One Leadership Behavior To Improve Morale and The Speed Of Trust In Your School

My leadership mentor John Maxwell has observed “While educators often take something simple and make it complicated, communicators take something complicated and make it simple.”

In his book The Power of Little Words, author John Beckley states, “The emphasis in education is rarely on communicating ideas simply and clearly. Instead, we’re encouraged to use more complicated words and sentence structures to show off our learning and literacy…. Instead of teaching us how to communicate as clearly as possible, our schooling in English teaches us how to fog things up. It even implants a fear that if we don’t make our writing complicated enough, we’ll be considered uneducated.”

I wish I could say this wasn’t true. But it is.

A few days ago, I spoke with a school district leader. We discussed a recent training session held to grow the leadership capacity of midlevel leaders in her district. When I asked what she thought the most pressing challenges were for her leaders based on what she saw in the training she told me, “ When I realized that most of our leaders didn’t know the difference between adaptive change and technical change, I realized we have huge gaps. These leaders really need to be able to understand and communicate that difference if we are going to grow leadership.”

Meanwhile, data from a 360 feedback survey taken in the district’s largest school clearly showed that teachers did not feel valued, the administrator was unavailable, students never saw him in the hallways, teachers never saw him in the classroom, and a general lack of trust in leadership.

Should these leaders be engaged in deep discussions and activities around accurately defining and identifying the difference between adaptive and technical change?

Or should they be learning about the leadership behaviors that make people and situations better?

Here is one suggestion to the struggling administrator: Simplify.

The work of a teacher is complicated enough. Working in a school is difficult, exciting, taxing, rewarding, stressful, and fulfilling.

When leaders make systems, processes, meetings, organizational structures, or any other means by which people do their work needlessly complex, they are creating unnecessary obstacles for people to overcome in order to engage with the work.

Leaders mistakenly feel like this is the work of leadership. But a leader can be happier and more fulfilled in their role while enhancing the performance and well-being of their staff. Commit to simplifying their workflow. Take anything that doesn’t move the needle on the most important outcomes off their plates.

Ask your people what is getting in the way of their best work. Remove it for them.

Do this before you add another initiative. Before you develop another big idea.

Instead of writing the 3rd draft of that email or creating another PowerPoint presentation.

This one behavior will put you in touch with your people. It will force you to get out of your office. You will come to understand their work. They will perceive you as more competent and more caring because you will become more competent and caring by asking this question and taking action on the answers you receive.

You will gain credibility. Your staff will begin to trust you. The groundwork will be laid for growth.

Only after you have simplified and identified the 20% of your inputs that are giving you 80% of your output, are you able to build with intentionality and wisdom.

The advice is free and you don’t have to take it.

Be a good leader.