When Colleagues Behave as Rivals

As a leader, how do you deal with colleagues who behave as rivals? 

Anyone who has faced rivals at work — colleagues who take all the credit, team members who undermine things — knows how difficult it is to ignore them. Instead, turn your adversaries into collaborators by following these three steps:

• Redirect. Try to channel your rival's negative emotions away from you by bringing up something you have in common, or talking about the source of the tension in a favorable light.
• Reciprocate. Give up something of value to your rival — help complete a project or divulge important information — so you are poised to ask for something in return.
• Reason. Explain that not working together cooperatively could mean lost opportunities. Most people are highly motivated to avoid a loss.

Adapted from "Make Your Enemies Your Allies" by Brian Uzzi and Shannon Dunlap.

Managing a Difficult Colleague

As a leader, how do you handle working with a difficult colleague? 

Working with a difficult person can be distracting and draining. Next time a colleague irritates you to no end, try these three things:

• Manage your reaction. If someone annoys you, don't focus on the behavior. Focus on how you react, which is usually the only thing you can control.
• Keep it to yourself. Emotions are contagious, so complaining about a co-worker can bring everyone down. And it can reflect negatively on you. If you must vent, do it outside the office.
• Work together. It's counterintuitive, but by spending more time together you may develop empathy for your colleague. You might discover reasons for the behavior: stress at home, pressure from someone else, or some other cause.  

Adapted from "How to Work with Someone You Hate" by Amy Gallo.

Getting Comfortable with Collaboration

As a leader, are you truly comfortable with collaboration?

We praise and encourage collaboration for improving problem solving, increasing creativity, and spurring innovation. Done correctly, it does yield all these benefits. But it can also be scary for us as leaders. Here are three facts you have to accept, and embrace, about collaboration before it can work:

• You won't know the answer. There's no point in collaborating on a complex problem if you know how to solve it. Be comfortable with ambiguity and accept that you aren't necessarily the expert.  The wisdom is in the room because it is a collective wisdom.
• Roles will be unclear. Responsibilities are often fluid. Be ready for the role you play to change with each phase of the work.  That said, addressing who is responsible for what can be helpful in moving work forward.  It just doesn't need to be you, as leader, who determines who does what.
• You will fight. If you avoid conflict, nothing will happen. Knowing how to debate tradeoffs between options means knowing how to productively argue.  This may take some practice for the whole group.  Establishing norms for processing different opinions is very helpful.  Effective processes also allow for a range of voices.

Adapted from "Eight Dangers of Collaboration" by Nilofer Merchant.

Leveraging Your Digital Network

As a leader, how do you use your digital network to accomplish your goals?

Most leaders understand how to use online tools, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, to build their networks. But few use these networks to gather information and provide influence. Here are three things you can do with a strong digital network:

• Test ideas. Test proposals and strategies both inside and outside your school/organization. Float an idea to see how many "likes" it gets or to direct people to a survey.
• Broker connections. Increase your influence by positioning yourself as a bridge between unconnected groups. Identify potential collaborations and make introductions.
• Get feedback. Good networkers rely on their contacts to provide feedback on challenges. Post a message about your struggle and solicit input.

Adapted from "Three Skills Every 21st-Century Manager Needs" by Andrew L. Molinsky, Thomas H. Davenport, Bala Iyer, and Cathy Davidson.

Alignment of Your Beliefs and Your Actions

As a leader, do your actions align with your professed beliefs?

Many people feel that any decision is better than no decision. After all, you can always change direction at a later date. But, in an attempt to appear decisive, leaders may prematurely push for an answer. And if there isn't a clear conclusion, they'll provide one. This undermines a team's ability to make a collective decision. Pretty soon people stop participating because they assume you've made up your mind in advance. If you can't agree, don't impose an answer. Instead, end the discussion by putting a process in place that yields decisions—even slowly-made ones—that everyone can accept. That way you won't lose your staff's goodwill next time around.

Many of us profess to seek and honour collaborative decision-making.  However, if your espoused beliefs don't align with your actions, your staff will soon figure this out and may begin to disengage.  Remember, as a leader, people are watching you.  And they are often watching for the alignment between what you say you believe in and what you actually do. 

Adapted from "How to Cultivate Engaged Employees" by Charalambos A. Vlachoutsicos.

Collaboration

As a leader, how do you build collaborative professional learning communities?

Being a team is not the same things as forming a team.  If I have learned anything about implementing authentic PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) it is that the hard work of looking at student and teacher work, designing quality common formative assessments, and reviewing and responding to to data cannot be done well without first building a strong collaborative team.  There is no bypassing this.  Time spent team building, learning about each other's styles and preferences in working as part of a team, norm setting, and constructing community knowledge is never time spent in vain.  Quite the contrary; failure to do these things promotes dysfunctional, ineffective PLCs with members who, at best, go through the motions of engaging in the requisite Essential Tasks with little or no impact on student learning.  With no real gains observed, inauthentic PLCs soon revert back to the old ways of the comfortable, if ineffective, status quo. 

Once a solid, collaborative foundation is established, PLCs are ready to do the heavy lifting of looking at student and teacher work, designing quality common formative assessments, and reviewing and responding to data, and they stand a good chance of doing them with fidelity so that student learning can actually improve.  Well-established teams can tackle any obstacle that may arise as they pursue....

From:  The Practice of Authentic PLCs by Daniel R. Venables
Published by: Corwin Press

Challenging Conversations

As a leader, how do you handle challenging conversations? 

Challenging conversations are most easily addressed in a school community characterized by respect, collaboration, and competence.

School leaders are often judged by staff, students, and community on how well they manage the challenging conversations that arise daily.  One's skill in meeting these challenges can make or break a reputation.  One's credibility and effectiveness are at stake. 

Dealing with challenging conversations enhances trust in a school community and forms the basis of a collaborative school culture.  It allows an organization to grow and prosper by providing a safe place to have the conversations that promote improvement. 

From:  The Principal as Leader of Challenging Conversations (Leading Student Achievement Series)
Published by: Corwin Press, OPC - The Ontario Principals' Council