Introduction

In creating a school culture that will promote academic success of all students, school leaders need to develop and nurture a relationship among all stakeholders. These stakeholders can be external or internal. The second ISLLC Standard addresses the importance of building and sustaining a positive school culture through assessment of the culture, treating all individuals with respect, fairness and dignity, and ensuring that all staff and students feel valued and important. School programs alone can not elevate a school to one of excellence. The culture established in a school impacts student achievement. According to Todd Whitaker in What Great Principals Do Differently, principals need to focus not only on the programs, but on the people within the school (Whitaker, 2003).

What the Professionals Say about Building Trust

In Building Trusting Relationships for School Improvement: Implications for Principals and Teachers, Cori Brewster and Jennifer Railsback identifed the following five key components to building trust: benevolence, reliability, competence, honesty, and openness. Teachers need to believe that the principal has their best interests at heart. Teachers also need to feel that the principal is dependable and has the necessary skills and knowledge to lead the school. Teachers need to see that the principal exhibits integrity and authenticity. Finally, open communication is essential. Teachers must believe that the principal is communicating freely with them. Integrity, authenticity, and openness are all dimensions of trust. The degree to which a person can be counted on to represent situations fairly makes a huge difference in whether or not that individual is trusted by others in the school community.

Develop a Plan for Building and Sustaining Trust

No matter what wonderful programs, textbooks, and activities are put in place in a school, the success of the school and essentially the students will depend on the relationships, both internal and external, among the stakeholders. Interpersonal relationships don’t just happen because the building level principal said, “Thou shall have a good relationship with the principal and fellow colleagues.” Relationships take time to create, nurture, and maintain. The cornerstone of all relationships and communication is trust.

Because trust is critical to the quality of the relationships and communication, there must be a plan that will allow for a collaborative work environment to exist and trust to develop. Without trust, the level of communication will be compromised. Often times it is said that a plan failed, when in reality, the key contributor to the failed communication was that there was no plan.

The paragraphs that follow provide specific practices of what you, as the building principal, can do to establish trust. Some of the practices are suggestions that should be done early in the relationship, either at the beginning of the year or at the beginning of a new assignment. These practices are grouped together first, with practices that are on-going following.

Practices to Consider Implementing at the Beginning of the Year

Be Ready to Put Yourself under a Microscope

Recognize the fact that everything you do and say will be evaluated by your staff. You are setting the stage at the beginning of the year, particularly if you are in a new school. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Choose your words carefully; it is amazing how something said can so drastically be misinterpreted because of one or two words. Body language often speaks louder than any words that you utter. Is your body language saying that you are putting a wall between yourself and others, or is it an inviting stance? Are you demonstrating confidence without being arrogant? Be mindful of your words and actions, knowing that you are under a magnifying glass. You need to set the stage for building trust by demonstrating personal integrity.

Lay the Cards on the Table

Share from the beginning what your staff can expect from you as an administrator and what you expect from them. Uncertainty can cause tension. Putting the expectations clearly out on the table eradicates the uncertainty and anxiety. While this example is one that you would want to address early in the year or assignment, you may need to go back periodically and touch on the expectations again. This practice refers to the overall expectations, not just in terms of communication.

Establish the Playing Rules

This practice is closely connected with “Laying the cards on the table.” With this practice, I am referring specifically to establishing the rules for communication. Work collaboratively to determine what communication means as it relates to the various members of the learning community. This would be a good team-building activity to do during the Back-to-School Workweek. Reach a consensus on what good communication is and what the limits are. In other words, develop expectations together as to who needs to know what. Then, in all of your actions and words, model what you expect.

Your staff will develop trust in you if they see and feel that you expect the same from yourself as you do from each of them. It is critical that in this sense, each staff member considers you to be fair in how you deal with situations and treat each person.

Practices That Could Be On-going

Supervisor or Friend, Which One Will It Be

Staff looks at you as their leader but by the same token they want you to be a friend. This is like walking a tightrope, because many people have a difficult time separating professional and personal. Be a friend from the standpoint of listening to them and showing them that you care. Being a friend means they see the “human” side of you, but it does not mean that you need to go out to the local bar on a Friday night together.

Get to Know Them.

Make it your mission to learn about your staff members and who they are as individuals. Get to know your staff and demonstrate that you care about them as individuals. Practice being an active listener so that you are able to understand who they are, how they feel, what is important to them, why they feel the way they do, etc.

A relatively simple way to get to know your staff is to eat in the lunchroom or teachers’ lounge with the teachers on a regular basis. This provides opportunities to talk together with several teachers during down-time. Not only will you get to know more about them, it will allow them to see you in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Do they like to read romances or mysteries for pleasure? Do they like to garden, cook, bake, sew, golf, or play cards? Ask them questions that will involve them in conversation about their interests. Maybe there is a common interest between you and staff members on a particular television show. With the readers, share conversations about the newest novel by a popular author. Tell those that are gourmet cooks about a new recipe you tried; this will encourage them to talk about one they’ve recently tried.

You can also use their interests to start different groups. Perhaps you want to do a weekly or bi-monthly book exchange. Starting a golf team would strengthen relationships and promote good health. Perhaps those that like to sew would like to work on a special sewing project for the school. Developing opportunities for the staff to spend time together on common interests will improve the overall climate and culture of the school.

Another way for you to demonstrate that you care about your staff is to get to know their families. It is important to know that their husband is up for a promotion or just got laid off. Know their children and what their interests are. Ask how Suzi’s softball game went on Saturday or how college applications are coming along for Shannon. Remember to ask how their mother is doing after having surgery or how the family is adjusting to having a parent placed in a nursing home.

Don’t You Ever Go Home

Be visible and accessible to staff members. This might mean getting there with the early birds and staying later than usual. Rotate your days so that some days you are there early and others late. This ensures that no matter what the preference is for each staff member, there will be opportunity for them to talk to you if they feel the need. Be available for your staff to seek your input. Also, your staff will see your commitment to the school. They will be more open to meeting a parent’s request for an early morning conference because they have seen your willingness to do so.

Treat Everyone with Respect

Staff members should be treated as the professionals they are. They should be valued for the decisions they make in terms of instruction and activities they plan to facilitate learning. Don’t feel that you need to always be critical. There is worth to the adage, you attract more bees with honey. Private and public praise goes a long way. Rather than feeling that you need to call attention to the weaknesses you see, recognize the positive that you see. This positive-ness will facilitate needed changes more quickly than finding fault. Call and leave a message at the teacher’s home to let them know how much you appreciate what they do. Offer praise and demonstrate openness in your communication so that staff is able to develop trust to know that they can come to you when they have a concern or celebration.

Go into the Trenches

How many times have you heard teachers comment that you doesn’t remember what it is like to be in the classroom? Spend time in their classrooms. This shows that you care about the children and the instruction. It allows you to have that connection for further conversation in the lunchroom or in the hallway. Offer feedback and praise in response to what you observed. Leave a post-it note with a simple message saying what you enjoyed about the lesson. Offer to teach in the classroom for a short period of time. Go in to one class a week and read a story to them. If you can get in to one classroom a week to teach a 30-minute lesson, this will go a long way to having teachers believe that you can relate with them and their concerns. It is not teachers against the principal; it becomes all of us together.

Can You Keep a Secret

There will be times, many of them, that you need to keep a secret. It is amazing to me how many times I have worn the hat of marriage counselor, mother, or friend. As a principal, you hear about the broken marriages or relationships and about the loss of income and job of a spouse. You hear about the tumor they found last week that is inoperable, and you hear about the child who did not make the team. You feel the pain along with your staff members; lend a shoulder to cry on and a tissue to mop the tears. You offer the hand to help them back up on their feet and the hug to provide encouragement to go on. But you never, ever share what is shared with you. Even when another staff member comes to you about their colleague’s problem, you have to keep that secret. You just listen, you never give it up.

For the Children

I sign all of my correspondence, “For the children”. After all, that is the only reason we are all there. Create the culture in your school beginning in September that the focus should always be on what is best for the children. When you have conversations with stakeholders, begin to have those words be a part of the communication. This will be helpful in developing an understanding among your staff that they do not need to necessarily voice their opinion about every decision made or know why every decision was made. This may seem harsh when you first encounter this statement. However, reflect on it for a moment. Is it really necessary for the staff to know why the same person will not be teaching a specific class next year? Sometimes, we just need to respect the fact that our superiors made a decision and we need to comply. When your staff sees that you make the best decision for the children, they will develop the trust that all decisions are made with the children’s best interest at heart. You may not be able to explain why a teacher resigned. Is it really in the best interest of the children for the staff to know that the teacher was put on a plan of improvement and decided to resign rather than go through with the rigors of the plan. Besides, that is a confidential personnel issue and therefore can not be discussed.

Develop the belief early in the year that all decisions are made in the best interest of the children. Communicate from the beginning what confidentiality means to you. Present several scenarios for the staff to work through to come to the realization that there will be a mutual respect that decisions will be made “For the children”, and it is not always necessary to question the why’s.

Two Heads are Better Than One

Validate their ideas and concerns. If you ask for their ideas, it is important to have discussion and then use ideas generated from the conversation. Asking for ideas only to ignore them and use your own is a sure way to put a damper on relationships and trust. If necessary, present ideas for discussions with parameters that will help guide their ideas. In other words, empower the staff. Developing topics for group discussion at faculty meetings and grade levels meetings is one way to begin to establish a professional learning community.

Perception is Reality

Don’t pretend; the staff will see right through you. Be sincere. What ever you do, be sincere. The best made plans will be wasted if the act is not perceived as sincere. You may want to try taking small steps in implementing practices that will build relational trust. This may help you and the staff to feel the sincerity. The genuineness of your actions will also help those among your staff who are skeptics to have hope.

Conclusion

Just because you are the person ultimately responsible for the leadership in a school does not mean that you will automatically have the trust of the staff. You can not demand trust, you must earn it. You earn trust by demonstrating that you care about the people you lead, that you will listen to their ideas, empower them to make decisions, be there to help them when they fall and will not judge them.

In Eight Habits of the Heart for Educators, Clifton L. Taulbert (2006) suggests that there are eight habits that will facilitate a sense of community when implemented. Those eight habits are nurturing, responsibility, dependability, friendship, brotherhood, high expectations, courage, and hope. Each of the practices described previously parallel nicely to these eight habits. Sincerity in your daily actions that represent these eight habits will allow the vision of your school to become a reality.

Also, through reflection on the five components of trust identified by Cori Brewster and Jennifer Railsback, you can see that the practices clearly support these components. The chart below demonstrates the strong correlation between the practices for developing trust, the eight habits of the heart, and the five components.

You set the tone for your school’s culture and climate. Following your lead, individual staff members will begin to implement practices that they see you exhibit. If your actions do not support trust and community, then chances are this will carryover into the classrooms with the teachers’ relationships with each other, with parents, and with students. If your actions encourage trust and community, theirs will too. What started as internal communication has essentially grown to include the external elements. Ultimately, the relationships and communication built on trust will have a positive impact on students; their levels of achievement will soar and their overall sense of being a community member will have far-reaching effects.

References

Brewster, Cori and Jennifer Railsback. Building Trusting Relationships for School Improvement: Implications for principals and teachers. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, September 2003. http://www.nwrel.org/request/2003sept/textonly.html

Taulbert, Clifton L. (2006). Eight Habits of the Heart for Educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Whitaker, T. (2003). What Great Principals Do Differently: Fifteen things that matter most. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

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This work is licensed by Christine Wolfe under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 2.0), and is an Open Educational Resource.

Last edited by National Council of Professors of Educational Administration on Jul 3, 2007 10:21 am -0500.