And We're Launched!!
April 1, 2025
It came in early! So The Teacher Team Leader Handbook: Simple Habits to Transform Collaboration in a PLC at Work® is now officially available through Solution Tree (and is still pre-order on Amazon, as they’re their own beast). What an adventure it has been, and I am beyond excited to share some work that will no doubt transform collaboration and student learning wherever its contents are applied! (You can check out the fun, unscripted, and spontaneous unboxing video HERE)
Last summer (and re-published last month–you can access it HERE), I wrote about the overall set-up of the book, as well as clarified the role and responsibilities of the teacher team leader. Now we’ll take up the aspects of who you are as a person and as a leader, followed by May’s post focused on the skills you need to transform collaboration.
It Starts With Who You Are
You matter. And who you are matters.
In that vein, the teacher team leader foundations portion of the book hones in on your internal state as a person and a leader. To do this, I offer five assumptions that I have found to be helpful in leading teams, as well as three mindsets to help with guiding the actions that you take. Together, the assumptions and mindsets help you to set your intentions and then choose behaviors to execute on those intentions.
Assumptions
Starting with assumptions, these are views that a person holds to be true (Sparks, 2007). Notice that the word true is lower-cased. And it’s also not necessarily a fact. Rather, these are assumptions (truths) that I hold to be true about others and the work of the team. The five assumptions that I offer to readers are:
People do the best that they can.
You can only control you.
Behavior communicates.
People want to get stuff done.
Conflict is good.
Now, sometimes these assumptions may not be fact. I may have to hallucinate them. And by me holding these assumptions, my own frame for approaching the work of the team is more productive. For example, if I assume that others are doing the best that they can, I will look to the best of them and treat them as such. By recognizing that I can only control myself, I won’t TRY to control others; I will instead work to influence their better selves with the habits explored in the book.
Knowing that behavior communicates helps me to pay attention to actions and respond with appropriate social cues. The truth that people want to get stuff done will help me to maximize our time together, and seek input from others on how to help make that happen. And seeing that, under the appropriate circumstances, conflict can be a good thing will help me approach conflict through a lens of making sure that the conflict is cognitive rather than affective.
Mindsets
In addition to these five assumptions, I also propose three mindsets. Mindsets are different from assumptions in that they are attitudes that lead to action (Mindset Works, n.d.). Since they lead to action, each of these mindsets begin with action verbs:
- To see what others don’t (yet) see in themselves
- To be humble with a posture of learning
- To spread the contagion of joy
All of us are where we are because of other people. Someone, or someones, saw something in you that you didn’t even see in yourself. It may have been a parent or grandparent, aunt or uncle, sibling or neighbor, co-worker or boss. Someone, somewhere, saw more in you than you saw in yourself and then worked to draw that out of you. God bless them for it.
We are in the learning profession. And we know that learning requires mistakes. It relies upon failure. And, yet, too often we think that as professionals we need to be perfect. Accept that you’re not, be humble, and assume that posture of learning–both in word and in deed.
Finally, be a promoter of joy. This isn’t to say that meetings should be comedy central. Yet the impact of the work you are doing is the cause of great joy. Let it be so. Spread that joy like there’s no tomorrow!
Next Steps
Who you are matters. Your internal state as a person, professional, and leader will drive the actions that you take. Both assumptions and mindsets will frame the success that you will have with the application of the skills I will share next month.
Questions for Reflection
- What are your initial thoughts about these assumptions and mindsets? Do you agree? Disagree?
- What additional assumptions or mindsets might you add?
- What impact do you think articulating these assumptions and mindsets will have on your practice?
Rib Review
One of the “problems” with writing a rib review every month is that I “have” to have ribs before the end of each month. And this month I just barely got some ribs–on March 30th. This time at Spring Creek Barbeque in Dallas. It’s a chain, but family-owned, and I think I had it once down near Houston a few years ago. In any case, it was good. The ribs had a really nice flavor, slightly sweet but not over-powering. For twenty bucks there were seven St. Louis-style ribs, two sides, all-you-can-eat rolls, and condiments (dill pickle spears are always appreciated!). The sauce fo the ribs was meh, but they didn’t need the sauce so all was good.
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