Leading in the ‘new normal’ — A mini-

series on school leadership during

COVID-19
Educators are in the midst of one of the most challenging and overwhelming times in
the profession’s history. Due to the ever-changing conditions of the pandemic,
teachers and schools are continuously forced to adapt in order to safely educate
students.

Students have shown just how hungry they are to connect, learn, and grow. Classroom
and school leaders are courageously showing up to lead and create innovative, ever-
evolving plans to ensure students are receiving deeply meaningful learning
experiences.

We believe in the power of sharing resources. Each week, we plan to share resources
centered around four themes (trust, communication, making people feel seen, and
creating joyful moments) that we’ve found to be foundational to our work during
COVID-19.

Leading in the ‘new normal’ theme 1:

Creating trust through building
transparency
“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to
overcome our need for invulnerability.”
Patrick Lencioni

Our physiological responses are calmed by predictable, grounding routines. For years,
we have entered the school building, hugged children, and prided ourselves on
collaborative, group work. COVID has changed every grounding routine we’ve ever
experienced and has left educators to make meaning of this new situation.

And with this change comes the need to find new ways to build trust. Trust is built
when an environment feels safe and consistent. Through consistency can one feel
confident enough to let their guard down. Educators can no longer work to create a
consistent routine to build trust, because the reality is, nothing is consistent in a
pandemic.
As a response to the ever-changing reality of education during COVID-19, educators
must reevaluate traditional methods of relationship building and explore new ways to
intentionally work to create trust during COVID. As we’ve led through this pandemic,
we found that trust can be effectively and more strongly built by being vulnerably
transparent.

#1: Prioritize intentionally creating time to meet with

staff
Establish a routine of inviting stakeholders to sign up to meet with you face to face
or any other platforms like facebook messenger or thru text messages and phone
calls.

Why: Individual or small group meetings demonstrate that you trust that your staff
hold the answers to the areas of growth in the school and you publicly display your
trust by inviting them to the school’s decision-making process.

What it may look like: Pre-share sample discussion questions with staff members so
they are aware of the outcome you are trying to achieve) or allow the conversations to
be driven by what the stakeholders would like to share.

#2: Build the power of school-wide collaboration

Why: Public question and answer documents create an environment where all
questions are open and welcomed. The process equals the opportunity between new
staff and veteran staff to generate suggestions and questions in a safe space.

What it may look like: This can be used before/after a staff meeting so leadership
knows what aspects to clarify or after an email from the Central Office is received so
teachers have a forum to digest information and ask questions, etc.

#3: Utilize anonymity

Use a COVID anonymous reporting tool.

Why: Anonymous tools ensure that administrators collect timely items for action that
individuals may not feel comfortable reporting. Providing voice to address safety
concerns in a confidential format increases the likelihood your campus remains safe.

 Open the copy of the form.

  Rename the form and enter your school name in question one.

 In the panel above the form, click the Responses tab.

 Click More. Get email notifications for new responses.

Leaders need to be reachable even at a distance: If there’s one

thing that’s come out of the pandemic, it’s the importance of
communication skills. It doesn’t matter whether you’re leading a
small or large team, the ability to communicate clearly and
transparently even from a distance has never been more
important. When going through times of change, employees look
to their leaders for a sense of calm in the storm.