What are your criteria?

Colleagues,

Yesterday I worked with school leadership teams on developing individualized professional development plans for each teacher in their respective buildings. The result of this work is that when school starts in August, members of the leadership team will be focused on supporting the growth and development of each teacher in their building. Wow!
 
If bettering people leads to better outcomes, where will these schools be a year from now, after a year of focusing on growing their people?
 
One interesting part of the work was determining teachers’ levels of potential and performance. In other words, we asked if a teacher had high or low potential, and if they had high or low performance.
 
The interesting part of this work was the different ways that leaders arrived at their answers. In other words, not all of the leaders used the same criteria. In fact, it took some effort to actually gain clarity on what criteria indicated what level of potential and performance.
 
Do you have explicit criteria for assessing the potential and the performance levels of the people you serve?
 
If you don’t have clear criteria, then how do you know where to begin in helping them grow?
 
Spend a few minutes thinking about the performance and potential levels of some of your people. How are you deciding what levels people are? Would other leaders arrive at the same conclusion?
 
Having clear criteria is a foundational step for helping your people grow.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick