The Principal's Handbook

mastering-effective-staff-communication-for-principals
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Welcome to the Principal's Handbook, your go to resource for [00:01:00] principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self care. I'm Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we delve into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.
From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work life balance, I'm Barb Flowers. We'll navigate the complexities of school leadership together. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority.
Hey everyone, . In this podcast episode, we're going to be discussing effective communication for school principals. Communication lies at the heart of successful leadership. So today we're going to talk about why communication is so important and ways that you can communicate effectively with both staff and parents.
So I want you to think about, do you ever struggle to be an effective [00:02:00] communicator? Do you feel like you know your strengths and weaknesses as a communicator? Being reflective and understanding yourself is going to help you get better at your communication skills. So I want you to think about these couple questions and kind of reflect on them as I ask them.
Are you someone who communicates information straight to the point? Do you add a lot of unnecessary fluff? Do you actively seek feedback on how you can improve your communication? Do you genuinely listen when teachers are sharing their thoughts or concerns or ideas? Are you seeking to understand others perspectives or are you just waiting for your turn to speak?
So thinking and reflecting about your communication style, it's going to help you get better. I know for me, I can be very straight to the point and knowing this is so important and it actually works out great because I have an assistant who is really good at adding fluff, adding details. [00:03:00] I feel very lucky because I'm very aware of my communication style.
I am aware of what my weaknesses are that I can be very direct and I can be to the point, but so much to the point that I leave out details. I forget all those little pieces that I need to include. Um, and also if I'm writing an email, it can come across sounding harsh, not because I want it to, but just because I'm very direct.
So knowing that about myself is important because I'm able to, you know, be cognizant of that and watch that and make sure that what is the tone of the email I'm sending or how is that coming across because I am just so direct and not very detail oriented in that way. So it's important to know yourself, know yourself as a communicator, know people who have strengths that you don't have.
I'm very lucky to work with an assistant who has different strengths than I do. And so he's good at adding that fluff to his writing. He's good at adding in those details and making You [00:04:00] know, writing come across really friendly. And so that's helpful when you're communicating with parents and staff. And so having people that can help you to improve in those areas.
Want to know one of my biggest frustrations with ed tech, the sheer number of tools out there and the difficulty of knowing which ones schools and districts like mine are using to get results. IXL is different. Not only does it perform the functions of dozens of tools, it's currently delivering results for one in four U.
S. students, including those in 95 of the top 100 districts. IXL is research proven to accelerate achievement. Studies across 45 states show that IXL schools outperform non IXL schools on state assessments and independent research from John Hopkins University Verifies that IXL meets ESSA Tier 1 standards.
With those results combined with IXL's teacher friendly reputation, what more could you ask for? If you have a goal to increase achievement for all students, make sure to find out what IXL can do for you. Visit ixl. com [00:05:00] forward slash b e for a demo. That's ixl. com forward slash b e. is really important. I want to start by talking about why principals need to be good communicators.
First, it's to lead and inspire people. If you don't communicate the goals of the school and your organization and your beliefs, you're not going to be able to inspire those you lead to improve, to grow, to be part of this organization and feel a part of it. So it's really important when you're a leader and you're inspiring people that you can communicate and articulate things well.
Also, it promotes a positive school culture, effective communication, is at the heart of shaping the culture within the school because how you communicate is how everything else is going to flow in the school, whether people know what's going on, whether it's positive, whether it's negative. So having positive communication throughout the school is really important [00:06:00] for a positive school culture.
And also principals who prioritize and practice their communication skills. are just better equipped to lead their schools to excellence. They're going to do a better job because they get people where they need them to go. They're able to communicate that to people. They're able to let people know exactly what they need to do and people feel like they can trust the leader and that they are comfortable in that environment and know exactly what's expected of them.
So that is going to help just that school have overall excellence. So here are some strategies to communicate effectively. So first is to communicate often and multiple times. Whatever you want your staff to know, don't just assume if you told them once they're going to know it or remember it. We have to do lots of reminders.
Repetition is key to effective communication. You have to think about how busy you are. People have busy lives [00:07:00] and they don't always absorb the information that you send out or share with them the first time they hear it. So having multiple ways that you share information is really important. So in my school, what we do is we have a shared Google calendar where everything's on that Google calendar that they can see.
I also put out weekly notes on Friday, which I'll talk about a little bit more later. And then I have, , my secretary does a message every night through the remind app where everyone sees exactly what's going on in the building the next day. So that's three ways communication is going out about different events.
So. And even doing it that many times, I will say that teachers are still like, I didn't know that meeting was happening. And you know, it, you just have to say it multiple times, lots of reminders because people are busy and they get overwhelmed and overloaded with information and they forget. So lots of reminders.
Another strategy is to set clear expectations. Clarity is essential for successful communication. And in my experience of [00:08:00] working with elementary teachers, they just want to do things right. And I know every building's different. I know every grade level's different for how teachers act and how they follow expectations.
But in my experience, teachers just want to know exactly what's expected and what they're supposed to do. And they'll tell me that. Just tell me what I'm supposed to do. And so providing teachers with that guidance through staff handbooks, different systems in the building, like PBIS, which is your positive behavior interventions and supports, when everyone knows what's expected of them, it's going to reduce confusion and it's going to enhance the productivity in the building.
So being very clear and just letting people know exactly what you need from them and what expectations are in place. And as a new principal, I will say it happened a lot that I would hear, Oh, you know, this is a rule, you know, they would talk about grading rules that I never heard about, or, just different things that I never came up with those expectations for teachers.
It was just [00:09:00] years and years of different principals saying things and they weren't district rules, they were principal rules from before. So in principal expectations, so making sure that even if you've been there for a while that you're just very clear about what your expectations are or the district's expectations compared to just this is how it's always been.
Okay. Also make sure to communicate consistently, so have a consistent form of communication that you send out regularly to your staff and to your parents. So to the staff, I was talking about weekly notes. Every Friday I send out upcoming dates of things happening each day in the building. And I also put any information that I need staff to know.
For example, if we're having an awards assembly, I put the list of awards that they need to pick award winners for when they're due by, information like that. And the consistent, the consistency not only helps keep the staff informed, but it also prevents an [00:10:00] overload of emails. Because what I do is throughout the week, instead of just shooting off an email, because I think of something I need staff to know, I'm putting it in the weekly notes.
I'm working on them all week so that on Friday I'm ensuring i'm giving all the information I need them to know Dates for the next week and then just upcoming information. So that's been really helpful Um, it ensures that, you know, again, I'm not overloading staff with emails and information's not missed because sometimes I can't even remember what email I sent because I'm sending so many emails and I think I sent something and I didn't, but if it's on my weekly notes, I can go back and look to see whether I communicated that to staff or not.
Another way to communicate consistently that I use with parents is I use the newsletter S'more, and you could do this with your staff as well, but I, I use a building newsletter that goes out weekly through S'more, which is an online newsletter. And we've always done a newsletter home to parents each week.
And that started before even I was the [00:11:00] principal, but I love this online platform because we're able to put in a ton of pictures of kids. We can put in information, dates, what's coming up for lunch. flyers from different organizations and then we're not having to print and pass them out, community information.
So that's really helpful. And what I love about it is every Friday, the parents get an email and a text from me with the link to this newsletter. And it's just consistent communication. So I tell parents, if you don't know what's happening, check our building newsletter. It goes out every Friday at three o'clock.
And so. Having that consistent communication is a great way to direct parents to know exactly where to look for information. Another strategy is to know your audience. Understanding the specific needs and preferences of your staff is so important to have effective communication. So as I've learned my staff over the years, I've learned how to become a better communicator with them.
You know, teachers with lots of experience have helped me to become more detail oriented. As I [00:12:00] said at the beginning, I'm a very big picture person. I can put out the information that I'm thinking about, but I don't always think about those little details that teachers want to know. And so I, you know, over the years I learned that my teachers need every single detail.
If the schedule's changed or if an event is going to be happening, they'll ask me a lot of questions. And through the years with them asking me a lot of questions, I've learned to anticipate what teachers need to know, what they're going to ask, and that has helped me to become more detail oriented. So just knowing your audience and, and some teachers might not need the detail, you know, they can kind of fill in the gaps for themselves, decide how they want to do it.
But my teachers like lots of details. They want to know exactly how it should go, what it should look like. And so that's helped me change my communication to be very detail oriented with them. Another strategy is just being a good listener. We know good communication involves being a good listener, and that's super important when your teachers are talking to you.
[00:13:00] Good listening. It's a huge skill and effective communication, and often we listen because we want to be able to comment and be ready to say what we want to share after the person that we're talking to is done talking. But we need to practice empathetic listening and really seeking to understand the perspective of the person talking and what their concerns are, rather than thinking about how you're going to respond.
It's going to promote a culture of trust. It's going to promote more open dialogue. You know, and you're just trying to understand the other person's point of view and where they're coming from versus sitting there thinking, okay, how am I going to prove my point? So really, um, seeking for understanding is what you're trying to do when you're listening.
Also be mindful of how much you interrupt others. I think this is so common for people, but if you start becoming aware of interrupting and how much others interrupt you and how much you interrupt others, you're going to notice that it happens a lot. In the book by the Charisma Myth [00:14:00] by Olivia Fox Cabane, I love, she talks about the importance of not interrupting and she says that good listeners know to never, ever interrupt.
but great listeners know to let others interrupt you. And I thought that was just so key because people like to talk to people that listen and hear them and understand their perspective. So being a good listener, it, it means that other people can interrupt you, but you're not going to interrupt them.
Another strategy is to receive feedback. Listen to feedback from staff and parents about communication. It's very easy to get defensive and think you're communicating well enough when someone makes a comment that they didn't know or it wasn't communicated well. I know that from my own experience, it's very easy for me to feel defensive about it.
But it's important that instead of getting defensive, you take the feedback and improve it for next time. Because feedback can highlight any blind spots that you don't even realize you have when it comes to communication. And it can help you understand what's working and what's [00:15:00] not working. So we have to meet people where they are.
We have to be willing to take that feedback and listen. So for example, to parents at the beginning of the year, I send the same letter every year, and it's very detailed about the start of the year, how to drop your kids off when school starts, lots of beginning information. It's front and back with bullet points.
And on the back I put when open house was, but yet I was getting all these questions about when open house was, and this was mailed to all families. What the feedback I got after talking to individual parents was they scan and they're like we didn't see that little Bullet point line that said when open house was so that feedback helped me I know next year I'm going to put in a flyer for open house and not just have it in a bullet point And so actually listening versus getting defensive and thinking they should have read it well and saw it in there you know, being open to that and understanding because I'm a busy person as well.
I understand I do the same thing where I'll just scan information. So making [00:16:00] it easy for parents to find that information and find the events happening versus just assuming they'll read every single word. And that goes for staff as well. So always ask them for input on communication. You know, I communicate in three different ways with staff and I'll still hear, I didn't even know about that meeting.
And as frustrating as that can be, I have to think about how busy and overwhelmed they can get. And so I have to think about how can I better communicate all the time. So I'm always asking for feedback. I'm always asking for different ways I could communicate things. I try to think about what's the best time to communicate information to them.
You know, when are they the least overwhelmed? You know, I just had a teacher give me feedback where she communicated that she didn't like how I handled a change in her classroom. The teacher shared with me she didn't feel I took the time to talk with her about it. And learn more about the change that I made and how it would affect her classroom.
And I appreciated that she sat down and talked to me about it, because one, I really [00:17:00] respect the teacher, but getting that feedback now when I talk to other teachers about the same thing, I'm able to have that feedback in the back of my mind. Ian. know that I need to be receptive to other teachers. I need to be sitting down having good conversations before I'm making changes in the classroom too quickly without their input.
So that was really helpful, but if I'd not been open to receiving that information and I blew off what she said, then I wouldn't have been able to make that improvement in my own communication skills. So taking that feedback is crucial. The willingness to adapt, it just demonstrates your commitment to continuous improvement and always wanting to be better.
Another strategy is to stay calm when communicating. If you're wanting to talk to someone about a situation and your emotions are running high, especially when addressing sensitive issues or a sensitive topic, it's better to pause and talk with that person about the situation later. When you communicate with staff and you have high [00:18:00] emotions about something, you're, you aren't going to communicate your best.
You're going to communicate out of your emotions versus like out of your practical side of your brain. So it's the same when you have a parent, if you've ever dealt with a parent who's highly emotional and it's like, it's so frustrating because they don't even feel rational at that point, but it's because they're coming from that emotional part of them.
So it's best to reschedule that meeting and have a conversation when, you know, there's less emotions involved so that everybody can see the situation clearly. And then you're able to just have a better conversation where there can actually be a good solution. Another strategy is to give feedback about teaching and learning.
Remember to engage teachers in meaningful conversations about instructional strategies and student data. And this can be done through your observations, it can be done through PLCs, but Talking with teachers and sharing and communicating about teaching and learning is going to create an environment where that's what you [00:19:00] do.
You talk about how to become better. Even sharing what you're learning and reading about and demonstrating your own commitment to ongoing professional growth and development. That's a good example. That's good modeling for your staff. And these discussions that can just lead to an overall more collaborative and effective teaching and learning environment within the school and one where.
People are excited to try new things and share what they're learning because it's a culture of learning and improvement. My last strategy is to set boundaries on communication. Make sure that when you're emailing, calling, or texting your staff, you're being mindful of their work hours. You don't want to be contacting staff after work unless it's an emergency.
I encourage my staff to set boundaries and I want to model that. If I'm emailing my staff at four in the morning, which is when I like to work, I get up early and They're going to get a message from me or an email at four in the morning. And they're going to think, why is she working at four o'clock in the morning?
So make sure that if you do [00:20:00] choose to work at that time, that your schedule sending things so that people can't see the time, because I always want to model what I'm asking them to do, which is I want to model having boundaries. But for me, I'm, I have more energy in the morning and that's the time that I get more work done.
So it seems to work well for me, but. It's hard to explain that to staff if they're seeing emails from me at four in the morning. I can also schedule emails that I write during the school day so that the information gets out to staff when I want them to know it. So maybe, , it's conference week and I know it's kind of crazy.
Everyone's feeling overwhelmed. I'll schedule send an email for the next week so that way I know that it's done and it's off my plate, but teachers won't be getting it until, you know, some of the stressful events are over. Those are my tips for. communicating effectively. So I just want to summarize those again.
Remember to communicate often and multiple times, set clear expectations, communicate consistently, know your [00:21:00] audience, be a good listener, receive feedback, stay calm when communicating, give feedback about teaching and learning, and set boundaries on communication. So I hope that those tips are helpful. I hope you utilize them to improve your communication.
If you are interested in one on one coaching with me or more tips throughout the week, you can find me on Instagram at Barb Flowers Coaching. On Instagram, I have a free guide for prioritizing your time. If you click the link in my bio, I'm also going to put a link in the show notes here. And that way you can get that guide for prioritizing your time.
If you are struggling with overall confidence, I provide a free confidence strategy planning session. During this session, I evaluate your confidence, utilizing the five pillars of confidence, and I'll develop personalized goals tailored to the areas that you need improvement. So this is completely free.
If you're interested in this, reach out to me. I love doing these sessions. So thank you for listening to this episode. If you find this [00:22:00] podcast helpful, leave a review so others are able to find this podcast as well. I hope you have a great week and stay tuned for next week's episode.
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