Leaders Listen to Learn

I wasn’t always an effective listener. I developed the skill of listening with an open mind and heart when, after serving a few years as rural superintendent, I took a one-year job with the state department of education in West Virginia.

As in every state, there are citizens who get ticked-off at something that happened in their school or school district and they decide they are just going to go right to the top. They try to reach the state superintendent on the phone.

The Answer Person

Often, the state education agency staff have minimal or far-removed experience working in a local school district. They hate to take those calls from citizens with complaints. As a former superintendent working for the chief state school officer, I had background in local issues so I ended up being the go-to guy for those individuals who were pursuing the state superintendent to fix things back in their county.

Of course, it is easy to listen without bias when the problem really isn’t yours to solve. Although some disputes were appropriate for formal appeal to the state superintendent, most issues were not within the responsibility of the state to address. They were local issues, under purely local control, so I would try to give them all the time they needed to vent.

When they finally said everything they planned to say, sometimes twice, I would ask a few clarifying questions and restate what sounded to me to be the central issue. I would try to put them in the principal’s shoes and explain why the principal might take such action. I would tell them a little about the role of the school board and why the board might make such a rule. Then I would coach them on who to call back in their local district and what questions they should ask.

In addition, I would coach some of them on what might be a more productive and congenial approach to that individual whose help they sought. More honey, less vinegar. You know the story.

I had that job for only one year. I moved to another county to become superintendent again, but I continued to develop and value the use of listening as a leadership skill.

Lunchroom Talk

Today, I learn so much about the pulse of the school district and how our efforts are having an impact in the classroom by keeping my ear to the ground. I have monthly advisory groups of staff and students, and I’m in the schools a lot.

Dropping into the staff room at lunch time can be very enlightening. Once I inadvertently sat in what apparently was Bert’s regular lunch-time chair. When Bert arrived, he was clearly flummoxed, looking right and left for some relief. Apparently, he had been sitting there for 15 years. I learned to be more cautious about where I sit. Anyway, some folks don’t want to talk shop during their lunch time. Others grab me by my lapels and tell me what’s on their mind, with great enthusiasm for the convenient access.

I encourage my district office colleagues to do the same. When they go to a school, bring along a question that could yield useful feedback from teachers or students. Ask it several times. And ask follow-up questions. We sometimes wear out our welcome with online satisfaction surveys when what we really need to know is there for the asking.

Forty years ago, this was called management by wandering around, or MBWA. It still works. Go down to the classroom floor where the work is being done, where the children are taught to read, to prove their answer, to collaborate in solving problems, to create. That’s the only place you’ll know what really is going on, and when you know that, then you can lead them to the next level of success and give credit to those who liked that you listened.