By Jill Jackson

I second-guessed the decision to title this series “Get a Backbone!” It is a little harsh, after all. But, when I review everything I see in actual schools, it comes down to this: Excellent principals who get positive results have skills, but more importantly, they have backbone! And, they use it.

Now, don’t mistake the concept of “backbone” for leadership that is rude, mean, and “out-to-fire-everyone.” In fact, principals that lead with backbone are some of the most beloved and highly revered leaders I’ve seen in action. They’re the kind of leaders that teachers will move schools to work with. They’re the kind of leaders that the staff wants to excel for. This isn’t to say that their staff members don’t roll their eyes after staff meetings and say, “Ugh! Why do the other schools get to work in their rooms in the afternoon and we have to go to a staff meeting? Our principal is so…mean!”

Principals with backbone have high standards and hold everyone accountable to them, which breed confidence and purpose. The cool thing is, in the end, the same teachers who roll their eyes at the expectations are the same ones who stand proudly as they receive an award from the superintendent for radically improving student scores or win a national academic excellence award.

So, that’s the thing: Principals with backbone get results, every time.

A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That’s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It’s having backbone.”

–Robert Kiyosaki

The Scene: You are holding your monthly staff meeting after school, going through the usual kinds of agenda items, including: What time teachers need to show up to sign their insurance forms, when the submissions for the upcoming art fair are due to the school secretary, and how there have been problems in the boys bathroom with the toilets getting clogged, so the new school rule is only one student at a time can enter the bathroom. Meanwhile, you scan the room and notice that the usual suspects are late coming back from lunch again (apparently, there was a big back-up in the drive-thru line), two teachers are missing from the meeting because they scheduled dentist appointments for this afternoon, and you see three teachers grading papers while you’re talking. Just another regular staff meeting!

After the meeting, several teachers approach to talk with you:

• Mr. Jones (one of the late-comers stuck in the drive-thru line) says he doesn’t have the right paper for the art fair submissions and where would he find it anyway?
• Ms. Johnson lets you know that she is going to be absent during the testing window and will need coverage
• Mr. Pinkny informs that he referred six students yesterday because his class is “really bad” this year and something needs to be done
• Mrs. Shower says her instructional aide hasn’t been showing up until 10 minutes after the small groups have begun, which has led to chaos during small-group time because they don’t have a teacher. “You need to deal with my aide right away!”
• Mr. Heatherton shows you his mid-year test scores and it appears that nine kids slipped from benchmark to well below, and he thinks that seven of these nine should be tested for special education needs
• Ms. Pembroke wants to talk about whether she really needs to attend the grade-level team meetings because she’s “not getting much from them,” and since they only last 20 minutes anyway, could she use that time to work with a small group of struggling kids instead?
• Mr. Langston would like to know if he can keep his students during reading intervention because he doesn’t feel they are benefiting from the group. He hasn’t looked at the data, he says, but he has “a feeling” it’s not going well
• And finally, Mrs. Wagner asks if she can talk to you privately because she’s going through some personal problems and is having trouble getting to school on time because her daycare has fallen through

While heading back to your office with a headache, you’re met by a few teachers (the ones grading papers during the meeting) who want to know, “What did you say again about the art fair deadline?”

The Analysis: You need to regain control. It’s time to set a higher standard for professionalism and then require your staff follow through. There appears to be general apathy toward the real instructional work that is necessary at the school, which is what will actually produce the academic results you desire. You want to make your school instruction-centered, but there seems to be a lot of “junk” that gets in the way.

In analyzing the concerns that were brought up after the meeting, you realize that most of them should be discussed during the meeting. The lagging data, the Special Ed referrals, the lack of focus from instructional aides, classroom management—these are the tasks that, if well-managed, make a school highly successful. Spending precious staff meeting time on what kind of paper the art fair entries should be mounted on is prioritizing the art fair above the instructional business of the school. When you model that what you value above instruction is the students’ bathroom behavior, it is unfair to be frustrated with your staff because they’re failing to organize around improving the quality of instruction.

The difference is what the leader values. When you value instruction and prioritize the conversations around that idea, the plant-management issues tend to be diluted. They don’t go away fully, but they are managed quickly and oftentimes avoided before they even arise. When a leader values plant management or logistics above all else, then the majority of the conversations and meetings are around logistics. So when it comes time to discuss instruction, the logistics-centered school lacks practice in talking about teaching and tends to do it less.

Side note: If you are reading this and think, “Geez, this Jill Jackson is way off base and must not know what real school leadership is all about. The bathroom problems, the bus duty, the coverage for late teachers are major parts of my job every day. Jill needs to get realistic!” then let’s have a quick side conversation. I understand that running a big operation from a logistics perspective is tricky and very time-consuming. But, I also know that the successful school across town that spends more than 80 percent of its time focusing on instruction-related discussions also has a big operation to run.

It’s time to mobilize your leadership team and get them involved in helping plan staff meetings, team meetings, and school-based professional development around the real needs of teachers and students. It’s also time to model professional conduct, structuring school meetings and interactions to expect 100 percent teacher engagement and 100 percent commitment to moving the focus from what the teachers need to what the students need. These are not student issues; these are teacher issues. If you fail to intervene and refocus now, you’re ensuring full burnout in the very near future.

Jill Jackson is a tell-it-like-it-is school improvement supporter. She believes that while skill is important to leadership, coaching, and teaching, the will to do the work can trump skill! Her book, “Get a Backbone, Principal! 5 Conversations Every School Leader Must Have Right Now!” was released April 1, 2013. You can read her weekly blogs and grab free resources right now at www.jackson-consulting.com.