When you become a principal or start a similar leadership role, a common situation you will confront is a decision you need to make on behalf of your building.
I am not talking about the easy decisions. What the expected arrival and departure times are for faculty or which grade will go first for lunch are pretty straightforward.
What I am referring to are the big decisions, ones that will impact multiple people. They affect how different systems work - curriculum, instruction, assessment, building operations, communication - as well as how they work together.
For example:
Removing the intervention/enrichment block (sometimes called “WIN”, or “What I Need”) until a commitment to strong Tier 1 instruction has been re-established.
Assigning instructional assistants to support classrooms where student need is the highest vs. spreading their time out equally across the school.
Expecting teachers to make their lesson plans available for you to view anytime (a departure from previous practice in which this was not an expectation).
These decisions have real weight to them. You can feel the pressure on your mind, in your stomach. We get butterflies thinking about individuals who will likely push back on this change. We imagine what they will say, how we might respond, their rebuttal…all happening in our head while we standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, or even on vacation. It’s like we never left school even when we are not in the building.
In addition, it doesn’t always help when we share our challenge with someone who has not experienced the weight of the principalship. They might sympathize without understanding, or even offer a flippant response, such as “Well, that’s why you get paid the big bucks.”
The reason why difficult decisions are difficult is not just because of the potentially negative response we may receive.
It’s also because these decisions often don’t have one correct response. There are valid reasons for each option. The status quo continues because it has historically benefited at least one person.
How can new leaders navigate these challenging situations? Consider the following strategies.
Reduce decision fatigue by regularly closing open loops. This means processing those messages still sitting in your email inbox. Finalize or file any paperwork in physical bins. Keep browser tabs to a minimum. According to David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, these open loops weigh on our minds. They suck our cognitive energy until we decide what to do with them. The mental space created from closing open loops helps us make better decisions.
Understand what’s holding people back. Whatever is getting in the way of progress needs to be surfaced in order to address it. That means engaging in conversations with an intent to listen and learn. For example, you might host multiple leadership team meetings to gather input and opinions about pausing WIN time. The conversations can be documented and shared schoolwide to be transparent.
Clarify your thinking to better envision the outcomes. This may be helpful if initial attempts at understanding don’t bear fruit. For example, you could use the Rubber Band Model during a faculty meeting. Ask for input as you facilitate this reflection activity with teachers around the expectation for transparent lesson plans. What’s holding them back from being public about their practice? What’s pulling you forward? Knowing this, a new leader can engage with teachers about their concerns and alleviate their worries.
Accept that some decisions will be unpopular in the short term. Ultimately, a new leader has the authority to go in a direction he or she feels will best serve the students in their school. As long as we have clarity about the potential outcomes, and we solicited feedback from faculty at different levels, we can move forward. Yes, a few people will be unhappy…for a while. Over time the new will become normal. Holdouts will hopefully accept the decision.
Monitor the decision to assess progress. People need to know if the decision is resulting in the intended impact. For instance, when we adopted a new literacy curriculum last school year, we paid attention to how students were responding through different assessments. I made a point to share with faculty and the school board the growth we were seeing, multiple times.
Is it possible you will make a wrong decision? Absolutely. No one has a crystal ball. But by using these strategies, your decisions are more likely to be the right ones.
Take care,
Matt
P.S. Full subscribers can access the print-friendly version of this article here. You can share this resource with your colleagues to facilitate professional conversations.
Looking to take control of your reading instruction while trying to deal with the constraints of a commercial literacy curriculum? Check out my guide, Resist the Script: Five Critical Questions for Teachers to Adapt, Adopt, or Develop a Literacy Curriculum That Works for All Readers and Writers. This resource offers practical and easy-to-implement strategies for any context or situation. It’s on sale for only $7.
I coach individuals and teams around a variety of educational topics, including curriculum development, data analysis, and strategic planning. Contact me if you would like to learn more.
What strategies for better decision making would you recommend for new leaders?