As I move through my leadership journey, I have started to get a lot better at the art of noticing. I notice and reflect on my journey each day and it is incredible what I learn from noticing the patterns of trends of the conversations that I have. Particularly, I started to pay attention to the questions that I get asked and how I answer them. I decided to write my post on the top five questions that come up quite frequently in leadership.
- How do I get my community to engage in dialogue that is deep and solution based vs superficial or focuses on problems, blame, or excuses?
Amen! We, humans, love to stay on the surface. It is so much easier right? I am that person who used to float at the top because the unknown was just too scary and uncomfortable. In fact, it screamed failure if I went any deeper. But it wasn’t failure. I was mistaking failure for new learning and progress. However, people who stay on the surface, often miss what is really going on. We tend to go into the blame factor and then never get anything done. So how do we avoid these superficial conversations as a leader? We focus on results and what we can and cannot control. We ask probing questions that require action based solutions vs. the stories that they are telling themselves in their heads. We validate what they are saying but then go one step further by asking them to verify if the story is really true by presenting evidence. Start to steer the conversations to be evidence based and not dictated by generalities. At the beginning of each meeting, provide a clear outcome and map of the results that your community will receive by the end of this meeting. If the conversation steers off track, always steer it back to the outcome and the results that you promised at the beginning of the meeting. Continue to ask them to provide evidence of the story they are telling and eventually it will be the data that drives the impact and depth of the conversations that are happening. Disclaimer: This will take time and lots of practice! It always does when we go deep with the time we have in order to build momentum and traction!
2. What Do You Do When Your Community is Focused on Checking Off To Do Lists Rather Than Professional Learning?
This question comes up a lot when leaders talk about getting their teacher leaders to start to get some traction and momentum within their grade team meetings. Leaders often find that teachers are not diving into the professional learning but rather the conversation leads to marking, stating problems with no solutions, or surface level tasks. A suggestion that I have is to give them a formula or framework that they can follow that focuses the conversation on taking action, is solution based, and focuses on noticing evidence of impact. Click here for a blog post on this formula if you want to learn more about it. It starts with them identifying one problem, prioritizing three actions that they can take to solve it, deciding on which action they will do first in their classrooms, gathering evidence of impact the action had in the classroom, and presenting the evidence at the next meeting with the focus on solving the problem and teaching each other. Have your teacher leaders use this framework at each of their meetings and you would also model this framework with your entire staff at professional learning meetings so they could see it in action. Reframe the conversation to focus on the learners. Rather than focusing on what they will do in their lesson plans to implement the strategy, focus on the results of the evidence of how it impacted the learners because of what you did as a teacher.
3. How do I engage my community?
Providing value is the key. Your community needs to know what is in it for them. They need to know the results that they are going to receive. As a leader, pay attention to the conversations and pain points and then focus the professional learning on that. Develop a meeting template that is workshop based and not endless powerpoints or housekeeping. Start with a warmup with focus questions that gets the community talking to each other and reflecting on the learning that was previously happening. While they are talking, become a process observer noticing the patterns and trends of the conversations and present it back to them.
Next, do a short 10-15 minute mini lesson based on adult professional learning that will renew them. This might be a presentation or modelling a specific strategy. After this mini lesson, have them work independently or collaboratively practicing, problem solving, or discussing the strategy that you just modelled while you walk around coaching them.
Next, bring them all back together for a closure part of the meeting. This is where they will present evidence to each other about an action they tried in the classroom and the evidence of impact that they noticed from that action. The point of the closure meeting is not to be accountable but to teach each other. Finally, they will decide on another action that they are going to do before the next meeting. They will decide how they will gather evidence and then be required to teach that evidence to another colleague at the next closure part of the next staff meeting. I know that I went through this very quickly but I have a guide that goes deeper into exactly how to do this workshop formula. Download the ultimate guide to workshopping your meetings here! It contains exactly how to do the workshop formula and gives you specific ways that you could get your community engaged immediately. This is a must have to start workshopping your meetings and instilling adult learning.
4. My Teachers Are Tired And Frustrated And I Can’t Seem To Get Traction Or Momentum Because of This Overwhelm. How Can I Help them ?
This is a a very real feeling among many people. It is hard work growing little humans and managing them every day. My best suggestion and most success that I had was when I provided renewal strategies for them and a clear roadmap for them whenever I could. If you can give them a framework for a problem they might have, it will always help them because it helps them to see their next step. By framework, I don’t mean a script or a lesson plan of what you would do but rather guiding questions, actions, or support structures that will give them more clarity and help them streamline one step at a time vs. trying to do it all. Some frameworks that I have given my community are, a leadership framework for guiding meetings, problem solving frameworks, workshop structures that they could implement in their classrooms, assessment for learning frameworks to help them get their students more engaged in the learning, etc. Anything that can give them a map helps to ease overwhelm. Click here for a FREE assessment framework!
I would also suggest using adult learning as a form of renewal for them. Think about it. When we learn something new and it actually works, it renews us and gets us excited again about what we are doing. Teach them new strategies through modelling not telling it to them. Teach them about leadership and empowering them to lead and step out of the box to become leaders of your community. But show them how to be a leader rather than just expecting them to know. Give them strategies to work on their passions and find ways to implement it into the school. But provide space for them to share or learn about their passions within meetings or clubs. Make wellness and connection a focus of everything you do. They need to see that it is not only about the students learning and finding joy but also the adults and people who lead them. Click here for a Free guide on Reframing How We Show Up.
5. I have so much work to do as a leader and no time to actually be visible in the classrooms. How do I manage all the paper work and be more visible in the classrooms?
Batching! It is a magical and amazing way to help you organize your life personally and professionally. It isn’t easy but it will be worth it again and again after every time you make batching a priority. Batching is when you dedicate chunks of time to work on similar tasks without any interruption. These chunks of time will usually last around two hours but may go on for multiple days. This magical dedication of time will lighten your load and you eliminate stress if you stay dedicated to these focused chunks of time. It eliminates overwhelm and stress and will save you tons of time!
There are many ways to organize your batching sessions and there is no right or wrong way to do it. In fact, you may be surprised just how many tasks are a perfect fit for batching. The opportunities are endless whether it is administrative tasks, writing/creating, scheduling connection and visibility in classroom times, project management, etc. Streamlining through batching will free you up and provide clarity to your days. I always try to batch for six weeks in advance. I write it all in my calendar and then I actually do it. Click here for a blog post that goes way more into detail about how to batch.
I do not have all the answers, nor do I claim to. But here is what I do know. I know that all of these strategies and solutions that I have listed to these five questions work in our school. I know that we always have to pivot and that they do not always run as smoothly as I would like. I do know that every time I provide clarity through a roadmap with action steps, chunking time to focus on one thing at a time, and focusing on evidence of impact, we start to build momentum and traction and shift the focus to a more growth minded mindset. It is all about presenting a type of marching orders that provides choice for your community and requires them to take action one step at a time. That is the only way you solve problems is to actually take action. We’ve got this!
Even If You Miss..... 