The Power of Trust in Leadership Team Building

Imagine your leadership team - a cohesive unit, bound by trust and shared commitment, capable of creating a successful future together. That's what we're exploring today with Uche Anjoku, a seasoned educator who will share how trust can be the water that binds your team together, and the role it plays in overcoming obstacles. We will learn from a compelling example of a school where a veteran teacher tried to sow discord, and how the team's trust in each other helped them rise above.

We'll also dive into the value of diversity and the right mix of skills within a team. Uche shares his strategy of identifying individual strengths, cross-training for well-roundedness, and fostering open communication and empowerment. This episode is a must listen if you're building a team, leading one, or just aiming to improve your leadership skills. We will cover important aspects such as feedback and accountability, and how these elements contribute to a strong, trustworthy, and successful team. Join us in this enlightening exploration!

Chapters

• 0:05 Building Trustworthy Leadership Teams
• 10:34 Build a Diverse Leadership Team
• 20:15 Building Teams

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

And now he's been promoted. His job is principal. Good morning everyone. This is Uche and Joku. Welcome to this episode of the Sneaker Principal Podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:16

I'm coming to you from Atlanta, georgia. I'm here for a family event and I'm up early as usual and I thought to myself this is a perfect opportunity for me to record another episode. So I do apologize for those of you who love my intro you know Pac talking about. For those who are not aware, tupac Shakur talking about sparking the brain that will change the world. So those of you who have been sending me comments in my inbox saying how much you love the intro, thank you so much. So pretend that that happened and we're going to go straight into this video.

Speaker 1: 0:52

So this morning I want to talk to you about a topic that a lot of people don't talk about. As far as in school leadership, we cherish this thing but we don't really talk about it, which I don't understand. And if we do talk about it, it's always in the negative, after something bad has happened. But I believe this is something that's very important from the jump, and I learned this the hard way, but I also learned it's my experience. So in this topic I mean sorry, in this episode we're talking about the topic of building trustworthy leadership teams. Okay, one more time Trustworthy leadership teams. Let's just go straight to the core of this.

Speaker 1: 1:39

If you don't have trust in any team, you cannot make it happen. Whatever the mission is, whatever the goal is, trust is literally the foundation. It is the water that you mix and start cement so you can have that solid foundation. If you don't have that water, you know like, literally, you cannot have cement without some type of fluid that you add to that mixture to soften it, to make it wet, so they can dry and become a strong foundation. So just remember, this water is necessary. You can't do anything without it, except with trust. Right? See, for a lot of us, trust is like a buzzword. You know, you trust me, I trust you, you trust the process. We use the word over and over again, but I take trust to a very visceral place for me, because if I trust you, that's one less thing I have to worry about.

Speaker 1: 2:43

Often, schools, and even school leaders, struggle to get anything done because either they don't trust their teams or their team doesn't trust them. The teachers don't trust them, the students and family there's this great area that they live in and for me that's a problem. If you're trying to move a school forward, you have to have that common vision. You have to have that space of existence where we are all working towards the same thing. I'll give an example.

Speaker 1: 3:13

I worked at a school a few years back and the issue I had there was I had key members of my team who they were so stuck on the past and how things were done in the past with the previous principles, and it would always be. But we did it this way, we did it that way. You just change a lot of things and the fact of the matter. I didn't change a lot of things. I remember the answer with you. I came in there as a turnaround principal. I was told this is the issue that's happening in school.

Speaker 1: 3:49

I did my research, I did my data, dive my table audit into the school and I saw patterns. And these patterns that I saw I shared with the superintendent. The patterns that I saw I shared with the staff. We talked about it and we're like listen, if you can shift these few things here, if you can make these this pivot, we can move the school in the right direction and in due time. And I told them quick. Sooner than later we will be moving towards a place of success because we have a roadmap here. We see where we have to go, but only we're all gonna be able to reach that place.

Speaker 1: 4:28

We have to trust each other. The person sitting next to you, left to your left, to your right or behind you or maybe even in front of you. We all have to trust each other. We all have to have that common understanding, that common vision. How are we gonna get them the commitment with it that we're working towards? We all have to be moving in lockstep and accord. We're not automatons, but we have to be a reason that we're coming here every single day and bust, not butts. And in this space I had a veteran teacher who would always insist on me, come up with reasons or try to find ways to distract the team, and these distractions let the conversations that were long drawn out and just wasted time and it wouldn't just meet. They felt that way and when this person realized that the team was not viving with their attempts to distract, they need to try to find other ways by creating the stories about. Well, principal and Joku said this and so now trying to pick at and creating issues that didn't exist, creating things that were completely made up.

Speaker 1: 5:57

I love the document. I'm the kind of person listen almost in every instance of importance. I will follow the email. I will follow the subcontract documentation, so we're all on the same page. And especially, made the comment and I don't wanna show the comment as, but if they're watching this or people who are watching this, they're gonna be like, oh, we know who this is. I'm respectful of people, but this thing I was able to back up and show that didn't happen, that there was no documentation to prove that thing, and there was also documentation to prove that it didn't happen. So this person had to back down and this person actually stepped down from their position in the school because they were embarrassed.

Speaker 1: 6:39

But what was even more important was that a lot of the teachers and staff and support staff didn't write with them. And what did they do with writing with me? They were writing with the vision and mission that we all agreed on and that was the key. Here we are doing this together and we're co-creating and we're prototyping together this future that we want for our school community. So that was a big thing in that scenario. Pardon me, here. I'm just going through my notes to make sure that I'm covering all the points I want to cover Now the first thing.

Speaker 1: 7:18

So I should go back, just remember again trust is the foundation water to the cement. It gives you a solid foundation. But now, how do you build a trustworthy team? The first thing I'm going to tell you is this you have to actually pick the team. You have to pick your team. And somebody might say, but wait a minute, but what if I'm coming to a school? Everybody stops. I'm the new person there. That is commonly what happens. Some people are likely to come into a school where it's the lead, ships and shambles. There is no core leadership. So you get to kind of bring some people in, and sometimes it may be a mix of both.

Speaker 1: 8:11

But before I start building my team, what I always do is try to learn who's there already? Who's there? Who am I working with? Who are the people who are here? What have been their contribution to the school's overall history? What is their educational philosophy? What is it that they believe about students and how they learn? What is it that they do in the school to contribute to the growth of the school and, at the same time, what is it that they've done to maintain status quo as well? So all these things are super, super important. But as I learn people and also talk to them about their strengths and weaknesses, what are they really great at? What are they not so good at? What are the things that I'm like? Hmm, they need to be trained up on to at least be proficient in All these things gives me a much broader view of the school, the school staff, and then I do the same thing for everyone my school aides, my front office staff, I do the same for teachers and even my administrative team.

Speaker 1: 9:22

Then, based on that, I start to assign roles, not just roles that you're strong at, but I do also do cycles of like exposure to the things that you need to become stronger at Making sure you get into training and cross training and different things. But the thing too, now when I say I know what people stand and what their strength is, because your strength is going to you know if it's the right skill set and your strength is going to help me accelerate the work you know. But one of the things that I really believe as a principal, I am not, I'm not the. What was the hardly say it, the end all be all of the school? Now, not at all. This is a team effort. We all have to be on the same page. We all have to play our role and it's my responsibility to make sure that I'm assigning you the right role and also giving the right training. If you're not fully fitted in that space, fully up to par, that's my responsibility. But then this is where I start to say, hey, I need you to do this because I see how strong you are at this, how efficient you are at this, so this is going to be your responsibility.

Speaker 1: 10:34

And sometimes I find myself having taken a lot of responsibilities for the interim because I don't have the key people who are strong enough, you know. And I might reach out to the district office and say, hey, I need help with these things as I'm building my team. I'm always building my team. There are a lot of principals out there. They don't build a team, they do it all themselves and they just kind of drag on to the finish line and they complain about how burnt out they are. And I'm not like myself, like, why would you do that, unless you absolutely had to?

Speaker 1: 11:04

Even the weakest of your team can be made competent enough to take a certain task that allowed for the school to function. Like you, an example with my leadership team, I'm always trying to find people who are very strong at public speaking and they're very strong in turnkey material, because I sit on the PDs and they come back in and they turnkey when they learn from those PDs to the rest of the staff. I have people who are just operationally sound. They're so well organized and I'm like, okay, I need you to be my IEP teachers, specifically if they're licensed for special education, because I want them to be able to help me organize the processes that can get my annuals done, my triannuals and all these other things that have to be done for special education.

Speaker 1: 11:56

I've always been fortunate enough to have an AP who's strong enough, who's very strong in budgeting, so they become my CFO. They are the ones who track and make sure that all my spending and everything is on point, that we don't miss any POs, every work order is processed, stuff like that. And then, of course, if I have a dean or an assistant principal who's very strong with culture, so they can hold that down, our processes, how the kids travel, all those things are all online, right. So you know this is all important, because now I guess what happens? We have an organization that's running effectively. I get to be the CEO and actually make sure all the moving pieces are all coherent and we're moving towards our goal and our mission and do what we need to do to be successful.

Speaker 1: 12:44

And that also allows for me not to get burnt out and also allows for my team to not get burnt out, because they're moving in their strengths but at the same time, like I said before, I would put them in a position to also cross train and learn other skills as well. You know it's kind of hard to lead, but you don't know. So when I put people in these positions, if they weren't there, I can definitely do the job myself, but if I'm not careful, I don't build a team, then I'm doing the job of 10 people and wonder why I have to be in the building at 5.30 in the morning and leave at like 9 o'clock in the evening, which I know a lot of schoolies who do that. You know they do that and I'm like I did it too, you know, until I learn how to build a team and make sure I have a very, very strong team but, like this, diversity of skills and perspectives is essential.

Speaker 1: 13:42

You don't want everyone to be just like you. You want to have those different modes of thinking and how they see things. It's like the Avengers. I always make the joke that my team is like the Avengers. You have the Captain America, you have the Iron man, you have the Incredible Hulk, you have the Black Whales, you have all these people who have specific skill sets that are very, very integral to the success of the team. But at the same time, there's overlaps. Captain America or Iron man can lead easily, you know, but then we also know that Hulk can lead as well, because he went from being the rage-filled green guy to also now being able to stabilize and be well focused and highly intelligent in the green state. And that's the thing I want that across the board with my team.

Speaker 1: 14:39

Now, when you have a team, the next thing you want to do is this Communications. You have to become a great communicator of your team to your team. You don't want them ever in the dark. You want to make sure there's always open communication. You always shame with them what's happening, you know, and you also create space for them to communicate as well, having those periodical team meetings, whether it's some people do it once or twice a week, some people do it, like you know they do. What is it called? We just gather everybody in the morning for a few minutes and just like, hey, what are you doing? What's your, what are you doing? Like, communicating is very, very important.

Speaker 1: 15:22

I send out weekly newsletters to my home, to our school. I'm constantly emailing my staff, my leadership team. I'm texting with them, I have a group chat. What's going on? Ava is able to communicate. I'm calendaring standing meetings, like. All this is very, very important because, at the end of the day, when you have If you might have a team of two, or maybe my team of three in my in my case, my coalition team is five people and these five people have integral parts of the school that I need to know what's going on every single moment, because if I'm asked, hey, what's going on with this? I Can't be like I don't know. I have to talk to this person. I need to know consistently. So, when, when they send emails out, I'm copying them. You know they're giving me feedback, giving me updates on what they're doing and and and ensuring that it's in line with the mission and vision and the task assigned with, and An alignment with, the outcome required. So these things are very, very important. You know it's.

Speaker 1: 16:18

And when it comes to communicating, the other thing now is you have to empower your team to lead. Don't build a team and then they have to wait for every two seconds. They have to wait to make the chemical decision decision for themselves. They have to wait for your expressed permission to do Every little thing. My thing is this all my team members have a very clear job description and what they should be just be working on and the timelines for us to communicate where things are at and and Because we build it, we build an effective team. The goal is to be efficient and get the work done, not to have, you know, a Squad of people that look good and you can say, hey, look at my, my, my, my squad.

Speaker 1: 17:06

No, it comes to, comes out to the work. So, like right now, I know for a fact with it, my Dean, my, to my two academic deans, my aces, the principal, my lead Structural coach and then my other peripherals on team needs. I know what they're doing, I know what the, what they're working on, and they know what they're working on and yes, there are check-ins, they will check it with me say, hey, this is where I'm at with this, what do you think and in some cases, I already know that what the outcome is supposed to be. And they're also working with each other. So this deadline and when the test is done, I'll be copied on it, I can see it, and then they move on. Like these things are very, very important. You know, being able to be in a space where, where, um, you empower them to lead and I think to, by empowering to lead, also allows them to develop their leadership skills as well.

Speaker 1: 17:55

And if it wasn't for the principles who said, hey, keeping keeping the loop, we're gonna meet in touch base and and allowed me to actually maneuver as a leader and make decisions, and I wouldn't be where I'm right now. So I know that this is something that I want for my leadership team, because I I've said this before previous videos if you're a school leader and you're not, you're not building. You're not building and developing your replacement. You're doing harm to the community. Because the thing is this anything can happen to your human. You can drop right now from from from ailments that would sit you down and start lines for four weeks or meet them permanently?

Speaker 1: 18:32

What have you done to make sure, beyond just building an amazing school that you've built in capacity of leadership with your team, there should be always somebody your team who could just step up to make sure this continuity, this continuity of leadership, don't create a space where All the time, it's always being brought from the outside into the community and now the community has to go through the whole process of here we go again a new principal who's come here and learn us and when I like what we're doing and force us to not make another pivot. For me, turning around schools is putting schools on the right track. It's about helping to establish culture, a way of doing things that you need to that school, and it's not about me, it's about the school culture. It's about the school's way of doing things, so that anyone who sits in that seat now has to say, hmm, how do I best continue to lead the success of the school? I was saying, ok, I'm going to bring these master changes and because this is what I want. So it's very important to empower your team, because the other thing, too, I tell you about my team is that I tell them, like when we talk, I need to know the truth, I need to know the real. If you feel like what I'm saying makes no sense or I'm bugging, let me know. Let's have real dialogue here, because this also helps me grow as a leader. I'm not perfect. I don't know everything and I'm not sure this is with you. I've learned so much from my leadership teams. They brought things to my attention I didn't even think about it. I'm like whoa. They are not part of the way I do things. And again, these came from quote unquote subordinates. So think about that Empowering your team to have voice, to make decisions and to also give you feedback.

Speaker 1: 20:15

And that's the last thing of things that are very important in building teams Accountability and feedback. You have to hold your team accountable. You just don't let them run amuck. You know. Hold your team accountable. You know, sit down, have those sessions where you're giving them constructive feedback and they're also giving you constructive feedback. This is very, very important because if that portion is not there, then people might be moving with a very poor understanding of what the mission is and by the time you realize it, you know oh my God, I didn't know that, you didn't understand, or even the person. Your leader, your member of your leadership team is making decisions, doing things incorrectly. So you're trusting them to do one thing, but it doesn't seem to be different because there was a clear communication, doing and getting feedback and there was no one holding them accountable for the work you know. So it's very important that that is part of the foundational work you're doing as well. You know, making sure that this feedback and accountability, you know in the way your team functions.

Speaker 1: 21:30

So again, we'll go to the beginning here and remember you have to set the right team If you want to establish, you know, or build a trustworthy leadership team. You got to get the right people on the bus. You got to pick the right team. You have to foster open communications. You got to communicate. You got to talk a lot. You know you have to empower your team to make their own decisions in line with the mission and vision and not have to come to you for every little thing you know. But the things you have to train them on that, to differentiate from the small things, from the big things. There are small things they can do. You know.

Speaker 1: 22:11

I tell my team listen, if you want to restructure the way we move the kids upstairs from lunch to our floor. Okay, come up with a plan, share with me so I know what it is and when they should have planned with me, I'll give my feedback. Or, in this year, I had no feedback to give. It was a spot on plan. From my 20s of experience, I was like that's quite efficient, let's put it in the plan and see how it works. And so far it's been working. Okay, I didn't say hey, let's sit down here and show me every little step. And I said put it together, show me what you're thinking. And I've been doing this long enough that I can say, hmm, you're missing something here. Or, in this case, I was just like, wow, I'm excited to say how this works, because it seemed, it looked to be way more efficient than what we were doing prior.

Speaker 1: 23:03

So accountability to make the decisions and then also, I'm sorry, empower them to make their own decisions. And then accountability and feedback. You got to meet with them, you got to talk to them, you got to give them feedback and you also have to be willing to accept, construct the feedback yourself. The main leader, the principal. We're not fallible. So we're not infallible. We do make mistakes. We don't always see everything, and feedback and accountability has to go both ways.

Speaker 1: 23:32

I asked my team to hold me accountable, I asked my hometown school community to hold me accountable, and I'm always asking for feedback, but, at the same time, it's also my job to hold them accountable and give them feedback and make sure the whole team is moving in the right direction. All right, that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening to this. Please leave your comments, share these tips and this podcast, because I think it's very important that we are making sure that school leaders and inspiring school leaders have as much of the tools that they need to be successful. This job is not easy by any means, but, however, I think we have the ability and the power to produce stronger leaders that are functioning on a level that allows them to really really impart change and move our kids forward. Yeah, so, with that being said, have an amazing rest of your day and I'll talk to you soon. Peace.