LeaderTalk

Leading By Relationship

This post is a tad late, but as they say better late than never. 

In my interview for the principal position I was asked to talk about my leadership style. To be honest I really didn't have an answer. I sort of knew that I wanted to lead by example, with open communication and open dialogue about tough issues. I guess it has taken me the last 7 months to figure out my real leadership style. And to be honest, again, I don't really know if it is a real style. For all I know I probably am making the whole thing up. But I digress.

What I see is that I am leading through relationships. What this means to me is that I am building relationships every day with my staff in order to facilitate the change and direction that is needed in my school. Now if I could only get ahold of some money to make that work, everything would be great. Regardless , I still feel that by forging lasting relationships it will allow me to move my staff forward. Here are a few things that I try to work on while I am building the relationship:

1. Trust: Without trust you are going nowhere. Your staff has to know that you have their best interests at heart and that they can trust you with important decisions.
2. Transparent Communication: Are you open with what you are doing? Do people know where you are coming from? Do you talk to everyone, not just the heavy hitters? Is everything on the table?
3. Get to know them: Do you know where their kids go to school? Where they went on vacation, what kind of car they drive. Better yet, do you know what is going on in there classroom?
4. Reliability: When they ask you to do something, do you follow through or do you blow smoke? Can you be relied upon by your staff to complete a project, to get the bus lines painted, or to follow through on discipline.
5. Making Small Talk: This is one that may be tough because it takes time, but it is important for your staff to know that they can talk to you...about anything.
6. Availability: Will you drop what you are doing to help them out, to listen, to explore new ideas, to hear them complain, vent, praise, criticize, compliment, etc.
7. Treat them all equally: Do you treat your teachers like your custodian, or does everyone know there is a hierarchy or a class system. Don't forget that everyone shares an equal part in how your school does.
8. Be Consistent: Does your staff know what they are going to get each day or are you up and down like a roller coaster.
9. Have a sense of humor: I love a good laugh.

Those 9 tips are what I have used over the last 6 years to build a solid foundation of strong relationships. Which in turn have provided me a solid foundation for my first year as a principal and have given me a chance to make some serious progress with the teachers.
  Hopefully you can use 1 or 2 to strengthen the relationships at your school. By the way these also work great in a marriage and with your parents :)

Trying for a Breath of Air

Well I am one quarter in to my first year as a principal and as I wrote in my last post, there have been enough moments to make me think "what the heck was I thinking" and more than enough moments to make me think "this is the best job I have ever had". Now comes the difficult part. Trying to get something accomplished. Up until this point I have been learning the ropes, figuring out how the budget works, getting around to classes, dealing with the day to day issues, figuring out why the bathrooms don't have toilet paper and standing guard at the new Toyota Camry Hybrid that we are raffling off. Basically that particular list could go on forever, but I don't want to be just a manager I want to be a leader, I want to invoke change, get something done, leave a mark, however you want to put it, I want to be more than the nice guy in the big office.

Well, as I wrote, this is where it gets tough. That big long list that is in the previous paragraph, well that is my fire hydrant and you know what it is open and the water is flowing out of it non stop at a breakneck pace.  I use the analogy that I am trying to get a drink from that hydrant and it is near next to impossible, the water is coming out so fast, it is all I can do just not to drown, I just want to come up for some air, but I know if I do then all will be lost, momentum stalled, back to square one.
So my question is, how do I take a drink and get a breath of fresh air. How do I manage that absurd list of everything but leadership and turn it around to leadership. Where do I find time to make a change, a difference, leave a mark. Is my first year destined to be one of simply learning and managing. I hope not! Even though I am learning all of these things and as they say "making the big bucks", I still want to step away from this year and know that I made a difference. That I impacted my target groups and my teachers made strides in teaching the students in those groups, that they differentiated instruction to just one student, and that they tried something new.
Maybe I am leading by just not letting that crazy list suck me under, maybe my positive outlook will encourage teachers to take a different look at their day, that because my door is always open they will come in and tell me about the difficult student and ask me what to do or they will volunteer for something. I don't know. 
It could be that I am not seeing the big picture, maybe my idea of leading is to small and I am confining it to a box that should be bigger. Does leadership mean getting teachers to excel in the classroom, can I lead simply by parking in a different spot each day and holding the door for a teacher. You tell me. Should I expand my views, I think I know the answer. I assume that leadership comes from a variety of different angles and viewpoints and maybe I have some of those angles covered and will continue to learn how to find the other ones. Is it possible that I am enjoying this job so much because I am leading and I don't even know it? As the months pass I am sure that I will keep on trying to figure this out, but one thing I do know is that I am definitely ready for that breath of air.

Enough to Keep it Real

After six years of being the assistant principal at Aptos Junior High, I have made the jump to the big office and am now the principal.  When my principal retired last spring, everyone, including myself was excited at the opportunity that was presenting itself.  I was more than ready to move on and had looked around at some principalships here and there but nothing seemed quite right. Then the big announcement and...

Over the summer it was great. Congratulations from everyone, newspaper interviews, and the staff was so happy. I soaked it up, because I knew that it couldn't last forever.

However the start of school was great. We had the opening SBC day and it went well. I told that staff that I was excited, what my goals were and that I knew that I was going to have to make some tough decisions and when those came around I hoped that the relationships I had worked on over the last 6 years would hold firm.  Then school started and for the first two weeks being a principal was a dream. I could do no wrong. I was in classes, talking to parents, more interviews, being congratulated all over again it was great, a dream job and then...we found out we were about 40 students over enrolled and we were going to need to add some sections. Six of them to be exact. Now it is enough work as it is to build a master schedule, but to try to fit six more sections that you wern't prepared for. Ouch. Turns out that was the easy part. Adding the sections ripped the life out of the momentum that we had going. For 60 to 0 in nothing flat. It was like falling down halfway through the 100 yd sprint. You get the point.

At this point I had to talk to quite a few teachers to see who was going to teach what and who got what and more importantly how to make someone feel that they were not being slighted. Teachers had to change subjects, pick up extra classes and put up with over 200 schedule changes.  Personally I felt that I was doing the legwork. Getting the opinions, talking to everyone involved, respecting the requests that I had heard or had picked up on and then...the dreaded "Hey Brian, I need to talk to you". This coming from my counselor who I have worked with over the last six years. He told me that a few teachers had come to him and said that it felt like the good ole boys all over again. I was devastated. All my hard work, unrealized and put to the side. It was the worst day of being a principal that I had had up until that point.

So I held an open discussion, kept talking and walking, visiting classes and staying positive. Got the schedules done, boosted my staffs ego, not mine and kept at it like a bulldog. The positive flow is coming back. We were in a hole and we are climbing out of it. The schedule changes are settling, new issues are arising, I am continuing with my goal of transparent communication and I still love being a principal way more than being an assistant principal. But I learned a valuable lesson.

And that lesson is, to keep at it. It can't always be roses, dream job, whatever. There are going to be ups and downs, bumps, conflicts and you have to stick with what you believe in. For me that is being positive and communicating. I don't know what it is for you.

The first few weeks of my new principalship were great. Even the rough weeks after that were great, now that I look back on them. You know why, because the kept it in perspective. Those bumps were  just enough to keep it real. I don't want it to always be easy or else I won't learn and I don't want it to be so crazy that I become disenfranchised. I want just enough to keep it real.

Consistency

I have heard that for a junior high/middle school student to remember something they need to hear it 17 times. I don't know how accurate that it, as I have heard different numbers from different people, ranging from 7-20. It seems that the overall gist of the comment is that a junior high student needs to hear and do something quite a bit of times for it to sink in. This is where the consistency conversation comes in.

For us here at Aptos Junior, the school year ended last week. Prior to that we had the usual end of the year running around with graduation, dances, checkouts, etc. My principal had decided that we, the staff, needed to meet to discuss this issue of consistency and how it could help our failing students.  He asked for teachers to come back to school after summer vacation had started (with pay of course). He had about 13 people sign up, which out of a staff of 23 is pretty good. I was not very excited about  the day, as after school is out that is my time to focus on all of that stuff that needs to get done before I get to go on summer vacation, you know the things such as scheduling, filing, recording, all of that fun stuff. So I did not go into the day with high expectations and was not extremely enthusiastic.

We held the meeting on June 13, and it was a huge success. It went beyond my highest expectations. We had an excellent cross section of the staff ranging from the quiet to the power players and each department was represented. 

The end result was that we developed some "consistent" policies that we could implement to help our at risk students succeed.
Some of the highlights:

1. A teacher, student, parent compact. This is a contract that lists specific items that each group will do to help the student succeed.
2. A "Ready Student" sheet. This sheet allows the student to evaluate their level of readiness, by giving them questions and a 5 point scale. By answering the questions and tallying the points they can determine their readiness for junior high. This is done each quarter to track improvement.
3. Consistent headings for papers. Sounds simple, but if a student only has to learn one way to head a paper for the whole school, just think how much easier it wil be for them to remember where to put their name.
4. Agreement that all teachers will check for punctuation and writing style.

Those were just a few of the things that we covered, but I can't even begin to convey the collaboration and positive feeling tone that came out of the day.

By getting some consistency amongst our staff and having a base to hold teachers accountable, in regards to the above items and others we are hoping to help our at risk students succeed by doing the little things.

What?

4 years of hard work and then this? "Students Lose Diplomas Over Crazy Cheering"   
Is this one more thing I have to look forward to. Denying a student a diploma because someone she invited goes nuts in the stands. Lets take a closer look: Student on stage, far away from crowd. Crowd goes crazy, without students prompting, student denied diploma and may have to do community service to recieve diploma. 

Does anyone else find this ridiculous? I realize that overbearing crowds are a burden at high school graduations. I have to supervise one in 3 days and I don't even work at the local high school, but they pull us in just for this type of situation.  But really, pulling the diploma, right there on the spot..there has to be a better way. 

How in the world can the student on stage control the rambuctiosness of the crowd.  And, more importantly should they be punished for it. I know what I think. How about you?

Balance

Just this last Friday I had to call in and miss work because my daughter was sick. This was unexpected and my principal doesn't care for these surprises. Never the less, I still had, to quote my principal, "do what you got to do." I was not overly excited about missing work. This time of the year I have a million and one things to do ranging from finishing up discipline for the year, writing teacher evals, final testing counts, master schedule, you get the idea but I still had to stay home.

Once I get over the initial guilt of staying home I usually enjoy it. Time to relax and do all those things you never get to do during the day like laundry, dishes, watch a movie, hold my daughters head while she throws up. You know the fun things.

Luckily I had left my computer at work the night before, with the expectation that I would return the next morning, so I was forced to not do school work. About the best I could do was check my email.

As I spent Friday at home and then the rest of the weekend with my family, as my daughter progressivly returned to normal I started to think about balance. Not so much in trying to stand on one foot, but how to keep the balance between work, family and my personal lifes.

Like I said, once I get over the initial guilt of missing work I tend to enjoy myself, after all it's not like I am skipping work to go play golf. But my first question is this:
1. Why should I feel guilty at all? I shouldn't. I work hard and when I am there I put in my hours, complete my tasks and do a pretty good job. Just the other night two teachers told my that they thought I was going to make an excellent principal. So why do I feel guilty. I didn't feel guilty when I had to take time off as a teacher. Was that because there was a sub? No sub for the AP means that the principal has to do all of the work. Do I feel guilty because my principal seems to think that I am taking the day off not that i HAVE to take the day off. How do I balance family and work if when I take time off I feel guilty.
By the way, I didn't feel guilty after 3:00 when every student had gone home.

2. When i become a principal how do I find the balance? I love my job, I enjoy going and I like the people I work with. However, there is now way that they come close to my family. Hands down I would rather spend time with my family than anyone at work or anytime at work. When I am working late, about the only thing I can think of is "What is my family doing right now and are they having fun." I mean gimme a break I've turned down inviations to pro sporting events and camping trips just so I could hang out with my family for fear of missing out on grocery shopping with them. So back to my question. When you are the final stop in the school chain of command how do you make sure that you don't lock out your family from your life. I have some ideas. The first would be to just make sure that everyone knows that family comes first. Obviously you need to make sure that they see the school is a close second but it doesn't run your life. Is there a solution to this type of balance that has already been discovered? If so I would love to hear about it.

3. This isn't so much about balance, but more of a moving along question. When is the time right to move? I am in my 5th year, quickly becoming six of being an AP. As stated I love the school, my principal and my teachers. I am good at what I do and familar with the culture, policy and function of the school. With that said when do I move? Do I need to move? Do I wait out my principal? I am scared to death of moving because even though I know I am doing a good job I don't know if it is because of me or if I am just good at following the lead of my principal. How do I ever know the answer to that.

I know that this isn't the typical post, but I figured that with so many experienced administrators out there I would throw out these three questions and see what type of respones I received.

Best for Kids?

When I first started in administration I always heard the phrase "What's best for kids?" and "Is this best for kids?", both of these in relation to doing things around the school. Now I had always thought, before going into the front office, that schools were built to do "what's best for kids". I never thought any other way, I just assumed that what I was doing was best for students and that by doing that I was fulfilling the expectations that the school had placed on me and that I had placed on myself. As I reflect on my teaching career up to this point I can look back with pride and say for the most part I think that I have placed kids first. I know that there are times when I probally didn't and I am sure that I have said some things either to a kid or in the staff room that may have put kids behind the 8-ball, but overall I think that when a kid left my class they probally left it in pretty good shape. 

The reason that I am focusing on this phrase "What's best for kids" is that at my school we are at the point of the year where we are starting to work on the master schedule, testing and other school functions, that if done improperly really will have a negative impact on how kids get along in school. 

The main place that I see the contradiction in this statement is during the master schedule process. Where I am the VP the master schedule has been built collaborativley over the last 30 years by both the staff and the administration. For the most part this seems to work, the teachers have a stake in the schedule as does the administration.  Personally I have never built a master schedule any other way so I have yet to experience a "solo" master schedule building process, but that is a different story. However just this morning I  had a teacher come in and talk to me about the equity in preps and how we should be building the schedule as to "whats best for kids". I did what I have learned is most important in administration and that is listened.  She had some good points as to how she felt and how she takes the hit each year with her schedule so why can't other people.  Basically this is what our scheduling boils down to. Everyone says "whats best for kids" , thats how to do it, but in reality everyone is kind of looking out for their own interest. After all if it is built on "whats best for kids" , then why do people worry about getting the prep preference papers? That shouldn't matter, should it? It's funny how everyone says "whats best for kids", when you are looking at other peoples schedules, but when it is pointed at you I always get the comment, "Well I could do it, but it would be really hard" or " I really need that prep since I have to go across campus to my other class". I am currently thinking about ways to broach this subject when scheduling.  Maybe a big sign on the schedule that reads "  WHATS BEST FOR KIDS" and then leave it at that.

Additionally, during the master schedule is always the idea of what is going to be taught and when. Once again, lets do it for the kids comes up, but always followed by "well its so hard to teach math in the afternoon" or "its so nice to have that class, I am so comfortable with it". Status Quo is so hard to change.  Even though we work on the schedule every year we usually come up with the same schedule each year, with minor variations. Why? Because teachers are looking at what is best for them and they are used to tradition. Science classes have 1st or 6th prep, why? Because that's the way it has always been. No matter if it locks up the rest of the schedule. Electives in the morning and afternoon, not anywhere else. Drama teacher always gets 5th period prep, no cores in the morning, and it goes on. Everyone one of those conversations centers around teacher needs and not "what is best for kids".  Busting into the middle of those conversations is dangerous at best, however it needs to be done. Status Quo is tough to reak but it leads to complacency and complacency is deadly.  After writing this I feel like I am ready to shake things up a little bit. I wonder if that will be best for kids?

I must say that one place my staff has excelled in placing kids first is the state testing. The first year I was at my school it took us 11 days to test and it was a nightmare for kids and staff. After discussing the issue the staff felt that the students were suffering in both the testing and their learning. We resolved to come up with a better schedule. At least they resolved and I came up with the schedule. Since then we have taken our testing down to 4 days of testing, our kids miss only 2 days worth of periods due to testing and our testing scores have gone up every year.  I am proud of my staff for being focused on this issue and realizing that they had to switch something that they were comfortable with in order to achieve better results.

Overall, the school I work at does a decent job at putting kids first. We have many areas of improvement, especially in scheduling, and we will need to work hard at that. But as we continue this school year I can see that most kids will leave our school farther ahead than when they started.

Is this what I have to look forward to?

First off, as so many people have said, I would like to thank Scott for the opportunity to join this group. As I read each entry I am overwhelmed by the intelligence and insightfulness of each post. I only hope that I can contribute and make the readers time worthwhile.

Now on to my post:

I eagerly anticipate becoming a principal.

I have been at my assistant principal position for five years now and I have enjoyed every minute, well almost every minute. I have learned many valuable skills; listening, compromising, how to take a stand and not have anyone know, how to discipline and even how to laugh both with others and at myself. It is not that I don't enjoy the AP job anymore, I do, and I am not sure that I even want to be a principal next year. I would think that my moving is probably a couple of years in the making. I still feel that my principal has quite a bit to offer me in my ever continuing administration education.

However, when I become a principal is this what I have to look forward to?

Eric Hamlin never dreamed that his first day at Carmody Middle School would be his last. But the principal’s ultimatum was spelled out in writing: Remove all foreign flags from the 7th grade geography classroom or face disciplinary action.

Believing flags help students become more informed world citizens, Hamlin ignored the order. The next day, before students arrived at the Denver-area school, the principal gave him five minutes to pack up and leave the building.

I read this article in Teacher Magazine, a worthwhile magazine that in fact gave me my first insight into blogging with an article on Will Richardson.

As I was reading the article it became clear to me that even though I was anticipating becoming a principal I didn’t want to be that principal. I don’t want to be the “pack up in 5 minute principal”. I want to be the “let’s sit down and discuss this. How is it best for kids, will it help them succeed, expose them to new ideas” principal. Now just to be fair I am not sure that this principal was forced to make this decision, maybe by the superintendent that I don’t want to be. I also realize that there are some things that you have to do in life that you don’t want to do so maybe it was one of those decisions. On the surface, however, it appears to be a misguided attempt at policing a classroom.

I don't want to go into the principal position and have my "educational leadership" become a monitoring system to make sure that world flags are not up in the classroom. I want my educational leadership to be making sure those flags are up in the classroom. I want to be visiting classrooms to be invited and encouraged to attend, to not have teachers hide in fear when I walk through the door.

You know why I want those flags up? The World is Flat and it is getting flatter. If you have not read the book by Thomas L. Friedman, I suggest you stop reading this post and go read the book or this post. The odds are that the kids in that classroom are going to be working next to someone from one of those countries whose flags were being displayed. How is that student going to know anything about the country his co-worker is from if his teacher is not even allowed to display the flags in the classroom. That point is simple, maybe irrelevant to this discussion even. The real point is how is that principal moving his school forward. Is it by enforcing the district policies that don’t even deal with academic issues, is it by policing the classroom or is it some unseen force that I haven’t discovered yet.

This article portrays perfectly the negligence that some administrators possess when it comes to improving their schools. As a site administrator your time is valuable, as many of us are now writing about in our personal blogs. Choosing wisely how to spend your time is one of the easiest ways to improve your school. Choosing un-wisely could lead to your schools undoing.

When I am a principal here is what I want to look forward to:

1. Building a collaborative staff

2. Improving the quality of my students education

3. Increasing my effective communication with staff, parents and students

4. Making sure that everyone knows they contribute to a great school

5. Being prepared for anything

6. Being able to admit a mistake, because I know I can’t be prepared for everything

7. Preparing an Assistant Principal for a Principalship

8. Having tough conversations that end with collegiality

9. Getting all my parents involved

10. Having fun

Maybe it’s a pipe dream. I don’t know because I haven’t been there yet. I hope to be there someday, I am not sure when, but I know that I am headed that direction. I know that when I get there all of what I am doing now will contribute to those 10 items listed above and will help me to accomplish them. All of what you  are doing will help me and other  AP's as well and I am glad that THIS is what I have to look foward to.