Early in our tenures as leaders, we often wondered why staff members were not meeting our expectations. Countless times, we would leave work frustrated that staff members were consistently making the same mistakes, creating a cycle of frustration that hurt teacher retention. What we discovered was that we needed to be more reflective on turning mistakes into teachable moments for teachers.
First, school leaders should intentionally meet with teams of teachers and discuss how they prefer to receive feedback. Once we understand how to speak the right language, leaders can start building the trust needed to define a shared vision of growth. This shared vision allows us to engage intentionally with staff through a lens of growth and empowerment.
This school year, we met with a team of dissatisfied veteran teachers who felt unsupported by their grade-level dean. They felt they were left to resolve difficult student and parental situations alone. In reality, the dean had been working to encourage experienced teachers to use their expertise and training with more independence. The dean was still supporting them, but that support felt different from previous years.
In this biweekly column, principals and other authorities on school leadership—including researchers, education professors, district administrators, and assistant principals—offer timely and timeless advice for their peers.
Over time, these veteran teachers were able to recognize their own capacity for growth, but the transition demanded courage, discomfort, and self-belief. Often, that growth starts when leaders embrace difficult conversations, which require a willingness to put pride aside and accept differences of opinion or perspective. Leaders should provide feedback and approach conversations with a level of empathy and emotional intelligence.
Experience has also taught us to approach difficult conversations with clear outcomes in mind. Take a difficult conversation that one of us had with a teacher who failed to notify the administration immediately about an incident. The teacher had been apprehensive about the idea of going to administration but left the conversation understanding how poor communication could have resulted in a serious health and safety situation.
Even more critical than that initial conversation was our check-in with the teacher a few days later. This check-in focused on the future, giving the teacher an opportunity to reflect on how this incident could help them become a better communicator moving forward. In the end, they expressed gratitude for the time we spent identifying their areas for growth.
Difficult conversations have to come from a place of compassion and concern. As leaders, there is no room for our personal agendas; we must always be willing to find teachable moments.
Teachable moments allow an open forum for communication and development. An unannounced evaluation one of us recently had with a teacher offers an instructive example. Upon entering the classroom, it was clear that the teacher was uncomfortable. During the post-evaluation meeting, the teacher led with reasons their day did not start as normal, which disrupted their routines for the day. Essentially, the teacher felt unprepared during the evaluation. There were two options: accept the excuse and allow the teacher to escape their rating or use this as a teachable moment.
Instead of taking the first option, we started by discussing the teacher’s daily practices. Together, we analyzed patterns and areas for adjustment that would enable the teacher to be better prepared daily despite disruptions to their routine. We also talked through the significance of an evaluation rating, which are best understood as indicators of areas for growth rather than the teacher’s value as a professional and ability to teach.
Over the past four years working on the same school administration team, we have learned that empowerment is not an overnight process. For leaders, it can be difficult to relinquish what we perceive as our power when we delegate our authority. At the same time, teachers often feel reluctant to take on what they perceive as more responsibility.
Leaders must learn to approach each teacher based on their individual personality and how they receive feedback. Education is a dynamic field that requires constant adjustment and humility. No matter how long you have been teaching, every moment is a teachable moment when leveraged properly. Once unlocked, empowerment is the key ingredient to realizing a school’s fullest potential.
