A Compliment Within a Compliment

I was given an extremely kind compliment today from a teacher in my building. While the message of the compliment was incredibly appreciated, who she said it applied to was more of a compliment to me than I think she even realized.

We work hard to provide an exemplary learning and working environment for our students and staff. And, I know that it is a focus of our admin team to establish that type of an environment in a consistent way. While we may execute it in different ways, we work extremely collaboratively to ensure that each administrator is empowered to make decisions, but will do so with our student’s and staff’s best interests in the forefront.

Additionally, it is extremely important to me that no matter which administrator someone approaches, they can get a clear and educated answer – even if it means the administrator has to do some research and get back to them. To me, part of being a cohesive and effective team means that we have the ability to speak eloquently about (almost) anything in the building. We want our teachers to focus on teaching and less on the business-stuff, and we have to be focused and intentional in our actions to ensure that remains a reality.

Part of being a highly functioning team is knowing when things are working and, more importantly, when things aren’t. Just as a student can tell when a teacher is having a bad day, teachers can tell when an admin team just doesn’t jive. Bring issues to the forefront and work to overcome them together. Communication is essential to the development and continued success of a team – and is even more true when things are falling apart. It’s not always easy, but it’s crucial.

So, while the compliment paid to me was truly kind and appreciated, the fact that she said it was true of our whole team is what I’ll carry with me. That’s the harder component to pull off.