about her performance in staff meetings and seemed upset when she didn’t receive any. This was a bit perplexing for us. Given your reputation, who on earth would give you feedback in an open forum?

Although she was an intelligent woman, for some reason, she could not see the lunacy in this. Who on earth would risk being her vendetta? Finally, she told her one of her mentors about her problem, and they explained the practical reasons why she was not receiving any feedback from us. During the next meeting, she apologized and sent us an anonymous survey that we could use to send her constructive criticism. To her credit, she genuinely acted on most of it, and it made her a better education leader. She became of my mentors once we got to know each other better.

As all great principals and administrative staff know, teachers are the lifeline of the school. Teachers not only impart lessons, but they are counselors, healers, guides, and cheerleaders for their students. And very often they do this for their fellow teachers as well. Also, teachers have personal lives too. Teachers spend probably the better part of 24 hours each day giving to others.

This selflessness is what makes teachers great. It also needs to be understood that this constant giving can also be draining. Besides mentoring students, teachers have to be able to deal with all kinds of parents, professional development, and perhaps deal with staff drama. Schools need to recognize that teachers go way beyond just teaching a textbook for 7 hours a day.

The Importance of Recognition

It is safe to say that everyone likes to be recognized. When people are working hard, perhaps with a lot of it being behind the scenes, they thrive on others noticing the work they are doing. Just as students like to hear, they are doing a good job, so do teachers.

In fact, hearing praise from the principal can be incredibly motivating for teachers. Principals can use the staff newsletter to publicly mention how well a teacher handled a particular lesson, etc. If a teacher is not comfortable with this, the principal can simply indicate that he/she noticed what the teacher has done and how nice it was. This shows your teachers that you are watching them, and you notice when they have gone above and beyond. This kind of recognition is good for the teacher’s confidence, and it will inspire them to continue reaching for new ways of teaching effectively.

Make Connections

There is no doubt that the school year is jam-packed from the first day to the last. Try and make some time to connect with your staff at regular intervals during the year. A great way to accomplish this is by moving off campus for some time together. It can be as simple as a breakfast or lunch at a restaurant or a more involved team building activity.

Small Gifts have a Big Impact

Another way to help encourage your staff during the year is by random gift giving. Make sure to build this expense into your budget.

Gifts do not have to be large or expensive. It is, after all, the thought that counts. A small gift card to a local coffee shop or to a local lunch place are thoughtful gifts for a teacher. And both coffee and lunch are an excellent way to help him or her in the morning as well.

Indeed, a small gift on a birthday is another excellent way to help morale. Again, it can be a gift certificate to a local spa for a manicure, a gift card for the local mall, or a gift certificate for a car wash. It doesn’t matter so much what the gift is, but the recognition that counts.

When people are appreciated, they are inspired to work even harder.

School leaders are now expected to be more strategic in their running of schools and to become more proactive in facing up to these contextual challenges using various strategies. Many school leaders are struggling to become better education leaders and are looking for practical steps that they can follow. In this piece, I will outline 3 easy steps that school leaders can follow to become better strategic leaders.

1. At the end of the week, reflect.

On Friday evening or on the weekend, pull out your to-do list and goals, your calendar and reflect on what was accomplished and what is still outstanding. Think about what you are proud of. This step is meant to help you pinpoint gaps and celebrate successes. It also enables you to organize your thoughts heading into the next week.

2. Plan the week ahead.

Now its time to take out your calendar and plan for the week ahead. What meetings, trainings, or events do you have coming up? What do you need to do to prepare? What small task and massive projects need to be completed by the end of the week? Next, create a to-do list that integrates all of the things that need to be completed or addressed during the next week. Make sure you put your to do list in a place that is visible, so you see it all the time. This will keep you on task. Pro tip: there are plenty of apps that will keep you organized and help you keep track of your to-dos; the key is not settling on the first one you find. Take a few for a test spin and find out which one works for you. If you want to keep it simple, just use a Word doc to keep track of your upcoming tasks.

3. Say no, delegate, or delay.

As a school leader, you are always busy. Based on the tasks that you have on your calendar, your personal or family commitments, and projects that need to be completed during the current or next week, you have more obligations than you have time to achieve them. Instead of burning yourself out, think strategically. Ask yourself the following four questions to determine what you can complete and what you need to delegate or delay.

• What takes priority?

• What should you be saying “No” to?

• What can you delegate to someone else?

• What do you have to delay?

After you have ruminated on these questions, you should have a more defined plan of what needs to be delegated and what you can complete yourself. Now you are ready to tackle the new week. And just like that, you have become a better strategic school leader.

Empathy or the ability to recognize and understand other people’s emotions is a leadership trait that many education leaders lack. When educators or students feel validated and accepted, it usually leads to better performance. For instance, if one of you teachers is grieving over the loss of a parent, an empathetic leader would do all that they can to help them through the process, even if it just means checking in to see how they are doing every once in a while. How can education leaders practice empathetic leadership? Keep reading to find out.

Be present. If you want to practice empathetic leadership, you must be present, and in the moment. When having meetings or informal conversations with educators, make sure you turn off your phone or at least place it face down. Refrain from using any type of tech devices, unless using them is relevant to the conversation. This means you are free to give others your complete attention and respect.

Be an active listener. You must be an active, nonjudgmental listener to practice empathetic leadership. This allows you to gain insight into what your staff member is feeling and where they are coming from. That way, your responses will be informed and authentic.

Monitor non-verbal cues. Communication runs deeper than just words. If you notice a teacher hanging their head down or shaking it from side to side or avoiding eye contact, you need to know what these non-verbal cues mean. Then you can ask them how they are feeling, which will give them permission to discuss how they think, without fear of being judged.  

Practice pausing. A lot of times when we attempt to give someone advice, we often interrupt or finish their sentences. When communicating with someone today, wait at least 3 seconds after they stop speaking, before you start talking. It may feel awkward because you are used to chiming in immediately, but you will be surprised at how being silent, speaks volumes.

Instead of giving advice, ask questions. Instead of giving advice to someone today, ask questions to understand their perspective better. Don’t overthink this, just ask them the questions that pop into your mind organically.

Choose “we” over “me.” When education professionals are experiencing performance issues, they feel isolated. To let them know that you and the rest of the team supports them and will help them get through their slump, us the terms “we” and “us” so they feel empowered. For instance, “Let’s talks about how we can solve this problem.”

Put yourself in their shoes. To be an empathetic leader, put yourself in your colleagues and employees shoes. What anxieties and fears might they be facing? Even when you are dealing with a difficult teacher, give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume that they have a positive intent. Stay the course, until their intent proves malicious.

What did I miss? What else can education leaders do to practice empathetic leadership?