EPISODE #278

Your job as a School Principal is not to solve problems

You're listening to the school leadership reimagined podcast episode 278. 

Hey, builders, before we begin, I have a quick question for you. Are We Connected on social media? The reason I'm asking is because, as much as I love giving you the podcast episode every single week, I'd love to take our relationship deeper. So if we're not connected on on social media, let's connect. I'm on LinkedIn at Robyn. Underscore mind steps, I'm on Twitter at Robyn. Underscore mind steps, I'm on Facebook at Robyn. Jackson, please, let's connect so we can keep the conversation going. Now on with the show you're listening to the school leadership reimagine podcast episode 278,

how? Do builders like us make a dramatic difference in the lives of our students in spite of all the obstacles we face? How do you keep your vision for your school from being held hostage by resistant teachers, uncooperative parents, ridiculous district policies or a lack of time, money or resources, if you're facing those challenges right now, here's where you'll find the answers, strategies and actionable tips you need to overcome any obstacle you face. You don't have to wait to make a difference in the lives of the people you serve. You can turn your school into a success story right now with the people and resources you already have. Let's get started.

Hey, builders, welcome to another episode of the school leadership reimagined podcast. 

I'm your host, Robyn Jackson, and I want to start today's episode by sharing with you something that I'm concerned about. So over the last probably a couple of months now, I have seen things online and heard school administrators saying something that has disturbed me, and it's disturbed me because I know this is how they were trained. It's not even something that I think comes from them, this is how they were trained. They have been saying and explaining to me all the ways that they are controlling what teachers do. They talk about getting their buildings under control. They talk about getting into classrooms and making sure that teachers are doing what they're doing their jobs or doing what they're supposed to be doing. They talk about how they are meeting with teachers and doing one on ones and showing teachers their data and saying you need to fix this. They talk about how they have initiated programs and made sure that all their teachers are doing exactly, following the program exactly, and they congratulate themselves, because they think this is the job, they think this is the gig, they think this is what they're supposed to be doing. We've been told that in order to be a good principal, you have to be in control of your building and of what's happening in the classroom. Now some of you are listening right now might be nodding and saying, yeah, it's my building. I need to know what's going on in every classroom, but that's your leadership talking. You see, builders do things a little differently, and so today, I thought I'd spend our time together talking about what that looks like and why that is so important. So let's dive in. 

So we were all trained that the job of a principal was to kind of be the problem solver in chief. We are supposed to be kind of looking at our school, taking that 30,000 foot view of our school, seeing things that other people can't see. And then if there's a problem in our school. Our job is to simply go in there, figure out the solution and make sure that all teachers in our building are implementing the solution. But let's kind of tear that apart for a second. If that's your job, let's think about what that means. It means that it's up to you to figure things out and do the thinking in the building. And your teachers aren't expected to do the thinking in the building. They are simply expected to implement the solution that you came up with, which means that the success or failure of everything that happens in your building really rests at your feet, and that not only do you have to come up with the solution for all the problems, but then you have to spend all of your time running around, chasing, checking and correcting people to make sure that they implement your solutions with fidelity, so that you can ensure that things run the way that you expect them to run. What that also means is that any results that happen are your responsibility, and if it fails, it also is your responsibility. And because it's your responsibility, the teachers don't feel any ownership or responsibility for the results themselves, because they have not been. Been a part of identifying the problem. They haven't been a part of identifying the solution. They simply are expected to implement the program you decide. And so they're not teaching they are minions that are running around the building trying to make sure that they appease whatever it is that you expect of them, rather than thinking adults who are professionals and highly trained and who have some responsibility for the children. What makes this even worse is that a lot of times we hold teachers responsible without giving them the ability to be responsible. 

I mean, let's break down the word response, able, able to respond. We hold teachers responsible, but we don't. We limit their ability to actually respond to the needs of the kids in front of them. And we wonder why our buildings aren't successful. We wonder why our programs aren't more successful. We wonder why people are burned out. We wonder why people are resentful. We wonder why people don't take ownership. We wonder why we are so tired and we feel so much pressure, and yet, if we buy into any version of that model, that's exactly how we're going to feel, because the model is is designed that way. You you can't help but feel that. Your teachers can't help but feel that, because that's the way the model was designed. So builders look at that they they say to themselves, you know what? This This isn't working, and this isn't sustainable, and we're not going to get to 100% student success under this model. So what builders do is they look at things differently. The first thing the builders recognize is that the people who are in the building in front of the children every day are professionals. Now I hear you. I hear you out there, someone saying, like some of them are, but some of them are. What do we do about the people more you're going way too fast. Stay with me. I will get there. Let's start from the assumption that your teachers are professionals. Let's just start there, because the moment that you do that things change. You know we we we often don't recognize that our teachers are professionals. We say it, but we don't really believe it, and that belief shows up in the way that we treat them, we feel like we have to constantly monitor them or they won't do their jobs. And so we go in with that attitude and treat them with that attitude, and then we take over everything, and instead of making them more responsible, we make them less responsible. If we treat people like professionals, and we have expectations of them around being professionals, and we set them up in a place where they can be professionals, then the likelihood that they will perform as professionals increases significantly. 

So let's start there. 

Our teachers are professionals, highly trained professionals. The second thing that we have to realize is that we it's not our responsibility to solve problems. Our responsibility is to ask questions to identify the right problems that need solving. Now I don't know if you missed the nuance there, so I'm going to say it again, because it's really, really important. Our job as administrators is not to solve problems. Our job is to identify the right problems that need solving.

Now, I know that makes some of you uncomfortable, so let me explain what I mean by that. You see, if you think you're the only person in the building who can solve problems, then it all rests on you, and you miss out on the expertise, on the insight that other people in the building can provide. And so we've been taking all of this on ourselves. We've been thinking that it's our job to solve problems. People are looking at us to solve problems we walk in every single day, and the main reason that we are inundated with with so much is because we have set ourselves up as problem solver and chief. That's why we're CC on every single email. That's why people don't make decisions unless they run them by you first. That's why everybody dumps, comes into your office and dumps all of their problems on you, because you set yourself up as problem solver and chief the moment that you recognize that it's not your job to solve problems. It's your job to identify the right problems that need solving, everything changes, because now, instead of always looking for solutions. In you're always looking at keeping your eye on the vision, the mission, and the core values. And when things crop up, you ask yourself, Do I need to do we need to deal with that right now. Is that important? Is that going to is or is that just a distraction that's going to keep us from doing the work that's really important?

So rather than having to solve problems, you actually eliminate a lot of problems. People come to you and say, Well, this is a problem. You say that problem may feel like a problem, but right now, we're focusing on our vision mission and core values. If we spend time, energy and resources dealing with that right now, that distracts us from our vision mission and core values. So let's focus on the problems that really need solving. Game Changer. So the first thing is that you have to recognize that the people in your building are professionals. The second thing that you have to recognize is that it is not your job to solve problems. It's your job to identify what problems need solving. And then once you make those two shifts, then it gets really fun, because then once you've identified, okay, this is a problem that needs solving because it's an obstacle to our vision mission and core values, then you, you bring that problem to the professionals on your staff, and you, you ask them to partner with you to solve the problem. Notice the difference. You don't bring the problem to them and dump it on them. You certainly don't identify the problem and then take it on yourself while they sit around waiting for you to solve the problem. Instead, what you do is you bring everybody together, all the expertise, all of the insight, all the professionalism in that building, and you deploy those resources to solving the right problems, you see one of the big mistakes that I see leaders making is that they give teachers tasks instead of giving teachers problems to solve. 

And that's why people are disconnected. 

That's why the job feels boring, because you are giving people stuff to do, oftentimes without context, because you've done all the thinking and your magical thinking gave and then you emerge and say, I have identified the problem and the solution, and here it is, and do it, and you haven't given people the opportunity to understand what problem it is that you are trying to solve with the thing you asking them to do, and so all they get is a task without context. And that's why it's so hard a lot of times to get teachers to truly engage in the initiatives that we are creating for our schools, because we spent all summer thinking about the problem. We spent all summer investigating and looking for a solution. We spent all summer solving the problem, and then when they come back in the fall, we hand them the new initiative and say, Here it is. This is what we're going to be doing for the year, and we expect them to applaud, but they haven't had the opportunity to think like you've been thinking. They haven't had the opportunity to look at the alternatives like you have. You think you're saving people by doing all of that work for them, but you're not, because without the context, they can't appreciate the solution. So we give them the solution, and the solution doesn't feel like a solution. It just feels like a task. It just feels like more work. And unfortunately, a lot of cases, that's exactly what it is, because a solution without context is just that. It's just more work. So when, instead of giving teachers tasks, what we should be doing is inviting them to solve problems. Now, let me give you an example, because this feels very philosophical right now, but let me give you a real example, right? Let's say that there isn't you're looking at test scores, and you recognize that the your test scores aren't where they need to be, and after going in and looking at classrooms, you realize that one of the reasons why your students aren't performing better is that teachers are not teaching lessons that are aligned to the standards. So the test is on the standards, but what's happening in the classroom doesn't have any relation to the standards. So kids are may or may not be learning, but they're even if they are learning, they're not learning what actually will help them on the test, which gage how proficient students are in the standards. 

So this is a typical problem we see, right? So we see that problem. We go and observe classrooms. We see teachers aren't teaching to the standard. We see the kids as a result, kids are not performing. And then we think, in order to fix it, we've got to get teachers teaching to the standards. So we find the PD, or we decide we're going to do PLCs differently, or we go to the conference and hear somebody talk about standards aligned instruction. Or we go to the training that are. District has given us. It says the talks about the importance of standards aligned instruction, and then we return to our school and try to push teachers towards more standard, standards aligned instruction. We do that by changing PLC structure. We do that by, you know, making them unpack the standards. We do that by getting into classrooms more, and giving teachers individual feedback. All of those are solutions we came up with on our own, and none of those solutions involve teachers. So why do we expect them to work? Because if teachers are not involved in solving the problem, then then I don't know how we expect the problem to be solved. So here's what builders do. Let's say a builder goes into classrooms and realizes, you know, we're looking at scores on one hand of the data. We realize kids are underperforming. We go into classrooms and we realize that instruction is not standards aligned. So the first thing we do is we take that back to the teachers. We, we, we, we share the data with them and say, Here's how kids are performing. I've been in classrooms, and this is what I'm seeing happening in classrooms, and I think they're related. What do you think? And then we let the teachers talk. 

Now, yes, there are going to be some excuses. Well, those standards don't make sense, or the kids are so far behind all of that. But what we do is we dismiss that because we're like, yeah, yeah, all of those excuses, but you need to be if you just taught the standards, then, then we'd solve the problem. But I don't know that people are out there deliberately not teaching to the standards. They they're not teaching the standards because they may not understand them. They're not teaching the standards because they may not believe that kids can actually achieve the standards. There's there are reasons because, again, I'm coming from the standpoint that my teachers are professionals, right? So they know the job, they've had the training, they know standards are important, so they're not teaching to the standards, we got to figure out what's going on. So I say, Okay, let's talk about it. Let what? So first of all, do you believe that you're teaching the standards? And let's hear that. And so the teachers are saying, well, no, I know I'm not actually, or I thought I was. I don't really understand the standards. Okay, that's the problem, all right, so if we can better understand the standards, or if, if what I'm seeing doesn't look like you're teaching the standards, but what you are doing feels like you're teaching the standards, let's figure out the source of the disconnect. And now we know the solution makes sense, that they need understanding about the standards. Maybe that is, you know, listen, I don't think the solution is ever unpacking the standards. Builders interrogate standards. We don't unpack them, but that's a whole nother conversation for another day. But we find, if we understand that, if we if we're talking about it, and the teacher, we realize together, collectively, that the teachers aren't really understanding the standards, then that gives us some support, that helps us understand what needs to happen, and we develop a solution together. It's not imposed upon them. The teachers are involved in solving that problem.

Hey, it's Robyn here. Real quick. I just want to interrupt this episode for just a second, because if you are enjoying what you're hearing, then would you mind sharing this episode with somebody else? So all you need to do is just go to your phone, if you're listening to on your phone, or your podcast player, and then click the three dots next to this episode, and it'll give you the option to share the episode. Now if you do that, three things are gonna happen. First, the person that you shared with is gonna think you're a hero, especially if they're struggling with what we're talking about right now, they're going to love you. Secondly, you're going to feel good because you're going to get the word out about buildership and start building this buildership nation. And third, you will get my eternal gratitude, because I really want to get this out to the world, and you'd be helping me out. You'd be doing me a huge favor. So please share this episode with someone right now who's who's dealing with this same issue, someone you think would really benefit. And now back to the show. 

All right, maybe that's not it. 

Maybe they know the standards, but they believe that the kids are too far behind that they have to do too much backfilling before they can teach the standards that if they just went in and taught the standards, the kids wouldn't get it because they they're they're missing a whole bunch of background knowledge or context or, you know, skills that are needed. If that's the problem, then okay, how do we solve that? And we get the teachers involved in solving that and coming up with solution. I'm part of that conversation, but I'm not imposing that solution on them. The teachers are solving the problem, whatever the problem is. After that conversation, we come together and we agree on a solution. We're not sitting around, you know, rehearsing our problems and, you know, celebrating our problems. Instead, we're. Going through, we're saying that I've identified a problem that needs solving because it's in the way of our vision, mission and core values. I bring that problem to the teachers, and together we come up with a solution. Because it's not my job to come up with a solution. I work with professionals. My job is to identify the problems that need solving, and then I bring that to the teachers, and they get involved in solutions. Now here's what happens. First of all, we get a better understanding of the problem, because in most cases, if I'm not talking to teachers, or if it's a kid problem, if I'm not talking to kids, then I don't have a full understanding of the problem. So first thing is, we get a better understanding of the problem, because I've bought all perspectives to the table. Secondly, when we do come up with a solution, the so everybody has buy in to that solution, because people don't tear down what they helped build. We build a solution together. And then third, once we come up with a solution. My job isn't to chase checking Correct. 

My job is to monitor how the solution is going and then bring that back to the staff, bring that back to the team. So when I'm going in, I'm not checking to see if people are doing things that I told them to do. Instead, I'm saying I'm checking, I'm coming in to see how is the solution working? Are we seeing a difference? And then I'm bringing that back to the team and sharing that data. But guess what? The team is also collecting their own data, and they're bringing that data back and sharing it with me because we are all engaged in solving the problem. We need to stop giving teachers tasks and start engaging teachers in solving problems. And as an aside, we also need to stop doing that to kids like we if there's an issue in your school, like kids are involved and you are not talking to kids and getting kids engaged in solving that problem, you're wasting your time. I remember once I was working, doing some consulting in a school, and there was an issue around the kids just, you know, skipping class. And they had tried this and that and the other and the kids, it just wasn't working. Kids were still skipping class.

And I said, Well, what are the kids saying? They said, Huh? I said, Well, why are the kids saying they're skipping class? And they said, Oh, you know what kids say? It's boring. And I said, Wait a minute. Have you talked to kids or you're just kind of, you know, this is your impression of why kids are skipping class silence. I said, Well, before we go any further, we need to do some focus groups with kids. We brought the kids in, and the kids told us exactly why they were skipping class, and a lot of it was that the instruction was not challenging, and they didn't believe that it mattered. And so what they were trying to, you know, lock doors and patrol halls and do all that stuff to kind of to deal with the number of kids who were skipping when the kids were telling us, if the instruction was more rigorous, then we would be going to class. But it's not so that changed everything they we didn't expect to hear that from the kids. The kids wanted more rigor. They felt like the teachers were dumbing down class for them, but we would never have known that if we hadn't talked to the kids. So we need to step out of our offices. We need to stop thinking that it's our job to solve problems. I my job is to say, Hey, this is a problem that needs solving, and I may have some ideas or hypotheses about what the solution would be, but I got to test that by talking to the people who are actually involved in the problem. I've got to talk to the people that I'm going to be relying on to solve the problem before I come up with a solution. Stop giving teachers tasks and start giving them problems that need solving. Stop giving kids rules and regulations and get them engaged in solving the problems of your school. You know that's one of the big differences between being a leader and a builder. A leader. The idea of leadership says you have to be in front, taking people to the Promised Land, solving problems. 

It's a lot of pressure. 

But when you're a builder, you just have to start building and you invite other people to join you in building. And when there's a problem that comes up, you can say, is that a problem that's going to keep us from our goal? If it isn't, we'll need to deal with it. We need to spend our time and energy focused on the problems that actually are going to move us to our vision mission and core values. Once you've identified that as a problem, then you go to the people involved, the your fellow builders, and you say, Hey, I believe this is something that's keeping us from our vision mission and core values. These, can you see that as well? And they say yes. And then once they say yes, you say, Okay, how do we solve it? And then you bring them into the the conversation, and you at you let them solve the problem. You're part of that conversation, but it's not all on you. And then once you've identified a solution together, then you start working towards that solution and monitoring that and saying, Hey, we thought this was what it was going to take, but we're realizing there's another problem here, so let's focus on this. Or, hey, we thought this is what it was going to take, but now we're seeing that it's not working. Let's come back together and figure out why it's not working. Or, Hey, we thought this is what it was going to solve the problem, and it is working, so maybe we should do more of that. That's the gig. That's the job of the principal, or the administrator in charge, not to solve problems, but to be the one who's constantly looking to figure out what are the problems we should be solving, and then bringing everybody together to solve that problem. So you have a choice. You have a choice. Do you want to stay the leader and be and hoard all the problems for yourself and feel the constant pressure of always coming up with a solution and and being the only thinker in the building, and treating everybody else as if they are minions who just are there to do your bidding, and feeling all the pressure of having to be the one, only one who's there with the solutions. Or do you want to use your insight to identify the right problems, the ones that really need solving, and then bring everybody together so that they can see it too, and then they can get engaged and involved in solving their own problems. And ultimately moving your school forward to your vision mission and core values, like a builder, I'll talk to you next time.

Hey, if you're ready to get started being a builder right away, then I want to invite you to join us at buildership University. It's our exclusive online community for builders just like you, where you'll be able to get the exact training that you need to turn your school into a success story. Right now, with the people and resources you already have inside, you'll find our best online courses, live trainings with me, tons of resources, templates and exemplars and monthly live office hours with me, where you can ask me anything and get my help on whatever challenge you're facing right now, if you're tired of hitting obstacle after obstacle, and you're Sick of tiny, little incremental gains each year.

If you're ready to make a dramatic difference in your school right now, then you need to join buildership University. Just go to buildership university.com and get started writing your school success story today. Hey, it's Robyn here, and I want to thank you for listening to today's episode. Now, if you have a question about today's episode or you just want to keep the conversation going, did you know that we had a school leadership reimagined Facebook group? All you need to do is go to Facebook, join the school leadership reimagined Facebook group. Now they're going to be a couple of questions that we ask at the beginning, because we want to protect this group and make sure that we don't have any trolls come in, and that it really is for people who are principals, assistant principals, district administrators, so make sure you answer those questions, or you won't get in. But then we can keep the conversation going. Plus, we do a lot of great bonus content. I'm in there every single weekday, so if you have a question or comment about the episode, let's continue the conversation. Join us at the school leadership reimagined Facebook group, and they'll talk to you next time you.

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