I know you love your school.
But as a leader doesn’t it feel like there are more hard bits in your day than good bits?
A parent is upset about a decision.
There’s been an incident in class.
You can’t get the absence figures to improve, despite best efforts.
And then there’s staff.
You love them!
Well, most of the time.
Someone’s off sick (again).
Someone’s ruffled feathers (again).
And someone isn’t doing their job well enough (again).
Do you tackle these issues or not?
Your decision is the ‘hard’ you are choosing.
And most of us do it without realising.
Someone is off sick again.
Which hard do you choose?
- Arrange cover, ask the team to pull together, pay for supply, teach the class yourself.
- Have the difficult conversation about their sickness level, with a view to it improving to at least in line with the school average.
Someone’s ruffled feathers (again).
Which hard do you choose?
- Deal with the fall out, the grumbles and gossip amongst staff.
- Talk to the person about their behaviour and get it to improve and lift the cloud they unintentionally bring to the team.
And someone isn’t doing their job well enough (again).
Which hard do you choose?
- Let the team muddle on as best they can, knowing this is holding them and your pupils back.
- Set about improving performance.
Each option is hard; but one resolves the issue, the other lives with it (like a chronic ailment).
Not all ‘hard’ things are ones you can improve, but people issues most definitely are.
P.S. If you need some help with the legalities of addressing people issues, then join me and our super legal eagle at our ‘Capability Conference: kindly and effectively tackling under-performance’ on 14th March, 2024.
Spotlight Resource
Nobody likes to have difficult conversations (including me!).
Over the years from training thousands of school leaders, we have noticed patterns, common pitfalls and stumbling blocks when it comes to difficult conversations in school, and so we have created this short read to help you to steer clear of the traps and, in turn, have more successful difficult conversations:
10 Mistakes Leaders Make In Difficult Conversations
What’s included:
- 10 most common mistakes leaders make
- Real world examples to illustrate them
- Helpful tips to help you avoid them