100 Posts in 100 Days
In the last several months during the course of some coaching conversations, I’ve had “coachees” ask me some questions that have pushed me to be the person reflecting and to be explicit about some of my approaches, decision-making, and strategies. One of them even said, “Are you going to write about that in your 100 Posts in 100 Days?” 😊 This is the second Q&A inspired by these conversations.
If you read yesterday’s post, you know that I was asked how to know what to do when taking a new position in a new school. The same person who asked me that question followed up with this one:
Q: What’s it like to lead a project or initiative and then learn that it changed after you leave?
A: To really answer this question, let me share some real scenarios and then a couple of thoughts.
I left my position as a US public school principal at the end of the 2015-2016 school year. For my school, that year was a planning year for our approach and delivery of MTSS, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support. Also that year was one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever had as a school leader when a Go Fund Me campaign staffed a teaching position that we were going to lose because of declining school enrollment. That situation sparked a number of conversations about school funding models and priorities. I talked at length with our PTA leadership about the importance of funding school counselors and felt it was something we could really advocate for.
In 2017-2018, the school received state recognition awards for student achievement in language arts, math, and school quality measures. In the years since I left, the PTA leadership has strengthened their partnership with the school in many ways, one of which has been to embrace the call to advocate for funding for school counselors. In addition to earning a number of awards and grants, they have been leaders testifying at the state legislature for strengthening counseling services in schools.
The results that these students, teachers, and parents have achieved are a testament to the work they have done. Work that evolved, changed, and yielded incredible results after my departure. What I feel is pride for them and for their school community. What I hope is that the direction we set with our school improvement plan while I was principal provided a foundation for what has been their continuous evolution, growth, and success.
I am choosing to highlight scenarios that I deem successful because I think they are evidence of something bigger, and more important, than if a project or initiative stayed the same or changed from the time when I was involved. I think that these examples highlight the importance of collaboration and designing for sustainability. In both of these examples, teams were working toward a common goal. A team of teachers was leading the MTSS work. A team of parents was working on school funding and counseling supports for students. I don’t know the exact approaches they used after I was gone. Maybe they implemented plans just as we had talked about them. Maybe some parts of the plans were eliminated completely while other parts were adapted and improved. For sure those teams incorporated ideas from the incoming principal.
In the end, I don’t think it’s about what I did that matters the most. I think it’s about how I equipped people to do the work that they need to do that will have the biggest impact.