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Being a leader is an honorable, dignified and impactful role, so it is extremely important that we take this role seriously and always lead with dignity, class and professionalism. To do this, you have to be fair, just, honest, genuine, confident, open-minded, transparent, and more. Do not just talk about these leadership traits, instead you have to epitomize them in your every action. To lead coaches or anyone with dignity, class and professionalism, you have to be willing to engage in brutally honest self-reflection on a regular basis and transition your honest reflective thoughts into genuine actions. Never ever should your actions be those of creating division among your coaches, teachers, district personnel and other educators. This type of leadership is referred to as a Divide and Conquer leadership style and is generally adopted by leaders who lack confidence in their abilities. While I was serving as a full-time teacher, I shared a tweet in 2016 in regards to divide and conquer. The day after, some of my leaders (who weren't even my Twitter followers) started throwing remarks about divide and conquer. Clearly my message had an impact! I also got to see the true characters of these leaders. Here is an article relating to the divide and conquer leadership approach that was shared with a group of coaches I worked with by leaders who I believed divided and conquered in so many ways. When you listen to the stories of administrators, directors and other leaders, you may hear that some of them got into fights, played lots of mind games and went down the wrong paths when they were younger, but they changed their paths and had the determination to become leaders. To these leaders, I say I admire your persistence, determination, mindset change and achievements in becoming better leaders. However, genuine change never ever brings previous negative behaviors into leadership positions. If you are still bringing the "fights" and mind games, laughing at others, using others' hard work and ideas to climb the ladder and still bringing other negative actions that wreck culture into your leadership roles, you have not at all changed your path. I Am THE Boss There are many ways leaders do not lead with dignity, class and professionalism and as a result they create division between coaches and other educators. I have outlined some real-case scenarios below but there are so many more stories and experiences out there. Scenario 1: A principal walks in to chat with two coaches who are sitting in the same room. The principal says to coach A " I have been bragging about you to Area Superintendent and telling him how great you are" and looks over at coach B with a sneer. The principal does this on a regular basis and each time looks over at coach B for a reaction. Coach B does not give the reaction that is being solicited. Scenario 2: There are 4 coaches on a campus, Coach Y is a close friend of the administrative leader, and as a result, all other coaches have to do as this one coach says or you are reported by coach Y. Coach Y reports Coach M to the leader. The leader listens to anything coach Y says and goes as far as getting district personnel to come in to stop great collaborative PLC ideas that coach M started implementing. Coach Y is also in strong contact with well known organizations and people. The leader wants to move up the rank and coach Y is connected to the people that can help her. Coach Y wants to move up the ladder and the leader can help. The work of one IC is stopped because of their personal goals and insecurities. Scenario 3: Coach A and B take strategies to a leader, coach A is always given the opportunity to implement his/her strategies, but coach B is always told no in front of teachers and other coaches. Coach B is also asked not to share strategies because she/he is too creative and has too many ideas. Scenario 4: A new principal has a number of coaches on campus who were previously there. Coach N is new to this campus and was hired to implement new strategies, but as time goes by, the principal overrides numerous ideas/decisions made by coach N and gives the opportunities to the coaches who were on the campus or to a district coach. When this principal makes final decisions, the principal looks over to Coach N with a smirk on their face. During an end of year staff meeting for non-returning employees, the principal thanked everyone profusely and extensively for the great work they did, but when it came around to Coach X, he/she said, "thank you, we wish you well." During the time serving under this leader, Coach N's physical features were laughed at by this leader. Scenario 5: A principal shouts at coach A and is extremely disrespectful to this coach in front of other ICs. Coach A does not respond and is in shock of the leader's behavior. Other ICs are treated with great levels of respect. Coach A's evaluation stated that she/he does not know how to control her/his emotions. Note, the principal is the one who shouted at the coach. Scenario 6: Bosses asked coaches to share their thoughts during a meeting with other ICs. Based on this request, Coach Z states his/her thoughts in a very respectful ,direct and confident manner. After the meeting with ICs, Coach Z is called to a meeting with the leaders and is served a disciplinary form which had false information. When coach Z mentioned to the leaders that the information provided on the disciplinary form is incorrect, Coach Z was told by the leaders, "you like evidence, well here is your evidence". Scenario 7: Coaches are required to report to a school that is a tw0-hour drive from their locations (1 1/2 hours from Coach A's location) and serve for two consecutive days. Some coaches choose to stay overnight after driving to the location on the morning of Day 1, because coaches were not given the opportunity to stay the night before.
Scenario 9: Coaches are asked to create goals that they want to focus on during the year. Coach Q creates three major goals and is dedicated to making sure that these goals are meaningfully met. During the year, Coach Q's leader assigned Coach D to work on Coach Q's goals and products that Coach Q worked extremely hard to create, improve and implement. Coach D had their own goals for the year. Why did the leader not help Coach D develop their own goals ? In another scenario, Coach R creates coaching goals and strategies at the start of the year and takes them to the leader. In a conversation with the leader, Coach R is told to not focus on a specific goal relating to blended learning and technology. "I want the district coordinator to work on this with our teachers". Immediately after, the district personnel started implementing the goals and strategies shared by Coach R. Scenario 10: Coach L has approved time off and works hard to get everything done before going on vacation. The day before Coach L leaves for vacation, he/she sends a summary to his/her boss of everything that has been completed and informed his/her boss that the time off has been entered. Coach L wants to make sure that his/her colleagues and boss are well informed in case they have to step in. During Coach L time off, his/her boss sends an email stating that Coach L needs to put his/her time off in, insinuating that the tine off was not put in. when in fact it was entered. Another similar scenario- Coach R has time off and has informed his/her boss of this time off. THE boss sends Coach R a message informing him/her that a data meeting is scheduled during this time. Coach R informs the boss that she/he will be on holidays and will not be able to attend. These are just two situations where leaders try to get you to respond to your emails during your time off, cancel your plans, and make you feel guilty. Leaders who are not professional lead using these tactics. This is unprofessional! No coach/employee deserves to feel bad /guilty for taking time off and being guilted into canceling their plans., especially when they work hard all year. Leaders, this continued behavior and leadership style will result in you losing your best employees; employees who value a work-life balance , who will not change their plans for you (you are not that important) and who will not feel guilty about anything! Taking a Closer Look at Our Leadership Actions Do you display any of these behaviors reflected in the scenarios above or other behaviors that destroy culture? Do you throw words for the people you lead or for family members when you have virtual meetings, because you think they might be working close to their spouse? Do you put the people you lead against each other? Do you lead with selective equity instead of full equity? If yes, you are not leading with dignity, class and professionalism. If you are practicing selective equity (one of my blogs in the making), you are not leading with professionalism, dignity and class. As leaders, we must ensure that we do whatever it takes to lead with class, dignity and professionalism at all times. Leave the mind games and unprofessionalism out of your leadership role. Support all your ICs in every possible way whether you like them or not. Your leadership style is truly reflective of the way you treat those you may not like or agree with. As you work on leading coaches and others with dignity, class and professionalism, remember to not share information/gossip about selected or any ICs (employees) with others inside or outside of the organization. This truly makes life harder for ICs to serve and is unethical and unprofessional! Also, always maintain confidentiality regarding your ICs' information. You do not have the right to share their address, days off, time off and any other personal information with anyone connected to you or them. This is their personal information which only they have the right to share with whomever they choose. Sharing their personal information goes against their privacy rights and is unethical and unprofessional. Scenario 7 above is one where many leaders cross the line. Your IC's (employee's) family life is their business and you should never lead based on the gossip you hear about your ICs. You are not employed as a leader to lead your employee's family life. As a leader, your role is to lead your employees to fulfill the duties outlined in their job description. You are not in a leadership role to lead your employees based on the gossip you hear about them and make "job-related" decisions based on this gossip. You are in a leadership role to provide extensive and genuine professional support related to work-related matters. Always remember to be professional leaders and lead with dignity and class. Here is a self-reflective consideration that helps me when I coach and serve as a leader. "If I think I am the most professional leader/ change agent, but there is one counterexample to this statement (there is that one teacher or leader who I do not support fully and with dignity, class and professionalism) then my conjecture or statement of being a great coach and leader is false." This guides my leadership as a coach and helps me when reflecting on and analyzing situations to acquire growth as a leader. Repeated Leading Instructional Coaches Summary: Read it as many times as you need to understand how to reflect on and improve your growth as a leader of instructional coaches. Move on to the Blog Series and References sections if you do not need to read this reflective summary again. Being a leader of instructional coaches is an extremely important role, so you must ensure that you are exuding this importance in every single one of your actions when you lead instructional coaches, or lead any one. Here are some questions to reflect on:
If you realize that you are not being a fair, genuine, honest and a true leader, what are you doing about it? If nothing, then you are doing a disservice to the instructional coaches (employees) you lead, your leadership role, your impact to society, your impact to your community and more. There is always time to learn from our mistakes in order to become better leaders of instructional coaches. It starts with you, now, today! Do not wait! Recognize and admit your mistakes, apologize and then let your genuine actions make it right and better. Leading Instructional Coaches and Others Blog Series Click on each title to access the specific blog. Part 1: Leading Instructional Coaches: Introductions, Roles and Coaching Culture Part 2: Leading Instructional Coaches: Micromesages Part 3: Leading Instructional Coaches: Dignity, Class and Professionalism Part 4: Leading Instructional Coaches: Let the Coach Coach Part 5: Leading Instructional Coaches: Coaching Up Part6: Leading Instructional Coaches: Teamwork References
Mindtools. Professionalism. https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/professionalism.htm Fearless Culture. There Are Two Ways to Lead People-Divide and Conquer is One of Them. https://www.fearlessculture.design/blog-posts/dividing-people-is-the-best-way-to-lead Comments are closed.
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Cherry-Anne GildharryOn this page, you will find blogs on educational connections and my life's experiences. Ideas, thoughts and views are my own and are not representative of my employers. References/sources used are public articles found on the internet to support my blogs. Archives
April 2024
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