A Love For People

As you get older, you realize that people can and will disappoint you. How do you move past this realization? In reality, you need people working together to achieve goals. How do we balance understanding the nature of human beings and the betterment of our organizations?

Being an educator means that the bulk of your work is centered around interactions with people. This ranges from fellow educators to students, parents, staff members, and community stakeholders. Interpersonal skills are paramount in our profession. As we all know, dealing with people can sometimes be tricky.

Education leaders are tasked with serving a wide variety of people with diverse personalities. The best leaders have the ability to serve educators on an individual level. The same way that teachers should provide each student with what they need to be successful, leaders should take that same approach. With the many responsibilities that school leaders have, is this possible?

The answer is unequivocally, yes. It takes time building relationships and knowing the needs and concerns of those that you serve. This requires multiple conversations, not just about what’s going on in the school building, but what’s happening in their personal lives. You also learn a lot about your teachers when you are frequently in their classrooms observing instruction.

Classroom observations give you a clear picture of instruction and classroom culture. These are also opportunities for constructive feedback and sharing areas of growth. When you are present in classrooms as a building leader, feedback, oftentimes, is more well received by teachers. This also gives you an opportunity to find out what resources are needed to help teacher growth.

Everything in a school building rises and falls on the shoulders of leadership. Having a love for what you do and the people that you serve will make you a better leader. If people sense that you don’t like what you’re doing, why should they follow you?

When you love what you do, you don’t have to go around saying it. It will be evident in every facet of your everyday existence. The quality of your work shows it. Your approach to challenges shows it.

Your love for what you do shows up in your everyday conversations with teachers, staff, students, and parents. Can your stakeholders see that you enjoy your work? Are people genuinely happy to see you at arrival, in classrooms, hallways, the dining hall, or dismissal?

Summer is here and you more than deserve your break. At some point, analyze how your school year went. Did you finish strong, or were you feeling as if you could not take much more? I encourage you to think about what energizes you during the school year. What things do you enjoy about your work? Whatever it is, do more of it.

I am in no way minimizing the task that is at hand for educators. The work is hard, but I am encouraging you to not have a victim’s mindset. Find what works for you and people that will help you along the way. Rest up and enjoy your summer!