How does one equal fifteen?

Colleagues,

Many school administrators are overwhelmed by discipline issues this year. After 18 months out of school, many young people are struggling to adjust their behaviors.
 
As a result, school leaders can’t get into classrooms, let alone follow up on their observations to help teachers grow.
 
The fourth principle of strategic leadership is focusing on helping people get better.
 
The third principle of strategic leadership is making incremental progress.
 
Dealing with a typical office referral takes 10-45 minutes. Eliminating one office referral a day frees time for the leader to do two 5-minute coaching sessions or maybe a 10-minute observation followed by a 5-minute post-conference.
 
If we can make incremental progress, we can invest that saved time into our people.
 
Most schools have a few teachers who haven’t learned to manage their classrooms, and poorly managed classrooms produce excessive discipline referrals.
 
So, one way to create progress is to choose one willing teacher and help them develop better management skills. Just one teacher.
 
Then, take the time that would have been spent dealing with that teacher’s discipline problems and invest it in another teacher.
 
This won’t “fix” things, but over time things will get better. 
 
Reflect: 

• What are some unproductive things that prevent you from investing more in your people?
• How could you decrease one of these things to save five minutes a day?

 
Cheers!
 
Frederick