The Trust Factor

Strategies for School Leaders

Julie Peterson Combs, Stacey Edmonson, Sandra Harris

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351691116
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

This hands-on guide is a valuable resource for both current and aspiring school leaders. Written in short, easy-to-read chapters, The Trust Factor, 2nd Edition presents real-world examples and relevant research to help you develop the essential skills you need for building trust with staff, teachers, students, and parents. The Trust Factor provides updated versions of over 50 practical strategies that will help you learn to:

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• Recognize and avoid behaviors that damage trust

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• Repair trust when it has been broken

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• Navigate challenging situations, such as teacher evaluations, student discipline, parent complaints, or scarce resources

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• Establish and sustain trust with faculty, staff, students, and community

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• Approach social media in a way that builds trust with the community.

The guidance in this book is explained with simple, easy-to-implement steps you can apply immediately to your own practice, and are accompanied by reflection questions and self-assessment tools to help practicing or aspiring educational leaders succeed.

Part I
Trust Busters

Trust busters happen. We all make mistakes. Sometimes we are misunderstood, sometimes we make bad decisions, and sometimes we have not yet learned needed strategies. Regardless, we do things and say things as leaders that lead to trust withdrawals. What matters is how we address these busters. We have chosen these trust busters to appear first in the book because they represent some common attitudes and actions that are often barriers to building trust with others. At the end of each trust buster, we offer several suggestions for the leader to eliminate trust-eroding habits and work toward building trust.

^#1
“I Want Your Input, but Not Really”

You have a right to your opinions. I just don’t want to hear them.

Anonymous

How a leader makes decisions can be a trust buster or a trust builder. However, many times, leaders involve faculty and staff in what we call pseudo–decision-making. Pseudo–decision-making happens when individuals give time and energy to decisions that have been already made. Following are some common problems we have observed with decision-making in organizations:

The decision has been made. The leader manipulates others to participate in decisions when the decisions have already been made. Sometimes leaders think that they can develop support for a decision, so they involve others in this contrived process. However, people will eventually see the deception and feel angry that their time was wasted. Trust will be broken, and individuals will be reluctant to invest time in the future.

Decisions are top-down. When decision-making is generally a top-down model, groups or individuals typically are reluctant to share differing ideas because of intimidation and fear, both symptoms of low-trust organizations. Additionally, there is a feeling of annoyance if faculty are required to attend meetings or to complete surveys to assist in providing feedback when there is consistent evidence that the decision will be made at the top. Creativity declines; dissention and unrest increase.

Decisions have to be unanimous. Valuable time and energy are wasted when leaders seek unanimous decisions. The problem with unanimous decisions (i.e., complete agreement) is that these decisions sometimes indicate real problems with trust in the organization. One reason is that unanimous decisions often have characteristics of groupthink. The practice of groupthink leads to stagnation and decline within an organization because members value harmony and agreement such that opposing ideas are unwelcome.

Decision authority is unclear. Sometimes, who makes the final decision can be unclear. Depending on the decision, school leaders might not have the authority to make the decision. Perhaps district administrators or the school board will make the final call. When faced with these decisions, school leaders should find out what the role of input will be before asking teachers, staff, parents, or students what they think. Asking for unwanted input can become a trust buster for the school leader.

Issues are not clearly communicated. Sometimes leaders communicate poorly about the issue to be decided. When this situation happens, faculty and staff provide input that is not usable because the communication was poor. This lack of clarity wastes time and further contributes to a lack of trust in the leader.

Leaders become distressed when receiving input. Theresa Rebeck, an American playwright, commented, “I find a lot of input from other people very stressful.” Sometimes school leaders become visibly upset when asking for input. Perhaps the conflicts around different opinions are difficult for leaders to hear or differ from their own. Consequently, individuals often will suppress these ideas and become silent. Leaders’ discomfort in hearing a variety of ideas can cause faculty and staff to not provide honest input.

So what actions can leaders take to change these trust-busting pseudo-decision-making behaviors? Here are some suggestions:

• ◆ Commit to not involving others in decision-making unless their input is needed and valued and will be used in some fashion.
• ◆ If a decision has already been made (and sometimes this is necessary), communicate this action clearly to others. When possible, provide a rationale so that others have some knowledge of how and why the decision was made. This rationale can increase trust and eventual support from others.
• ◆ Remember that unanimous decisions are rare. After all, it is almost impossible to have 100% agreement with everyone about anything. As Aesop said, “Please all, and you will please none.” Try, instead, to work toward consensus. (For more information, see Trust Builder #18: Build Consensus.)
• ◆ Do not manipulate others. Involve them in the process when their involvement is wanted and needed, but do not manipulate them to think they are participating in a decision that has already been made.
• ◆ Do not let input from others stress you out. Instead, consider input an important component of making good decisions.
• ◆ Communicate the issues about a decision so that input is focused and appropriate.
• ◆ Consider using a strategy such as nominal group technique (NGT), which is a structured method for obtaining group input. NGT is conducted in a way that allows ideas and suggestions to be made anonymously. For more information on NGT, see www.creatingminds.org/tools/ngt.htm.

Involve others only when you need or want their input. If you do not intend to use others’ ideas, then do not involve them in the process for that particular decision. How leaders involve others in making decisions in their schools is an important opportunity for trust-building.

For Further Reflection

1. When was the last time you were manipulated to think that you were participating in decision-making? How did that affect your trust levels with the leaders?
2. Site-based management is a practice that encourages participation in decision-making. What topics could allow for group decision-making (e.g., budgeting, staffing, school climate, curriculum, student achievement)?
3. Identify strategies you use to get thorough, creative input from faculty and staff members.
4. When seeking input regarding decisions at your school, how do you respond when a suggestion is not one that you prefer?

Remember

Pseudo–decision-making is a trust buster because leaders obtain others’ input and then do not consider it in decision-making. This type of decision-making frustrates people and wastes their time.

^#2
“I Ignore Incompetence”

All problems become smaller if you don’t dodge them, but confront them.

William F. Halsey Jr.

Have you worked for someone who was really nice and friendly but also a pushover? Perhaps this individual had difficulty saying no. When presented with problems, maybe he was like the ostrich and stuck his head in the sand. Or maybe he recognized problems but was too busy to address concerns with individuals. If you have worked with a leader who avoids potential conflicts, you recognize this behavior as a trust buster.

Researchers have identified competence as an essential component of the trust relationship between school leaders and their constituents. Specifically, leaders who allow others to remain incompetent or lack competence themselves break trust. Even leaders who intentionally try to build or repair trust will have difficulty if they ignore incompetence. Ignoring the incompetence of others is like the proverbial wisdom where actions will speak much louder than words. In fact, when leaders ignore employee incompetence, they are often viewed as incompetent themselves!

What do competent leaders do? When managing others, they establish and communicate expectations. As leaders, they model these standards. When an employee does not follow the expectations, a competent leader will identify those specific behaviors. Together, the leader and the employee will discuss plans for improvement and make commitments to action. The leader will follow with formative feedback on progress. In sum, competent leaders provide the support, resources, and supervision to address and remedy performance concerns.

Too often ineffective leaders do not have the courage to address incompetence, and, as a result, they allow trust to erode in their schools. Even though the conversations will be difficult, the trust-building leader understands the impact of allowing incompetence to continue. In the long run, incompetence harms students. Ignoring incompetence puts the needs of the adults (including the leader, to avoid difficulty) above those of the students and can impact the performance of everyone in the school. Over time, even effective teachers might conclude “Why bother?” and morale, as well as trust, could decrease, affecting most students. Even though taking on the role of monitor might diminish trust with the individuals in question, the trust-building leader understands her ethical responsibilities to the collective body of students.

When considering the incompetence of those you supervise, do not engage in trust-busting behaviors. Instead, think about your courage to address problems, at least for the benefit for students. The following strategies offer some of the skills needed to address incompetence:

1. Know effective teaching strategies. You have to know what incompetence looks like in a school. For example, you have to know what good teaching is and is not. To improve your competence in this area, you can learn about effective classroom practices. You can attend training with your teachers, observe master teachers, and facilitate book studies about teaching. Establish an annual goal to increase your expertise as a teacher of teachers.
2. Use personnel-management techniques. After you identify competence, you have to know how to address incompetence. School leaders should learn about the personnel laws of the state and policies of the school district. Evaluating and documenting specific behaviors takes training and practice. Using good judgment, a school leader should not jump to conclusions and over-react. Rather the leader patiently asks questions, listens, and observes. After reflection, the leader should share honestly the concerns and provide specific feed back. When there is a lack of progress demonstrated by the employee, the leader will need to formalize the process, following the practices of effective documentation and supervision.
3. Be persistent. After identifying and addressing incompetence, the leader must be persistent in her efforts. Addressing concerns will be time-consuming, but an effective leader will make this commitment a priority. People will learn by your persistence and follow-through. Their trust in you will grow because they will witness your values. Even though addressing incompetence requires courage, skills, and time, we can agree with the observation offered by Robert Frost, “The best way out [of a problem] is through.”

For Further Reflection

1. Who are the individuals in your school who might lack competence in areas of their job performances? What evidence do you have, or what evidence might you gather?
2. What difficulties do you have when addressing problems with employees?
3. How does a teacher’s incompetence impact the morale of your organization and others’ trust in you?
4. How do your supervisors manage incompetent employees? Do your supervisors gain trust or lose trust through their management of incompetence?

Remember

Some leaders lack the skills or courage to address employees with performance concerns. As you consider the aspect of trust, consider your courage and skill in addressing incompetence.

^#3
“I Prefer Group Reprimands”

Persecution is the first law of society because it is always easier to suppress criticism than to meet it.

Howard Mumford Jones

Have you worked for someone who gave group reprimands, rather than addressing issues directly with the people involved? Jim was such a leader. Jim, a principal in a large high school, had a strict policy about teachers reporting to work on time–7:45 a.m., which was about 15 minutes before the students’ first class. When teachers arrived late, students entered empty classrooms. Jim believed that these situations caused many problems related to safety, preparedness, and modeling for students.

Still, some teachers arrived late, and usually it was the same three or four people. In the monthly faculty meetings, Jim would remind everyone to be on time. As the problem continued, these reminders turned into lectures during meetings. Ironically, the teachers who were tardy did not seem to get the message, or at least their behavio...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Meet the Authors
• Preface
• eResources
• Acknowledgments
• Part I: Trust Busters
• Part II: Trust Builders
• Part III: Trust Boosters
• References