c) When should you intervene?

When you delegate authority, you may need to provide assistance to staff who are involved as they carry out the task. They may discover that they need better skills in meeting facilitation, in gathering feedback, in finding acceptable research documents, in understanding district or school policies which may apply. They may simply run into difficult people or difficult situations that could shut down their work. They could get bogged down in unimportant details or get sidetracked from the original focus and need to be redirected.

Because these are adult professionals who have volunteered to take on a task, you should expect that they will solve most of their own problems without your intervention. On the other hand, teachers generally do not thrive in conflict situations with their colleagues or political maelstroms in the school or community. Their principal is the specialist in these areas!

So how do you know when you should intervene?

The general rule is to observe from a distance, to show interest but not intrude, to be available but not take on the problems of the group or individual. If the group has a written charge and you have set up regular progress reporting times, you may find that a group or an individual will surface a problem that has come up during one of the reporting times. In discussing the problem, the group may come up with a solution. Before intervening in any delegated activity, ask if the group wants you to intervene and ask how they think you might help.

Bottom line, expect that in most instances, the group will resolve their own issues and will be able to tell you specifically what help they might need and why. Intervene as little as possible and by invitation only.

b) How much should you delegate?

Delegating authority involves more than just asking someone or some group to do something. Think carefully in advance about what specifically needs to be done and what will be needed in order for it to be accomplished. Some of the literature on delegation recommends that a written document be produced - a group charter - to clarify the details of the work. Clarity of purpose is needed to generate energy.

What should be understood in advance?
i. The timeline (this week? this month? this year?)
ii. The resources available (paid time? secretarial support? budget for research? travel to visit other programs?)
iii.Checkpoints for reporting progress (daily? weekly? midway through?)
iv. A description of the final product. (research document? recommendation? program description? what should be included?)
v. How the final decision will be made. (by the group? by the staff? by the principal? what process will be used?)

The greatest disillusionment and energy drain comes when a group starts out thinking they know what they have been asked to do, believing that the program or idea they develop will be implemented, and at the end discover unexpected opposition and/or a decision from on high not to implement.

If a decision will also require support from parents, then your staff need to know that parent involvement will be necessary. Ditto if the district office needs to be on board. The bottom line: think carefully in advance about what you will do with the work of the individual or group doing the work. Before they begin their work, ensure they know the process for communicating their ideas and how the final decision will be made.

So bottom line: when delegating, take the time to think carefully about what needs to be done and communicate the task clearly to the people who are taking it on. Putting the charge in writing can help avoid misunderstandings and will help you clarify your own thinking.

a) When should you delegate?

Always be thinking of the jobs that need to be done in terms of the expertise that exists among the staff. A school is staffed with highly educated, academically-oriented, well-read professionals who have a wide range of areas of expertise and interest both inside and outside the school. You want to tap this amazing resource whenever you can. As you get to know staff, you will find the talents, expertise, and interests that can be used to move the school forward.

For example, student behaviors are diverting teacher energy from focusing on instruction. Who on staff has talent and interest in working on developing ideas on student problem solving, community building, progressive discipline, student peer mediation training, etc? Or for example, student writing scores indicate the need to improve and coordinate writing instruction. Who on staff has expertise and interest in working with others to develop ways to address this issue?

Depending on the size of your school, you might have a group of 3 to 7 people working on a proposal to present to staff on any important topic at any given time. Whenever there is a job to do, take a minute to review the human resources available in the school. Who has specialized expertise? Who is interested in this issue? Who would thrive from being given this responsibility? When you have staff who would benefit from taking on the responsibility, then delegate.

Why delegate?

You are responsible for the school. However, you cannot and should not try to do everything yourself. Leadership and ownership among staff, as well as their greater understanding of what makes the school work, are developed through staff members taking responsibility for important tasks. On the other hand, while people are developing new skills, they will make mistakes and their finished work will likely not be at the highest standard. The quality of work could be higher and often it could be done faster if you did it yourself.

So why delegate at all? Why not do all important tasks yourself?

What do you gain by delegating authority to do important tasks?

1. You ensure that more time and more expertise are available to devote to an important issue than one person can possibly give.
2. You enlarge the pool of staff members who take responsibility for the learning and working environment.
3. You tap the creative energies and enthusiasm of interested staff and take advantage of resident expertise.
4. You increase the buy-in of staff to change initiatives.
5. You support the growth of the adults in your school.

If you are principal of a large school, delegation is mandatory among your assistant principals, deans, activities and athletic directors. If you are principal of a small school AND you believe that delegating important responsibilities to other people will energize the school and result in better decisions, then you want answers to the following questions, our topics for this week:

a) How do you know when to delegate?
b) How much authority should you delegate?
c) How do you know when to intervene?

d) Act on the feedback you receive.

Request for feedback is an empty request if there is no follow-up. Two things have to happen at the minimum if people are to believe that you value their opinions and that they should take the time to be thoughtful when giving them.

1. Communicate the results of the input provided. How many people responded? What important points were shared? What did they favor and what were their concerns? What percent were satisfied with what element? What percent were dissatisfied? What are the essential learnings from the feedback?

2. Use the feedback results to improve the next event, activity, etc. The next time a similar event, effort, activity, process, etc. occurs, ensure that the feedback from the previous event has been taken into consideration. Sometimes, things go well, feedback is positive, and nothing needs to change the next time. But the feedback should always be acknowledged, and where change is indicated, it needs to happen.

As the principal, your objective is to ensure that the people at your school (students and adults alike) are committed to reflection and analysis, to providing their best thinking on behalf of the school because only they can make it the best learning place ever.

c) Provide easy avenues for feedback.

Staff and students need to know that you value their opinions and that you want them to be thinking about how to make the school a better place. One way to emphasize this is to seek feedback on important issues on a regular basis. Use a variety of methods. Get feedback immediately and quickly.

i. After meetings, take five minutes to chart the "pluses" and "minuses" of the meeting; the goal is continuous improvement.
ii. After trainings, distribute a feedback sheet for people to fill out and turn in before they leave.
iii. Set up an email account especially for input on a particular issue under discussion and ask people to share their best thinking via email.
iv. Ask department chairs or cluster leaders to discuss a topic with their staff and report back their best thinking.
v. Use electronic tools such as Survey Monkey so that feedback can be provided in a structured online survey.
vi. Occasionally, provide a written questionnaire on a topic of importance. There are many books available on constructing effective questions and testing them out on some volunteers before sending them out for real. Your district office may have staff who specialize in surveys and statistics. Ask them to assist you with your survey project. You might get feedback in this way on such things as your own performance or parent satisfaction with school programs.

Make an attitude of reflection and analysis a part of the learning environment--something that all students and adults on the campus adopt as a habit. Cultivate the attitude that feedback is essential for good decision-making, for improving processes and programs, and that thoughtful feedback is to be welcomed rather than feared. Giving and receiving thoughtful feedback are important responsibilities of everyone working to make the school a better place.

b) Don't be moved by unfair criticism

Just as you weigh the extravagant praise that will inevitably come to you, you will need to weigh the unfair criticisms that will also come to you. You are now in a position where you are a public figure and therefore a target for criticism. You will be the object of accusations and complaints, sometimes face to face, sometimes by email copied to the world, sometimes in community blogs that can gather a life of their own, sometimes in the local newspaper or even in your school newspaper.

Complaints launched against you may have no basis in fact. They may make incorrect assumptions about your intent or your actions. They may be based loosely on some facts but leave out important components so that you look foolish or malicious. And in this age of instant communications, anyone can say anything. Responding to the blogosphere will likely only serve to keep the dirt alive. Ah yes, it will be frustrating. And it will be unfair. But for the most part, these things will be small irritants in the background and they will die of their own fiction if you provide no response, no ammunition, no excitement.

Here is your balance: People who know you will know that such accusations have to be false. If you have worked to know your staff and students, your defense if necessary will be mounted by them. Your job will be just to stay the course, keep modeling your values, communicate well. And grow a tough skin. As the principal (and a public figure), you do not have the luxury of complaining about unfair criticism, of getting defensive, or of whining or crying about it. People have the right to express their own opinions, misinformed though they may be. Keep your head up. Stay the course.

a) Don't succumb to flattery

So now you have noticed that the power of the position changes the way people listen to you. And now you wish that you were actually smarter and knew more things and felt more certain about how things should be done. But in fact, you are still you. You will occasionally suffer from the "imposter syndrome"--the feeling that if people really knew you, they would know that you are an imposter in the role; you could not possibly be the real principal. You will go to meetings and hear other principals sounding so confident and giving their firm opinions about complex issues and you will wonder whether you will ever get to that stage.

In the first few months of your growing into the principalship, you will be vulnerable to flattery. It will be good to hear that somebody thinks you are doing a tremendous job and that nobody has ever done such a good job as you are doing. It's okay to appreciate those fine words as long as you temper your acceptance of the compliments with your own cool, analytical view of your performance.

You will always be seeking the balance between recognizing your successes and analyzing how to do things better next time. And you will be seeking the counsel of people around you who themselves have a balanced view and are willing to talk straight to you about how you are doing. You need to hear straight talk.

Getting Useful Feedback

As a new principal, you will find that your relationships with teachers and support staff are changed. As a teacher, you may have been comfortable as one of the group, involved in an easy give and take on daily events and readily giving and receiving feedback on how you were doing. As the principal, you will be surprised by how differently you are seen by these same people even though you are still the same person.

Staff will give more attention to what you say. Many will be less inclined to tell you what they really think. People who in the past might react to one of your ideas with, "What? Are you nuts?" will likely react more carefully while thinking, "Hmmm, do you suppose s/he will really make us do that? or try to?"

So how do you find out what people really think? How do you re-establish your bellwether indicators that keep you on the right path? Where will you find wise and unbiased counsel in your new role?

Next week, we will find the answers to these questions in four parts:
a. Don't succumb to flattery.
b. Don't be moved by unfair criticism.
c. Provide easy avenues for feedback.
d. Act on the feedback that you receive.

c) Conduct the Private Meeting

You have prepared for this meeting by being clear in your own mind about your multiple purposes and positive assumptions. Here are some simple steps to follow:

1. Set up a meeting time after school (so the staff member does not have to go immediately back to class)
2. Let the person know the topic of discussion.
3. If you work with a teachers' union, let the person know that s/he may bring a representative if s/he wishes, but that it is not necessary at all at this point.
4. At the meeting, remember your purposes.

Think of your agenda as having five parts:
i. State clearly your goals--your desire for greater understanding and hope that together you will find a resolution to the problem.
ii. State clearly your observation of the person's actions (just the facts, no judgments or opinions)
iii. Have a two-way discussion about the impact of those actions on others and on the school goals (allow the person to think about this and to think seriously about impacts; this is a most important learning experience and will help the staff member define the problem as much as possible for him/herself)
iv. Have a discussion about what needs to change and how that might happen (again, the person needs to come up with the answers here). Discuss also what support you might provide to ensure that change happens.
v. Reach agreement about next steps, expectations, timelines for touching base again
OR
vi. Give clear direction of your expectations and what your next steps will be if change doesn't happen (if it comes to this, then you will have failed in a part of your purpose to achieve a positive result)

On one page, document the outcome of the meeting covering all five parts of the agenda outline so that there is no confusion about any agreements that were reached. If this is the first time for such a formal conversation with this staff member, indicate that the write-up is simply for clarification for your own personal and confidential file in your office. That is, in the public school system, this write-up will not be forwarded to the HR Office for inclusion in the employee's personnel file (a high stakes discipline measure). This meeting write-up should be provided by hard copy rather than email.

b) Basic Assumptions

When you prepare for a private conference with a staff member to discuss some behavior or activity that needs to change, you first have clear in your mind the purposes for the conference--what you want to achieve. Then you need to confirm in your mind the basic assumptions that will guide your thinking during the conference.

Here are some assumptions that will serve you well when you work with staff:

1. People want to do well.
2. They want to be recognized for their good work.
3. They usually know when they are doing something inappropriate or negative.
4. When they understand that their supervisor will confront inappropriate behaviors, most people will change those behaviors.
5. The behaviors in question are separate from the total person; good people sometimes behave badly.
6. People don't feel good about behaving badly.
7. Given the opportunity, people can figure out what's going wrong and fix it.
8. Most times, an open, reflective, and non-judgmental conversation with the supervisor can help the person change the behavior.

If you approach a disciplinary conference with the purposes posted yesterday and the assumptions listed here, you will not be inclined to accuse, to judge, to expect the worst from this person, or to issue ultimatums. And you will maximize the chances for a positive outcome.