Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

Game time adjustments #13

Can the barrel spoil the apple?

Fact:   Of course, it can.  And it does!

On first glance you may scratch your head with confusion about today’s question.  Look at it from a different perspective.  We have all heard and probably used the metaphor of how one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. Let’s flip that around and now think abut how the barrel can spoil the good apple.  It happens and probably happens more frequently than you may think.

Negativity can be systemic.  Somewhere your school or organization will cross some imaginary line and the individual negativity and toxicity stops being about any individual.  It is now about the overall culture and climate of your building.  And when this happens, the “barrel” will poison any apple that lies within this barrel.

This is easy to see when that new teacher arrives full of life, enthusiasm and positivity gets beaten into submission by the overwhelming population of malcontents already populating the building.  It can be a slow transition or it can be a very fast one.  If you are observant you can almost watch the transformation.  This then sparks the next question, if you can see it coming, why don’t you do something to prevent it?

One reason is that making this change takes hard work and time.  It can be consuming and very frustrating. And you will probably become very unpopular as you make this change. But if it is important to you, then you will take the time to fix it.  And as you go about fixing it, don’t forget to acknowledge that the problem maybe you!

Schools can eat their young.  That is how negativity and poisonous attitudes work.  These negative people wait every year for the new batch of teachers and stand waiting to pounce on them.  I can almost visualize the scene from the popular film the Shawshank Redemption where the old prisoners lay in wait for the newly incarcerated.  I can almost see some of staff members taking bets in the faculty dining room as to who will break first.  The system is clearly broken.

Teachers need to feel respected, valued and heard.  They need to be supported.  They need to be trained.  They need appropriate and positive professional development.  They need solid meaningful mentors.

Last week we spoke some about hiring practices.  You need to hire the right people.  Those that possess the personal qualities that you value.

Your behavior as the principal is critical.  In addition to the aforementioned qualities, you must show gratitude.  You must regularly and consistently affirm the positive qualities of your staff.  You must become a “praising machine.”  That was hard for me to do. It is still very hard for me to do (just ask my wife and grown children).  If you have any hope of turning the culture around you must really work at it.

Also, somehow you must be able to isolate and ultimately eliminate the toxic individuals who will not come around.  I wish I had the easy answer for you on that one.  Start by disempowering them.  Stop giving them a voice.  Stop thinking that their voice is the voice of everyone.  It is not. 

I remain convinced that you can fix the system.  Once you stop allowing the barrel to be the poisoning agent, you are on your way.  Good luck!