How Performance Feedback Matters and How to Give the Best Feedback We all want our schools to be successful. We want the students to feel confident and reach their goals, and we want our teachers to be productive and happy. For this to happen, the head of the school must also be confident, productive, and happy. Principals have the greatest responsibility as the top of the chain within a school. Their success is equal to that of the school’s success, so it’s important for them to have the tools and information they need to fulfill their varied and detailed duties. Part of this involves the necessary feedback from the assistant superintendents over them.
As an assistant superintendent, you may be uncertain how to best assist the principals you oversee. After all, how much could your feedback actually impact their work and their satisfaction? In reality, this connection is deeper than you might think. A study done by 1Harvard Business Review shows that 72% of employees felt their performance would improve if their supervisors gave them constructive feedback. The principals you oversee want to succeed. They want their schools to succeed. However, they don’t always know the best way to do that. There’s a lot on their shoulders and multiple things they’re juggling. As their assistant superintendent, you can provide them with the guidance, information, and insight they need to make that difference.
Performance feedback can make an unbelievable change in the way the principals you support go about running the schools they oversee. According to Janet Hoffman of 2HR Aligned Design, providing feedback has several important benefits that can impact the entire working atmosphere.
For starters, it can strongly improve performance by increasing your principals’ awareness of your expectations. It also builds confidence when they receive positive feedback. Having healthy performance feedback will also help them to understand better ways to give feedback to the employees in their schools.
This feedback is also an opportunity to open necessary communication between you and the principals you oversee. Having this open channel allows them to feel comfortable coming to you when they are in need of advice or assistance. You will be more aware of the individual needs of each school and they will know you are open to discuss those needs.
Loyalty will also improve, as creating these open-ended moments of feedback will strengthen your work relationships. Making sure they know you have their best interests at heart will help them work with you better and increase their satisfaction in their job environment.
Having these open connections that frequent performance feedback provides and the increased satisfaction will help you hold onto principals who work well. One of the biggest reasons people look for jobs elsewhere is because of unpleasant working conditions. These conditions are strongly affected by their direct supervisors, which means your attitude and interactions with them are a key factor in whether they want to stay in their current position or not.
The last point that Hoffman makes about performance feedback and its benefits is that it helps to keep good employees. Keeping good employees, in this case principals, in the schools creates a better environment for teachers and other school workers, which trickles down to the students. Learning and behavior will reflect the overall attitude in the school, and this all starts with the principal.
Not all feedback is the same, however, and you should be wary of crossing the line into discouraging the principals you oversee. The Harvard Business Review study also showed that 92% of those who responded felt that constructive feedback was helpful, but only if given correctly. How does someone understand when their assessments are useful and when they start to become too harsh? When is performance feedback helpful and when is it simply criticism? Some harsher mindsets may say that any criticism can be helpful if you don’t take it too personally, but we’re not talking about a onetime review. We’re talking about a reoccurring assessment on a day to day accomplishments and issues. We’re talking about a field that is one of the most important in our society. These principals are the leaders of those who are directly teaching children. If they don’t know how to fix an issue or address a certain problem, it affects the lives of those children involved.
If you want to make sure they are prepared and able to perform their duties to the best of their abilities, you can start by looking at the guide provided by 3OfficeVibe. They describe certain traits that unproductive feedback has. Traits that may seem like a good idea, but in reality may cause the principals you oversee to be put off or discouraged.
The first of those traits we are going to discuss is focusing the performance feedback on what’s been done. While this is often the instigation or basis that drives a great deal of feedback opportunities, focusing too much on a negative situation or something that went wrong crosses the line of trying to resolve an issue and jumps into a simple chastisement. This doesn’t inspire the principals you support. Instead, it creates a division and a lack of confidence.
The second trait that is mentioned is becoming too general in your assessments. You want to be personal and specific. If you’re vague, you’re denying them the stepping stones to improvement and closing the door on discussions into any real underlying issues that may not be present.
Another trait that is commonly used, but can have the opposite effect that you want it to, is to put yourself in their shoes. Many times, supervisors will say, “If I were you, I would do this.†While you feel that you’re making a great suggestion, what is often heard is that you would do it better. You don’t want this to become a comparison.
You also don’t want to make suggestions that are irrelevant to the situation. Even worse is when they are impractical suggestions. Pay attention, and be aware of the resources the principal has access to. It may be that they have hurdles you don’t, and your advice will only frustrate and distance your working relationship with them.
Feedback is not a time for opinionated responses either. You need to stay focused on facts and issues. You’re not there to criticize the principals. You’re there to support and help them. If they are having a problem in a certain area, they most likely know it already. Putting a spotlight on it will only rub salt in the wound.
Lastly, you don’t want to go into your performance feedback with the intention of getting a point across. While you are their superintendent, you shouldn’t use those precious moments of giving feedback as a time to chastise or critique. You should use it to build a plan for betterment.
Offering good feedback needs to have a focus on things that can be done to improve. It needs to be focused on that specific principal and reflect issues and strengths that principal has. You should take the time to make an action plan designed to create ideas and is concise and clear. If there’s a larger goal that needs to be reached, break it down. Be open and understanding and listen to what they say. It should also involve notes on both parts. You would be surprised how many things can be said and revealed in a short amount of time. Some of those things may need addressing later on but aren’t vital at that moment. If you don’t keep track, these things will often get swept under the rug.
Sometimes, it’s not just about how it’s delivered either. OfficeVibe conducted a study and found that a large number of people aren’t happy with how often they receive performance feedback. Frequent interactions not only allows the principals you oversee more opportunity to divulge possible problems, it also builds that working relationship that helps them to feel more comfortable talking to you. Making the time for them is vital to increasing your ability to help them accomplish the tasks and goals they have.
While making the time in your busy schedule to touch base with your principals is important, you also can’t expect them to drop everything they’re doing as well. You want to make sure you choose times that work for them. As mentioned and as you undoubtedly know, they have a lot on their plate. Setting these times for frequent feedback around their schedule as well will show your respect for them and help strengthen their confidence.
Performance feedback between an assistant superintendent and a principal is the foundation of creating a better and more cohesive school environment for our students. As the head of the school, the principal needs to be confident in their decisions, aware of their situations, and able to seek aid when it’s needed. Their performance affects the entire school, and as the person providing them with the review and feedback of that performance, you affect how they are able to lead that entire school.
https://hbr.org/2014/01/your-employees-want-the-negative-feedback-you-hate-to-give
https://hraligneddesign.com/leadership/key-benefits-of-effective-feedback/
https://officevibe.com/guides/employee-feedback
