EPISODE #298

You Don’t Have a Motivation Problem—You Have an Alignment Problem

You're listening to the school leadership reimagined podcast episode 298. 

You're listening to the School Leadership Reimagine podcast episode 298. 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 lack of time, money, or resources? If you're facing those challenges right now, here is 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, Robin Jackson, and before we jump into our topic today, I need to tell you about a win and a fail. So if you are a podcast listener, you've been listening for a while, you know that my word for the year is boring. And it's not even, you know, 1/3 of the way through the year and I've already failed in the boring department. So when I was preparing for the staff alignment challenge, I was going to revisit some of the stuff that we've done in past challenges because the stuff is still relevant. We have a whole new group of people who are coming. And I, I really meant to do that, right? Keep it boring, stick to the stick to what I know is tried and true. And I failed miserably because I, I was working on the workbooks for the challenge and updating them.

And I went down this wormhole and I came up with this whole, you know, just this epiphany about how all the things that you learned during the challenge are really, you know, it comes down to do you want incremental growth or do you want exponential growth? And so that contrast of incremental versus exponential I talked about on last week's podcast. I've been exploring it all week during the challenge. And it did create more work for me because I built 2 new tools for people in the challenge. But it's been so good. So my fail is I didn't stick to boring, you know, I got excited about an idea and I went with it. The win is already on the challenge. People are having these huge breakthroughs.

They're seeing how the work that they're doing is creating incremental growth, and that's why they're frustrated. And then the simple shifts that they can take so that they can take the work they're already doing. You're already doing feedback support, accountability and culture and create exponential growth with it. And so yes, wasn't as boring as I was expecting, but Oh my goodness, it has paid off. And so today, if you're listening to this early in the day, this is Wednesday, this is day four of the staff alignment challenge. We're going to be talking about culture today. And then tomorrow we're going to wrap up the week by talking about accountability. I mean, these are just two, you know, big topics and I'm so excited.

I'm so excited to share with you. 

So if you have not been a part of the challenge, but you still want to catch the tail end of the challenge, go to buildershipuniversity.com/challenge & up. And then on Monday, if you've missed the challenge or you just want to kind of revisit some of the parts of the channel, like you've been a part of the challenge, but you just want to kind of tie everything together. On Monday we're going to be doing a 2 hour master class. So during that master class, we're going to be tying together all the stuff we talked about during the week. You do not have to have gone through the whole week in order to do the master class. It's designed to be kind of a stand alone thing. I'm also debuting a new tool I've been working on all week.

I'm so excited and so everybody who shows up for the master class get live, gets the tool. There will not be a replay for the master class. So you need to make sure that if you want to join the master class, you show up live. Only people who show up live get the tool and there's no replay. Anyway, wanted to tell you about a I'm trying to be accountable want to tell you about a win and a fail. The fail is didn't get boring with this challenge. The win is even though I didn't get boring, it's just been a really incredible experience. I mean just I start saying stuff because this is new, I've never taught this before.

I start saying stuff and then I'm like wow, that's good. I wish I could write it down. I have to go back and look at the recordings. So this is the beginning of something. And so again, Buildership university.com/challenge, you can get all the information about the challenge. You still get 2 days left. Also, when you sign up for the challenge, you get the replay. So if you miss Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or if you were they and you just want to revisit it when you're part of the challenge, you're going to get the replays. The replays come down next week. 

So you need to hurry up and join. 

And so that's all I'll say about that because right now I want to talk about something else. So today we're going to talk about the idea that you don't have a motivation problem, you have an alignment problem. This is one of the big kind of epiphanies that came to me when I was prepping for the challenge. And it really is this idea around, you know, some of the frustrations that we have, right? So if you feel like you are constantly pushing your staff to do the right work, you feel like you're dragging them along, you're exhausted because you keep reminding and re reminding them to follow through. Or maybe you have a staff that is doing a pretty good job, but you've got some rogue, you know, factions out there on your staff.

Or maybe you feel like you're all over the place. Like one minute you're doing this and the other minute is doing that. All of these we think are motivation problems. I just need to get more motivated. But they're not motivation problems. You don't have an unmotivated staff. You're not unmotivated yourself. What you have is an alignment problem.

And you see most principles, they, they try to force motivation, they try to force alignment. They do things that, you know, we were all trained to do, but those things don't create real alignment or real commitment. And in fact, the best that you can get out of them is compliance. And so if you feel like you spend all your time chasing, checking and correcting your teachers, or if you feel like you spend all your time chasing, checking and correcting yourself, it's because somewhere, something or someone is out of alignment. And when you're out of alignment, you can't take ownership, you can't be fully committed. You don't stick with anything. And so today I want to talk about how to create that kind of alignment. And the big thing that you have to keep in mind is that kind of alignment is not forced, right?

So if you're thinking if I just push through, if I push my staff right, push myself and force through alignment, then I'll get there. That kind of alignment is not forced. And so you can't push people into alignment. You can't push yourself into alignment, right? You either something else. And today we're going to talk about what that is. And I think if you if you really listen and take this in, this could be a game changer for you, especially if you feel like you're unmotivated or your staff is unmotivated right now. Now, if you believe that some teachers just won't change or that it's impossible to get 100% of your staff on board, there's always going to be, you know, some rogue faction out there.

This is not going to be the podcast for you because I'm going to be talking about 100%. 

But if you know that you could get 100% and if you also can imagine what 100% staff alignment could do for your students and for you, and if you really believe that's possible and you want it to feel effortless, you want it, you want to get it to the point where that kind of alignment feels automatic, then I want you to keep listening because we're going to talk about how to do exactly that today on today's episode. So let's first start and talk about why most staff alignment strategies just don't work. OK, So the first reason that most of the way that we were trained, you know, to do feedbacks, water calamity, culture, all those things to create staff alignment. The first reason that it doesn't work is something that I call the compliance trap, right? So when you do feedback the way you were trained or support or accountability or culture, you're the focus of a lot of those strategies is really about getting people to get into compliance rather than helping them take ownership. And you can tell that you're in a compliance trap when people are going through the motions, but they don't seem really engaged in the work. So think about it like, think about if you've ever rolled out an initiative only to realize months later that teachers are just doing the bare minimum.

That's what happens when you use the tools that we've been given, feedback, support, accountable and culture, but you're using them in the way that we were trained. You create compliance and it looks like everybody's doing the same thing, but the hearts aren't in it. They're not truly committed. And the moment you turn your back, people stop doing it. People will do the bare minimum when you show up and when you check. And so you feel like you always have to be monitoring and you become more of a supervisor than an instructional leader and, and, and doing and, and really a builder. All right, so that the first is the compliance trap. Now the second one, I call this one the buy in myth, right?

People tell me all the time, listen, I just want to get my whole staff to buy in. And somebody told me once, if you get people to buy in, those same people will sell out, right? So the buy in, it sounds great, but it's really a myth. And what it does is it puts the pressure on you to convince, to persuade, to cajole your staff, to get excited. You become this used car salesperson trying to get buy in, right? And so you become the one that does all the work. And if you're the only one doing the work to get everybody on board and your staff isn't working with you, that's a problem. You don't have true alignment then.

And you're constantly having to sell people into this idea, which means they never become truly committed, right? They, they may give you, you know, buy in with their time, their attention, their energy, but if they don't own it themselves, if they don't truly assume ownership over the initiative, then you're always going to be the one that's pulling and pushing and controlling and, and, and convincing and, and selling the idea. So if you ever feel like sometimes you're a used car sellman, used car salesperson and you know, you're running around your school trying to sell people the idea, trying to get buy in, it's a trap and it's a myth. Buy in is not the same thing as true ownership and commitment. All right, now here's the deal. The real reason that teachers aren't aligning is, is is something that we often don't consider because think about it, your teachers are not resisting on purpose. Now, I hear you right there, somebody saying no, they are right. But remember, most of your teachers really want to be impactful.

Most of your teachers really want to make a difference. 

That's why they became teachers because they certainly didn't do it for the money or the fame or, you know, the, the prestige. They did it because they care about their subjects, They care about their students. They care about making a difference, right? So their, their, their, their lack of alignment isn't because they don't want to be in alignment, right? They just don't see how everything connects. It's not an unwillingness to, to do what's right for kids. It's just that when you don't have the clarity and the support and the accountability that that it takes to be truly aligned, then what happens is you, you stay misaligned.

That they're, they're, they're that, that your teachers are not the problem. It's the systems that you're using to create alignment that's the problem. Our systems for creating alignment have failed us, right? Here's the idea. Here's the big thing that you have to realize is that you don't need to force alignment. And a lot of our training teaches us to do that, and we fall into it without even realizing it. I mean, I say this to builders all the time and in office hours, you know, when they're struggling with something, I'm, you know, if you feel like you're forcing it, then something's not something's wrong, something's not working. Because when you build true alignment, it feels almost automatic.

When you put the systems in place to get people aligned, alignment feels automatic. All right, so let's talk about what it takes to create true staff alignment. OK, so true staff alignment has four parts. Teachers have to do the right work, the right way for the right reasons, even when you're not looking. And we have 4 tools to help us do it. So the first tool is that if we want teachers to do the right work, we have to give them really good feedback. Right? Feedback is designed to show people that the work they're doing is either effective or ineffective.

Think about it, when you go and give teachers feedback, what you're doing is you're showing them, OK, that thing you're doing over here not working, here's the right work over here. And a lot of times teachers think that they're doing the right work and your feedback is designed to help them realize that maybe they're not and to get them on board with the right work. But let's think about the way we mostly were trained to give feedback. The way that we're trying to give feedback is more about conformity to an instrument than it is about helping people understand what's the right work for me right now? What should I be focused on? One of the things I love so much about one thing feedback is it simplifies everything. When you get good at micro slicing and giving teachers one thing feedback, then rather than, you know, giving them a laundry list of stuff to do, you can say here, right here, this is the right work for right now.

And you see teachers show you this kind of just relief because most teachers are trying to to do the right thing.

And even the ones that have gotten cynical and there's like, no, I'm not doing it anymore. The reason that they feel that way is because they've been given wrong direction in the past. So when you do feedback the right way, what you're doing is you're showing people how to do the right work. And the problem is most of the feedback that we were trying to give feels more like criticism doesn't point people to the right work. It just shows them all the things that they're doing wrong, right. So when your feedback clarifies the right pathway forward and shows teachers the right work, then that's how you get people to do the right work. OK, so the first part is the right work. The second part is the right way.

How do we make sure the teachers are doing the right work the right way? And the tool that you already have in your arsenal is support. But too often we assume that the reason teachers aren't doing the right work the right way is that they're unwilling or, you know, they just refuse to. And and that's not it. Most of the time, they don't know how to do it the right way. They think that what they're doing is the right way. And our support, quite frankly, doesn't help us change that perception. Think about the way that we do PDA.

Lot of times we're forcing PD down people's throats. We have these long gaps between when and when and where we do PPPD. You know, look at how we mostly structure our PLCS. People go to PLCS, but they find them to be more time wasting than actually supporting them and helping them do the right work the right way. And so the way that we're doing it is creating the resistance. But when you do support the right way in a way that is customized to what teachers need, right? So you've given them feedback, this is the right work. And then you follow up that feedback with support that helps them say, OK, here's how you do this the right way.

When you give people support in a way that's differentiated to where they are in the process so that they know what the, the right next step is for them, then you get alignment. People aren't fighting you because you're not giving them this drive by, you know, PD or, or this sporadic support. You're giving them support that, that, that actually matters, that, that, that speaks to what they need to do right then. And so that's how you get them to do the right work the right way. Now, the third part, right work, right way, right reasons, right? It's not enough that people are doing the right work the right way. That's the they're not robots.

We also want to make sure that we have a collective, active, shared why.

We also want to make sure that people get why we're doing this work, that their hearts are in it, that they're committed to this work, and that they stay engaged in the work. And the tool you have for that is culture. Hey, Robin here, and I just want to break in real quick to ask you a huge favor. You see, I want to get the word out to everybody about buildership, and I could use your help. If you're really enjoying this episode, would you mind just going to your podcast platform and leaving a quick review? You see the reviews get the word out. They tell other people this is a great show. Other people who have never heard of School Leadership reimagined before can hear about it, and you'd be sharing the word about buildership.

So would you mind just leaving a quick review? It would mean the world to me. OK, now back to the show. When you build the right culture, people stay engaged in the work, and they do it because they want to and not because they're compliant, right? When you have the right culture, people feel connected to something bigger. And if they don't feel that connection to something bigger than the only thing they have to focus on is you. And that's why you get a lot of resistance because when you find that you are kind of doing this head to head resistance between you and a teacher, it's because the teacher is focused on you instead of the bigger picture that you are focused on the teacher instead of the bigger picture. The way that you get out of that is to create a culture that is focused on something bigger, right?

So when you when you do culture the right way, everybody gets excited and engaged in the work because they want to, not because you're forcing or pushing. You know, think about it. If you feel like if you don't keep this in front of people, they won't keep moving, then you have a culture problem because the culture should be doing that work. The culture should be pulling people forward, not you. And in order to do that, you have to build a culture that is focused on the right work. So culture is what makes alignment sustainable. Culture is what keeps the work moving forward. Culture is what keeps everybody engaged in the work.

I could give somebody great feedback and great support, and then over time they might be enthusiastically doing it at first, but over time they start to fade out, especially if the culture doesn't keep people focused on this idea that we are here to serve kids. If the culture doesn't keep people focused on your vision, mission and core values, it won't stick. And so you have to build a culture that keeps the momentum moving forward, or at some point it's going to phase out. People are going to get cynical. You're going to keep starting and stopping all over again because you haven't made success a habit. You haven't created a story that everybody wants to be a part of. You haven't built a culture that makes people, makes people want to stay engaged in the work and do the work for the right reasons because they want to, not because you're making them or they're worried about losing their job or you know, they're worried about the state or whatever it is.

They're doing the work because they want to.

All right. So right work, right way, right reasons. And then the last one is even when you're not checking and that you need accountability. See, true accountability is not about you micromanaging. We we've made accountability a dirty word when really it's a marvelous thing. You see, when everybody in your school feels personally accountable to results, you don't have to run around chasing, checking and correcting them. They initiated. I was in office hours in BU the other day and people were talking about how.

You know, build builders have been in the program for a while. We're talking about how now they are seeing their staff take ownership. Now their staff is coming to them and saying, hey, you know, I, I was looking at it last night and I created it. You know, we're going to hear in the challenge from Arlene, who's going to be on on Thursday and she's got this incredible story about how at first everything was all on her. But now because she's built this accountability the builder's way without even having to force it. Teachers are volunteering, teachers are, you know, before she couldn't get teachers in meeting. It said, now the teachers are saying, hey, we need to meet about this and they're showing up and they're engaged in the meeting And when they leave the meeting, they take on the work for themselves so that when she gets to work the next day, they've done stuff. And it's I can't wait for you to hear a story.

But this idea that when you have true accountability, you stop having to run around chasing, checking and correcting people. And instead, because they they have the feedback, the support and the culture that they need to do the work, they become more accountable, right? So if you feel like you are still the one who's constantly enforcing everything, you don't have staff alignment. People are now dependent on you. And the work of true accountability is helping them to stop being so dependent on you so that they can do the work themselves. And the teachers hold themselves accountable. And that's it's a beautiful thing, right?

So here's the deal: Feedback, support, accountability, and culture. 

We're already doing it, but the way that we were trained to do it creates more compliance than it does to your accountability. If you can shift the way that you do feedback, support, accountability and culture and build systems around that that keep teachers engaged and doing the right work the right way for the right reasons, even when you're not looking, then you don't have to worry about getting people motivated. You don't have to worry about spending all of your time doing supervisory tasks. Instead, people take on ownership for the work for themselves, and they want to do the right work, the right way for the right reasons, even when you're not checking. All right, so now we've talked about these four things and maybe at this point you're thinking, man, I know you're right. I'm doing feedback, but nobody's really acting on my feedback. Or I try to give teachers support and I feel like I'm wearing myself out and I do all this work to give them support and then the support doesn't stick.

Or I, I, I've been trying to build a culture and I'm doing all these nice things for teachers, but they don't appreciate it. And there's still other people who complain no matter what I do. And everybody's so overwhelmed that it's really impacting our culture. Or, you know, I feel like I'm the only one who's being accountable. And if I'm not there, then the teachers don't do it. And they're great. I love my teachers, but I feel like I am the only one that's kind of driving the work forward. And I really want people to start taking on ownership.

Then. Then the answer isn't that you need to motivate people more, or the answer isn't that you need another strategy, a leadership strategy, or you need to read another book. The answer is that you need to stop doing some of the stuff that you were trained to do and focus on staff alignment. So at the beginning, I told you I have a win in the field. You know, I'm trying to be boring this year and I've been thinking about staff alignment and coming up with new insights and new ways to help people achieve it and not doing the boring thing. But here's the part that is boring. And I keep talking about staff alignment, and some of you probably are sick of hearing me talk about it. Like when are you going to talk about something else?

But here's the deal. The more deeply I get into this process, the more I realize this is the missing piece. That if your staff, you and your staff are not aligned, if all of you are not focused on the same vision, mission and core values, if everybody, your staff is not doing that, you're not going to achieve your 100% vision. You know, the first step is you got to get clarity around what that vision is and, and the mission and the core values and that feels good. That's the sexy part about being a builder, right? Having those conversations, everybody walks away motivated. But once that is over, the next step is how do we keep them, keep them aligned to that? How do we make sure that the magic that happened in that vision meeting and the magic that happened when we finally got to our mission and the magic that happened when we decided together these things are non negotiable in our core values?

How do we make sure that that lasts beyond just the feel good moment of the meeting? 

How do we make sure that it shows up every single day? And if everybody is not aligned, then it starts to chip away at that magic. It starts to chip away at all that you've built with your vision, mission and core values. And So what I want you to think about this week, if any time that you run into something and you think, oh, this is a motivation problem, right, then I want you to stop and correct yourself. Nope. It's not that I'm not motivated. It's not that they're not motivated.

This is an alignment problem, right? Many principles go years, all without ever realizing why their teachers aren't fully committed and, and, and what's missing and how come I can't get moving? And how come I only have these few little incremental improvements and I'm not seeing the big improvements. And sometimes people even ask me, you know, they're, they're, you know, they're, they're, they're fairly new to the role and they're saying, you know, I'm coming in, I'm trying to do all these changes and nobody's listening. People are pushing back or they've been in the role for a while and they've had a few wins, but the wins feel uneven. They're working really hard. They make a little progress. They work really hard, they make a little progress.

And on the outside, everybody thinks they're a great principal, but on the inside they're like, is this all there is? Come on. I, I thought I'd have done, accomplished more and I'm working really hard and I'm not not seeing the outcomes that I want to see. And whether you are are are new and, and, and, and having a hard time getting going and facing pushback or you've been there for a while and you've got people moving most of them, not all of them and you've made some progress, not as much as you want. The problem is the same and the route is the same. And that is you will always stay stuck there unless you get staff alignment. And so everything that you do once you have your vision, mission and core values has to be around getting everybody focused, getting everybody on the same page, getting everybody moving in the same direction. So if you've been feeling like that's a struggle for you, I want you to stop for a second.

And I just want you to imagine what it would look like if your staff did get a line, if everybody was taking full ownership. If if, if everybody was doing the right work the right way for the right reasons. And think about what a difference it makes in terms of how you spend your day. Think about what a difference it makes in terms of how quickly you can accomplish your vision for your students. Think about what it what a difference it makes in the terms of how you work together as a staff. You know your staff wants to win to your staff is frustrated to your staff feels like they could be doing more.

Your staff is also wondering, is this all there is? 

Your staff is also tired of working really hard and seeing very little results or hoping that this year is going to be different only to see that the same thing is happening over and over again. They wanted to. So staff alignment is a win win for everybody. So if your staff is not fully aligned, it's not because they don't care. They do. It's because they don't have the clarity and, and the support and the culture and the accountability they need to have true alignment. And when you put those things in place, you don't have to force it. Staff alignment can feel natural. And so here's what I want you to do.

If today is hitting home for you, if you if, if it's resonating, then here's what I want you to do. I want you to join me for the master class so you can come to the challenge right today, tomorrow, within the last two days of the challenge. You can watch the replays. I encourage you to do that. But if you don't have time for that, show up on Monday because we're going to take all of this and put it together and I'm going to show you the exact steps you need to take for Step 11. You're going to get a plan from that takes you from the beginning to the end and tells you what you need to do in what order. And so if you are fairly new to the job, you'll have a step by step plan. But if you've been in the job a while, you're going to really love this because it's going to help you get rid of all the fluffy stuff and show you the only things that are really important.

It's going to pare down all of your work and help you see step one, Step 2. And if I just do these things, I can get the results that I want. So whether you are are starting out or even aspiring and you're trying to figure out what is the plan, what's the pathway, or you've been in this world for a while and you've tried a lot of things and you just want to know what's going to work, Then join me on Monday because we're going to be doing the, the, the culmination of the staff alignment challenge by doing this, this master class. And I'm going to give you that, but only if you show up live. All right, So my challenge to you this week, whether you join us or not, is this listen to yourself. If you see a motivation problem, recognize that it's not a motivation problem. It's a staff alignment problem. And then instead of trying to get people motivated or get yourself motivated, focus on getting everything, identifying what is out of alignment, and then getting it into alignment.

Because when you do that, you can move farther, faster. Because instead of doing it in a disjointed way, you're aligned as a staff. And you got them there because you focused on doing the right work and focused on getting them to do the right work the right way for the right reasons, even when you're not looking. It's how you overcome motivation issues and get everybody aligned. It's like a builder. I'll talk to you next time. 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 buildershipuniversity.com and get started writing your school success story today. Hey, real quick before you go, if you enjoyed today's episode and you know someone who would really benefit from what you heard here today, maybe they're struggling with a thing that we talked about in today's episode. Would you take a moment and share this episode with them? You see, not only will it help us get the word about buildership out to more people, but you're going to look like a rock star because you're going to give people something they can really use to help them get unstuck and be better at building their schools. Plus, it would mean the world to me. Thanks so much and I'll see you next time.

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