My journey with faculty leadership and management.

This year performance feedback has become a significant component of my role at school. This has occurred for a number of reasons;

1. I have four new teachers to my department (one of which is still completing their final practicum, two are beginning teachers).
2. I have ex-students requesting to complete pre-service practicums with us.
3. Performance plans by all teachers are required as part of the current EB agreement.

These have caused me to think and plan purposely for feedback.  Whenever I think purposely about feedback I am drawn back to my readings by John Maxwell, in particular his book Developing the Leader Within You. In Chapter 10 he discussed what he considers the most important lesson of leadership – staff development.  As my feedback on performance should enable and encourage staff development it is important I consider this chapter within my context.  Upon revisiting this chapter, I am reminded of what Maxwell refers to as the seven sins.  These struck a chord with me, and I realised I may be committing some of these sins despite having good intentions for performance feedback.  These sins are;

• trying to be liked rather than respected
• not asking team members for advice and help
• emphasising rules rather than skills
• not keeping criticism constructive
• not developing a sense of responsibility in team members
• treating everyone equally
• failing to inform / communicate

Sins that I believe I have committed are emphasising rules rather than skills, treating everyone equally and failing to inform.  Why do I think this?

Emphasising rules rather than skills – I have focused the start of the year on behaviour and performance standards across the department. This includes uniform, management of non-participants, completion of calendars for planning and facility care.  Although these are very important to the cohesive and productive functioning of the department, they are not more important than the pedagogical skills being utilised within classes.   I have failed to provide feedback on pedagogy (except to my prac student whom I am supervising) to teachers, instead providing feedback on school and department rules.  I don’t currently have a plan to correct this, but I’ll need to engage colleagues in conversation to gather ideas.

Treating everyone equally – mainly due to my focus on my prac teacher, I have not been able to provide feedback across my staff.  Therefore it is possible that those who have received feedback may percieve I don’t have faith in their ability as they see others who have not yet received feedback.  (This brings to mind another problem that some teachers see receiving feedback as a negative interaction, regardless of the feedback).  I could come up with a plan and share it amongst the staff, or even involve experienced staff in providing feedback to developing staff.  I could then provide feedback to those senior staff.  In further consideration of equality, those that I consider developing and beginning would need opportunity to provide feedback on performance also.  Perhaps I could use a loop and allow them to choose someone to observe and provide feedback to.  If this occurs,I will need to have some monitoring of feedback to both ensure it is done effectively and appropriately.

Failing to inform / communicate – this is significant when a staff member has underperformed (according to my expectations.)  Previously I have been indirect in providing constructie feedback in these situations.  In the past couple of years this indirectness has resulted in further difficulty, so I need to make a conscious effort to productively express disappointment in staff performance where appropriate.  How to do this is critical, and I can draw guidance from feedback models alredy in existence.

One feedback model I like to use is W3 – What worked well? What didn’t work? What can we do differently?  This model is also known as the Success – Learn – Change model.  I like this model as it places first thought on positives, which assists in creating an apropriate frame of mind for dritical reflection.  Without this positive approach, all is lost.  My question nowis whether to formalise this into a form.  Do I ask them to write their responses to this, or is it more effective to have conversation and simply record the What I could do differently?

This process needs to be managed well, and this critical self-reflection encouraged.  Perhaps the formality should be reduced, and I can observe in passing then engage in conversation following.  Somehow I need to develop the idea that the feedback is for their benefit.  This equity (and perceived equity) across 22 teachers is going to be tricky!

At my first meeting of the year with my staff, I explicitly expressed to them that I am aware communication is a weakness in my performance as a leader and a manager. Seeking guidance and inspiration on this, I returned to some favourite books and notes I keep.

The first of these is Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”. Within this book Covey refers to a circle of influence. This is at it’s simplest a recognition of what I have influence over when attempting to implement and maintain change. To successfully manage change I will need to identify aspects of my communication that fall within my circle of influence. Accompanying the circle of influence is the circle of concern. This represents factors that impact (in this case on my communication) yet I do not have direct influence over. A second book I take guidance from is John Maxwell’s “21 Laws of Leadership.”  One of these laws that I believe is pertinent to my goal of improved communication is #10: Connection.  Maxwell discussed that individual connections (even within team situations) is a key aspect of leadership.

There are a range of reasons that I have come to the conclusion that my communication requires attention, and what I need to do is determine what is within my circle of influence and which fall within the circle of concern.  A time for critical introspection.

But there is no change without defining the goal.  I have always used the SMART principle of goal setting.  So to more explicitly define my goal of improved communication –

Specific – I want to develop my ability to communicate the relevant information to those who believe they are relevant team members in an effective manner.  This is important as staff satisfaction is directly influenced by their relationship with me (amongst other things).  I plan to research and read information on communication methods within corporate teams to inform this.

Measurable – informal measures such as “are the task being completed” or “are the expectations being upheld” can be utilised.  Conversations required to “fix” misunderstandings is also a measure.  Ultimately I want to reduce staff dissatisfaction within the department.  I’ve also asked staff to report to me (can be anonymous) if my communications cause concern.

Attainable – I beleive so. There are not many dissatisfied currently, and this goal will assist in preventing any further problems.

Realistic – yes, I am after improvement.

Time Frame – a school year.

Recently my management and preparation was tested when our school held a swimming carnival for year 8 students. Due to the size of our school, this resulted in 13 of my staff being absent from their classes for the day. What exacerbates this, is the fact that year 8 and 9 HPE classes at our school are not allocated classrooms.

I knew this event was happening, and I knew prior to the date who was assisting and would therefore be absent. Fortunately there were systems in place that minimized the impact on our students.

First and foremost, it was important that I remain at school to assist covering teachers and deal with random issues that were bound to occur.

My teachers are required to submit calendars for their classes which indicate their known absences, and the work that can be completed in their absence. This calendaring has resulted in teachers preparing their classes for their absence. Due to the unknown qualifications and capabilities of the covering teachers, I require them to leave classroom work and I can make a judgement call on whether physical work can be completed.  This year I attempted to leave some “space” in HPE teachers timetables for situations such as these.  This space means they are eligible for internal relief, but it also means HPE classes might have a HPE teacher despite their class teacher being absent.  To some extent this has been impacted on the allocation of 4 extra classes within my department, but this could not be planned for.

To assist students in finding their class, a sheet is posted on our staffroom door where the teacher can enter the classroom or area the class will be held in.  This means lost students or those late to class have a method of quickly locating the class.

These measures ensured such a large absence of staff had a minimised impact on the remainder of the department.

The most important item to note, is that on a day such as this I need to be aware I will most likely not get any of my own work done.  By not settign a daily task list or goal for this day, I reduce stress levels that occur when you don’t complete what you have planned.  It is simply not feasible to think I can continue to operate as normal when 13 of my staff are absent.  Any work completed should be considered a bonus in this situation.

Throughout last year, I became concerned over the amount of paper my department consumed. Ignoring the financial cost to the department, the environmental cost of paper consumption within the school would be staggering.  In an attempt to reduce my personal and my department’s impact on this, I have set up a learning management system (LMS) to house general management items this year.  The LMS used is BlackBoard, however any LMS or php website could work.

Within the LMS, I have built separate (yet accessible by everyone) areas for each subject.  There is also a generic area for the whole department, plus a repository for circulars such as memos and other communications.  The LMS has an announcements section which will broadcast email all teachers within the department and my upline Deputy Principal whenever I enter an announcement.  This function will be used to send notification of updates to the LMS, and other pertinent information.  Its important to note my staff are spread across 5 staffrooms within the school, therefore digital communications will always exist as it is a method to ensure all people are advised.

To me the most exciting component of the LMS, is embedding multiple google calendars.  Each subject has its own calendar, plus there is a generic department calendar.  The generic department calendar houses information such as facility bookings, where the subject calendars house unit details.  However the functionality of google calendar does not stop there.  I can set staff as members of a specific calendar (for example, year 8 and 9 teachers are members of the Middle Years HPE calendar).  Then the calendar can be programmed to send out reminders at specific dates and times.  This would allow me to automate reminders of items or tasks that are due.

Already I can see the benefits of setting this system to assist management.  My staff are engaged and acessing the LMS to find the information they need, I am using much less paper and I feel more organised.

One unexpected bonus is how staff are now using this as a model to manage their classes, building google calendars for their lessons and using the LMS to house learning.  Exciting times.

Welcome to my blog describing my journey with faculty management. This blog will discuss experiences, and the thinking that maps my journey through these experiences.

I am entering my 7th year as a head of department in a secondary school. This year I have 22 staff teaching various subjects within my department. Of these teachers I would consider 9 of them as established practitioners, 3 are beginning teachers and the remainder are developing.  We currently have a suite of 8 subjects across years 8 to 12, catering for different student needs and capabilities.

This blog has been encouraged by the Deputy Principal responsible for performance planning within our school, however I have taken it outside the closed environment initially set for a variety of reasons.  My intent here is simply to share.  I am not claiming to be a leadership or managment expert, simply a reporter who will describe experiences and where applicable summarise readings and predict / recall how they apply to my interpretation of the role I am in.