Why it’s important for leaders to believe in teachers’ capacity for growth

Many school leaders believe that virtually all students can learn at higher levels given skillful teaching, time, and persistent effort.

But I’m not sure, however, that all leaders believe that virtually all teachers can learn to teach in ways that enable high levels of student learning.

Let me tell you a story:

Some years ago I was working with a group of 50 or so teacher leaders in a large U.S. city. I asked them a question I often asked in such settings: “How many of you believe that virtually all students can learn more than was previously expected of them and that it is their teachers’ responsibility to teach them?” Every hand in the room immediately went up.

My next question was one I had never asked before: “How many of you believe that virtually all teachers can learn how to teach in ways that enable higher levels of student learning?”

An unanticipated pandemonium broke out in the room as some participants vociferously expressed their confidence that they could prepare teachers to be more successful with all students while others complained loudly that my questions had unfairly lead them into a trap.

One teacher leader said, “How can we expect teachers to teach at high levels if we don’t believe we can successfully prepare them to do so?”

Another said, looking at me, “You don’t understand the teachers we have here. They are often poorly prepared and unmotivated.”

A provocative and soul-searching conversation ensued as it shifted back and forth between those two broad perspective — “of course we can” and “it is unfair to expect us to be successful with these teachers” — in the same way that it might occur among teachers discussing their responsibility for the learning of all their students.

A year or so later one of the event’s organizers told me that discussion related to the issue of teacher leaders’ expectations for their colleagues arose in one form or another at many of their meetings that school year.

I was pleased to hear that because it is a critically important issue.

Just as it’s essential for principals and teacher leaders to believe that student learning can be improved by skillful teaching, it’s essential that principals and teacher leaders believe that through well-designed professional development and teamwork virtually all teachers can become effective, if not masterful.

Believing in the capacity of students to learn at higher levels without a parallel belief in the capacity of teachers to successfully teach them — given appropriate support — can only lead to frustration and failure.

Put another way: Leaders’ belief in teachers’ capacity to perform at higher levels + appropriate support = student success.

Do you agree with my assessment, or not?

Can I give you hope?

On some days I have mixed feelings about myself.

But on most days I appreciate that by nature and nurture I am a bit of a contrarian, meaning that I tend to see things a bit differently than most people. That certainly is true regarding a lot of what is considered “conventional wisdom.”

Recently as a hospice volunteer in a healthcare facility I saw a sign that said, “Give hope.”

The contrarian part of me immediately wondered if it is possible for one human being to give hope to another, and if so, under what conditions.

For instance, can I say to you, “You should be more hopeful,” or more simply, “Be hopeful,” and as a result you will think about the future in a new way?

Or, can I expect new attitudes by saying “Believe in the potential of all the students to learn more,” or “All of us can continuously improve what we do”?

In my experience, such expressions seldom produce the desired result.

But there are three things that I think can make a difference:

1. Be the qualities you seek.

• Be authentically hopeful.
• Embody continuous improvement in all aspects of your work and life and do so publicly, revealing both your successes and frustrations.
• Affirm through your words and actions your belief that all students can achieve at higher levels and that all teachers can develop the necessary skills to produce that learning.

2. Design structures that enable staff members to experience first hand the validity of a growth-oriented point of view in their daily work. 

• Organize all teachers into teams to increase the likelihood that they will be successful with all students.
• Have high expectations for team performance and provide the training necessary to ensure that performance.
• Provide time for regularly-scheduled team meetings.
• Establish processes for reporting team activities and accomplishments to other teams and to school leaders.

3. Celebrate “small wins” at every opportunity—one-to-one conversations, team and faculty meetings, and school-community events. When teachers and others are frequently reminded of the progress they have made that is often invisible to them on a day-to-day basis they become more energized and focused.

Can I give hope to you? I don’t think so, at least not in the way it is often meant.

But I can create an environment that increases the likelihood that you will experience possibility where previously you experienced none.

Creating those conditions, first in ourselves and then in the culture and structures of the school, is, I believe, a primary and fundamental responsibility of all school leaders.

Do you agree or disagree?

How bad things can happen to good people who lack emotional intelligence

School and school system leaders are far more likely to get into difficulty because of low social and emotional intelligence than because of deficiencies in their technical knowledge. At least that’s my observation.

Here’s why they get into trouble:

• Because these leaders often have a high need to control people and situations, they are unlikely to trust others or to delegate.

• Because of a lack of trust and poor interpersonal skills, these leaders seldom have supportive relationships with others and therefore are unlikely to value the development of such relationships within the school community.

• Because these leaders don’t know how to manage or express their feelings in appropriate and proportionate ways, they are likely to be angry, anxious, and/or cynical. Those feelings, in turn, are amplified across the school community and create what some experts call a “slow-death spiral,” which depletes energy and diminishes hope for a better future.

• Because these leaders are unable to accurately sense and respond to the feelings of others, their relationships are likely to be tumultuous and superficial and viewed as means to an end rather than as worthy ends in themselves to be nurtured and valued.

• And because leaders with low social and emotional intelligence have limited self awareness, they are unlikely to see any of the above in themselves.

Do you agree, or not?

 

Why it’s essential to begin professional relationships with integrity

In Flawless Consulting, Peter Block wrote, “…when we bend over in the beginning [of a consulting relationship], we are seen by the client as someone who works in a bent-over position. When we avoid issues in the beginning, we are seen as someone who avoids issues.”

In a 1992 JSD interview I did with Block, he added: “We teach clients by our own actions how to work with us. It’s more difficult to renegotiate a relationship than to start it standing up in the first place.”

Block was cautioning consultants not to compromise their standards and/or integrity in the early phases of a relationship because of the likely long-term negative consequences of doing so to both the relationship and to the quality of their work.

That advice has lost none of its validity over the past 20 years and continues to have value for educators in various roles and settings.

Walking bent over has implications for:

• Teachers as they begin the school year or semester with a new group of students. (Teachers have long been told that it’s easier to ease rules and routines than it is to tighten up.)

• Novice principals as they begin their first leadership assignments.

• Experienced principals as they begin in new schools.

• Instructional coaches as they begin their work with teachers.

• Internal and external consultants as they begin their work with teams, schools, or school systems.

There are many reasons for becoming bent over in new relationships:

• A reluctance to make demands early in a relationship before an emotional bank account has been established.

• Anxiety about possible conflict;

• A lack of confidence in one’s point of view and/or skills;

• The desire to be perceived as a good team player;

• The importance of going along to get along; and

• The belief that initial problems can be easily remedied later.

What’s required to stand up straight…

It is essential that teachers, administrators, coaches, and consultants begin long-term relationships with crystal clarity about the desired outcomes of the work, the responsibilities of all parties to the “contract,” and the aspects of the work that are non-negotiable if it is to be successful.

In addition, courage may be required to suspend the work if agreements are not kept and integrity is compromised.

Standing up is difficult once we begin a relationship bent over. Walking away from work once begun that doesn’t ultimately serve the “clients” (which, in schools, almost always ultimately means students) is never easy.

That’s why it is critically important to begin new relationships with clarity, authenticity, and integrity.

As is true with almost everything in schools, students will be the ultimate beneficiary of our upright posture.

How “SUCCESS” can increase your influence

Successful leaders are influential. That means they are able to create energy in the school community around a common set of beliefs, ideas, and practices without directing, threatening, or manipulating others.

A primary quality of those leaders is their intellectual clarity and their ability to communicate that clarity concisely and precisely.

An effective leadership tool for creating and communicating that clarity are the “six principles of sticky ideas” described by Chip Heath and Dan Heath in their book, Made to Stick.

The Heaths use the acronym SUCCESS to capture the six principles:

Simplicty: To find the core of an idea, we must be masters of exclusion, the Heaths say. “Saying something short is not the mission—sound bites are not the idea,” they write. “Proverbs are ideal. We must create ideas that are both simple and profound… a one-sentence statement so profound that an individual could spend a lifetime learning to follow it.”

Unexpectedness: Getting people to pay attention sometimes requires the element of surprise. To that end, “We need to violate people’s expectations. We need to be counterintuitive,” they write. In addition, they point out that it’s important to generate interest and curiosity by “…systematically ‘opening gaps’ in their knowledge—and then filling those gaps.”

Concreteness: To make ideas clear, the Heaths say, “We must explain our ideas in terms of human actions, in terms of sensory information… Naturally sticky ideas are full of concrete images… Speaking concretely is the only way to ensure that our idea will mean the same thing to everyone in our audience.”

Credibility: Credibility is established, the Heaths say, when people can test out the ideas  based on their own experiences. “We need ways to help people test our ideas for themselves—a ‘try before you buy’ philosophy for the world of ideas.”

Emotions: “How do we get people to care about our ideas?,” the Heaths ask. “We make them feel something.”

Stories: Stories are the means by which all of the other elements are tied together in a coherent whole. A story, the Heaths say, “… provides simulation (knowledge about how to act) and inspiration (motivation to act).”

These six elements are not a formula, but rather factors to consider when seeking to influence.

They remind us that we are most influential when we speak and write with proverb-like clarity; tell stories that illustrate our ideas, elicit emotion, and include the element of surprise; and provide concrete details that describe and pique curiosity.

Leaders may benefit from developing a checklist based on these six principles to help them prepare for important meetings and conversations. I’ll have more to say tomorrow about the value, power, and use of checklists.

When “good enough” is the best

Sometimes it is important for teachers and school leaders to continuously improve their performance. That’s particularly true when continuous improvement affects the life prospects of young people.

At other times, it is important that educators accept the standard of “good enough.” That’s particularly true when striving for perfection prevents them from having the time or energy to focus on high-leverage areas in their professional and personal lives.

While there are things we want done perfectly—say, brain surgery or the landing of a commercial aircraft—and other things we may want to continuously improve—say, the overall quality of teaching or leadership—there are some areas for which the pursuit of perfection produces stress and interferes with the achievement of important goals.

Here’s an example: Let’s say it takes me two hours to draft a blog post to a 90% standard of quality. If I invest two more hours in polishing it, I may achieve 95%. Two more hours, and perhaps I could reach 97%. I have clearly reached a point of diminishing returns.

If I can accept the “good enough” standard of 90%, I could produce three blog posts at 90% instead of just one at 97%.

The decision about whether to pursue “continuous improvement” or “good enough” is to a large degree situational.

Sometimes it is important to relentlessly pursue improved performance and outcomes.

At other times it’s desirable to lower one’s standards, particular when those standards interfere with our overall performance, create stress for ourselves and others, and deplete energy rather than create it.

The challenge, of course, is to acquire the wisdom to discern when an attitude of “good enough” strengthens individual performance and the well-being of the school community and when “continuous improvement” is essential to the development of human and organizational potential.

What aspects of your life and work would benefit from a “good enough” perspective, and which require an attitude of “continuous improvement?”

 

Choose “considered judgment” over “raw opinion”

Successful leadership can sometimes be reduced to a small number of fundamental choices. Once those choices are made, they guide decisions and behavior in dozens of situations each week.

One of those choices is between “considered judgement” and “raw opinion.”

“Considered judgment” means that we carefully consider the complexity of the problems we face and weigh the possible intended and unintended consequences of alternative solutions.

Considered judgment is often achieved when groups slow down the problem-solving process to fully understand the problem, consider the costs and benefits of various possible solutions, and choose the best-possible course of action.

“Raw opinion” means responding to problems with the first idea that comes to mind, which often then leads to defending that point of view with strong emotion. Many social and professional conversations, unfortunately, consist of individuals sharing and defending  raw opinions regarding poorly-defined problems and vaguely-understood solutions.

Considered judgment offers several benefits:

• Because decision making is slowed down and issues are fully explored, participants are able to make informed commitments to a course of action, commitments which are more likely to be long-term.

• Because decision making is transparent, trust is increased.

• Because important decisions are carefully considered, resources are far more likely to be invested wisely.

Considered judgment is demanding. It asks participants to be open to and explore alternative points of view. It requires that they thoughtfully weigh evidence and seek consensus on a course of action.

But when school communities understand the benefits of considered judgment and use various problem-finding tools and decision-making protocols to support their work, students will be the beneficiaries.

[A note to readers: My blog will be taking an Easter-week break and will resume on Tuesday, April 9, 2013.]

Choose hopefulness over resignation

Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right. – Henry Ford

Successful leadership can sometimes be reduced to a small number of fundamental choices. Once those choices are made, they guide decisions and behavior in dozens of situations each week.

One of those choices is between hopefulness and resignation.

Hopefulness means that we see possibility where others see only constraints.

Hopefulness is not a naive faith that things will always resolve themselves in favorable ways. Nor is it a strategy. Without stretching goals and robust plans hope is just a fervent wish.

Instead, hopefulness is based on a fundamental assumption that people working together can accomplish far more than they might have initially thought possible.

Resignation only requires that we surrender ourselves to the status quo when confronted by the inevitable challenges that arise when engaged in important work. (“There have always been kids who were weren’t successful in school, and there is nothing that can be done to change that.”)

Hopefulness has several benefits:

• Hopefulness expands what we believe is within our circle of influence.
• Hopefulness gives us energy, which in turn energizes those around us.

• Hopefulness is the glue which connects and strengthens the school community while it pursues demanding goals.

Hopeful principals and teacher leaders inspire the school community with the prospect of a better future. They then provide a means for the realization of that aspiration through the development of ambitious goals and powerful plans.

In offering hope and providing a pathway to its realization, school leaders serve their communities in fundamental and sustaining ways.

 

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Choose healthy skepticism over cynicism

Successful leadership can sometimes be reduced to a small number of fundamental choices. Once those choices are made, they guide decisions and behavior in dozens of situations each week.

One of those choices is between healthy skepticism and cynicism.

Choosing healthy skepticism means that educators will bring a finely-honed critical intellect to their study of professional literature and to problem-solving and decision-making within the school community.

Healthy skepticism requires an open mind. It also requires the ability to identify biases, to evaluate the quality of evidence and its implications for practice, and to synthesize various perspectives on the subject at hand, among other skills.

Cynicism, on the other hand, only asks that we reflexively dismiss new ideas and the views of others. It blocks innovation and creates a downward spiral of energy that prevents continuous improvements in teaching and learning.

Healthy skepticism has two primary benefits:

• Healthy skepticism dramatically increases the probability that new ideas and practices will be thoroughly vetted and perhaps even pilot tested before receiving widespread adoption.

• Healthy skepticism invigorates the intellectual atmosphere of the school community, which, in turn, creates energy for continuous improvement.

Valuing and cultivating healthy skepticism demonstrates trust in educators’ professional judgement and ensures that the school community’s human and financial resources are invested in ideas and practices that are likely to make significant contributions to important goals.

Without healthy skepticism, school communities will mindlessly fall victim to educational fads or just as mindlessly reject the possibility of improvement. In either case, students needlessly suffer the consequences.

Choose integrity over expediency

Successful leadership can sometimes be reduced to a small number of fundamental choices. Once those choices are made, they guide decisions and behavior in dozens of situations each week.

One of those choices is between integrity and expediency.

Choosing integrity means we will speak our truth (with a lower-case “t”) and keep our promises in situations when it would be easier not to do so.

Integrity requires clarity about our beliefs, values, goals, priorities, ideas, and practices. In some circumstances it may require courage, or at least a careful calculation of the potential costs of saying what we believe or think.

Expediency, on the other hand, causes stress, creates distrust, and favors short-term gains at the cost of long-term goals.

Integrity has several benefits:

• Integrity creates trust because leaders can be counted on to say what they think and do what they say.

• Integrity is contagious and energizes the school community. When principals and teachers speak their truths they motivate others to do the same.

• Integrity eliminates the stress caused by making promises that are extremely difficult or impossible to keep. And because feelings are infectious, calm and focused principals and teachers enable the school community to be more focused and productive.

When integrity becomes a core feature of the school community’s work, an important value is affirmed, relationships are strengthened, productivity is increased, and important goals are far more likely to be achieved, with students being the ultimate beneficiaries.