PITFALLS TO AVOID WHEN A NEW LEADER

So you have just received your first big promotion. Principal, Assistant Principal, Senior Teacher or Head of Department. You must be feeling great. Chances are you’re about to make one of these rookie mistakes:

Saying how troubled the school or Department is that you’ve just taken over.

That way, if your results are poor, it’s not your fault, because you inherited a dog. And if the results are good, you’ve been successful in the face of almost-impossible circumstances. People see through this.

Talking badly about people who quit, leave or your predecessor.

Like talking badly about the school or Department you’ve just taken over, this is another transparent means to manage your ego. But this only serves to make your team wonder what you might say about them one day. And while being gracious to departing colleagues might seem obvious, you’d be amazed how often “Well, I was just about to move him anyway” is said, even at the most senior levels.

Immediately replacing the old team with “your” team, and particularly a team that looks and sounds a lot like you.

There’s comfort in choosing everyone on your team, all of whom then “owe” you for their jobs. But the best strategies can emerge out of discomfort, and that can mean having people on your team whom you may not particularly want to have to your home for dinner.

Getting detached from the parents and students.

Parents and Students can be messy. It can be very easy to spend more time away from them. PowerPoint slides and spreadsheets deliver much crisper answers than what you can hear from an actual person.

“Taking the hill” on your strategy without first getting buy-in from the team.

The days of decreeing a strategy and then telling folks to execute on it are fading in the rear-view mirror. And that’s a good thing, because a strategy that doesn’t incorporate what your team and customers can tell you will almost certainly be sub-optimal. I’ve seen more than one leader decree a not-well-thought-out strategy and have his team essentially wait him out.

Not recognizing that your words carry more weight than they used to.

Once you’re in Leadership, your words (and your mood and your tone) are subject to interpretation by those who can be impacted by them. A poorly thought-out comment or joke can cause significant unintended anxiety.

Being overly certain and acting like you’re invulnerable.

The right types of candor can go a long way, such as recognizing the uncertainty in a situation. Being absolutely certain and then dead wrong can be fatal for a new leader. It’s ok to let your team see you sweat a bit. That said, there are few highly successful pessimistic leaders; optimism, even in the face of adversity, goes a long way.

These are a few Leaders errors I know about. What did I miss?