Listening vs. Telling

Published on February 27, 2015

Last updated on November 1, 2024

Mike Kelly:

In my time as a building leader, I have run into a number of challenges when trying to lead change. One challenge has been the conflicting preferences of teachers when it comes to change. I have found that some teachers give feedback saying: “They always tell us what to do and never listen to us”, while other teachers say: “Why don’t you just be clear and tell us exactly what you want us to do.” These two types of conflicting feedback make it very challenging when designing ways to implement change in a school. Recently, I have been struggling with this challenge while trying to lead our school in examining and improving our grading practices.

Some great insight from Mike on supporting both kinds of teachers.