Trust #leadershipday12

We’d like to thank all those/all those that helped us out/all your invaluable assistance make this dream come true
A little over two years ago, in what seems like another life entirely, I was in an interview with a superintendent for a job that I was most eminently not qualified for in any way, shape, or form.

I was amazingly brash. I was most certainly doing my best to come across as more confident in myself than I actually was.

How do I know that I was brash? I had exactly one job prospect at that time, the one I was interviewing for, and yet I still talked as if I so clearly deserved to be hired for this job which I demonstrated no real qualifications other than some big talk and bigger dreams that I might be able to make the job work.

In this interview, I laid the core belief that I had about my ability to do the job that I might be offered. I told the superintendent that I was looking for a job where I would be allowed to make mistakes, because I firmly believed that when placed in such an environment, I would push myself harder and try more daring things if I knew I was working for administrators who would support me in those efforts.

I have no shame in admitting that I lied to the superintendent a little that day. I was looking for any job that would pay me to live in the same state as my wife, and we had determined that our next step on life’s journey was in Massachusetts. I was describing my ideal job, not the job I would actually be willing to take.

I repeated that lie to the principal and two teachers who did the final interview for the school.

Miraculously, they either didn’t see through or didn’t care about my false bravado, because they hired me.

I’ve spent the past two years trying to live up to the trust they placed in my abilities. Sometimes I fail, but more often, I think, I succeed.

As I predicted two years ago, working in an environment of trust has allowed me to soar well past any goals I would have had for myself. I’m a much better teacher now than I was then.

If you’re in a school leadership position today, how much do you trust your teachers? If you’re blocking access to valuable internet resources*, the answer here would be “not as much as you think you do.” How much are you encouraging your teachers to take risks and try new things? One of the things I admire most about my principal is that when pretty much any teacher in the building goes to him with an idea for something new she would like to try, his response generally falls along the lines of “Sounds great, let me know how it goes.” He trusts the teachers in the building enough that we won’t just try something without good reason, and that if what we try isn’t working, he trusts us to fix it.

Trust has really become a central part of my understanding of my job as a result of working in this environment. Trust bonds us together and enables us to overcome great challenges. This is why in a few weeks, I will greet my students with one rule: “I trust you. Please don’t break my trust.”

Administrators, will you be greeting your teachers the same way? Or will you be handing down heavy mandates about the exact way instruction needs to be carried out, and purposefully limiting the wealth of online tools teachers need now?

If the former, I salute you. If the latter, what kind of leader do you want to be? Are you living up to it?

Don’t shackle your teachers. If they struggle, help lead them back to the right path.

Trust them to do the right thing.

*The difference between my district and most other districts in a nutshell: in my district, when Facebook gets blocked, the superintendent writes an email to everybody apologizing for the temporary inconvenience.