Great School Leaders are Present (Leadership Matters Part 1)

A day in the life of a school leader can be busy.

There are teachers to observe, parents to call, meetings to attend, emails to write, events to plan, students to monitor, data points to track–the list goes on and on! It can be tempting to get lost in the busyness of the day to day tasks and to stay locked in your office, beating back paperwork until it’s time to go home.

While it is important to complete tasks and solve problems, you could be undermining your leadership if you don’t strategically schedule your time to be present with your teachers and students.

Leadership is influence, and it’s hard to influence anyone if you’re never around.

The best school leaders take time to form positive relationships with students and staff, and they invest a significant portion of their time in being present during the school day.

Here are three ways to improve your leadership by being more present.

Be present to be present.

Woody Allen once said that 80% of success is just showing up. Every day that you are absent from school matters, so choose your absences carefully.

Out of the twenty or so school days in a month, try to limit the number of days you are out of the building to two or three. If you’ve already been sick two days this month and have an off-campus district meeting coming up next week, you might reconsider the planned absence you have coming up for a conference. You’d already miss fifteen percent of the month, and your students and staff need you!

We’ve all heard the saying, “when the cat’s away, the mice play.” Just as students behave differently with a substitute when the teacher is absent, students and staff behave differently when the leader is absent. On days when I go to a district principals’ PLC, I usually come back to discipline referrals, parent complaints, or bus issues.

Take an honest evaluation of how often you are off campus. I had a college instructor who said, “You can be absent up to six times for this class. Use those absences. You paid for them.” Once you step into leadership, you can bet you’ll pay for your absences– often in ways you'd never expect.

Structure your daily agenda to be visible at the right times.

Visibility may seem low-effort, but it makes a huge difference.

Relationships are built one interaction at a time. Being visible gives people access to you, and you are much more likely to have positive interactions that lead to better relationships.

I once let several days pass when I was not able to monitor the cafeteria like I needed to, and sure enough, I had to deal with cafeteria discipline in my office. The next week, I made it a point to monitor the cafeteria for the whole lunch period several times. While I was there I talked with students. I had zero problems with discipline in the cafeteria that week.

Principals can spend time handling discipline one on one in the office, or they can proactively invest that time in building relationships with teachers and students to reduce discipline issues. It takes the same amount of time in the end, but when you spend time with people on the front end, you have the added benefit of enhancing your school’s climate.

There are certain times when you should never be stuck in your office.

• Use your presence strategically–during transition times, step into the hallway and talk to students.

• Make appearances at recess and at the cafeteria during lunch.

• Before the school day begins, get out of your office and greet your teachers and students as they arrive.

• Step into classrooms during planning periods just to check on your teachers.

The more you establish your leadership presence by just being present, the better your school will be.

Spend time in classrooms, not just in hallways.

You’ve been there as a teacher–when the principal comes in for a visit during your lesson, your heart skips a beat. The lesson that you’ve meticulously planned seems to fall flat, and you become more self-conscious than student-conscious.

The best schools have confident teachers, and the most confident teachers feel supported by their administrators. That feeling does not come naturally, however, and many teachers need their leader to be present to be able to perform to the best of their ability.

The more that school leaders are present in classrooms, the more comfortable your teachers will feel, and the easier it will be for you to inspire them to strive for excellence.

Teacher leaders may have fewer opportunities to get into classrooms than principals, but visiting classrooms can make a huge impact on the school.

Just as proximity to students is one of the most effective teaching and classroom management practices, proximity to teachers is one of the most effective leadership strategies for school leaders. There are fewer problems in classrooms when the leaders make frequent informal observations throughout the week.

Spending more time in classrooms also provides more opportunities for positive praise. I like to take sticky notes with me when I go into classrooms, and I write down one or two things that I notice the teacher doing well to leave on the door as I leave. I picked up this tactic as an instructional coach, and it has served me very well over the years.

When leaders are not present in classrooms, relationships with teachers suffer. There are some conversations that occur in successful schools, such as conversations about student data, operational issues, and district requirements. But if your conversation is limited to those areas, you’re missing out on opportunities to grow relationships.

It will be harder to get the buy-in you need to reach your school goals if you do not have a heart for the people you are leading. The old adage is true, “People won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

This month, commit to investing more time being present at your school. Talk to teachers and students about their lives, and ask them about their goals.

If you are an aspiring school leader, take initiative and ask your principal if you can help him or her observe teachers. Alternatively, partner up with a fellow teacher on your own and offer to observe and reflect during your planning period.

What about you? What are some ways you can be more present in your leadership?

Let me know in the comments below!