With the close of last school year, I completed my 30th campaign in education. Each of those years has been filled with joy and sorrow, challenges and successes, ups and downs and a ton of stories worth sharing. My (True) Life in Education Thus Far will detail 30 or so of those stories. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed living (most) of them!
OWNING IT
MAY 3, 2023
“I just thought we were on the same page,” she told me when I sat with her and the Human Resources Director and let her know that this was her last day at the school.
“I am going to take my daughter somewhere where people actually care about her,” her mother all but yelled at me after I let the family know that the school was separating from her daughter.
“This decision will be very bad for the school. And for you.” He said when he heard about my decision to make a significant change in direction and policy. “You’ll never get another dime from my family.”
“You’re firing me? Me?” I have heard a variation of this sentiment each time I have had to dismiss an employee. These comments are often followed by tears.
“I did everything you asked me to do.” He said when he stopped in my office door on his last day in the building.
“This is not what you promised me.” She looked me in the eye and would not leave my table until I provided an explanation for why she did not get the position she felt she was owed. That was a long conversation.
“Please, where’s your compassion? I thought this was a Catholic school.” When students are dismissed, this is the question that each and every appeal asks. It is typically asked by heartbroken parents.
“Way to hide behind the rules,” he said when I spoke with him about a teacher remediation plan highlighting a number of policies he had broken and illustrating what he would have to do to remain at the school.
“You don’t know what you’re doing, do you?” This is a very good question I have been asked more than a few times in person, on the phone and via email.
Despite last week’s post in My (True) Life in Education Thus Far which may suggest the contrary, I do know what I am doing, particularly in scenarios such as the ones quoted above: challenging scenarios that are charged with emotion and energy. Not only did I know what I was doing in each of these circumstances, I own each one as well.
I have to.
If I do not own these kinds of situations, no one does. I embrace this variation of the Harry S. Truman “the buck stops here,” bon mot. I have discovered that my ability to own my choices in these circumstances fully and completely helps me learn from them, apply those lessons and improve as a leader.
In 30 years, perhaps the best lesson I have learned is that there is so much I can do to improve.