This cat has been away from Greystone for quite a while recently. First, I joined our grade nine students and two of our teachers for our SEVEC Student Exchange in Quebec and then I took a couple of personal days so I could head up to Alaska to take part in the annual parents’ weekend events for my son’s college hockey team. By the time I get back to work after the Family Day long weekend on Tuesday, I will have been away from the Greystone School community for almost two weeks.
What I noticed during my absence is how completely confident and relaxed I felt about how things were being taken care of back at the school. This does not mean that while I was away I did not care about the daily life of students, staff and families at Greystone. In fact, I care deeply, but I was able to be away without concern for the decisions that were made during my absence or the day to day teaching and learning or numerous other initiatives and projects taking place at our busy middle school. I was able to do this because of the strong trust I have for our staff. The Greystone team has demonstrated, time and time again, that they are capable of doing the right thing. Our staff is committed to the vision, values and purpose of our school – we are about kids and we believe in the promise of each and every one of our students. Does this mean that our staff won’t make mistakes? Absolutely not. However, I know that their intentions are good and that they always act in the best interest of our students. The staff has demonstrated the ability to lead by example, make great decisions and step up when called on to deal with difficult situations. Everyone on staff, from first year teachers to seasoned veterans; from Educational Assistants to our Office Leadership Team; supports one another in ensuring that our kids come first.
Leading a school community reminds me, in some ways, of parenting. For purely selfish, ego gratifying reasons, it can be extremely re-assuring to feel needed. As a parent, there is no better feeling than to be able to help your kids whenever possible – when they are young, it is incredibly fulfilling to be the centre of your child’s universe – loving and supporting unconditionally – jumping in to help them whenever they are struggling. In the long run, this kind of selfish parenting does not help children develop into confident, capable, independent, interdependent adults who are able to direct their own lives and learn to roll with the challenges that life presents. Children need to do things for themselves in order to grow. They need to stumble and fall in order to learn how to get back up and try again. The same is true when leading a school community. While it feels great to be needed by so many people within the school community, creating a school culture that is dependent on me is selfish. A strong school environment thrives when individuals interact interdependently and recognize that everyone contributes their strengths to the school’s overall success. In a highly effective organization, every individual has the capacity to be a leader when needed, and a follower, when needed. My time away from Greystone this past few weeks reminded me that this school community is made up of a strong team of highly collaborative, talented individuals who certainly don’t depend on me to ensure that the work carries on in my absence. For a leader, this is humbling – to know that it isn’t all about me – nor should it ever be. One of our Greystone teachers recently shared this quote. It describes the kind of leadership I strive for at our school:
A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.
~Lao Tzu
While this cat was away, the mice may have played…but the mice at Greystone play every day, whether the cat is there or not. I trust the mice to play and work and learn and lead at Greystone. In fact, I hope that during my absence, the mice barely knew I was away.
I love this post,Carolyn. Especially your connecting school leadership to parenting.
Two weeks ago, my 9 year old son went on a ski trip with all the grade 4s in his school. I grew up on the ski hills of BC and love to ski with my family. I really wanted to go on this trip with him BUT, I decided to let him go on his own.
When I picked him up that night from skiing, he was so flushed with excitement! In talking to him about the day, I realized that while he had loved the activity and being on the hill with his friends, the part of the day that had really energized him was the “free time” he had. No teachers, parents or supervisors with him for most of the day. He was trusted. He was responsible. He was independent.
I think its the same with teachers. When we feel trusted by our administrators, we are more likely to be energized and to love what we do in our classrooms.
Thanks for your post, Carolyn! Inspiring, as always.
Loved your story about your son at the ski hill, Marci – thanks so much for sharing. It is tough finding the right balance, in parenting and in leadership, of knowing when it is right to let go and when it is right to keep a closer eye on things. I found this particularly challenging when my kids hit the teen years and started becoming even more independent (driving cars!!!) when I wasn’t able to keep them as safe. It took so much trust – and they made a lot of mistakes (so did I!) I agree with what you said about how much we all value the trust that others put in us – and how this shines through in the way we carry out the work we do.
I love this post! As a new principal who has to go in tomorrow and do clean-up for a couple of situations that occurred when I was out of the building for a conference last week, I needed to see this tonight. What you described is my vision…being gone gave me the opportunity to see areas that still need to be worked on. Things are going so smoothly while I am there, I was willing to put off needed changes until summer break. Being gone forced the challenges to the surface and made me realize my students, staff, and myself will be much better off if they are dealt with now. We have the potential to be what you described…
Thanks for reading the post, Tracy. Your comment got me thinking about how long it has taken to get to a point where the school seems to run itself during my absence – about 7 years (I began working at this school over 7 years ago as an AP). I remember once, in our first year at the school, both my Principal and I were away for a day and things went crazy back at the school during our absence! In addition, I have an AMAZING Assistant Principal who I have had the privilege to work alongside of for the past 5 years (along with an incredible staff who really get it!) I have done lots of little things along the way – like appoint a different “acting principal” each year to look after the school when my AP and I are attending our monthly school division admin. meetings and of course, having those tough conversations and making important changes, like what you mentioned, as soon as the need arises. It’s never easy – but so rewarding when you see improvements. Glad your time away from the school gave you the clarity needed to make some changes. Good luck!
Awesome post, Carolyn. I have nothing really intellectual to add, just wanted to say that this entire post resonated with me both as a teacher and as a parent. Thanks!
Thanks for reading the post, Rilla.
Oh…and thanks for the quote – I LOVED it!!!!
This article has some of the same philosophies….thought I would share.
http://growingleaders.com/blog/3-mistakes-we-make-leading-kids/
I liked this article – great points about bringing up resilient kids. Thanks for sharing, Rilla.