If there’s one key leadership skill that principals need, it’s the art of conversation. This skill has come into sharp focus as the role has become more complex and demanding, school leaders say.
“We notice that the size of our plates hasn’t increased, but more and more is being put on it,” said Julie Kasper, principal at Century High School in Hillsboro, Ore., during a July 15 panel discussion here at the UNITED school leadership conference, organized by the National Associations of Secondary and Elementary School Principals.
That overflowing plate can often mean that leaders, who need to seek out difficult conversations, avoid them. “We become less open to feedback and opinions that are different from our own,” Kasper said.
Kasper has been an educator for the past three decades—20 years as a teacher, and the last 10 as a principal. This means she’s had to have “hard conversations” with teachers she professionally grew up with. Despite how challenging they are, Kasper said these conversations need to be done, especially when teacher morale is low or the school’s climate and culture needs work.
Kasper, along with Benjamin Feeney, the principal of Lampeter-Strasburg High School in Lampeter, Pa., laid out three tips to make hard conversations with teachers easier. These principles, they said, could also work for conversations with parents, students, and other stakeholders in the school’s community.
Get organized first
Both Feeney and Kasper stressed the importance of “keeping notes” from the conversation.
Delicate issues that principals need to address with teachers—from a pattern of being late to the need to improve classroom management—can cause concern and anxiety among teachers. Having a digital record of the notes can help, so they can revisit the conversation when they are feeling calmer.
Both principals also recommend coming back to the conversation in 24 hours to ensure that teachers are clear about what needs to change.
“Even if you had a five-minute conversation during bus duty, make sure that you follow up within 24 hours,” Kasper said.
Identify the right conversation
Not all types of conversations need to happen in the same way.
Conversations meant to praise or acknowledge a win for a teacher—like an improvement in their student’s state assessment scores—can be more informal. And principals should take into account how teachers want to be recognized.
“I’ve surveyed faculty on how they like to receive gratitude, and not every teacher wants to be called out publicly. It’s mortifying for some people,” Feeney said. Instead, they would prefer a one-on-one conversation.
For harder conversations, he and Kasper suggested a “three-point” conversation: sitting side-by-side with a teacher and a piece of data or information that needs to be addressed. This could be an angry email from a parent, or the number of failing grades a teacher has given in the semester compared to the rest of the department.
“You’re sitting beside them [during the conversation]. The receiver [of the bad news] has something to look at,” Kasper said. “The non-verbal message is that, ‘I’m your partner. We’re in this together.’ It can break down the defensiveness on both sides.”
Collect data before making assumptions
It’s tricky to walk into a hard conversation without any preconceived notions, the principals said. In addition to keeping emotions in check, principals must also make sure they don’t assume what a teacher or staff member is going through.
This is where collecting data helps, Feeney said.
Consider a teacher who finds classroom management difficult and needs the principal to intervene. “As a principal, I have to decide, do I want to prove a point, or do I want to change their behavior?” he said.
Instead of telling the teacher what to do, the principal could instead assign an instructional coach to work with the teacher and build their skills in classroom management.
“People don’t always want to hear what they aren’t good at,” Kasper said. “But it’s our job to coach up … and sometimes coach out.”
