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:
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.
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:
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.
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!
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:
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.
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!