Preparing Your Leaders for the Hard Parts
Picture it. It’s week one of summer professional development for teachers. I’m 26 years old and it’s my first year as Vice Principal. I’m about to lead a staff wide PD, something I’ve never done before.
My heart is racing. I’ve spent two weeks rehearsing and this is the year that we are going to nail our lunch procedures. I put on a bright smile, stand in victory pose, and begin. I walk through the slide deck, hitting the key points. After modeling what it looks like to run the routine, I want the teachers to practice. “Your turn!” I squeal, motioning for everyone to stand up.
The only movement is rolling eyes and bodies shifting uncomfortably in chairs. After two horrifying minutes, my principal steps in and folks begrudgingly stand up and practice the new routine.
Back in my office, I’m trying to hide under my desk for a good cry when a veteran teacher walks in. “What was that about?” I squawk. “These routines were a mess last year. Why wasn’t anyone trying?”
“You didn’t talk to us. You didn’t ask what we think. We have ideas about what could make lunch run better too. We know routines matter but spending this much time on them feels like controlling Black bodies and joy. Also, there’s a lot of good, experienced teachers in the room. The whole stand up and practice thing feels condescending and a little embarrassing. Honestly, you being on the younger side and having been promoted over a lot of people doesn’t help with that.”
Why didn’t I know all of this? Because I didn’t ask. I didn’t know to ask.
If you see yourself in this story, you’re not alone. There is often a narrow focus on developing technical skills for transitioning leaders, like the ones I gained when creating my cafeteria routine. I was completely blindsided when my inattention to the people, the stories, the values, and the identities derailed my whole agenda. That’s why at School Leader Lab, as former school leaders ourselves, we attend to the “soft skills” of leadership. According to Harvard Business Review, employees who trust their leaders have 106% more energy at work and are 50% more productive. Soft skills aren’t so soft.
Forbes found that holistic leadership development in the for profit sector is a $350 billion industry. In education, we often just expect leaders to intrinsically know how to deal with the hardest parts of the job. Nobody told me that the adults in the building were going to be harder to win over than my students. I had no idea what to do or say when I saw patterns of Black boys being the ones sent to the office.
We get the question all the time, “Does SLL do technical work?” Certainly. We develop leaders so that they can run rigorous planning meetings, align calendars to priorities, observe classrooms and much more. Technical skills are essential. Still, they cannot take hold without the influence of a leader who values multiple perspectives and identities, shows up authentically and is grounded in core values.
Want to learn more?
Read: Check out this HBR article on The Most Important Leadership Competencies.
Reflect: What leaders are you inspired by? Why? What’s the implication for your own leadership?
Listen: Nobody wants a leader who only focuses on what they can get done. Go beyond “How was your weekend?” and “How are you doing?” to kick off meetings. Check out this list of questions to ask your people.
SLL Updates
We launched our largest Teacher Leader Cohort to date with 20 outstanding teacher leaders from 9 different DC LEAs impacting 6,000+ students.
Calling all School Leader Cohort Alumni! SAVE THE DATE January 27, 2022 for Back to the Balcony, our first ever alumni retreat. Let us know if you’ll be there!
We are advocating for support and development for DC leaders. Check out our city council testimony here.
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