Trust Isn’t Built at the Faculty Meeting

 

Trust Is Built After the Meeting

Every August, school leaders stand in front of teachers and talk about the year ahead.

We talk about high expectations. We talk about attendance. We talk about student behavior. We tell teachers that grades need to mean something. We promise them that we are going to hold students accountable.

And somewhere in the room, a veteran teacher is thinking:

I've heard this before.

That teacher may not be negative. They may not be resistant to change. In fact, they may desperately want to believe us.

They've just been through enough school years to know that what is said in August doesn't always survive October.

That's a leadership problem.

Teachers Are Watching What We Do

When we tell teachers to hold students accountable for their work, they are watching to see what happens when a student doesn't do the work.

When we say attendance matters, they are watching to see whether chronic tardiness and absenteeism actually result in intervention and consequences.

When we tell teachers to maintain high academic expectations, they are watching to see whether we support them when students earn failing grades.

When we say disruptive behavior will not be allowed to interfere with another student's learning, they are watching to see what happens when a teacher sends a student to the office.

Every one of those moments is a leadership moment.

And every one either makes a deposit into the trust account—or a withdrawal.

We've Asked Teachers to Carry Too Much of the Accountability

For years, education has increasingly asked teachers to solve problems they don't completely control.

A student doesn't attend regularly? The teacher needs to reach out.

A student doesn't complete assignments? The teacher needs to provide another opportunity.

A student fails? What interventions did the teacher provide?

A student continually disrupts class? What classroom management strategies has the teacher tried?

But at some point, we have to ask a different question:

When does the front office step in?

When does attendance stop being solely the teacher's problem and become a school leadership problem? When does repeated refusal to complete work require something more than another email from the teacher? When does chronic disruption become an administrative responsibility rather than another classroom management strategy for the teacher to try?

There has to be a point where the teacher has done their job and leadership takes responsibility for doing ours.

Teachers should provide excellent instruction. They should build relationships. They should communicate with families. They should provide appropriate support and intervention.

But students have responsibilities too. Parents have responsibilities. And administrators certainly have responsibilities.

When students don't meet their responsibilities, teachers need to know that their leaders will step in and stand beside them.

That is how we begin rebuilding trust.

Don't Announce Accountability. Practice It.

This is where principals and other school leaders have an opportunity to rebuild trust.

Not with another speech.

With action.

When the parents complain that the teacher recorded a failing grade, support the teacher.

When the teacher expects the student to complete the work, don't immediately look for a way around the expectation.

When attendance becomes a problem, make the phone call home.

Students missing class or being tardy isn't an instruction problem, it is a discipline problem.  The leader must act.

When behavior disrupts learning, respond in a way that makes it clear that protecting the learning environment matters.

And when a teacher makes a reasonable decision consistent with the expectations we've established, back them up.

No, it isn't always simple.  But teachers deserve our support as they work within the systems that the leader has built.

Leadership still requires judgment, fairness, and the willingness to correct mistakes.

But our default cannot be to undermine the very expectations we asked teachers to establish.

Trust Comes After the Promise

One of the mistakes leaders make is believing that people should trust us because we have communicated clearly.

That's not how trust works.

Teachers don't owe us trust because we gave a good beginning-of-the-year presentation.

We earn it.

And for veteran teachers who have watched initiatives, expectations, and promises come and go, earning it may take some time.

That's okay.

Don't become frustrated when they don't immediately believe this year will be different.

Show them.

Make the phone call.

Address the attendance problem.

Support the grade.

Handle the discipline issue.

Protect instructional time.

Back the teacher when the teacher is doing what we asked them to do.

Then do it again tomorrow.

And again next week.

Eventually, something begins to change.

The teacher who was skeptical in August starts believing that maybe we really do mean it this time.

That's when leadership begins turning into trust.

And that is The Leadership Difference.