We promote creating a process to manage up other people. We teach that managing up is a specific type of recognition that positions people well with others. It promotes people recognizing other people for good work.
During one school district’s beginning of the year Convocation each leader, faculty, and staff member received the following message on a note card, “Your path to the Hall of Fame starts Monday.” What a great message of hope – for excellence – delivered by the Superintendent and district leadership team with the card; but it didn’t stop there!
As each department and school leader, faculty, and staff member received the card, the giver asked the individual to reflect, “What does this look like to you? What does action that will get you into the Hall of Fame look like?” Take a minute to reflect…
As I reflected, my initial thought was, “Wow!” Reflecting on this message challenged me to act (rightly and excellently) into better (leadership) behavior… What does that mean? One example is that it moved me to proactively communicate the meaningful work of my colleagues, and recognize their contributions individually as well as with our executive leader.
If the positive action stopped here, then there would still be some cascading effect among my colleagues; that is, they would at a minimum be happy about such a positive behavior change in their leader! Too, they would appreciate the recognition they received from their executive leader! This is the exciting part of the message… When we change leader and teacher behavior, we create a more positive working environment and we positively influence student behavior and learning.
Seems too easy, right? It is for some leaders! However, it is sometimes helpful to train leaders on a process for applying and validating recognition; this is sometimes the only way to change behavior. The end result will be Hall of Fame worthy.
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Join the Studer Education team at Destination High Performance, October 21-22, to learn more about developing continuous systems improvement processes for your district. Tweet @KKOwen_Coach or email her at Karen.Owen@StuderEducation.com for more information.
Maximize Performance: Creating a Culture for Educational Excellence by Quint Studer and Janet Pilcher assists education leaders to engage in systematic reviews to diagnose, apply, assess, and validate the execution of strategies across school, department, and school system levels. Learn more about Maximize Performance at https://www.studereducation.com/MP. Follow the authors on Twitter using @quint_studer and @janetpilcher.
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… Tagged: Janet Pilcher, Leadership, Pilcher, Reward and Recognition 
