Attending a session on “employee engagement”, I was listening about how hard it is to get people to “buy in” to some of the things are happening in school. As I was listening to the speaker, a lot of the things that were deemed “engagement” sounded like “compliance”. This is not to critique the speaker, but “employee engagement” sounds a lot better than “employee compliance”, doesn’t it? There are times when one needs to just do what they are needed to do. This is the reality of our world.
Yet when we think of the employee-employer relationship from the viewpoint of an administrator, how often do we think of how the “employee” is not engaged or not living up to their potential, as opposed to what we can do to help create an environment where people thrive? I have said this before, but we can’t make people change, but we can create environments where change is more likely to happen.
Things we need to consider if we want people to move forward…
- Are we building relationships with those that we serve and do they feel valued?
- Do we try to empower them and give them ownership of solutions, or do we simply ask them to implement solutions made for them?
- Is the “why” clearly articulated, or only the “what” and the “how”?
If we are only look at having teachers engaged in their work environment, then maybe the bar has already been set too low.
