Over Communicate

I genuinely think that the majority of problems in any organization occur from a failure to communicate. In schools, I think that is even more true. Wether we acknowledge it or not, we are in a relationship with one another. Like any relationship, both parties need to express what they think and how they feel. Also like most relationships, we often assume that the other party understands what we think and feel. We've all been guilty of that at one point or another and the moment we realize it, we usually understand how things could have happened differently. It's often easy to acknowledge that feeling with a spouse, family member or a child, but we are not as quick to see it in our professional lives. I recently read an article about leadership and it highlighted failing to over-communicate as a key problem in leadership. Basically, if you want to lead a group of people, you have to be clear about what you want, and follow up along the way quite often about it. This week I thought I would start with a simple exercise in over-communicating.

I appreciate you. I genuinely do. I've seen so many of you do extra things for each other and for your students, and all of that makes my job so much easier. Homecoming week is always a great time to see school staff work with students on creative projects. That collaboration builds relationships and fosters growth for both parties. Thanks for taking your time to make this week's events happen and for doing the extra little things that show kids that you care. It may be just a silly outfit, participating in the pep rally or organizing the lineup for the homecoming court, but to kids it matters. So thank you. I hope that you know that I appreciate you, but this week, I want to be sure that I've said it.