Class-Act Coaching: A Podcast for Teachers and Instructional Coaches
Join us each week as a different SREB instructional coach walks our host through different teaching concerns in the world of K12. Teachers will gain valuable teaching insights and instructional coaches will see a model coaching session.
Class-Act Coaching: A Podcast for Teachers and Instructional Coaches
Empowering Educators for Leadership Success
Unlock the secrets to effective school leadership with insights from George McFarland, an SREB leadership coach and seasoned educator with over thirty years of experience. Discover how establishing a clear purpose and fostering collaboration among stakeholders can transform school environments, even amidst the challenges of frequent leadership turnover. George shares his wisdom on the pivotal role of communication in aligning a school's mission with collective aspirations, ensuring teachers and staff feel valued and motivated. Learn how involving everyone from teachers to community members in shaping a school’s direction can create an environment where initiatives are not just understood but embraced.
We also explore the crucial development of teacher leaders and the "portrait of a graduate" concept that aligns educational goals with student outcomes. George offers practical advice for educators aspiring to leadership roles, highlighting the necessity of mentorship and resource utilization to hone leadership skills. Communication remains a key theme, as we discuss strategies for introducing change effectively in schools, emphasizing clarity and purpose in leaders' messages. This episode promises to equip you with actionable insights and inspiration for your professional journey in education.
Download our handout for more about this episode.
The Southern Regional Education Board is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works with states and schools to improve education at every level, from early childhood through doctoral education and the workforce.
Follow Us on Social:
Hi George, Thank you so much for being here today.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Ashley. I'm blessed to be here and looking forward to our conversation today.
Speaker 1:All right, well, before we get started, I would like to know a little bit about who you are. Can you give us a little bit about your background?
Speaker 2:You bet I joined SREB in 2022. So I'm beginning really, my third year with the organization. Prior to that, I was 31 years in public education. I'm out of the great state of Texas You're on Well, celebrate that and all of my years in public education 31 years were in public education in Texas, and so I've done a variety of roles. I've been a teacher, I've been a coach, I've been an athletic director, I've been principals at the middle school level. At the high school level I've been. I've done district finances, I've been a CFO, core district, and I've also done the role of superintendent for districts. So that's a little bit of my background coming before I got to SREB. I'm married with a wonderful wife and three grown children, and they're a real blessing to my life. We enjoy all the time we can have spending with them.
Speaker 1:Well, wow, that is a very impressive background and it fits perfectly with what I want to talk to you about today, because I know you focus a lot on leadership and I personally I don't do any of the leadership roles not usually anyway but I have to deal with leaders a lot, and so I had some questions for you about school leadership and Daniel told me that you would be the perfect person to help with that. So I want to start kind of talking about me as a non-leader. In a meeting with a leader, I want to know. Sometimes it can feel we're all busy teachers, right, we all have a hundred thousand things that we're doing every day, that we're expected to do. And then we have these faculty meetings and we get put on committees and they can sometimes not be clear why we're there, and I thought you might be able to help us talk about it from the leader's point of view. Why are we in these meetings? What can we get out of them? You bet them, you bet.
Speaker 2:I think those are great questions and great wonderings that you have there, Ashley, because when I do work with leaders consistently, obviously leaders are working with people that they lead. One of the things that I really focus on in trying to grow them in their leadership is how they relate to people, how they communicate and how they deliver beliefs and understandings to those they lead, Because leading is much more about those who are doing the things that you say to do. Those are leaders are having people that were willing to follow you wherever you're going, and, regardless of the things you're asking them to do that are requirements of the job they have a willingness to do it out of want instead of out of direction or out of job purpose, and so I've worked with leaders quite a bit, talking to them about them. You know one of the things you hit on already is that in teacher role, many teachers don't have their administrator's certificate or licensure, and so they haven't been through the leadership courses that their school leaders have.
Speaker 2:But the other thing that you find that teachers experience is that their leaders turn over quite a bit, because the average statistic on school leadership turnover is somewhere in the range of 20%. So you know about. One out of every five schools is experiencing a new leader every year, and so when you go through that type of turnover and teachers are getting a new leader to their campus, they may not know is this leader somebody that's going to be good for our campus and good for our kids, our community and the things that we want to do as a campus? Are they going to be affected that way or are they not going to be effective, and how can I identify that? And so you ask some great questions there that we can get into and talk about how leaders can communicate those things to their teachers.
Speaker 1:That sounds good. I'm looking forward to hear them. Let's start by talking about effective leaders. What are they doing right? What should I be looking for and why are they having me in all these meetings?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. One of the things that effective leaders will do from the very get-go is they try to establish a why for your organization. Without establishing a why or a purpose of why the organization does what it does, you try to identify in that why who are we and why do we do the things we do? And unless you can communicate that effectively to your staff, you're basically a bunch of people who are sitting together, gathering together for a meeting, to meet for the purpose of meeting, without any clear direction or reason for the meeting. And so establishing that why is huge, because every individual has this human need to be part of something bigger than themselves, and so that's why a leader that is effective will establish the why, will establish the purpose or mission of the campus with that campus of teachers that he or she is working with. When they don't do that, that's where teachers feel like we're just wasting time. We're spending time meeting when I could be planning for my classes, when I can spend time writing the papers that I'm having to grade and having to take those things home. So how can effective leaders do that? So one of the things that effective leaders will do to develop that why is number one. They're going to involve the entire staff in this process and hopefully they'll involve stakeholders of the campus, they'll involve students, they'll involve parents, they'll involve community members. But one of the things they're trying to do is develop this purpose or mission of the campus, of this is who we are and this is why we do what we do. And the purpose of involving all stakeholders in that process is you gather the buy-in. In other words, a leader that comes in will not be effective with a campus if he or she says this is the mission and purpose of why we're here and it's his or her mission and purpose. It needs to be a collaboratively developed mission and purpose that all stakeholders have their voice and input into, so that they have buy-in into what the campus is doing, the direction it's going and why they're there. And when you have that why built in from a collaborative process, then what you do is you develop teacher buy-in and all of a sudden they have a desire to do things, not because you told them to as a leader, but because they have the same why that you have because they helped develop it.
Speaker 2:I can tell you of a story that I had with a teacher as an example of how this whole process of understanding the why and purpose of who we are and why we do what we do came into play. One of the things that we had as a purpose for our campus at one particular campus where I was a leader was that we were there to serve the needs of our students. In other words, we needed to see them be successful, regardless of what it took on our end. Okay, and so one of the things that teachers can get overwhelmed with is providing interventions for students. They have to work overtime. They're staying after school, they're coming before school, they're doing tutorials, they're doing extra things to help students that are struggling to learn be successful. They're doing extra things to help students that are struggling to learn be successful.
Speaker 2:And so I had a luncheon one day that we were at and one of the teachers in conversation kind of hinted in the way that she communicated that she was a little bit overwhelmed and it's because she's having to do so much for the students who are struggling to be successful. And I had the opportunity to visit with her one on one after that, because we were with people and in that conversation that I had with her on one. I just brought her back to the law. I said I understand you're overwhelmed, I know you're struggling and that struggle really is dealing with what we're asking you to do as a staff member here, which is help students that are struggling. But can I ask you a question? Why are we here in the first place? I mean, why are we here at this campus and why are we working with these students? Is it just to help some be successful or is it to help all be successful?
Speaker 2:And she started to tear up a little bit and she knew in her heart, because she was part of that she was fully on board with we're here to help all kids.
Speaker 2:And she said that with tears in her eyes.
Speaker 2:And I said, well then, the ones that are really struggling, should we be doing something more to help or should we just push them to the side?
Speaker 2:And with tears in her eyes, she was telling me we should be helping those kids. And I said and I know it's hard, but you know what. You've got a purpose and God put you here with special ability and upland and you have an ability to help these kids that are struggling. You're a tremendous teacher and the things that you can do for kids is amazing, and so it just brought her back to that whole idea of this is why we're here when students are struggling. That encourages us to help build into our purpose of why we're here when students are struggling. That encourages us to help build into our purpose of why we're here, of not being selfish but looking at hey, I'm here to help that student be successful, regardless of what it takes. And so when they're brought back to that that why and they're struggling it helps them refocus and it helps them regain that purpose in their life and in their job of what they're doing and so that they can help children.
Speaker 1:And I think that's a great example. But also something I noticed you were telling that from your point of view as an effective leader, you were talking about how you made sure she saw the why and how that helped her. Something I got out of that for the teachers out there is it started with the teacher who was not the leader, kind of saying, hey, I'm overwhelmed, what's going on, why are we doing all this? And I think that's something that I got kind of from. What you're saying is that A good, effective leader is going to have a why behind the meeting. So, as the teacher, if I don't recognize what that is, then it might be a good idea for me to raise my hand in the meeting, go after, do whatever I can to say, hey, I know you have a great reason for this. Can you help me see it?
Speaker 2:And that way we can have that conversation that you just had with your teacher that you gave the example of you bring up a great point, ashley, because one of the things I always say that I try to convince leaders of, and that I would encourage teachers to do just what you said to ask to defend your position. Okay, ask the leader to defend. Why are we doing this? Okay, because I always try to teach leaders that if you can't defend why you're doing it, you need to step back and reevaluate what you're doing. Okay, so I would encourage teachers to say that to reach out, you know, raise your hand, go to that and not to embarrass, right, not to get on the spot, but just like I did, I'd pull that teacher aside, one-on-one and we had conversations Go to that reader, one-on-one individual, and say you know what I'm struggling with this? I'm struggling with time, I'm struggling with understanding why we're doing this. Can you tell me and explain further why we're doing this and how it leads us to be successful with what our purpose is, which is to help students be successful regardless of the circumstance, what our purpose is, which is to help students be successful regardless of the circumstance. And so when that leader gets put on the spot and can't answer, that, it's going to bring them back, it's going to cut them to the heart a little bit and bring them back to a realization that am I doing this just because it's one more chink in my arm that I feel I'm empowering and can put that over the teachers, or are we doing this for a reason that's going to be beneficial to students? And I always tell leaders if you can't defend that, please take the time to step back, catch your breath, take more than one breath, take some time to reflect and say why are we doing this and how is it going to be beneficial for kids?
Speaker 2:And then there's a flip side of that, ashley, that I always say with teachers when you come to me and you want to try something new or you want to do something different, your charge now, as the teacher, is to sell it to me as why do you want to do that and how does that impact the why of what we're doing? In other words, if you, as the teacher, can sell it to me as, hey, let's do this, because if we do this is going to help our struggling learners be successful, then now we're on board. However, if you come to me and say, hey, could we adjust the schedule next year when you look at planning it and put you know my planning period back to back was launched because that would give me more time to do other things. I would sit back the first question. I'd say how does that help our students be more successful? I would sit back the first question.
Speaker 1:I'd say how does that help our students be more successful? I think something that you've been saying that is really important. You've said you started with the why, but then you keep emphasizing why is this helpful to students? Why is this helpful to students and I think that's something really important is that idea of focusing on the student. It's not just about finding the why, it's about finding the why for the students.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so hopefully as a campus, when you, as a campus, collaborate. I've had enough experience in doing this and leading it myself and helping other campus leaders do this. One of the things we do in our organization is we help districts and campuses develop what we call a portrait of a graduate, or a portrait of a learner, or a portrait of success. We have many different names that we utilize in our organization. It's dependent on the need of the organization that we're working with, but part of that process is developing that portrait really develops values that are tied into the why you're doing what you're doing, and because we're in the business of school, of educating students and helping students be successful, you're going to find a lot of commonality in mission statements and purpose statements that are formed around this.
Speaker 2:We're here because students need to be successful in their learnings, and so what you'll find out of an effective leader is this constant focus on student success outcomes or student runner outcomes, just a constant focus on how students can be successful in their educational process, because the bottom line is I have a job as a leader, you have a job as a teacher, but that job is only dependent on our customers. We have customers which are the students and the students. What they're trying to buy from us or purchase even though it's not by money per se, but by their attendance and by their presence is they're trying to gain understanding through that process of education, and so we're there to supply it to them as opportunities for them to learn and be successful. And so your effective leader is always going to come back to our students being successful. Show me that data, let's look at it and let's determine how we can improve for students to be more successful.
Speaker 1:I think that sounds great. So you've been giving me some great advice on how to recognize what's happening in these situations, what's happening in these meetings and committees. I'm on when I have an effective leader, and luckily I do have an effective leader, so I know I'll be able to find those things. Not everybody's so lucky. What advice might you have for a teacher who is in all these meetings because a leader is pulling them in and maybe that leader isn't as effective as they should be? You have any advice for them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the things that I would encourage teachers to do is to use time that they collaborate to focus on the things that they can influence and the things that they control.
Speaker 2:So many times you may be asked, as from your leadership, to meet in PLCs or to meet as content area, common content area teachers or even cross-curricular content area teachers, but you're given time within the day, for example, to maybe meet collaboratively as a group of teachers, and I would just try to be as intentional as possible to control the things that you can control, influence the things that you can influence, which are how can my students be successful when you bring your old focus back?
Speaker 2:Okay, so, like you explained, ashley, maybe my leader is not so good at being an effective communicator and maybe he or she is even driven to be more prideful and self-driven on how it's going to benefit them and the things that they do, and maybe try new initiatives that have no benefit to kids but have a benefit to that campus or him or her being promoted some way.
Speaker 2:Okay, that happens when she and you're going to have leaders that will sometimes fall into those categories. So what can I control as the teacher? We expect teachers to be leaders in their classroom. You are the leader of your classrooms, okay. Whether you're just a self-contained classroom with elementary students or you have multiple classes in secondary, you're the leader for every class that sits before you, and so when that happens, I would just ensure that from your own leadership role with those students with that classroom, and then, when you're able to be with other adults that you're teaming with or collaborating with, I would encourage you to focus on that student learning outcome and how you, from your role, can influence it and can improve it and help children that are in your care.
Speaker 1:I love that answer. I think that's a great perspective to look at and it does kind of lead me into my third and final question that I had for you, which is I am not technically a leader as far as my title goes, but there are many situations, like you just said, in my classroom, where I am a leader. I am the leader of the class, but also sometimes in meetings I might have to step up and be a leader. Or maybe I just want to go for that open department head role that just opened up, you know, last week. Whatever it is, there are situations where I might need some leadership advice myself and, as you said, maybe I haven't taken that leadership class like the admin have. What advice do you have for just a teacher who is finding themselves in a leadership role, whether temporarily, or maybe something that they want to aspire to?
Speaker 2:I would certainly use every resource that you can, which is maybe leadership on campus, somebody you've developed a relationship in leadership. If that's not your campus principal, if that's not an assistant principal on the campus or an instructional leader on the campus, maybe that's a colleague that you have as a mentor or somebody that you've developed a relationship or you have a high respect towards, based on their experience level on the campus and in the classroom and just years of experience for doing what they do with students. So there's many outlets that you can look towards. One of the things as SREB, as an organization, that we encourage campus leaders to do is develop what we call a distributive leadership model. So we ask them to develop what we call teacher-led focus teams. So Ashley's a teacher for me and she's the head of the English department and maybe I ask her to help with this campus problem of practice and she's gonna be a leader for this group and maybe that's a leader not just the Bingworth teachers, but it's a co-curricular. So you have math teachers, you have some science teachers, you have different department teachers on your campus that you're leading.
Speaker 2:In this process we try to develop teacher leaders for the purpose of giving them ownership of what's happening on campus, giving them opportunities to provide solutions to the problems on campus so that when those solutions are implemented the teachers have buy-in to those solutions because that group of teachers developed the solutions themselves.
Speaker 2:They didn't come from me as the leader, or from the campus principal or from another administrator. You, as the teacher group, have developed principal or from another administrator. You, as the teacher group, have developed, have addressed a problem of practice and you've solved it yourself and have strategies to implement to address that problem by eliminating the root cause of that problem. So we encourage leaders to try to develop teacher leaders in that mentality of now. Ashley has been to that process of leading other teachers and guiding them through a process of helping the campus solve problems. Now we can start putting her in different roles of leadership that maybe ultimately lead her to wanting to be that campus leader of somebody who's going to stress the importance of students being successful on her own campus. So that's why we try to build that distributive leadership model is you're building your people, you're building their leadership skills in their classroom, amongst their peers and colleagues, and hopefully it feeds into a higher calling that they may have to be a campus leader themselves.
Speaker 1:Okay, that is great, I do want to. Before we wrap up, I want to kind of give you. I take notes as I'm listening and I want to make sure that I got your good tips here. So this is what I took away from what you said. So, first of all, when I find myself in a meeting or committee that maybe I don't understand the purpose of, I should be looking for the why, and if I can't find it, maybe go ask whoever's leading the meeting what the why is, in a respectful manner, of course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that arm.
Speaker 1:And then if I have a leader that maybe isn't as effective as I would like maybe they aren't as clear about what the why is instead of worrying about that, focus on what I can control and focusing on how I can make what I'm getting out of that meeting better for the students. And then, finally, if I want to be a leader myself one day, or I'm just thrown into an opportunity, use the resources I have mentors on campus and then take advantage of short, small or not even small, but maybe department-wide leadership opportunities that might help me grow into bigger leadership roles down the road. Is that a good summary of what we learned today?
Speaker 2:I think that would be it. Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1:All right, well, thank you. And then you heard that bell. That means that we are almost on time, so please give us our weekly homework before you go.
Speaker 2:So I would just encourage you to apply those things that we talked about in your next meeting or opportunity that you have. When you're called to gather as a group, as a faculty, and your leader comes, before you Start asking yourself, in the things that are being portrayed, number one, is he or she communicating effectively why you're doing this? Because that leader that's effective will always bring you back to purpose of why we're doing something, particularly if it's a new initiative or a change that's being made for the campus. Start looking for that why and the explanation and the understanding that's given there and the clarity that's presented to the group, and just be aware that, if you're not seeing it, that it's something that you can control, either from going to ask yourself about what it is or taking your own application of what you've learned here and what a good leader does and applying it to the situations you can control in class with your students.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, I think those have been great tips. I am looking forward to trying some of these and thank you so much for coming here today.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you so much for having me. I've enjoyed the time to meet with you and have this conversation and hopefully it'll be a blessing and a benefit to somebody out there that's listening.
Speaker 1:I hope so too. Thanks again and have a great rest of your day.
Speaker 2:Thank you Goodbye.
Speaker 1:Bye.