In a school district, all of us—district and school leaders, teachers, staff, and students—come to work each day and want to have purpose, do worthwhile work and make a difference in the lives of those we touch. All of us want to create and be part of great places for students to learn, teachers to teach, employees to work, and parents to send their children for a quality education. To accomplish this critical mission, there must be:
A Focus on Relationships. Education is founded on developing relationships with all with whom we work. Failing to maintain positive, productive relationships with key stakeholders can lead to negative public perception of the school district in the community as well as a loss of enrollment as parents make different choices.
Coaching to Improve Service. Educational leaders, teachers, and staff must improve their service to employees, leaders, parents and students. The goal is to achieve service excellence in every school and department. Using survey tools or other benchmarks, leaders must identify areas of excellence and recognize individuals and groups for outstanding service; at the same time, leaders must identify performance gaps and create action plans which incorporate tactics proven to improve on stakeholders’ experiences in the district.
One of our colleagues likes to say, “Service Excellence is not rocket science, it’s people science!” This means each of us can start with one of the following four things and we’ll begin seeing a world of difference:
Everything we do in schools and district departments every day is grounded in good service. Service excellence not only to the kids we teach and their parents, but also to those we work with every day. As leaders, our goal must always be to put purpose back into the work that we do, and help our colleagues connect and reconnect to purpose, worthwhile work, and making a difference.
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Special thanks to Dr. Robin Largue for sharing some quick thoughts about Service Excellence for this post. Dr. Largue served in the Escambia County School District for almost three decades beginning as a high school history teacher before serving in in various leadership positions including the director of secondary education, the principal of Pine Forest High School, an as assistant principal at Escambia High School. Dr. Largue is the co-author of How to Lead Teachers to Become Great: It’s All About Student Learning (Fire Starter, 2009) and has developed many online learning modules for leaders and teachers. Dr. Largue serves as the Lead Coach at Studer Education. Follow Dr. Largue on Twitter @RobinLargue.
Our mission at Studer Education is to help education systems achieve measurable results that produce positive outcomes in student achievement, employee engagement, support services, and financial efficiencies and productivity. Our goal is to help school systems provide students with a great place to learn, teachers with a great place to teach, and parents with confidence that their children are getting a great education. Follow us on Twitter at @StuderEducation and visit us online at http://studereducation.com. Studer Education is a division of Studer Group, ranked for the seventh straight year on the Best Small and Medium Workplaces by Great Place to Work® and a recipient of the 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Filed under: How to Lead…, Service Excellence, Who’s Engaged? Tagged: #ServiceExcellence, Continual improvement process, Continuous Improvement, Excellence in Education, Robin Largue, Service Excellence, Studer Education 
