I had just accepted a role as junior leadership to a paired administrative role. My responsibility was management of technology and technology services for a large school in a metro area. My co-administrator abruptly resigned as I joined the team, so I had little foundational information and was gathering what I could. My principal was new to the school.
As I completed my first month of management, my supervisor, a vice-principal pulled me into his office for a conference to establish goals, address finances (including shortages), and design future direction for the site. We covered all the essentials before addressing 'one final topic.' My new boss began,
"How satisfied are you will Rich (my technician)?"
"Still getting to know him but I have some things we can do to improve service."
"I want you to begin documenting him. I want him fired. People are fed up with him, his customer service is lousy, and Rob (his old boss, my intended counterpart) felt he was getting nothing done. How many times has he been late this week (I noticed he didn't say 'month')?"
"A couple."
"Your job is to put together documentation, warnings, and process for dismissal. ... need anything else?"
"No."
"We'll meet for your next update in two weeks."
Wow, what a bomb ... not exactly what I had hoped for as foray into administrative responsibility!
It was true, Rich had been late often and I had actually caught him sleeping. A few complaints had seeped in from those getting to know me about him not responding to their needs in a timely manner. He was a bit whiny when I asked him to take on certain jobs or with certain people.
Our next meeting was cancelled when the vice-principal was given a lateral promotion to another school with some new projects. The principal took his role in supervising me, so I had "all my ducks lined up" with all the documentation I could provide. He was impressed with my work and was very complimentary, but began the last segment of the meeting with concern,
"You've got a lot of documentation on Rich but you've only known him for how many weeks?"
I explained the directive I had been given.
"Let's take this a different direction ... I want you to do everything in the next few weeks to find out what is going on with Rich and see if it merits reassignment or if there are issues that might be personal that we can mentor him through."
Over the next few weeks, I discovered that Rich's mother was dying of cancer, his father was absent and he had younger brothers and sisters. I also found that he was an epileptic and was having trouble managing his medication (which often caused him to be sleepy). More importantly, I began focusing on his successes and expressing appreciation for what he was doing right.
Staff began to comment to me that since I had joined the staff, 'Rich had really shown improvement.' They were grateful for my leadership and began to more openly share their hopes rather than their equipment needs. Several joined the articulation committee I had created. My principal was very complimentary at our next meeting ... he had heard significant commentary about positive change coming from my supervision of the department.
Though simple, the experience taught me quite a bit. I will be forever grateful for the principal who guided me toward a positive people interaction.
Rich's mother died a couple of years later, his siblings were, by then, old enough to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. He remains in the same district in a similar role.
I left the district several years ago. Though I had moved to another state, Rich recently contacted me to let me know that he had recently gotten married and purchased a home. The man that I was asked to fire was a positive contributing member of the technology staff in the very large district where we had worked.
It is worth thinking of how you can build, how you can help, how you can guide to improve your world. The principal who guided me was a wonderful part of my history who impacts my management to this day!
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