Ten Tips for Leading Your Team OR
Complaining is easy; doing is hard
This is an edited and expanded version of “Creating a Senior Leadership Team that Leads Change” from February 2024.
Welcome, new subscribers!
This post was created with the senior leadership team in mind but I think the tips relate to leading teams of all kinds. Enjoy and I hope a few of these tips resonate.
I just returned from two days working with both public school and independent school leaders on Effective Communication in a Time of Polarization and I keep thinking about the robust and multilayered conversations we had on leaning into authority to promote security, predictability and better connection.
As I’ve said before here, polarization promotes conflict, or in a simple textbook definition of conflict, “opposition.” I also keep thinking about the difference between knowledge acquisition and skill building and how annoying I often find so many of the ubiquitous Harvard Business Review articles that get passed around. So often, the wisdom they offer doesn’t take into account the complications of working with real human people and the legacy of organizational culture. But people feel as if they have increased their knowledge so it feels like moving in the right direction, even if it never gets applied in practice. Often it never gets applied in practice.
I also heard recently, “Feeling is easy; doing is hard” and I’ve revamped that slightly to be “complaining is easy; doing is hard.” Applying new knowledge is hard. It’s really imperfect as we first approach a new way of doing things. It feels uncomfortable. It’s tiring and so many people are already so tired. We ask kids to do it all the time but as far as the adults go, or ourselves, that’s another subject.
Schools are all dealing with change, whether they want it or not. There’s the success stories who are figuring out how to cope with the influx of new students, parents and their high expectations, pressure on existing programs. There’s those that are struggling on the other end of the spectrum, looking at retrenchment and layoffs.
The current political situation, the climate of polarization and a cloudy picture about the future feels like it’s reaching a fever pitch and concerns about the impact this will have on school communities in the fall keeps multiplying. The ambiguity is overwhelming.
Everyone is dealing with uncertainty, anxious kids, anxious parents, figuring out what programs and services are necessary in 2024 to simultaneously keep kids afloat, challenge and inspire them and prepare them for the future. It’s a tall order. Do we care about standardized testing or do we care about experiential learning? It’s confusing out there.
And even positive change is stressful and even positive change involves loss. The winners right now, who have wait lists for enrollment? I guarantee there are faculty and staff reminiscing about the old days.
Heads can’t do it alone. So how do you build a team that has the capacity, vision and stamina to lead change? A team made up of very human people?
Big picture - keep in mind that, particularly in times of change, it is a leader’s job to reduce ambiguity where you can and to increase the capacity of their direct reports.
Ambiguity makes people uneasy. It does not support an atmosphere where people can thrive. Ambiguity invites power vacuums and conspiracy theories. It’s bad. Reduce it.
You can build your skills and habits and establish practices and structures to support a team to become more trusting, collaborative and resilient, more capable of being clear and leading change in their areas. Much of what is below ultimately relates to making and communicating clear decisions. That’s also a skill and the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it.
And keep in mind - I’m not promising any of the following will necessarily be conflict-free moves. One example is that for some schools, there’s a longstanding culture of vagaries around who’s on the admin team. It seems weird to me, but some schools have cultures where the instinct is to have a facade of group consensus when in fact there is a hierarchy of power. So making that hierarchy clear may be a change. And it may provoke some conflict. But it will have the huge benefit of reducing ambiguity.
Conflict does not have to be disruptive and negative - in fact, avoiding conflict probably causes more crises in the end than one might assume. Try to start thinking of conflict as “opposition” - and as I’ve said - you can have opposition deciding on toppings for a pizza. Most conflict is a hassle, not a crisis, and the hassle is worth it to get to the other side and a team that can have honest conversations.
Complaining is easy; doing is hard. It’s very true. “Doing” involves taking on the risks associated with change and conflict. I get it.
So here are ten tips plus a bonus and even being able to “do” a few of them will get things moving in a productive direction that can take some of the weight of that emotional burden of the school off your shoulders as your team’s capacity grows.
Be clear and transparent about who is on the senior leadership team
Maybe it’s obvious and well known? I’m surprised how often it is not. Explain to the community why these roles are on the leadership team.
Communicate the overall purpose for the senior team meeting with both the team and the larger community
What is the role of this group in running the school? What kind of items come to it and how do we use our precious time? How does it interface with other standing meetings?
Set the expectation for the team
All admin team members should wear two hats - representing your area AND as a school leader. Point out when you’d like the person to adjust their hat wearing, if necessary.
Please, I beg of you, eliminate the “report out around the table” agenda for senior team meetings.
We all do it from time to time. And maybe it’s OK for a few minutes at the end. Or better yet, put it in an email or… something. This approach is leadership by filibuster - giving people a seat at the table but giving them nothing substantial to chew on. You listen to all the yak yak and then go your separate ways where the head then makes all the substantial decisions. It promotes ambiguity because there is an illusion of a leadership “team” but the reality is far different. And if you’ve had a productive summer admin team retreat, you want to capitalize on those feelings of connection and trust and not go back to everyone reporting out on their silos.
Create agendas for the admin team meeting
Sometimes you just don’t have the time. But if you can, build this into your week - what you want to prioritize, what questions you want to ask the group, what big questions loom on the horizon. Including your priorities in agenda form reminds the team of the priorities and refocuses the work on strategy.
Solicit agenda items from your team regularly and give guidelines as to what rises to the level of a senior team agenda item and what does not
Be generous and remember, it’s a guideline and not a rule. Sometime an item that falls a bit outside the guidelines might provide some productive food for thought
Don’t get caught in the weeds
Whatever precious time you have as a group, don’t use it trying to figure out the best date and time for the next open house.
Support connection and the idea that the problems are manageable and the team’s capacity is great. “You got this.” Solve problems and preserve relationships.
Have some fun. Go out for a meal. Retreats can be good. Be a human. If tension is emerging between two members, make it a priority to figure out what is going on and help manage the situation before it boils over. Remind the team as a whole each admin area has its frustrations and its joys so treat each other with respect.
“Management” is about intentionality as you move through the day
You can manage a direct report as you’re chatting at the salad bar. You can pop into an office and ask for some advice. It’s not all about the one on one. It’s about listening and paying attention and seeing opportunities for when someone might need a pinch of feedback or a dash of course correction. These are skills you can develop if you don’t feel yours are as sharp as they could be. It can be gentle. It doesn’t have to be a big deal.
Modeling is powerful, especially from an authority figure
If you put real, difficult questions on the senior admin table for people to wrestle with, and you do it in a spirit that you are genuinely curious as to how people will respond, it is amazing how it raises the discourse. You don’t have to take everyone’s input but it can increase the power of the exercise if you circle back, let them know what you decided and how their feedback factored in. To witness an authority figure take the time to do that? Pure gold.
BONUS: And a very small and surprisingly effective tip - try to use “and” instead of “but” when discussing change implementation. Example: “The expanded advising time to implement the SEL curriculum will support student well-being AND teachers are going to be anxious about the loss of instructional time.” Be realistic but don’t put ideas in opposition to each other. (There it is again - opposition! Try to move to cooperation.) It’s interesting how this practice over time expands your assessment of a situation and impacts solutions.
Next week:
The first in the governance series - envisioning a better board/head partnership
Stony Creek Strategy news
Booking on-campus and remote workshops on Effective Communication in a Time of Polarization into the fall - email me at jfaulstich@stonycreekstrategy.com for more info.
My course on One Schoolhouse with the same title is running again the week of August 4th
For new heads - 1-3 years - I’m piloting a new program that combines leadership coaching and communications coaching, supporting you in both fully stepping into your authority as the school leader and in developing your leadership voice in all the many ways you need to communicate with your community. This would also include availability for crisis/sensitive comms consultation as needed. If you’re interested, schedule a meeting or drop me a line at jfaulstich@stonycreekstrategy.com