I’ve been the principal of three different schools (and they were all very different). I’ve consulted in all types of schools, from very high performing to very low performing. I’ve concluded that my number one recommendation is the same for all types of schools – start with consistent meetings with consistent agendas.
Let me give you an example. If you pulled into your parking space at school and knew that you had a leadership team meeting at 9:00, lunch with students at 11:30, team meeting with a grade level at 1:00, and had to supervise an afterschool event at 5:00 you would have a certain level of stress depending on the conversations you had to have and the number of staff members out for the day.
Compare that with the same schedule of events but: not knowing if your APs were going to be on campus to cover things while you were in meetings, not knowing if your grade level meeting was going to be an ambush, not knowing if the afterschool event was at your school or in another county. I would expect that your stress level in this case would be a few notches higher than in the first example.
So, what system needs to be in place to produce the first scenario instead of the second? Having consistent meetings. That’s it! Not special meetings. Not strategic meetings. Just consistent meetings with specified groups with a routine agenda. Not hard and it doesn’t cost anything. Just be consistent. Here is a link to the specified groups that I’m talking about, and the general intent of each meeting.
Consistent meetings lower your stress. That’s the main point. It usually lowers the stress of those around you because everyone knows when they are going to get time with you and what you are going to discuss – consistently. In addition, because you have this predictable schedule, you can plan out the details well in advance of the meeting, event, program, etc. When using consistent agendas, most of the potential problems are discussed in advance, and possible solutions for each have been explored so that you look like a professional educator in charge of a school of children rather than someone who is regularly caught off guard spending your time putting out fires that could have been prevented.
Communicate to your staff that you care enough about their stress level to begin a new initiative to lower it, and try using my meeting chart for one to two months. Imagine how many people make that a goal in their Campus Improvement Plan!?!?
You will stand out. You will be appreciated. You will be less stressed. And so will those around you.
Find me if you need me,
John
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