Strategies for Fostering a Culture of Trust Among Faculty
Ready to start the new school year with an engaged and empowered faculty that embrace professional learning and flourish in the classroom? Our last blog post focused on the key principles of maximizing teacher professional growth. Now, let’s dive deeper into the first principle, Fostering A Culture of Trust, and I’ll provide ways in which you can implement this immediately. Starting early is essential, because much of the success, or lack thereof, of Professional Development (PD) isn’t based on the training itself, but on the relationships and culture that has been established between school leadership and faculty beforehand.
Fostering a Culture of Trust: If the goal is for teachers to grow, then they need to be willing to stretch themselves out of their comfort zones. However, anytime someone stretches themselves beyond their comfort zone, they are taking a risk — and this can be very scary. It is especially difficult to do if there is a fear of failure or fear of being criticized or penalized. Verbal assurances and encouragement are valuable, but not enough. Teachers need to know that they are safe to take risks with new initiatives, and that they’ll be supported in their efforts. This assurance comes from living a culture of trust on a regular basis.
Some ways in which you can foster a culture of trust include:
Provide opportunities for teachers to try new initiatives in a safe and supportive environment:
Give safe-zones of time in which teachers can indicate that they are trying a new initiative and know that they will not have observations or walk-throughs.
Have team-leads or instructional coaches co-teach/observe/provide assistance to a teacher as they are trying something new without reporting on how the lesson went with anyone other than the experimenting teacher - including the principal.
Celebrate successes regardless of how “perfected” the craft is. Think of a child learning how to ride a bike for the first time. Imagine the parent going wild with enthusiasm and pride when the child rides the bike for a few seconds on their own. It doesn’t matter that they couldn’t go the distance of a full house without needing a guiding hand again, the celebration that they managed for a few seconds on their own is what matters, and what gets the child on the bike again the next day, and the next, until they can ride the bike alone without any mental effort. Focus on the success in the areas that will lead to the change that your school is striving for, celebrate it and nurture the continued effort that it takes from teachers to continue to get back on the seat and pedal the next day.
Show appreciation for engagement…
… Even if the engagement can be perceived as criticism or negativity. During team meetings, PLCs, or any type of collaboration, it is easy for us to interpret criticism as being negative, and our ego can get hijacked by this seeming attack. However, very often the people that are expressing concern or criticism have valuable insight that we are overlooking, and it could be coming from a place of wanting to make positive contributions to the conversation.
If we interpret criticisms as being negative, we not only shut down the criticism, we shut down the person. Even moreso, we shut down others from offering valuable insight in the future because we show our teams that we aren’t interested in their input unless it agrees with our stance. This creates a culture that is opposite that of trust, as people feel that they need to gauge what they say and/or feel unsafe in showing their true thoughts or views. (This will be covered more extensively in our next post, Hear Every Voice — subscribe to updates at the end so you’re notified when the post is live!).
Use candor and encourage candor while listening with an open mind:
Be willing to say what you feel needs to be said, even if it is scary to reveal, but don’t be stuck on being right about it. After revealing yourself, ask for input and listen openly to others and see what is coming up for the group. Learn more about this at Candor: Are You Revealing or Concealing? | Conscious Leadership Group.
Be willing to shift your direction, as the bigger need/reality comes to light collectively. When we are able to freely express ourselves, we experience energetic flow, which leads to creativity and productive problem-solving. Conversely, when we withhold our thoughts/feelings we become blocked and drained. Creating a culture of candor does not mean needing to “fix” or “solve” every situation that arises. Even though there may not be quick fixes to challenges, by creating a culture of candor, the group collectively discusses and understands the challenges they are facing, sees themselves as part of the team to find the solution, and sees leadership as a support system that they can trust. Giving space for people to reveal their thoughts and provide input and feedback, gives leaders the opportunity to process and reflect on what the collective energy is, and that is powerful in and of itself. Additionally, the constant encouragement of candor gives opportunities for trends and patterns to reveal themselves so great leaders can take action to improve conditions for team performance and satisfaction.
School leaders foster a culture of trust by providing a safe place for teachers to try new initiatives, showing appreciation for engagement, and using and encouraging candor while listening with an open mind. As a result they also create an energetic flow of creativity, collaboration, innovative problem-solving, and highly engaged professional learning experiences that allow everyone to grow and student achievement to flourish!
