Empathy is an overused word in our business. When you consider the amount of appreciation – or lack of appreciation – that flows up and down a school district’s organizational chart, it’s obvious that we use the word empathy more often than we actually employ the act. Since appreciation week is still fresh on our minds, it’s worth spending some time thinking about this.
Isolation, and distance from our colleagues, unfortunately comes with the job. The privacy of practice that occurs in a school creates a predictable separation. We are busy with our jobs. Other people are busy with theirs. The bell rings, the doors shut and we all get to work. We keep our heads down and fortify our schedules with little sets of tasks. This makes our classroom or office work.
But this model also creates an unhealthy distance between everyone that makes accomplishing the mission harder. Because as much as we’d like to prevent them, disruptions are going to occur. Maybe it’s a colleague who gets in hot water with the principal, or a communication issue between the faculty and front office. The cause doesn’t matter. The more time everyone spends in isolation, the more likely they are to miss the big picture, or someone else’s role in it, when the disruption hits. Upheaval might occasionally make things interesting but it usually just functions as a stress test on the relationships between everyone in the building.
Weak cultures, satisfied with isolation, fail this test often.
One of the first lessons for any teacher who moves into administration is the eye-opening amount of work that takes place at school every day for which they had absolutely no idea. Those assistant principals have their eyes opened again when they move up to the lead chair.
Central office administrators undergo a similar transition when they assume their positions. And as the years pass, they can suffer from the same separation that can affect school building administrators as well. But now they are dealing with school district level issues, and must confront them from a different zip code.
While they learn that new job, memories of work done in the classroom fade. Or, they become dated to the point that their memories of teaching are unrecognizable to the demands of leading a classroom today.
And for those who stay in the classroom for decades, who never reach these positions, all they can do is guess at what the educators at other levels do all day.
In most cases, this indifference isn’t a product of negativity. It’s just the separation.
This distance leads to an odd form of indifference for the important work that takes place at different rungs on the ladder. And the farther the distance between two people, the less appreciation there is for each other’s work. The effect on a culture should be obvious. It’s horrible.
Indifference, a form of apathy, manifests itself in the form of teachers that claim their principals have forgotten what it’s like to teach. From principals that claim central office administrators have forgotten what it’s like to be in a school building. And from every member of the school community claiming the superintendent has forgotten everyone!
But this separation pushes back down the ladder too: “They have no idea what it’s like to do this job!” Yep. They don’t.
When conflict or isolation disrupts the harmony of a school district, there are two very important responses we can use to shorten this unfortunate separation. Regardless of the position that person holds, we can build culture through these actions.
- Employing Empathy.
- Maintaining Healthy Communication.
Remember that everyone has tough, though very different, roles to play in the success of a school district. For the higher ups, it’s important to remember that very few people you interact with will likely ever know the pressures and challenges associated with your position. But, they will all understand what it’s like to serve under YOU. So, grace and empathy should be a key feature in how we handle the truth, interact with each other, and make decisions that affect those above, and below us, on the ladder.
When looking downward on the organizational chart, this principle holds at every level. Superintendents to everybody; principals to teachers, parents and students; and teachers to students and parents. How often do you give people the benefit of the doubt? Maybe it’s time to start.
And communication is everything, right? If you feel like you are lower on the totem pole than others, it’s still crucial that we listen to understand. That isn’t just a job for the administrators. The more you listen, the more you will realize that in these sticky situations there are likely many details that we don’t, or are not allowed, to know. It’s important to approach our colleagues with a curiosity of learning their point of view. More often than not, our preconceived notions are incomplete, or just downright wrong.
The truth can sometimes hurt, but how it is delivered makes all the difference in the world. Professionals don’t shy away from the truth, but they know the importance of employing understanding and empathy when dealing with it. Bringing those two important qualities to work with you each day is how we reduce negativity and make the trip down the road to appreciation – giving it, and receiving it – a little bit smoother.
Personal Professional Development 