Q
Iâm a high school assistant principal whose days are filled with lots of things demanding my immediate attention. Sometimes teachers complain that I donât get back to them in a timely manner. I do get back to them as soon as I know the answer to a question or have investigated an issue. But principal decision making sometimes takes time. It seems that people want immediate responses, but itâs just not always possible.
A
People always want a quick fix to a complex problem. As if you could just look up the answer on the Internet! Taking your time to find a good answer is better than having to backpedal if youâre too impulsive.
One of my assistant principals was often criticized, I thought unfairly, for exactly the same thing. Mike always took care to investigate a question or complaint thoroughly. Consequently, teachers often complained that they had talked to Mike about a problem and he didnât do anything about it. When he finally did come up with an answer or solution, teachers werenât saying, âOh, I was wrong. Mike did take care of my problem.â Instead they said, âFinally.â
For example, teachers complained to Mike that kids were parking in the teachersâ parking lot. This problem required Mikeâs being out in the lot on mornings when he was already busy or assigning that duty to someone else, checking parking stickers or license plates against student records, getting kids out of class to move their cars ⊠etc., etc. It wasnât a one-day fix, but when kids were still parking in the lot the next day, teachers thought it was another example of Mike âdoing nothing.â
It turns out that thereâs a way to mitigate peopleâs impatience about a principalâs perceived unresponsiveness. A little communication goes a long way. You donât want to be one of these principals. Get in touch with the person with the issue and tell her that you are still working on it, but donât have a solution yet. It may seem counter-intuitive to call or email people and tell them you donât have an answer, but what people really care about is that youâre working on it. They want to know that itâs still on your agenda and that youâre making progress. In my experience, knowing theyâve been heard and that you care enough to bring them up to speed (even if nothingâs happening yet) is very much appreciated.
Silence suggests either you forgot about the issue or just didnât care enough to find a solution. When I suggested to Mike that he try touching base with people, he thought it was a waste of time. But the day he did send a quick email explaining that he was working on the parking problemââthough it took a week to get fixedââno complaints! Mike had found another tool for his toolbox.
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