Standards & Expectations

 

The Role of every Leader is to hold up the Standards & Expectations of the role, task & outcomes of our work!

Leaders Who Hold Standards and Expectations

People often “fail” in the performance of their duties simply because they have no clear understanding of the standards and expectations of their job responsibilities and of their supervisor. Job descriptions are written every day, yet few are even read, reviewed, or used as the standard for performance of the position. Likewise, billions of dollars are spent writing, developing, and creating performance appraisals, but rarely are they used throughout the year to maintain the focus on the standard and expectation of the position. Once folks accept the job, we often just expect them to know what to do, yet without continual reminders of the targets, focus, and purpose of the positions, employees just start doing and lose sight of the what and why. Supervisors sometimes fall prey to the phenomenon of the “curse of knowledge,” described by Chip and Dan Heath as, “Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has “cursed” us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others because we can’t readily re-create our listeners’ state of mind.” (Made to Stick, page 20) They just expect people to know and remember. It is just second nature, so everyone else must surely know. To mitigate this “curse,” coach leaders recognize the importance of clearly articulating standards and expectations and maintaining them at the forefront of all work.

Standards and Expectations for the Leader as Coach

There are drop dead non-negotiable for leaders is to clearly articulate—STANDARDS OR EXPECTATIONS of the work of schools. There are numerous common standards and expectations that have repeatedly been identified from school improvement and best practice research. Every employee should know what they are. A few common are:

  • High levels of learning for students
  • Teaching, monitoring and assessing student performance from a standard
  • Creating and maintaining safe learning environments
  • Using high yield, research based“best practice” tools and strategies for high gain, transfer, retention and acceleration of learning.
  • Working in partnership with parents and community.

“People improve when they know and look to a standard or example higher and better than themselves.”
Tyron Edwards