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 Have you ever just shut your office door, closed your eyes, taken a deep breath and asked yourself what the hell just happened, or maybe taken a bit longer in the bathroom than necessary just so you can regain your equilibrium, or how’bout looked at the calendar to see if there’s a full moon? I know I’ve done all of these things and they are sure signs it’s time for some self reflection. Sheepishly, I admit, it often takes moments like this to remind me to do so.
The trouble is we’re not taught, in a prescriptive way, how to reflect systematically. We must discover it on our own. We’re only told that it’s a necessary component of dynamic leadership. These three processes of self-reflection can help us be more purposeful. Calendar Schedule time in your calendar to reflect. Being purposeful about self-reflection will make sure it happens. This is something that can be done on a daily, weekly, monthly, and/or quarterly basis. I’m a morning person so I would schedule time first thing in the morning to reflect on the past day’s events. By making time to reflect over greater time periods, if you have programs you are developing, you would have time change course as data demands. Scheduling time to reflect and making it a priority will increase your self-awareness. Journal Just like setting a specific time to reflect. Consistent journaling is another way to reflect on your practice. This journaling can take a more traditional form like a diary or it could be blog or even a newsletter. Regardless of the style in which you write the content that is produced should focus on what you’ve done and why you’ve done it. As time passes, you can go back and see your progression. Writing regularly about your practice is a great way to reflect and track your personal and professional progress. Positive Peer Pressure Join a mastermind. A mastermind is a group of like minded individuals working on becoming better within a certain context. Depending on the size of your school, as principals we are often on an island. Joining a group of peers that you can consistently reach out to and that will hold you accountable can be a one way to systemize your reflective practices. You can join a private Facebook Group, like The Principal Entrepreneur or you can easily create your own mastermind. In this type of supportive environment you can gain insights on your own practice as well as learn from others. By joining a group you will no longer be isolated and have the opportunity to reflect and learn with others. As the year comes to a close self-reflection is a natural process. Three ways to systemize are to schedule specific times to reflect, become a habitual writer, and to find groups of like minded people to communicate with about your practice. The key is to be consistent. What are ways that you build self-reflection into your practice? Share your best practices in the comment section below. If you found this entertaining, educational or cause for reflection please follow me and share with your friends. For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my blog at the www.howtobeagreatprincpal.com and/or order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. You can also get a monthly email that delivers the most valuable blogs, as voted by readers, by joining the Principals’ Prep Minute. You can register right on the website. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, on itunes and podomatic, episodes replayed weekly. If you’re interested in sharing your experience as an edleader please email me at jonathanroyce@theprincipalentrepreneur.com. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group. #theprincipalentrepreneur #leadership #principal #secondaryprincipals #nassp #massp #maesp #edchat #educhat #edadmin #sharedleadership #howtobeagreatprincipal #jonathanroyce
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 Most of us who’ve been principals have had our share of time as a teacher. We know what it’s like to have a poor leader in the building and what NOT to do. Often times it would seem he’d be on some sort of power trip and makes changes that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Obviously these types of leaders aren’t confined to our field. I’ve had managers yell at me for not putting the boxes of food on the shelf just right. Or there’s that night manager who wouldn’t listen when a suggestion that would save time and money, was made. Don’t be a poor leader by avoiding these stupid mistakes that even the smartest principals sometimes make.
Smarty Pants Believing you’re the only one with the answer and the smartest person in the room, and acting like it, is a big no no . More than likely you will have your idea of how you want things to go. Using questions to guide the conversation to get your staff where you want to go is an excellent technique. Another characteristic of a know it all is only giving negative feedback and blaming others when things don't work out. This is an easy way to destroy any type of self sufficiency in your building. Additionally, taking the credit when something is fixed will definitely get you the side eye. It’s alright to be your best self but supporting everyone else so they are too is the sign of a truly intelligent principal. Never ever work out This is trap is easy to fall into. Especially if you’re in your first few years. Making sure that you’re at your worst mentally and physically will ensure your decisions will often be crappy. Having low energy will make you grouchy and you will have a hard time connecting with you staff. This will ensure that your building is a place in which your staff is dark and gloomy. In an environment like that, discipline problems are bound to be higher than you would like. Even the smartest principals get caught in this loop. This is a sure way to burn out and work at less than peak efficiency. Me smart and make sure you’re getting that exercise in. No follow through With the amount of work and the number of emergencies we deal with on a daily basis, not following through is often a risk. This is a key component in destroying your building culture. Saying, “all hands on deck” then staying in your office to finish up paperwork can happen without realization. Even if there are times when designated staff are there to try and handle emergencies our presence is often demanded. Being above the fray will absolutely cause a lack of respect. What are some other stupid mistakes that are difficult to avoid. Share your thoughts in the comment section below. If you found this entertaining, educational or cause for reflection please follow me and share with your friends. For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my blog at the www.howtobeagreatprincpal.com and/or order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. You can also get a monthly email that delivers the most valuable blogs, as voted by readers, by joining the Principals’ Prep Minute. You can register right on the website. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, on itunes and podomatic, episodes replayed weekly. If you’re interested in sharing your experience as an edleader please email me at jonathanroyce@theprincipalentrepreneur.com. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group. #theprincipalentrepreneur #leadership #principal #secondaryprincipals #nassp #massp #maesp #edchat #educhat #edadmin #sharedleadership #howtobeagreatprincipal #jonathanroyce  It has been a year of change and dramatic shifts in how we receive communication and information. In today’s politically charged atmosphere it is important to be careful when confronting staff. You don’t want to come off as overly aggressive or sarcastic. Teachers can go to their union and register a complaint about hostile work environment. They can also use social media as a weapon of mass disinformation tarnishing your reputation. Unless you’re just denoting facts, in most cases you don’t want to deal with staff issues over email. The tone of an email can often be misconstrued. What you do want is to handle the situation as professionally as possible. To do that follow these three timely tactics.
When it happens: Respond Just like disciplining children you want to have the conversation around a negative situation as quickly as possible. Looking for a more ideal time is a way to avoid the personal discomfort of confrontation. There isn’t a better time. You will be just as uncomfortable later and you won't have the benefit of the issue being fresh in your mind. I recently dealt with a staff member who, in his frustration, tossed a notebook to a student who didn’t have theirs. The student in his frame of mind interpreted the toss as a throw and was right in doing so. The student left the room without permission and made his way down to the office. I recorded the event and during that teaches next free moment addressed the situation. Responding immediately when the situation is fresh in everyone's mind is the best way to get a full picture. If you wait too long details get lost. Repetition . . . don’t do it If you find yourself repeating the same words you are caught in a feedback loop. In this scenario neither party is listening to the other. Take a breath and instead of repeating yourself, paraphrase what they’re saying. This lets them know that you understand what they’re saying. You can also ask them if they have any questions. If they are upset they might say no. In that case you can ask if they have any suggestions on what they can do next time in a similar situation. This will reveal to you how well they were listening. In the above scenario I did find myself in this feedback loop. Part of it was because I was uncomfortable disciplining an adult. Getting to the point where I was able to paraphrase his explanation and ask him to write an incident report took longer than I would have liked. Getting to a point in my practice where I’m not repeating the same thing and the staff member isn’t caught in a similar feedback loop is something I will continue to work on. Focus This is key. Make sure you’re only addressing the particular issue that occurred that moment. Don’t bring up other scenarios that you’ve observed but failed to address in a timely manner. That way your staff member has only one area that they are concentrating on changing or improving. In addition, keeping the staff member focused on the issue that you’re addressing and not allowing them to bring in other situations that have nothing to do with the current events is also key. Both you and the staff member need to stay focused on the that moment. As the incident of the thrown notebook was discussed the teacher did bring in other events that led to the frustration which resulted in the action. I did have to remind the staff member that those other incidents with the student, while absolutely frustrating, had nothing to do with this particular incident. Keeping focused on the singular incident is key when confronting a staff member. These three simple tactics can help ease your anxiety when confronting teachers and the larger staff and help them be more better teachers. As the instructional leader you don’t want to muddy your message by not addressing issues in a timely manner, repeating yourself t or by failing to focus on a single situation. Using these three tips will help you handle the problem in a professional manner. What are your go to tactics when confronting staff? Share your thoughts in the comment section below. If you found this entertaining, educational or cause for reflection please follow me and share with your friends. For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my blog at the www.howtobeagreatprincpal.com and/or order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. You can also get a monthly email that delivers the most valuable blogs, as voted by readers, by joining the Principals’ Prep Minute. You can register right on the website. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, on itunes and podomatic, episodes replayed weekly. If you’re interested in sharing your experience as an edleader please email me at jonathanroyce@theprincipalentrepreneur.com. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group. #theprincipalentrepreneur #leadership #principal #secondaryprincipals #nassp #massp #maesp #edchat #educhat #edadmin #sharedleadership #howtobeagreatprincipal #jonathanroyce |
AuthorI'm a Principal and an Entrepreneur. I'm the former owner of a food venture Hustling Hoagies, the author of the children's picture books Detective Dwayne Drake and the Alphabet Thief, Detective Dwayne Drake and The Case of the Mathematical Misfit and the ebook Making it as a Male Model in Michigan. I've worked professionally as a model and commercial actor...... Archives
May 2020
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