Principal Evaluations : How to Use Them and Why They Matter.

Principal evaluations are tricky and can easily be ugly, but they can also be deeply rewarding. For yourself and your staff. After years of having my students evaluate me as a teacher and my staff evaluate me as a principal, I’ve definitely learned what not to do. But also, and more importantly, I’ve learned a few things about what to do.

Being evaluated is never easy largely because no one ever wants to be told they’re imperfect. Even though, deep down, we know more than anyone the flaws we carry. But that doesn’t dull the sting of someone pointing it out.

And that is precisely why principal evaluations are so tricky.

When we are asking those we serve to evaluate us, no matter our intentions, proven kindness, or deepest sincerity to grow and learn, there is still a power dynamic at play. And if our staff sense, even slightly, the possibility of retaliation, the survey will quickly be seen as a trap, a gimmick, and could quite easily become a wedge rather than a bridge.

For these evaluations to be honest, purposeful, and beneficial to our personal growth and the well-being of our school and staff, we need to understand, acknowledge, and protect this unique and fragile dynamic and ensure we do not accidentally (or intentionally) abuse or misuse this imbalance of power. 

Speaking from experience, if our principal evaluations are fumbled, it can cause destruction and discord within a school. 

If done appropriately, however, a principal evaluation will not only build trust and community within your school, it will also grow you into a more purposeful and intentional leader.

#1: Understanding the Power Dynamic. Two Ways to Ensure Your Survey Builds Trust

In a perfect world, our principal evaluations would be done in person. But we don’t live in a perfect world. We live in a world where power is abused, where honesty is often rewarded with judgment, and where trust between those with power and those without is at an all-time low. Therefore, asking your staff to openly evaluate you is extremely damaging as it puts them in an awkward position of either telling you what you want to hear or holding back what they truly feel. And once this happens, once your staff feels manipulated or taken advantage of, trust is broken.

Even though these surveys can be seen as ugly and scary and full of “hurtful feedback,” if we’re asking for feedback and truly wanting to know how our staff feels about our leadership, we must let them say what they feel. Without fear of retribution.

An anonymous survey provides you an opportunity to receive true and honest feedback, it protects your staff from feeling manipulated or bullied - a term I use purposefully because there is an imbalance of power. And although you may not intend to misuse your power, the fear that you can or could is always there.

To ensure your staff feel and are protected from potential retribution, when giving your evaluation, consider the following:

Don’t Read the Surveys: In the past, I had teachers hand in their surveys or submit them online. Then I would read through them one by one, gather data, and share what I had found with my staff. Every so often, however, I would be accused of analyzing the surveys to discover who wrote what. And although this wasn’t true, the perception of it was, leading to a mistrust of me and the system. To combat this, instead of reading through the surveys myself, I provide yet another layer of anonymity by having my Leadership Team read through the surveys and provide me with an overarching narrative. “What themes do you see?” I ask them, “What common thread can you pull out from their responses?”

If you don’t have a team you can trust on your staff, consider an outsider, someone who can provide you honest feedback and tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Your mom is probably not a great resource on this one.

Having someone else read the surveys does two things:

1. It protects against the accusation or even temptation to analyze the responses and attach marks and comments to individual teachers. It allows you to see you to continually see your staff with a caring heart, rather than a cautious one.

2. It protects you from fixating on the negative. As a fellow administrator recently stated, “I hold my breath when I read them . . . and even if there’s just ONE critical response, that’s the one my brain obsesses over.” Having a small group of trusted teachers read through the comments saves us from overanalyzing and obsessing over the negative comments, allowing us to see the bigger picture.

When we fixate on specific comments or criticisms we can quickly become defensive rather than reflective. We focus more on the words rather than the story. Having a trusted team read through our evaluations allows them to take a distant, larger perspective of what is being said rather than taking every comment personally.

Once your team has helped you discover the larger narrative it's time to present your findings to your staff.

#2: Be an Example. Bring it Back to the Staff.

This is perhaps the most awkward part of the evaluation, but it is also the most important. Standing in front of your staff, vulnerable and honest, allows your staff to see you model how to appropriately, professionally, and purposefully receive feedback. It shows them that you are listening and that you care more about them than you do yourself. 

While presenting:

1. Don’t Protect Yourself. Whatever is said about you, own it. Tell them why you agree, where you have missed the mark, and why you think this is important. Make it about them, not you. If you make it about you, how hard you’ve worked and how terrible this makes you feel, it can be seen as yet another manipulation tool and will crash and burn any progress you have made. Remember, this is a powerful opportunity to show your staff what it means to grow and learn and be better. Be an example of what that looks like.
   
   

2. Provide Solutions. This moment will probably be awkward for everyone involved. Letting the evaluation hang in the air without a plan for how you are going to consider their evaluation will make it even more so. Again, this is a modeling opportunity and a concrete example to them of how YOU want THEM to respond to their evaluations. Model what it should look like and how it should feel. Be hopeful, thoughtful, and excited at the opportunity of moving forward with a solution mindset!
   
   

3. Make it Count. If nothing changes, nothing will change. “What’s the point,” will begin to creep into your teachers' mindsets and conversations. If you’re going to solicit feedback you better be ready to do something about it. Failure to do so will not only destroy any trust your staff have in you as a leader, but they will once again feel affirmed that those in leadership don’t really care about them or their feedback. The responsibility to move forward is ours, not theirs. They did their part by filling out the evaluation. Now it is on us to do something about it. Make it count.

#3: When Creating Your Evaluation, Be Consistent.

Feedback isn’t all that helpful if we cannot see or measure how we’ve grown. When creating your evaluation, it will benefit you greatly to keep the following in mind:

1. Align your evaluation directly to the language and expectations of your district evaluation. Whatever your supervisor uses to evaluate you, make sure your staff does the same. You can always add in a few other things, but if your survey is not aligned with how you will be measured by the district, it will be less helpful. 

2. Keep your evaluation the same, at least from year to year. You will probably always find ways to improve your evaluation, but if you change it too much within a single year, how will you know if you’ve grown? For at least an entire year, keep the evaluation the same to have a true and cohesive evaluation of how you’re doing.

This is Great. But Why?

The last piece of advice I would give comes in the form of a question: Why are you doing this?

Are you doing it to hopefully receive a pat on the back? To message your ego? Because if so, you will be disappointed. Even if you’re great, you’re not perfect. And an anonymous evaluation will tell you so.

Are you doing it to truly grow? And I mean truly grow? Because if not, this process will not only hurt, it will destroy your staff. Instead of learning and growing and moving forward you will defend against what is being said, get angry at the numbers, and become critical and cautious of your staff. Not only will you find yourself walking the halls wondering who said what, but you’ll become increasingly self-conscious every time you walk into a room. You will find yourself searching for allies rather than building a community. And that is the last thing anyone wants.

How you respond to your survey will set the standard for what it means to learn and grow in your school. It is also a golden opportunity to build trust between you and your staff. Especially if you are open, honest, and sincere. Even if you bungle through the first few, a genuine attempt that puts the staff and their needs at the center of your focus will be seen, heard, and felt. It will mean a lot. 

In your journey and pursuit of providing and receiving feedback from your staff, I hope these considerations have helped. If you have any further insight, or if you would like a copy of my evaluations, let me know! I am happy to share. 

You can access my evaluation template here or email me at millerbrianstoriesmatter@gmail.com

Good luck to you! And thank you for walking into this vulnerable mess. Your staff is lucky to have you.

#DoGreatThings!

Giving less than 100% is 100% okay.

As educators, we are expected to “give 110% of every day to every student!” Our parents expect it, our students and colleagues expect it, and we expect it of ourselves. Recently, though, I’ve started to wonder if this expectation is unfair, unhealthy even. For our fellow staff members, our students, and for ourselves.

I think there is an appropriateness in the expectation that we come to work prepared and ready to give it our best- absolutely! I think it’s appropriate that we set the bar high, at giving 100%. I also think it’s okay that fail.

More accurately, I think we probably should.

At our core we are defined by our profession - We Are Educators! - but we are also more than that. We are the million other things that exist outside our schools, not the least of which include the roles of spouses, parents, and children to our parents. And when they call, with tears so loud we cannot hear their words, they steal away from our 100%. And that is okay.

In fact, it is more than okay. It is human. And if we are to teach our students, our staff, and our community anything, it is how to be a better one, not a perfect one.

As educators, at times, we go to work to get distracted because immersing ourselves in our classrooms and buildings is something that can bring us joy and purpose; it can remind us of the largeness and beauty of life rather than the pricks of it (overwhelming bills, rocky relationships, harsh realities).

But showing up and pushing aside the distractions, day in and day out, is also immensely lonely. And dangerous. And in a profession that advertises and celebrates “relationships, relationships, relationships,” living in such isolation seems a bit hypocritical.

If we want to build relationships with our staff and students, if we want to build strong bonds and healthy cultures, along with professionalism we need personalism (which is an actual word, I just now discovered, which means “the quality of being personal”). And the greatest contributor to pursuing the quality of being personal is being comfortable with our imperfections.

As educators, we have enough to deal with. We are underpaid, undervalued, and overwhelmed with keeping the peace between combative people groups and conflicting ideologies. Being personal, being human is not something we should have to worry about. It should be something we embrace.

We need to be okay with not being able to give 100%.

@AdamMGrant

“Marriage is never 50-50” Brene Brown states, and is “the biggest crock of bullshit” she has ever heard.

So too is believing that we, as educators in care of our students, our schools, our communities, AND our families can give 100% to everyone, all the time. Because we can’t.

What we can do, however, is try and give as much as we can sometimes, 80% other times, and on those really rough days where we didn’t get any sleep because the car broke down or the hospital called and Mom needs more testing, we give 20%. And that is okay.

What isn’t okay is feeling guilty about it, putting on a professional face, getting distracted, and demanding that we be 100% when we really only have 70. What isn’t okay is believing that professionalism doesn’t have room for personalism.

A healthy marriage, Brene Brown continues, quantifies where we are. “I’m at a 20 today.” Be it energy, investment, kindness, or patience, saying openly and honestly, “I’ve got 20 to give today” allows the other to endure what we cannot. It allows them to see where we are and say, “No worries. I can pick up the 80.” Or, as is often the case, they can also say, “I’m at a solid 45,” providing both with the understanding that tonight, we need to scale back, order a pizza, and be content with the laundry unfolded and dishes dirty in the sink.

Teacher groups and leadership teams should be no different, no less transparent.

Whether we are showing up to get distracted or showing up distracted, sharing with a few trusted colleagues and building leaders not only builds trust, it strengthens the staff and school community. It builds personalism AND professionalism. Most importantly, it models the greatest rule for a healthy life: Do your best with what you have.

We can be distracted AND STILL teach our asses off.

We can be frustrated with our spouse AND STILL be kind, personal, and available to our fellow staff and students.

We can be worried about Mom or Dad AND STILL notice that student who needs a shoulder to cry.

We can be less than 100% AND STILL be helpful, purposeful, and present. Because the reality is, we are often less than 100%. I know I am, anyway. And when I try my best to hide it, to cover up the fact that I am struggling with outside-of-school issues, I feel even worse. I feel isolated. Sharing that I am distracted allows others to understand where my head and heart are today. It also invites them into sharing about their life, their struggles, and their distractions. It allows us to understand and help each other, just as we are.

Sometimes we go to work to get distracted. Other times we go to work distracted. Neither of which steals away from our professionalism. Both of which push us towards personalism.

Which is exactly where we need to be.

#DoGreatThings!

Give. Relate. Explore. Analyze. Try.

For more on . . .

Blog : Education : On Leadership

Want kids to graduate? Stop talking about graduation.

When it comes to attending college or university, education has finally brought the pendulum back to a healthy center: not everyone needs to go to college.

When it comes to talking about graduation, however, we are still behind in our thinking.

Let me explain.

In my house, my wife and I rarely talk to our children about following the law. What they do hear is, “Do the right thing.” Instead of the law, we talk about what it means to be quality people of character. Why it’s important to be honest, disciplined in thought and action, to act with integrity, and why we should consider others as more important than ourselves. We encourage our kids to be quality humans, not kids who follow the law.

Why?

Because my kids can follow the law and still be bad kids who are unkind and lack integrity. Following the law is too low a standard.

So too is graduation.

When graduation becomes the goal, two things can happen.

One, we can compromise our ethics for the purpose of achieving our goal. This can look like grade manipulation, bending academic integrity, or cheating. Because if graduation is the goal, and our success and reputation are built upon it, we will do whatever it takes to achieve it.

Two, we can produce a poor product. If a student walks across the stage and receives a diploma while the entire audience sighs in relief (finally, he’s gone) or grumbles in annoyance (what a jerk she was), what was the point? If we have more kids graduating but fewer who are prepared to be kind, thoughtful, and ethical, what have we accomplished? If graduation is our goal, what - unintentionally even - will we compromise in order to achieve it?

Like children merely following the law, we can have students who have earned a degree but are jerks, dishonest, and selfish.

And if that is the case, what then is the purpose of the degree? Was graduation for them, or us?

Now, I don’t think this applies to all schools and every child who has ever or will graduate, of course not. For not only would that be unfair, but it would also be wildly untrue. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen, that it hasn’t happened, or that it isn’t a constant temptation for school leaders, teachers, students, and parents. (Case in point, I once had a boss who forced a math teacher to overlook blatant cheating on a final, all because he wanted the child to graduate . . . what did we just teach that child? That teacher? That school?)

And sadly this sort of compromise happens more often than I think we’d like to admit.

Graduating is too low a bar, and if we want to change the world - truly - we need to aim much higher.

Instead of focusing on graduation, let us raise the bar of expectation to growing quality men and women who strive for integrity, live in discipline, have empathy towards others, and persevere. Let us spend more time pointing our students (and ourselves) towards a sense of pride in the things we do and the people we are, not in the achievements we collect.

I don’t teach my kids to follow the law, I teach them to be humans of integrity and character. Following the law is merely a byproduct of something greater achieved.

Like crawling before we walk, eating mushed-up bananas before we can eat a steak, or practicing simple sentences before we write our senior paper, let us place graduation where it should be: a small step in the journey of life. Graduation isn’t the goal, it is a moment of celebration that propels us forward. Or at least, it should.

For many, however, graduation is a big deal. Be it because they are the first in their family to do so or because it is the culmination of years and years of hard work, for many, walking across that stage is a monumental moment in their lives. And it should be celebrated! But again, it is not the goal. It is merely a manifestation of accomplishing a much bigger, much more important task: enduring hardship with integrity and discipline.

Standing atop the mountaintop doesn’t mean much if we don’t have the scars and sweet, aches and pains that accompany the journey. Nor does it matter most if when we summit the last peak no one is there to celebrate with us. It’s the journey that brought us there, and we achieved our goal with our character unblemished.

For as John Candy’s character states, “If we’re not enough without it, we’ll never be enough with it.”

If we want kids to graduate, let’s stop talking about graduation. Instead, let’s talk about what it means to be quality people. Let graduation be the byproduct of something greater achieved.