Learning from Missed Opportunities

By Dr. Lisa Stanley, Superintendent at North Texas Collegiate Academy.

As this blog is being posted, I'm 24 weeks into my 12th year as a School Superintendent and my 30th year in education. I began my educational journey as a part-time teacher's aide and worked through every possible position in a school system except bus driver. (No one wants me to drive a bus, I promise!) You'd think that after all these years, and my eclectic K12 resume, I would have some stellar advice about what how to be a great leader.

When aspiring, or veteran, administrators ask for tips and hints, although I have made a number of quality leadership moves in my career, I struggle to rattle off those moves and decisions that I've done right. Maybe not-so ironic, I can recollect a laundry list of things I've missed the mark on. Isn't that the case, often, though? We learn by doing and by doing we often are learning the most from our mishaps than the wins. If you want to serve your staff, students, and stakeholders well, I invite you to learn from a couple my missed opportunities.

Missed Opportunity Number 1: I made decisions from the top down.

If you want to struggle as a school leader, make all the decisions yourself and then issue directives. You'll spend more time than you have trying to convince your school community they should trust you and it will truly jeopardize your ability to earn credibility. But you're the leader and you wouldn't be in your position if you didn't deserve it, right?

When I became a superintendent, our district had some tough issues we needed to tackle right away: high teacher turnover rates, poor student achievement, and a last-resort reputation in the community.

Does any of this sound familiar in your school or district?

I was hired in mid-July and by mid-August, I rolled out initiatives to address staffing concerns, academic turnaround, and positive community engagement. The vast majority of the faculty was excited about the promise of new beginnings and they were following my lead...for about two months. By November, morale was low, teachers were frustrated and confused by all the new instructional strategies I had forced upon them. Staff attendance rates were low because staff were using (and misusing) sick leave, and parents were questioning why all the changes hadn't actually led to any recognizable change. I was pretty defeated. That's when my mentor explained the psychological stages of team development to me.

Forming, storming, norming and performing.

She told me that the initial excitement felt at the start of the school year was "forming." It's energetic but not sustainable without buy-in. We'd moved past that stage into the "storming" phase where staff questioned leadership, voiced concerns about decisions made without their input, and reverted to old, less effective but more comfortable habits. I realized that I'd missed my first huge opportunity as a leader: I made decisions from the top down. Without the "norming" phase, I did not leverage the assets on my team. The only fingerprints on those decisions were mine. After all, it was my job to make decisions, right? But that wasn't actually my job.

My job was to make sure decisions were made. And the big decisions need lots of fingerprints on them. Need to address math scores at your school? Talk to the math teachers, survey the students, ask parents for their input. Get lots of fingerprints on the math issue and remember that all feedback is a flashlight. Having trouble with staff morale? Talk to the teachers; hold small focus groups or, better yet, individual meetings where they can openly share their concerns without fear of negative repercussions. Get lots of fingerprints on the morale issue. Whatever the challenge, the answer is always fingerprints.

We might not like what we see or hear when we create psychologically safe spaces for stakeholders to share their thoughts, but every bit of the feedback is a flashlight that will show you exactly what needs to happen. And when the root causes are exposed, the

fingerprints of many will be all over the remedy. Buy-in will come easily because everyone had a voice in how to address the need. After realizing that it's not my job to make decisions, but rather it's my job to make sure decisions are made, I abandoned the top-down approach. Doing so enable my team to execute in the "performing" phase. We now thrive in a school community where everyone not only has a seat at the table, we leverage their voices while they are there. We make decisions collectively and the fingerprints all over the decisions are a great indicator of the culture we've created.

Missed Opportunity Number 2: I tried to make it on my own.

Why is there a formidable misconception that if you ask for support, you might appear incapable or weak? If others hear that you are seeking a mentor or are joining a cohort of other leaders who want to grow and learn together, they might realize you don't always have all the answers. Want to know what I think about that, now? Perfect! This is why.

For the first 2 months of my superintendency, I tried my best to fly solo. I knew I needed some support and help but fear of feeling like a failure and fear of others realizing that I wasn't the "superwoman" I tried to portray kept me from reaching out.

What a missed opportunity.

The pressure and stress cost me a lot. Time, peace of mind, fractured relationships at home and health issues all became realities. I was blinded and did not accept that an attainable solution for all of the stressors was to simply humanize myself. I was drowning under the illusion that the school leader must be 100% prepared to handle anything. What do you do when there are so many "anything's" that come up when we least expect them? I gained valuable wisdom the day I finally realized the most effective leadership move I could make when I was stuck was admit where I lacked experience or knowledge. When I made this breakthrough, I found balance and peace. Most importantly, I found the support I desperately needed.

I prioritized the impact I could have on students over my pride.

I humbly reached out to other school leaders in my state and realized each of them, most of whom had many more years of experience than me, were in the same situation and were

eager to glean from other school leaders. We crowdsourced our collective expertise, sort of like we are doing here on Everyday Principal. We started a group text, and we still use it often. We began meeting for 1 hour each week on Zoom just to ask questions, seek advance, and encourage each other. Sometimes we have an agenda and discussed topics common to each of our schools, but most of the time we just say, "I've got a problem with my early childhood program, and I need some help" or "I've really lost the trust of some of the parents over a staffing issue and don't know how to remedy this."

While someone in the group usually has experienced something similar and can offer great advice, there are times when all we can say is, "That's a tough one; I'm sorry you're experiencing this but we're here to support you."

That reassurance is so precious.

And I don't just get the support from my peer group; I find such value in book studies, podcasts, blogs and in the quiet moments of prayer when all I can say is, "God, I need you to help me fix this." I've learned that I was never meant to go through this role alone. It's impossible. Success only came for me when I realized I that every decision needs fingerprints other than my own and that although I am the only person in my district in my role, I can't do it alone.

While I could share a dozen more major missed opportunities; I think it's best to simply close with these 2 and with one reminder. You won't feel like a success every day. You will be overwhelmed and frustrated and angry and sad, sometimes all at the same time.

Stay committed.

Don't waiver from your dedication and don't doubt your calling. You are where you are for a reason, if only for a season. No one can do the work you are doing because YOU were called for this.

#LOVEfirstTEACHsecond

Dr. Lisa Stanley, Superintendent

North Texas Collegiate Academy

940-383-6655x101

lisa.stanley@ntxca.org