Here’s the scene: You are the school leader and you are rolling out the latest school improvement “push” in your district. You’re walking the teachers through a big plan of what they should come to expect, what is expected of them, what the benchmarks should be and everything else that they need to know. You’ve got some nodding heads, some blank stares, some groans and some…well, you can’t quite tell what THEY’RE thinking!
When it comes down to implementing step 1 of the plan, you realize that there’s quite a bit of grumbling from the 6th grade team – – they’re very, well, CRABBY about everything!
It’s easy to read their behavior as resistant – you’ve surely dealt with THAT before! But before you jump to conclusions and pull folks into your office to talk with them, ask yourself two questions:
- Is the source of this resistant-type behavior a skill insecurity?
- Is the source of this behavior really resistant, working-against-the-grain behavior?
When we jump to conclusions, we miss opportunities to support folks who really need it.