Being a principal requires a strength that is not for the faint of heart. Not everyone can do this job, yet somehow you have felt drawn to this work. And, when it comes to school leadership, not only are you only as good as your word, but your actions deposit and withdraw credibility and trust into the minds of each of your stakeholders - student, faculty, staff, and community. Teachers can be a difficult part of your job to manage. There are more of them than there are of you, and one of the feelings that can come along with this job is frustration when you feel like teachers undermine your approach, leadership, or decision-making.
School Principal Transparency
Transparency is a buzzword in leadership. It stems from the belief that leaders can build credibility and trust with their stakeholders by having an "open-door" policy, and being transparent with their actions, and motives. Much like children always know when an adult is faking it, so is true for your teachers, and community members. This is where transparency is supposed to reach in and save the day.
The trouble with transparency, however, is that it still requires the stakeholder to come to you. Your house might have the cleanest window panes in the neighborhood, but if no one bothers to look through them they may as well be caked in mud. In fact, you could tell them, "I have the cleanest windows in town! Come by any time and peek through them and you will see!" Bottom line, if you don't give your stakeholders a baseline to your transparency, you will be throwing house parties with no guests - and while you are scratching your head about how open you are, your stakeholders will still be feeling disconnected and skeptical of your actions and motives.
And again, theres a funny thing that happen when you think about your every action being watched, your every word being scrutinized. People will still have a tendency to not believe you. The reason for that is not about you. Let's just make that very clear. It is definitely about them. Every single person you interact with brings a host of beliefs, experiences, and biases with them and they are going to use those experiences, beliefs, and biases to make sense of their interactions with you. This, is nothing that you can control. However, being a school leader means that you have to be able to meet people where they are - and that goes for students as well as faculty, staff, and community members.
Getting the most out of transparency
Still, despite the hidden challenges of transparency, you must still strive for transparency in your role as a school leader. Your plan of transparency needs to begin with a promise. Your stakeholders, the people who are counting on you to do, what is arguably one of the hardest jobs on this earth, need you to begin the trust building process with them. They not only need to hear it, but they need to see it, and, believe it or not, they need to feel it.
How can you make someone hear, see, and feel a promise? After all, there are many people that you will not come in contact with on a day-to-day basis. Actually, you will have a majority of your interactions with 20% or less of the total people that you serve. That is why it is important to make a promise that folks can both hear, and see. Many school principals will nod at this point and say, "Yes, absolutely. I sent out a letter introducing myself to my school and community when I first got here, and, to be sure I connect with the new families coming and going all the time, I send out a welcome letter each year highlighting what they can expect from our school this year."
Ok. That's a start... but I'm going to ask you to change your seat and take a different perspective on this. Hear me out. Your welcome letter is not enough. Sure, it meets the "hear" and "see" categories, but what of your letter made them "feel" what you were saying? The messages that we send to students, teachers, and families about our goals and intentions need to be so impactful that they will remember your message long after your welcome letter lines their recycling bin (thats assuming, too, that you printed it on recyclable paper, but I digress). The bottom line is, to get the most out of transparency, you have to make a promise to your stakeholders that not only delineates your goals, but gets them to feel your message.
Building trust in your Principal Leadership
Breathe some life into your next welcome letter by ditching the conventional structure you are used to and swapping it out for a Promise of Practice that evokes emotion and arouses a deep sense of connection to your stakeholders. Your Promise of Practice must meet your stakeholders where they are at, outline the actions that you will take to better their condition, and provide them with a vision of the future. Remember (I've blogged about this before) that the mind things in pictures. When we bury our message too far deep into words that do not allow the reader to create an image in their mind, much of our messages get lot in the noise of the language.
Your Promise of Practice is like an Oath that you take. It's a public promise that you make and clearly state. It provides a baseline for your transparency, and gives your stakeholders a starting point for approaching you when things aren't going well, or they have questions and concerns about your school leadership. Your Promise of Practice highlights that you will give to them - to those who came before you, and to those you will serve. Your Promise of Practice serves to reassure your stakeholders about what you promise not to do in regards to your leadership and your school. Like the letters you are used to sending, it highlights your high standards of behavior for yourself, but also goes one step further and tells your stakeholders what behaviors they won't see. And, your Promise of Practice lets your stakeholders know what consequences you hope for should you succeed, and what you will do should you fail.
The trouble with most welcome letters, even the most superbly crafted ones, is that they don't allow the reader to engage with the message on a level that allows them to understand you as their leader. Most teachers, parents, community members, and even students, come in to school with a general understanding that the school is going to have systems and programs and supports in place to do what is best for kids. So, delineating all of that in a welcome letter (much of which they have heard before) winds up being relatively meaningless as it doesn't tell them anything about what you, as their leader, will do for them when they need you.
Next Steps
Even if it is well into the school year, it is not too late to develop a Promise of Practice. It would be well worth your time to think about developing your Promise of Practice. Share it with your families, your community, your teachers, and your students. Post it in your office, attach it to your newsletter, and feature it on your blog or Principal's Website.
Click here for a free resource that you can download that will help you to stop feeling undermined by your teachers. Whether you have been a principal for 10 days or 10 years, you will be constantly challenged by your teachers. This action-focused guide will help you clarify your unwavering focus to serving your school for dramatic gains in stopping teacher bad behavior.
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