Do you ever feel like sometimes you are the help desk of the school? Perhaps it may feel like your office door is constantly revolving with problems, things not working, unhappy people, overwhelm, or calls for help. Whatever it may look like, this is all part of leadership. This will happen and it can really drown you …if you let it. But you are not that leader who lets that happen. You are the leader who figures out a way to change the face of your desk and allow the people to see how they can go back out to solve the problem themselves with a clear plan, inspire others along the way, and see their potential through their own gifts and abilities.
Sounds great right? Of course, I am going to give you a system. But first let’s go back to talking about the story that we are telling ourselves in our head about that help desk. I am going to give it to you straight – some tough love if you will. Of course they are going to come to you for help. You are the leader and that is what comes with leadership. However, if you look really closely (with a lot of focus and determination), you will also notice some joy, some things are working, there are some solutions, and there are connections being made. It just so happens we tend to focus on the more negative things, and so we don’t see as clearly the positive stuff that does come to our desk as well. I am not telling you anything new here yet. You already know that we leaders, are our own worst critics and we tend to let ourselves focus on the 10% that didn’t go well that day as opposed to what did. That is not what I am writing about today, I just wanted to set the stage for what we do after and when problems happen, so that we can move beyond the help desk to become more of the hope desk. The hope desk is a place where people still come to you for help, but rather than it be all on you, it becomes a place where you give them a system to go off and figure out what works for them. So let’s get started.
The first thing I suggest, is that when someone comes to you with a problem, you show them a framework that helps them to identify the one pain point and come up with a way to solve it. Listen to them speak and validate how they are feeling but then move them forward. Work with them to show them a problem solving framework where you identify that one problem and find the three top actions that they could do to solve that problem. The next part of the framework is where you future pace them. Ask them how they want to feel and what transformation will they experience if they do these actions and solve the problem. Next, ask them how they are going to gather proof and evidence of the problem actually being solved or how they are progressing towards solving it. This shows you are supporting them, listening to them, and validating them but you are also not going to solve it for them. Instead you will support them by giving them that framework and perhaps working through it with them if they need it. You may also want to just show them how to do it and then send them off to do it independently. I have a free leadership formula that you can download here that will help you with developing your own framework. This framework helps them to identify a problem and then gives them clear steps on how to solve it and know it is solved. This, in turn, gives them hope and empowers them to figure this out themselves. See….the help desk is already transforming into a hope desk!
The next thing I would suggest is that you set mile markers along the way to do some check ins. These mile markers come with actual dates that you and that teacher will set and meet up to reflect on the progress they are making. They will need to have actions put into place by these deadlines. Put them in your calendar. This allows the teacher to see that you are not just listening, giving them marching orders, and then never checking in with them again. Rather, you are co-constructing clear steps and helping them to set up a plan and then supporting them with check ins to see how it is going or perhaps pivot if things are not going well. Setting deadlines makes things happen. If it is not scheduled, the problem will stay and the actions to solve it will not. There has to be deadlines along the way to boost the urgency. Set the deadlines and stick to them.
The third step is to help them to set up a community for support, accountability, and for extending the teacher’s reach in order to teach someone else. You may want to guide them to people in the school that could help them or team teach with them. I actually build time into my staff meetings where we make space for teachers to coach each other about how they are solving a problem in their craft. The focus isn’t on a specific program or strategy but on the actions that teacher took to solve a problem. It is about how what they did as a teacher impacted student learning and solved the problem. It is not about how they taught fractions. That does not mean anything to a phys. ed teacher who does not have to teach fractions. It is about the actions the teacher took to get the student to understand fractions. For example, that teacher may have been struggling with getting the students to engage in a fractions lesson so he/she decided to come up with a plan to get the students more engaged in their learning with clear action steps. Now, that conversation matters to the phys. ed teacher. The problem may not be lesson related but more wellness related. That matters to everyone too. It may be about productivity, overwhelm, efficiency. Guess what? I would love to hear from a colleague who is walking a similar walk that I am on how they are working to solve those types of problems. It means more because they are in the trenches together. Now, you have that teacher extending their reach and finding a community for accountability and support to finally move from helplessness to hopefulness.
The help desk will always be there and it should be. That means teachers feel comfortable enough to go to you. However, the buck does not always have to stop at you. View the conversation as an opportunity to make an impact through setting a plan with clear steps to solve it, milemarkers and deadlines to create a sense of urgency and support, and lastly, a community to generate hope and empower teacher leaders to step up. Imagine if teachers knew how to set up frameworks to solve problems and could set up how to coaching sessions with each other to cultivate a culture of solution finders. It becomes a community who sees problems as an opportunity to inspire, empower, and get results. This help desk of yours can be the most powerful tool that you have. Now that you have a system, how will you use it?
We are waiting for you over at our free facebook group called Principals and Leadership. What are you waiting for?
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Check out my website for all the ponderings about leadership and life.
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I have a student led podcast called Even If You Miss. It is a wellness podcast written by kids for kids. We use this all the time within our classrooms and for our own kids.
Even If You Miss..... 