The TV show Undercover Boss provides an interesting view into how disconnected management often becomes from the folks who actually do the work of the organization. Even when the manager rose through ranks to reach that pinnacle of success as CEO, over the course of that evolution from worker to manager they lose sight of what it’s like to be “in the trenches.” By taking on a variety of jobs out in the field, the CEO is connected (or reconnected, as the case may be) with what is involved in achieving the goals of the organization. He or she develops (hopefully) an appreciation for the work their employees do and the challenges they face.
What that show really tells me is that more often than not management isn’t managing.
Back in the 1980’s Tom Peters popularized the idea of management by walking around. Now, MBWA as it is known, has a number of benefits. I want to focus on two of those today: Knowing what is happening in the organization and encouraging the achievement of individual and organizational goals.
Knowing What’s Going On
I wonder how many principals actually know what is taking place in their classrooms. Do they know what the teachers’ goals are for the day? Do they know what is being done to achieve those goals?
I’ve read far too many accounts of active principals whose schools have made huge strides in achievement to discount the effect active, visible principals can have on school success. Principals need to be out there, visiting classrooms, engaging teachers and students in conversations that show both an interest in the individual and an interest in what is happening in the classroom
In my own experience and observations, principals seldom visit classrooms, much less actually pay attention to what is taking place in them, or comparing what the teacher said he was going to do against what he is actually doing.
Simply by walking around, visiting routinely and actually looking at lesson plans rather than simply collecting them in a book the principal will know whether her teachers are being productive and whether the students are moving forward in their learning.
Encouraging Goals Achievement
There’s an old saying, “nobody gets up and goes to work saying ‘I’m gonna do a bad job today."” Even fewer people start down some career path with the intent of “getting through the day.” Teachers, like many other professionals enter their careers with a genuine desire to do good. To touch the lives of the children they teach; to make a difference. Unfortunately, the ways schools are currently managed literally beats that desire out of them. They may fight the good fight for a while, but soon they realize that their goals of changing their students lives conflict with the school’s goals of “getting through the day without incident.”
By walking around and observing teachers in action, by eliciting from them their own professional goals and by sharing the goals of the school (assuming the principal has actually developed real goals) the principal can help achieve the goals of both.
Being present, being visible, being interested and involved helps the principal see what goals are important to the teacher and how those goals can be woven into the goals of the school.As importantly, when the teachers feel that the administration is listening, they tend to work harder. Perhaps most important of all, when the goals of the school and those of the professional teachers are in alignment, great things happen.
I have never read a news article about a high-performing school that did not emphasize both the importance of the school having and sharing real, palpable, measurable goals and the alignment of those goals with those of the teachers.
But this has not been my observation or experience. The school’s goals are generally vague, canned BS that has little meaning or relevance and is presented in a dictated fashion. The school’s goals fail to take into account the student’s goals, or those of the teachers.
Principals need to be sharing the vision that the school has and finding ways to make that vision relevant to the students and the teachers. They need to be listening to students and teachers to ensure that the school’s goals are in sync with the goals the students and teachers hold. The best way to do that is to walk around, sit in on classes, talk to students and teachers – and listen.
Bottom line: principals need to spend more time in the halls and in the classroom, lesson plans in hand, watching, listening and comparing. And, they need to be listening to and finding ways to help the teacher reach her goals.
