performance management - Balancing Act

Supporting colleagues

In some ways I’m annoyed that my last ever blog post relates to performance management instead of something more positive in terms of teaching and learning BUT as I think about this – it’s positive and has made a difference to the learning experience for Year 11s at our school.

In my previous post as part of my interview technique thread I talked about Anna, our Head of Science and indicators that she wasn’t coping so well with her work. I’m now going to talk about the second part of this – what to do once you know you’re trying to support somebody in managing their workload and getting back to full potential.

I’d met with Anna to discuss my concerns and explained that some parents and a few students had also talked to me. I said that whilst my colleague Julia was going to help by getting some more of the students view through a short questionnaire I’d like to concentrate on the practicalities of getting GCSE students back on track as soon as possible.

It was paramount to clarify that this was me supporting her doing her job. No way was I getting involved in actually doing anything, as you’ll have read in my previous posts I’ve already got (more than enough) to do!

Action Plan

We agreed, amongst other things, that Anna would:

Talk to her subject leaders (Head of Biology and Physics, Anna acts as Head of Chemistry) and create resources and lesson outlines for active revision for Year 10 and 11. I would organise cover so that the three of them could meet together as a team. This has now been done.
Write letters home personalised (via mail merge) to every Year 11 parent explaining which modules were yet to be taken (either for the first time or as re-sits) and which websites were useful for revision; the letter would also outline what would be happening in lessons until the exams; this would also be copied to teachers who would then be expected to follow the content in the letter. I would read the drafts of the letters and organise office admin support for the mail merge and posting. I proof read the letters on Friday afternoon and so Anna’s perfecting them in the half-term ready to pass over to the office on Monday.

Follow up and Review

It took two meetings to sort these items out. I’ve seen the resources and at the next meeting we’ll get out and about and talk to some Year 11 students to check that they’re actually getting to use them.

I’ve praised Anna (I know this sounds patronising but I really think it’s important) for getting her team to work better and with more purpose and I’ve started to feedback to the parents and students who had seen me in terms of ‘hope you can start to see some things are changing …..’.

All part of the job

I hope Anna felt nothing but a bit of support from me and she was able to acknowledge that she understands it was just me doing me job in responding to concerns. I know that I’ve modelled good practice which she’s then cascaded down to her Heads of Physics and Biology.

The next part of the plan is forward thinking to prevent our current Year 9s or 10s finding themselves in the same predicament.

I’ve also promised to look at what’s got in the way for her (her teaching staff numbers nearly doubling without her being allocated any additional technician support is likely to be high on that list!)

That’s all folks!

Submitted by Mrs OC on 21 Feb 2009

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Balancing Act

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Interview questions - performance management

Here’s another question that’s almost always asked at any leadership interview at subject leader level or above.

“How do you manage somebody who is not performing in their job?”

Any leader or manager needs to have an approach to this situation. Before you get to a leadership position you need to know how to answer the question well at interview!

Symptoms

I like to start by saying how I know that the person is not doing their job:

Observation
Keeping eyes and ears open
Line management meetings
Parents/student complaints (although ideally I’d know before then)

Diagnosis

I then talk about my diagnosis, i.e. why aren’t they performing well – talk to them, other colleagues and consider their circumstances. I’ll then be in a position to decide whether this is a colleague who needs support, firm support or what I call ‘the bottom line’ which is “do your job, no reason for you not to do it so are you up to it or not”. I show as much understanding as possible but my job is to help the students and that’s the only reason to help the adults.

Specifics

I then give an example. At the moment I’m firmly supporting my Head of Science. I know lessons weren’t quite right in Science, the modular results for Year 10 were lower than expected and there had been some complaints from students – mainly that they were bored and also that they didn’t know how to revise for their next module. All of this adds up to the Head of Department’s not keeping on top of her team.

I know she can do her job and that she knows what a good lesson looks like. I also know, because I make a point of keeping up with ‘gossip’, that things are going well at home so why isn’t she doing her job? Well part of the reason is because her job’s changed over the past year – timetabling and part-timers mean that her department has gone from managing 4 ½ people to managing 7. She doesn’t have any more admin/technician/second-in-charge of science time and yet somehow we’re both surprised that she’s not coping …….

Treatment

Anyway that’s my example – I’d then go on to talk about trying to find innovative ways of supporting him or her (in our school the innovation involves spending the least amount of money possible). I'll do a seperate post about how I'm supporting our Head of Science.

The example you use can be something from your own experience of leadership, something you’ve observed or something you’ve heard about. The important thing is to be able to reflect – would you do anything differently, how successful the intervention was (and why) and the reasons it was so important to intervene in the first place (because the kids only get one chance). It’s also useful to show an understanding of how the same thing is almost guaranteed never to work twice because no two situations (people, school, managers) are the same.

Submitted by Mrs OC on 18 Feb 2009

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Balancing Act

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Work-life affirming

I went on a ‘walkabout’ today.

A lot of schools have them to promote positive behaviour management - It’s where (mostly) senior members of staff visit lessons to see how things are going.

I was particularly excited to be visiting Year 10 lessons because I can start to put names to faces of the 140 options forms that I processed. It’s nice to actually see the 10Q Geography group in action as I had to create it due to heavy demand for Geography (don’t ask me why!) and then had to negotiate staffing accordingly.

I think walkabouts help to raise your profile – I’ve been looking at the students’ planners and checking their books as I visit classrooms; a former mentor of mine called it ‘walking the job’ and it certainly helps me as a way of informal monitoring. If I spot anything I like or am worried about then I will pop back in a more formal setting.

I sometimes feel I don’t have time to do these things, they take me out of my office and away from the sickeningly huge pile of work but seeing the children enjoying their lessons and seeing the staff enjoying teaching (as it’s only the second week of term and they will have some energy) is rewarding and work-life affirming.

Submitted by Mrs OC on 10 Sep 2008

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