One common piece of advice given to leaders is to surround yourself with smart people. Having all the answers is not nearly as important as having the right people. However, part of having talent is being willing to leverage it. It is surprising how often leaders have great people around them but do not listen to them or don’t put their skill sets to work.

One of the goals of leadership is to make people be okay without you. If you approach running the school with the mindset of working yourself out of a job you will begin to make a school that can run without you. As an example, in our school the daily announcements are on a Google Slideshow that all staff can access and are read by students. This creates an almost automatic system that everyone contributes to rather than needing the office to oversee it.

If you are worried that a school that can operate without you, not to fear - you will still have plenty to do! The difference is that you will be able to focus on the tasks that only you can do. 

Give your teachers the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities. There are so many things that come up in a school year that are opportunities for leadership. Many schools have food drives, school dances, various committees, concerts, and more that need someone to oversee it. If not,  manufacture them if you need to by introducing new events that tap into the interests of the people around you. You may find that some events suddenly become ‘their’ events that they take a lot of pride in.

This may sound idealistic, and you may have a staff who, for a variety of reasons, do not want to take on these leadership roles. If you feel this way, I would urge you to consider small steps. Do not look at your staff as a whole but rather look at them as individuals. Some may be a little more open to taking on a task or project. Offer a personal invitation rather than a blanket email ‘is anyone interested in…’ Typically, when you ask a question to everyone, you aren’t really asking it to anyone. A personalized invitation can produce a different response. 

Building your team pays noticeable dividends. By spending time building your team, they will typically become more willing and empowered to take additional responsibilities. If they are taking more things on, this gives you more time which you can use to develop others. This creates a powerful positive feedback loop. 

The opposite of building your team is micromanaging and having everything run through you. This is often meant with the best of intentions in that you are trying to support them, or offer guidance. However, this can be more problematic than helpful. Control creates a bottleneck since if everything runs through you, then there are a number of things that will not move forward because it depends on your limited ability to do it all. 

Micromanaging also can signal a lack of trust in their ability to carry out the tasks they are working on. It’s fine to be a sounding board or a partner in it, but never forget that there is always a power imbalance in any interactions with school leadership and teachers. As such, what you may perceive as a suggestion may be perceived as a directive. This can also be true when you ask someone individually for a task so try to make it clear which things are asks and which are not. This can be an extremely difficult line for leaders to navigate.

As a helpful piece of advice, just because someone doesn’t do it the way that you would doesn’t make it wrong. Also, if things don’t go perfectly, it can serve as a learning experience rather than trying to ‘rescue’ them. This can be difficult if you are someone that likes things to happen in a certain way, but it can be an important part of your leadership growth to learn how to cede control of some things. 

Decentralizing the role of the office in schools can create a shared sense of ownership amongst your teaching staff in the building. Find teachers that you can build around. These do not have to be positions of formal authority, but rather, anyone who is willing to take on a role. These can serve as mentors to new teachers, they will help to drive your culture and will help the school to run independent of your direct attention. Putting time into building staff capacity always pays dividends.