The second focus area for our school culture shift was expectations. Several faculty/staff members indicated (during the temperature check) that they never knew what was expected of them. How can we expect teachers to be or feel successful if we (school leaders) do not communicate clear expectations? In the same respect, how can students be successful if they do not know what is expected of them? I put a lot of thought and time into this focus area prior to introducing it to my faculty/staff. Ultimately, I decided to go back to Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s advice from the book Extreme Ownership: Keep it simple! During this time, I had been doing a lot of reading about organizational leadership. One of the books I had read was Above the Line, by Urban Meyer. Honestly, I’ve never been a fan of Urban Meyer's football teams. However, his knowledge of leadership strategies is superb. One simply cannot argue the success of his programs at Utah, Florida, and Ohio State. You don’t have successful programs like that without knowing a thing or two about leading people.
There were numerous strategies that I could have chosen to develop and communicate expectations for my school. I chose the Above the Line strategy because of its simplicity! I knew that if I wanted everyone (faculty, staff, and students) to get on board…it had to be clear and simple. I wasn’t leading a group of 18-22 year old college athletes. I was leading an awesome group of educators, and several hundred students. Prior to introducing the concept, I took some time to talk to several key leaders within my school about how to best make this strategy fit us. At our next faculty meeting, I introduced the Above the Line concept, and it went great! The following chart displays the graphic I used to introduce this concept to my faculty/staff.
[Intentional, Professional, Skillful, Extra Mile]
ABOVE THE LINE
__________________________________
BELOW THE LINE
[Impulsive, Mindless, Unprofessional, Resistant, Minimal]
All actions and behaviors are either above or below the line! Above the line actions are intentional, professional, skillful, and anything that goes beyond normal expectation. Below the line actions and behaviors are impulsive, mindless, unprofessional, resistant, and minimal. We discussed examples of each type of behavior, and the importance of staying above the line. My expectation for every faculty/staff member in my school is to be Above the Line in everything we do! When planning lessons, teaching lessons, disciplining students, talking to parents, planning a program, coaching a team, etc…be Above the Line! Having this simple/clear set of expectations has provided excellent opportunities for me as an administrator to recognize teachers for being Above the Line, and effectively address below the line occurrences.
Not only do I expect my faculty/staff to be Above the Line, I expect students to be Above the Line. We tied this concept into everything we do at our school. We developed signs to place around our school, defining what Above the Line actions/behaviors are expected in the classroom, hallways, restrooms, cafeteria, gym/playground, and school bus. We clearly communicated these expectations to every student. Our next step (coming this summer) is to make videos modeling Above the Line behaviors. These videos will be used to educate our students throughout the school year. We will discuss this more in the next part of this series.
Upcoming: In Part V of the Culture Trumps Everything series, we will discuss school discipline, and the changes we made to make discipline more effective at our school.
Books Referenced:
