Have you ever just stopped and looked around you? What do you see? What do you hear? What would happen if you moved in any direction? This is how successful School Administrators are every day. Looking and listening are complex, but that next step can have many ramifications. Your actions affect everything in your school, no matter how big or small. Here are some examples:
· A parent communicates issues through email, text, or phone. If you do not respond (no matter how minor it may seem), then your "inaction" has told the parent that you do not care. This parent will then, of course, tell other parents and the situation can escalate from there. If you do respond quickly, the parent is ensured that they have a voice and that you care!
· You send a form to your staff that needs to be filled out and returned by the end of the week. You need the collected information to report to the Superintendent by Monday morning. Three staff members miss the deadline. Their "inaction" has made the data inaccurate and the report either late or inaccurate. This affects your relationship and evaluation with the Superintendent and could affect your salary if you get a poor review.
· Teachers are commonly evaluated on "test scores". There are two or three students who are constantly absent (inaction) and, therefore, always behind. Because the students are not at school, their test scores are low. This shows the "teacher" was unsuccessful, affecting the teacher's evaluation, salary, and possibly a job.
These are just a few examples of how a few people's "inactions" affect everyone around them negatively. As school administrators, we MUST be the example. You are going to make mistakes. You can't always avoid that, but you can try to think about how your decisions affect everyone around you.
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