Holding Staff Accountable

As the new principal, you have the responsibility to hold people accountable for their performance. No one else in the school can do this. You will develop skills in conducting difficult conversations with professional staff, delivering specific direction, providing effective support, and occasionally meting out the consequences of poor performance. Paradoxically, this is an essential component of having a safe, happy and effective learning environment.

When the teachers all turn out as required to do supervision duty except one teacher who always stays in his room, resentment builds among teachers who end up covering for the missing person.
When a staff member is consistently abrasive and sarcastic in meetings, other teachers will limit their participation.
When a teacher doesn't meet reporting deadlines and holds up distribution of report cards for the school, resentment will build.

It is your job to ensure that every staff member carries his load in the collective effort of the school. On the other hand, this is one place where wielding the power of the position can alienate you from the staff and result in a toxic environment. So how do you change negative behavior without making it worse, causing new resentments, alienating staff, contributing to a negative environment?

Think carefully about what you want to achieve. You will have talked with staff personally when they have missed an assignment, been absent from a required event, etc. When these casual conversations have not resulted in changed behavior, you will need to have a private conference to reach some common understandings and agreements. We will look at the private conference in three steps:
A. Consider your overall purpose.
B. Know your basic assumptions
C. Plan your five-step agenda.