The Time has (Almost) Come!

August 1, 2024

To Listen to Chad Read This Blog, Click Here

The time has (almost) come! Can you tell I’m excited?

My first book (Let’s Put the C in PLC: A Practical Guide for School Leaders) was a finalist for book of the year, and the second (An Action Guide to Put the C in PLC: Reflection and Doing) had planning tools, challenge exercises, and reflective questions. Together, they made a powerful impact on school leaders who engaged with the 10 elements of what a school leader needs to know and do to build a collaborative environment. Some even engaged in The Collaborative Leadership Academy and had such a transformation in their work and schools that they presented at a national conference.

All this is to say that, as proud as I am of that work, I’m even more excited about this next endeavour.

We Have “Them”...Now What?

Consider this scenario:

Your school has teams. And each team has someone who is identified as “the leader.” Sometimes this is by default, other times by a formal application process, still other times folks volunteer, and yet even other times the principal “volun-tells” someone to serve in this role.

So now you have team leaders with those teams. And, yet, no one (or very few folks) clarify what that team leader is supposed to “do.” Just go “be” a team leader. Good luck! And we’ll see you next year…

Unfortunately, this tends to result in frustration, burnout, high turnover of teacher team leaders, and more. Sound familiar?

Simple Habits: Starting with You

Enter my next book: The Teacher Team Leader Handbook: Simple Habits to Transform Collaboration in a PLC at Work® (available for pre-order now). This and my September and October posts will whet your appetite for what’s in it…This post will start with what the role is, then in September we’ll consider the first of two aspects of being a teacher team leader: being. October will dig into the doing.

First, I think of this work (and our lives, in general, really) as being two-fold: our being and our doing. Who we are and the actions that we take.

Both are vital, and the need for coherence between the two is paramount.

Your being deals with who you are as a person and a leader. This is the cultivation of your own assumptions, mindsets, and intentions. It’s your inner self: who you are.

Your doing is the external manifestation of who you are. It’s your actions. What you do.

Again, both are necessary. For if you only think about your being without moving to action, then you might as well be a monk in a mountain. And if you only use actions to move others where you want them to go without that internal clarity of who you are as a person and leader, your work can be perceived as (and even actually be) manipulative.

The Teacher Team Leader Role

But before even getting into that clarity of who the teacher team leader is and what they do, let’s consider the role. What is a teacher team leader supposed to do?

A teacher team leader is a member of a team. They are NOT a mini-administrator, a snitch, or hammer to ensure that the team gets their stuff done.

The teacher team leader, quite simply, is a member of a collaborative team whose focus is on improving educator practice to ensure that every student attains to grade-level, team-identified essential outcomes. In doing so, they are charged with ensuring the effectiveness of that team. But what does that mean in terms of day-to-day functioning?

The Teacher Team Leader Responsibilities

I offer that a teacher team leader has three responsibilities, the first two of which are rarely (if ever) mentioned. And the third one is considered by most to be the role, in its entirety–but I contend it’s actually the least important of those three responsibilities. Here they are, in order of importance:

Make it safe
Build capacity
Do the work

The first responsibility refers to the importance of psychological safety. The highest performing teams have high levels of psychological safety (Duhigg, 2016), meaning that participants read each other’s social cues (and respond appropriately) and have equity in turn-taking. The moves and techniques in the book are geared towards building that social sensitivity, and the strategies assist with ensuring all voices are in the room and heard.

The second responsibility, building capacity, is really the crux of all our work in schools: it’s about getting better at our craft. So the teacher team leader is charged with helping all team members get better, together. Understanding “the why,” sharing the load, designating roles, and more are all part of this capacity-building (Lambert, 1995 and Dumas, 2020).

Finally, the team has to do the work. Like I mentioned before, this tends to be the focus of most team leaders–we have this paperwork, or that deadline, or this other task that needs to be accomplished. But this is actually the least important of the responsibilities of the teacher team leader. The first two, making it safe and building capacity, have to be prioritized.

Clarity Preceds Competence

Before anyone can be competent at any given task, they must be clear about what it is. The Teacher Team Leader Handbook (and this post) starts with the clarity: what is the role and what are the responsibilities of the teacher team leader? With that clarity in mind, then, the teacher team leader can move towards considering who they are as a person, and what they do as a leader. We’ll take those up in September and October.

Questions for Reflection

What is your understanding of what a teacher team leader is supposed to do?
How might these considerations shift your thinking about that role?

Rib Review

I had two sets of ribs in July. The first were uninspiring (though any rib is better than no rib!). The other set is our staple of the local Jethro’s, and I’ve written about them before (they’re quite good!). However, we went on an Alaska Princess Cruise to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, and I highly recommend this! The service and seafood were absolutely incredible. I’ve heard that the average passenger gains a pound a day from eating their portion of the 150 tons (!) of food loaded on the ship on embarkation day…and I’m not going to comment on that. 🙂