Have you ever entered a school and it just “felt happy”? It had that somewhat hard to define quality that you just knew made kids (and teachers) want to be there. I don’t have the hard research and cold facts to back this up, but I think you know I’m right.
Happy Schools are better schools for kids. I believe that students learn more and are more successful when they are happy at school. The question is what can we do to help make our schools more happy?
Happy Schools and happy students start with happy teachers and staff members.
I can tell you what is NOT the answer. You can have “jeans day” all the time. You can recognize birthdays. You can feed your staff at faculty meetings. You can have drawings and teacher-of-the-month, etc… All that is great and can help with morale, but having a “happy school” comes down to one thing, I believe. It comes down to trust.
Okay, that’s fine, but how do you develop trust in your school. Here are six ways to develop trust:
1. Listen. If there is one quality that I had wished I developed earlier in my career (and life), it would have been to be a more attentive listener. There is nothing worse than to work at a school where you feel that your opinion doesn’t matter.
I remember being asked to serve on a committee for the district one time. I was honored. That committee worked and worked. We spent hours upon hours because our Superintendent asked us to and we finally came up with a recommendation that we all felt was well researched and thought out. It was a solid way to go.
Then, as time went by and nothing was done and no feedback was given, we started to become disillusioned. Then when a year later, a totally different policy was enacted (using none of the feedback generated from the committee), the disillusionment was complete. Education is somewhat infamous for that.
Be a good listener when your staff members come to you. You will be surprised what you may learn. Listen, answer their questions as honestly as you can, – consider feedback and apply that feedback, if it’s valid. Don’t let your ego get in the way. There’s always room to improve.
2. Be Consistent. We’ve all worked for those bosses who you never knew what kind of mood they were going to be in when you came in that day. Everyone gets upset about certain things. Everyone gets excited when they get a new idea that they think will make a difference.
However, people need to feel safe when they come to work. Your staff (and students) need to know that you will react with thoughtfulness and that you won’t jump to conclusions or retaliate when things get tough. As an effective school leader, you need to be consistent.
You can’t get too down when things are not going well. When a new idea comes along, you can’t just jump on the bandwagon without researching the idea either. You need to be like the marathon runner. You’re in this for the long haul.
3. Praise in public, correct in private. There’s that quote by Harry S. Truman, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” Let others take the credit when they help with ideas.
A good leader highlights the accomplishments of the members of his team. People want to be acknowledged and they want to work hard for someone who cares about them and values them.
If you have some critical feedback for someone, then do it where there is privacy. Never, never humiliate someone to make a point. It will come back to haunt you. Your staff will forgive you, but they won’t forget, and the relationship(s) will never be the same.
