LearnHub

I’ve been a secondary vice-principal for five years and I’m very happy in the role, but still miss the collegiality of my fellow teachers. Good relations is not the same as comraderie. Your position creates barriers with even those who are friends of yours. Previously I was on the union executive as both chief negotiator and treasurer. I very happily complained about my school’s administration at different times, but in the end chose to leave a school that was too negative because it was getting me down. As a teacher, two of my principals told me you can’t please everyone all the time, and they were right.

That’s a preamble to my answer to your question. How you handle the responsibilities and stresses has to do with balancing your life and enjoying your time off. I think your question was really about how you get along with negative staff or try to bring them on side. The first thing is watch yourself: be respectful, listen, be fair, explain yourself, and above all don’t take it personally or make it personal. Work with those who are on board. For those who aren’t doing the job often only respectful sharing of clear expectations will work. When you challenge a staff member who isn’t doing a good job, the other staff appreciate it. It indirectly shows respect to them for the good job they are doing. If you make a mistake, make amends. Never underestimate the value of being positive. One closing thought is you should develop a bit of a thick skin: there inevitably will be staff and parents who do not like you. If you remain true to yourself you will prevail, and go home most nights feeling you are doing a good job.

I once worked with a principal in a school with very strong union involvement. She made sure that she was in the lunchroom every day. Even if it were only for a few minutes. She often came in with some news to share. I thought she was just a very social person, what i learned from her was that she was intentional in everything she did. She kept that room from being “poisoned by the nay-sayers.” It was a good lesson.

Your question was – how does one handle all the responsibilities and stress associated with being a leader and making sure the union teachers are happy too? I think that it all starts with relationship building. Valuing others is the key to developing authentic relationships. Gaining the trust and respect of your staff is of utmost importance. Just like in a personal relationship, being honest, trustworthy, empathetic, tolerant and a team player is essential in a professional relationship. If there is a good working relationship with staff, this can reduce a lot of problems and ultimately, stress. Staff are willing to do those little extras if they feel they have a supportive leader. I can think of two schools within our system where the principals do not have a positive relationship with staff members. They are seen as autocratic and are challenged every step of the way. Other schools can implement the same changes (and with some staff that can be seen as just as difficult) and they are able to move forward. It seems to keep going back to “Relationships Relationships Relationships”. With respect to the workload, it can be overwhelming. Principals are pulled in every direction. I think it is important that when leaders are feeling overwhelmed that they not become withdrawn or defensive. Sometimes they resort to more formal communication ie. sending emails rather than speaking directly to staff. Instead of building relationships, it can inhibit relationship development. With respect to keeping the union happy, I spend a great deal of time working with all of the Union Presidents. I can assure you that we don’t always agree, but we can agree to disagree. However, I do believe that both sides respect each others point of view. At the last round of negotiations, the Union members at the table had a lot of issues. I should mention the majority of the representatives were from the two schools that I referred to above. (Coincidence, I think not) They had a number of issues regarding workload and programs that had been implemented. Once they received an explanation regarding the reasons for implementation, it changed the “climate” in the room. I can not stress the importance of good communications. We could see that communication was an issue in both of those schools. As the wellness advocate of our Board, I would be remiss if I did not address the whole balancing work and home issue. We always have to remember at the end of the day that our tombstone will not say ” Loyal employee of ” – it will read “Beloved wife of/husband of/daughter or son of” . . . We need to keep things in perspective. As a leader, we need to learn to balance – if we are to survive.

Hi Mmann,

Being the Union Represenative at my school, I find your question a very interesting and engaging one. I believe that it is imperative as an administrator to know and understand the collective agreements of all of those on your staff. Familiarizing oneself with the various regulations will make handling a particularly difficult situation less stressful. I think making the “union teachers” happy is equivalent to leading in a fair, consistent, and moral manner. You should always lead in a way that does not go against set out in the collective agreement. Principals and Union Representatives must work in collaboration with one another, and must have ongoing dialogue. I also believe that administrators should and must be in the know about issues that are going on at the union level. Building a professional and open relationship between administration and union representatives is also key. At my school, I consistently inform the principal of anything new that is sent to me from the union, and he in turn, is very supportive of anything that I must report or do in regards to the union. If their is mutual respect and an open relationship has been established, I find that administrators often heaily rely on their reps to help them find the answers to some pertinent questions that they may not have the answers to. Union Representatives are often people whom many staff members confide in, and they hold a position of great responsibility. That said, it is crucial for administration to understand and be supportive of the initiatives and tasks that the union representatives must perform. It is sad to hear what is going on at your school, and the solution, I believe is for administration and union representative to sit down and see discuss where the disconnect lies, and develop strategies that can resolve the conflict. Thanks for sharing this question.

How do you get the team to buy into your schools’s goal? I think the best way is to look at it like a sports coach.

1.Remember what it was like when you first got hired?

• All too often we as people get caught up in the grind of making money. Pay the phone bill! Pay the Rent! Where will our next pay check come from? These are all natural feelings that most people have. However, for the most part when a person receives a phone call from a potential employer saying that they have been picked, they don’t think about those things. At least not right away. Not until the wants and needs take effect.

•We all remember the feeling of what it was like to go to work for the first time. That feeling of a high that you thought would never go away. What is in store for me here? What are the possibilities for movement? How will this all end up? It is these questions that drive us to look forward to work. However, when a person finds out these answers they quickly loose that high that was to be their driving force for the next decade.

2.Allow people to dream! Then let them live that dream!

• A dream is a very unique and individual thing. It could be as small as wanting to go to a movie with a co-worker or perhaps something as large as wanting to create a company wide daycare. When a person feels that they can live their “dream” they are able to focus on what makes them important to the rest of the team.

3. When you hire make sure you hire for the position of need. When you apply make sure you are applying to the team that you want to play for.

• All too often as a leader of a team we wish to take the “best player available” at the time. It does not matter what the job is; if the person has a MBA or a PhD then we hire them. The best player will make our team stronger. The more education the candidate has the brighter his/her future will be and thus the brighter our company’s future will be. This is often not the case. When we only look for the highest educational standings we leave out perhaps the most important thing in the team equation; The Brick! What is The Brick? The Brick is an idea that we all fit into our place as each brick fits into a perfectly designed building that will stand for centuries to come. Not every brick needs to be on the top of the building. Some bricks need to be the support of the building. Others need to be the bricks that surround the windows or the ones that hold the mortar in place on the third floor. If we only hire top bricks we might not have any bricks to lay the foundation for the building.

4. Who is the weak link? How do we spot them? •The worst thing that a coach can do is to put a player on the field that shouldn’t be there. It can only result in two things, both of them bad. The first is that the player causes the team to do poorly thus not meeting their goal of having fun and winning. The second and more important one is that they may hurt themselves or someone else.

• In the business world one might ask how a player could hurt someone else or themself. If a person is the wrong employee for the job and they don’t fit they will do a poor job. Moreover, when they then are eventually terminated they will have a harder time finding new employment. Subsequently, if a person is wrong for the job the team will suffer. The whole company may be hurt by the actions of that individual. Possibly on the far end of the spectrum bringing down the entire company which could cost numerous people their jobs.

5. Who will be the Quarterback to lead the team?

•All too often the leader of the team wants to be liked rather than lead the way they should. According to Love’em or lead’em, “So you think your workers want a boss they can like? Better think again.” You can be liked by your employees or you can be the leader that they need. However, it would be difficult if not impossible. No coach will be liked by ever player. In fact when I coach if I am liked by all of my players then I am doing something that is not in the best interest of my team. It is more important for the team to run smoothly than for the coach to be liked by all of their players.

• In order for a coach or the principal of the school to be liked they must be able to make the tough decisions. If they are able to make those decisions they will gain the respect of their team. The worst thing any coach can do is to be unsure of what they are doing. Confidence like many great qualities has a trickle down effect. If you as the leader are sure of your ideas and decisions, tough or not they will be the right one and thus respected. Maybe not liked but respected.

6. Good intentions won’t win the Super Bowl.

•Don Meredith who was a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys once said “If ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts, wouldn’t it be a Merry Christmas”. In a game and in the work force good intentions or “I was going to do that” won’t get your team to the championship. This may seem like it is a harsh thing to say, however, all great teams have goals and ideas and follow through with them. Certainly, sometimes things are out of our control. Yet it is our job as the leader to ensure that our team is in a position to win. Never allow the referee or industry to set the tone for a loss by your team. If a ref blows a call in the last minute of the game which causes your team to loose you have not done your job. The game should be so far out of reach for your opponents that no one play could turn into a loss.

7. Keep the team playing for you.

•Recently Stats Canada released an article that looks at trends from the past 15 years. It stated that Canadian businesses lost the highest number of workdays due to strikes and lockouts in the year 2005. It is very difficult to have a winning team if the team is not on the field. Sometimes the best thing a manager can do is to allow their employees the freedom and ability to grow. However, that growth should be monitored. Instead of allowing a group to organize into a union perhaps agree to a legal document stating that they will receive compensation based on the normal average dependant on the industry standard.

1. Howard, Chris. Canadian Business. Love’em or lead’em: So you think your workers want a boss they can like? Better think again. April 10, 1998 2. Statistics Canada. (2005). Retrived April 13, 2007. Study: Time lost due to work stoppages. http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/060823/d060823c.htm

Relationships, relationships, relationships. I’m lucky to be in a situation in which I respect my school’s union rep. He is not a complainer but will share staff concerns. It is important as an administrator to be open to hearing and then acting on the concerns of staff. It is my hope that if staff know that they can bring their concerns to me then there will be less venting in the staff room.

As for dealing with the stress that may come from interacting with unions you just have to be comfortable with yourself. Did you do what you did for what you believe were the right reasons? If you did then you should sleep well at night. My latest experience may provide some insight. I have four teachers who are working on a grant proposal for the school and the initiative will definitely benefit students. I was approached last week about possibly providing some release time for the group to work on it as it was quite involved. They suggested on-calls for half a day and then half a day supply coverage. I decided to give 3 teachers full day supply coverage ($660) and then cover the fourth teacher with two half period on-calls as she only needed minimal coverage due to her teaching assignment. Well wouldn’t you know it but staff were talking about grieving the coverage even though I had gone above what they had originally asked for. In the end a great proposal was written and I’m sleeping well tonight.

I am the Union Rep. at my school and I think that will be beneficial to me when I become an administrator. Knowing the role the Union plays and the rules and regulations of the Union can only be helpful as an administrator.

I think as an administrator you just need to have an open relationship with the Union Rep. If you unsure about how a decision will be seen by the Union, discuss it with the Union Rep. to ensure it follows the rules. I think the worst thing an administrator can do in the eyes of the Union is to do things which are seen as “sneaky” and trying to get around Union rules. If they see a concern for following Union regulations I think they will be more likely to regard you as a person with integrity and know you aren’t trying to go against the Union. Communication between Admin and the Union Rep. must be ongoing.

The situation at your school is unfortunate. You would think they would be able to sit down as professionals and come to some sort of understanding to make things more tolerable for everyone else.

Hi mmann,

The problem you are referring to will only become worse if we attempt as a primary objective to have Union Leadership and staff to be happy and comfortable. Relationships are extremely important but should never be a higher priority than a qualty instructional program.

In my mind this is not a dilemma.

Niagara

Hi Niagara and everyone: Yes this is a hot topic and I’m curious how it can not be a dilemma. Post strike fall-out has been in my opinion that unions have exercised all the power they can in every regard seemingly without student learning being high on the list. Here is an interesting event that happened to me today. I was on my prep. period eating my lunch – protected and supposedly not allowed to be interrupted (so the union says but I don’t really care). I was asked by the head secretary to do her a ‘huge favour’ and take a class in the weight room as an emergency coverage. I actually got a little excited about this – it is nice to get out of the ‘math’ wing and see some of the other classes! Anyhow, I grabbed my marking and headed down to the phys. ed area. When I got there the students were outside walking around the track and another phys. ed teacher was on a rant. This teacher completely lost it and was angered by the fact that they were called in the first place as it was their protected day off (this is stuff that my elementary colleagues will not want to hear and I don’t blame you for a second). Anyhow, this teacher was repeatedly finding fault with everyone that this situation occurred – that being that a student collapsed in the weight room and was escorted out to the ambulence by her phys. ed teacher. This office called the phys. ed department to ask the on-call phys. ed teacher to temporarily cover this class so the classroom teacher could stay with the student (who was petrified) until the ambulance took her away. Well the on-call teacher refused stating that they could not be used for coverage on this day – sent the students out to the track for safety and then let me have it – (not sure what I did wrong other than arrive and be a live body to be yelled at). Anyhow, I calmed this person down, sent them off to their prep. and went outside with the girls to gather them together and bring them back in. All that took about 20 minutes and the regular classroom teacher came back to free me up again. Need-less-to-say, she was quite upset by the whole thing. Who knows what the real rule for coverage is. At my school so many people have gone to the union about everything that we can keep the rules straight anymore. So my question is how this cannot be a dilemma. Two staff members now have a very strained relationship for some period of time because of the rules that could not be put aside for a student’s best interests. I have a really hard time with this. I completely understand your original question, Mmann. It must be very difficult, to say the least, working with such a powerful union – much more powerful than in my first years of teaching. It is one of my greatest concerns in becoming a v.p.

Hi everyone. This is a great topic. I really liked Mark’s advice regarding the optimism. I think that is critical! The power of optimism is often infectious. My principal is very optimistic and I have seen first hand how this attitude can impact staff. We have a very involved parent community at our school. In the past, our principal would comment on the presence of parents in our school being a hindrance. Currently, we have a principal who at a staff meeting once, started out by saying “we have a very involved comminty here at _____” while I was waiting for something negative to follow, he said “isn’t that great!”. It was like a light bulb went off. I started thikning…he’s right, we don’t have to worry about transportation, we don’t have to worry about kids being left out (small community), if there is a behaviour to be discussed it’s usually corrected very shortly after the phone call, and if you need something last minute (which has been the case once or fifteen times), they come through for you. My principal made me think more positively about the community. As a teacher you have the same impact on the kids. If you come in the classroom all cranky one morning, you can see the dispostiion of the kids change. Similar to the classroom, the people who don’t join your attitude are the one’s who need your attention most. When I look at the staff like the classroom, I have a different attitude towards the negative people. If they were in our classroom, we would try to turn things around. Sometimes we are sucessful and sometimes we are not. We have to try and one simple way to begin, is to be optimistic.

I think Building Relationships and remaining postive is the way to keep everyone focused on what’s important to everyone—instruction. Once the groundwork is laid, keep on building relationships and be intuitive. If you see there are teachers who are falling apart due to personal problems, then take the time to make extra connections with that person. Find out how you can support that person. I find that if you take the time to get to know everyone and make a conscious effort to support people when they are going through rough times, they will respect you and your position. The difficulty I often have as a principal is that sometimes people go too far in asking for favours I definitely cannot accommodate. For example, you have great relations in your building with people and show them a high amount of respect. But then a teacher comes to you and asks you to leave early the day before Winter Holidays because they can only get an early flight out to their destination (which happens to be back home to visit their 90 year old grandmother and be there for her birthday which is the next day). It puts you in an awkard spot to say no, but it is not acceptable for them to be leaving early the day before a vacation. If you say yes, you set precedent. If you say no, you look like a mean person who is not understanding. What would be the right thing to do? I know I have probably made many mistakes in my first principalship and am not sure if I should be tougher on these types of situations at my next school.

I am fascinated by this topic probably because everyone has such a strong opinion on it. I have found that our union reps tend to listen for the injustice throughout the school. This may be part of their job but not their focus, in my opinion. I have also found that many policies take away the relationship building and team feeling within the school. It doesn’t really build community within the school to hear policies and rules chimed in after a well intentioned teacher offers to cover a class or take on an extra duty. I understand that our union has given us opportunities and protection however has it also protected some actions that should not exist at school. I believe it takes a special person to communicate the messages from the union well not forgetting the importance of working as a team and looking at situations individually. I agree with you Helen, many teachers take advantage of certain situations and put their administrator in a difficult spot. As well as communication, we need to remember team work.

Hi guys, last night in my PQP course we had a representitive from ETFO professional services speak to us. The topic was on relationships with staff and admin. The message was loud and clear. unions are not in the business of affirming bad conduct of its members. They are in the business of ensuring collective agreements are followed and thet teachers receive due process when there is a problem. It is important that principals know and follow the agreements in a school and that they ae diligent in doccumenting and following protocol with problems. Keep everything above board and when there is a problem deal with it imediatley in the proper manner. If a principal knows what is in a collective agreement, along with the standards of practice and ensures both admin and teachers follow them than program should be fine ans should relationships. it is when we cheat or stretch things that we find ourself in troubled times.

My final thoughts on strong unions, administration and how all this relates to ensuring that our top priority is successful student learning, goes something like this.

What I have gathered from all the above comments, discussions with colleagues and my personal feelings is that leaders, union reps and strong minded “union” type teachers all need to communicate and build those “authentic” relationships that are built on trust, compassion and the common goal of teaching students to become successful next generation leaders of our society.