Episode 92 Show Notes

CLICK HERE for Working With Difficult And Resistant Staff by John F. Eller and Sheila A. Eller

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CLICK HERE for Episode 30: "Performance Punishment" May Be Destroying Teacher Morale At Your School

CLICK HERE for Episode 25: Having Clear Expectations For Your Teachers Is WAY More Important Than You Think

Behaviors of Underminers

• They agree with you or sit silently in your presence, but engage in negative conversations behind your back. 
• They fail to follow through on a new initiative or work actively to sabotage the effort by stirring up negative feelings among other staff. 
• They undermine your power by recruiting other staff members against the initiative 
• They evoke fear in those who support the change.

Strategies for Handling Underminers

• Deal directly with Underminers and to develop a culture of open communication:
• Stand up to Underminers. Meet individually with the Underminer, share your evidence of the undermining, listen to the person’s side of the story, give a directive to stop the undermining, and propose an alternative way for the person to share concerns with you.
• Model appropriate behaviors. Staff note what you do as well as what you say. Model integrity, openness, and listening. 
• Share your concerns about a staff member with that person rather than secretly telling others. 
• In addition to modeling integrity, make sure to openly discuss the type of undermining behavior that is destructive. Although it may seem obvious, some staff may not recognize the negative behavior of their colleagues. 
• Teach staff to resist this destructive behavior by confronting or ignoring the Underminer’s behavior.
• Develop trust with staff members. If you want staff to feel comfortable sharing their concerns with you, develop trust by meeting individually with them to hear their concerns, listen to them, write down their ideas, and thank them for sharing.

Behaviors of On-the-Job Retirees

• Some staff want to do as little as possible and just coast until retirement. 
• They have a poor work ethic, arrive at the last possible minute, and leave as soon as the workday has ended. 
• Because they may openly speak about their desire to coast until retirement, this has the potential to bring down other faculty. 
• It may also add to your workload in dealing with students and parents who complain about these staff members.

Strategies for Handling On-the-Job Retirees

• Appeal to their pride. To keep On-the-Job Retirees on track, appeal to their sense of pride. 
• You can make comments like “I know you have a legacy here. You don’t want to go out leaving people with the impression that you are not dedicated.” 
• Consider giving the staff member an important task or job that utilizes the person’s skills or expertise. Perhaps the On-the-Job Retiree can mentor one of your younger teachers. 
• One final way to appeal to the person’s pride is to have them answer the following questions:

What Will Be Your Legacy?

As you think about leaving the profession, consider what you will leave behind.

1. What have you learned or gained over your years in the profession?
2. Project yourself into the future. What would not be the same or as positive if it weren’t for you and your efforts?
3. What is the legacy that you want to leave here and have others remember you by after you leave?

• Clarify expectations. Make sure you are clear about expectations for the employee with statements like this: “I know you only have seven months left here, but during that time I expect you will fully participate in all school programs.” 
• If a new initiative is particularly challenging for this person, consider allowing the person to implement only part of it. It is important to follow up to let the person know you are invested in his or her success and will be watching.

Being a private school leader is a VERY difficult job. You have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and you have to keep everyone safe, increase enrollment, keep the parents happy, keep the board happy, motivate the teachers, deal with student discipline, beat last year’s test scores and come in under budget.

Are you feeling tired, discouraged and overwhelmed?

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I am excited to share a brand new resource with you. It is a 9 page pdf called: “How To Use Verbal Judo To Have Better Conversations With The Parents At Your School” What is “Verbal Judo”? "Verbal Judo" is a communication strategy that focuses on using words effectively to de-escalate conflict, resolve disputes, and achieve positive outcomes in various interpersonal interactions, particularly in high-pressure situations. 

George Thompson and Jerry Jenkins wrote a book called Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art Of Persuasion. So, I have taken several important strategies from the book and applied them to your life as a private school leader. CLICK HERE to grab your free copy of “How To Use Verbal Judo To Have Better Conversations With The Parents At Your School”.

Do you have any difficult teachers at your school? Of course you do. We ALL do!

They take up a lot of our time and emotional energy.

Well, I have created a new resource to help you with your difficult teachers.

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Sound good to you? CLICK HERE to grab this free guide!

I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast by giving you a FREE GIFT. It is called The 7 Steps To Having Successful Meetings With Upset Parents. This guide is an 11 page pdf that gives you a step by step plan to have better meetings with the parents at your school. Every good coach has a game plan. Every good teacher has a lesson plan. Too many private school leaders don’t have a plan when they sit down to meet with an upset parent. Well, now you have a PLAN! CLICK HERE to get the guide!!

I’ve created a free resource for you called “The 6 Things That Every Private School Teacher Wants From Their Leader”. This guide is a 6 page pdf that will be a game changer for you. I guarantee you that if you do these 6 things, the teachers at your school will be happy to follow you. CLICK HERE to get the guide!

I want to give you a gift to say “thank you” for listening to the podcast. I have created a FREE guide for you called “5 Strategies To Help You Work With Difficult Parents”. We know that working with parents is part of the job and most of our parents are great, but some of them can be very demanding and emotional and difficult. This guide will give you the tools that you need to build better relationships and have better meetings with the difficult parents at your school. CLICK HERE to grab the guide. Thank you again for listening every week!

I’ve created another FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can CLICK HERE to get “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. Thanks!

If you implement any of these strategies at your school, I would love to hear from you! Send me a quick note at [email protected] and tell me about it. I can answer your questions and I’m also good at giving pep talks when you get stuck!

If you have gotten value from listening to the podcast, I would love to work with you 1-on-1. I would love to take my experience and help you to feel less overwhelmed and frustrated or help you have success if you are a brand new leader. I also work with private school leaders who are aspiring Heads of School and want to accelerate their leadership growth or experienced leaders that are moving on to a new school and they want to get off to a great start. If I’m describing you, then CLICK HERE to learn more about working with me 1-on-1.

CLICK HERE for a bunch of free resources, including Plug & Play PD's (video webinars with guided notes) for you to use with your teachers, Top Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books, TED Talks and much more!

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