How do you know what you don’t know? Let’s face it, school leaders must cram tons of information into their heads—information on curriculum, instruction, and assessment, as well as schedules, staff names, student names, who orders what for lunch, and even where the emergency shut-off to the gas line is located. Yep, we know all that and more, and we use all that and more.
But what about the things happening in our schools that we don’t know? From my experience as a principal and working with people who lead schools, these unknowns are what often cause the major problems.
Sure, occasionally we anticipate a problem and are still leveled by it. But typically, if we see the train coming our way, we have time to stop and get off the tracks. The unknowns are what can be most devastating. For this reason, an important part of being an effective leader is minimizing what you don’t know and reducing the number of times you will be surprised. But unless we actively work to achieve this, it won’t happen.
I’ve found three strategies that raise my awareness so that I can anticipate and help diffuse problems before they hit my desk. Each strategy requires time and a willingness to be vulnerable, but each is an investment in solving—and maybe avoiding—problems.
1. Give surveys, surveys, and more surveys.
No, this repetition isn’t a typo—it’s my attempt to emphasize that multiple surveys throughout the year should be distributed to multiple constituencies. As a principal, I sent out a parent survey each April. In it, I asked parents and guardians to assess our school by identifying what they saw as our strengths and weaknesses, and to respond (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree) to the statement “My child’s individual needs have been met.” I asked for their thoughts on our curriculum, our diversity efforts, and our portfolio night (when students would share a portfolio of their work with parents and guardians). And I also asked for feedback on their perceptions on how I was doing. Recognizing that parents wouldn’t know about my curricular expertise or relationships with staff, they were asked whether they agreed with the statement “Tom has been friendly and helpful.” Each of these survey items included space for a narrative response.
Throughout the year, I also used my weekly family letter to seek feedback on a range of issues. For example, I asked families for their reactions to our back-to-school night and sought their feedback after parent-teacher conferences. Occasionally I would throw out a simple: “How’s it going? I’d like to hear your thoughts on school!” and ask for an email response.
I also routinely sent surveys to my staff. Here, too, an annual spring staff survey asked what worked, what should change, and what new ideas should be considered. In this particular survey, I solicited feedback on my performance: “What should Tom start doing? What should Tom continue doing? What should Tom stop doing?” I found that asking start, continue, and stop questions yielded deeper responses than asking about my strengths and weaknesses.
An important part of being an effective leader is minimizing what you don’t know and reducing the number of times you will be surprised.
2. Host breakfast with the principal.
I offered a complimentary “breakfast with Tom” to my staff four or five times each year, often an hour before the 9:00 a.m. start of a PD activity. The agenda was always the same, which is to say, there was no agenda. I invited the staff to join me and said, “The agenda is yours. You decide what we’ll talk about, what questions or items you want to raise.” Sometimes important issues were brought up—a concern that we needed to do more for students with a certain kind of learning challenge, for example, or something that had not been on my radar but was important to the person raising it (e.g., our schedule for cleaning windows). It didn’t matter if the issue raised was small or large; the fact that someone brought it to my attention meant that it was important to them, and I needed to take action.
I always learned new things at these breakfast hours, and occasionally heard about a familiar issue but by a person whose investment in it surprised me. At times, I heard comments that made me uncomfortable: “You need to visit our classrooms more often,” or “We’re spending so much time educating our students’ parents!” To me, this was an indication that I hadn't communicated with teachers effectively. Similar to the staff surveys, I benefited from hearing what others were thinking.
3. Don’t look busy!
Principals have a lot to do—no, too much to do—but we need to appear relaxed and casual at least some of the time. As tough as it might be, there are times when we need to linger in the hall or hang out in the teachers’ lounge with seemingly nothing to do but chat. That’s because our busyness, valid as it is (and it is!), sends a message to others that we are too tied-up to be interrupted.
Think about it: The last thing leaders want is for a teacher to say, “Well, I didn’t want to bother you because you were so busy.” By being present and by being receptive to conversations, not checking our phone or hustling to a meeting, we invite people to share their concerns or worries—no matter how trivial. This was hard for me to do at first because even though I knew its value, it felt very odd for people to see me just there. I always worried that they would think, Doesn’t he have anything to do?
As valuable as these strategies are, they take time to implement and require vulnerability. As responses to anonymous surveys that I read always indicated, none of us are as effective as we hope. That was surely the case for me. But it was important for me to hear those perceptions so that I could work to solve problems—problems that I might not have seen until too late if I hadn’t asked, been present, and listened.
So, how can you know what you don’t know?
The Principal as Chief Empathy Officer
A principal's skills, knowledge, and experience are important when it comes to leading schools. But principals also need empathy to be effective and drive continuous improvement.
