The School Leader’s Weekly Book Spotlight
Week of January 19, 2020: The Truth About Employee Engagement: A Fable About Addressing The Three Root Causes of Job Misery by Patrick Lencioni
Leadership Principle #1: People Experience Job Misery When They Feel Anonymous (p. 221)
Effective school leaders understand the universal need all humans experience for recognition. We want to be known, to feel connection, and for our work to be validated. As Lencioni states, “All human beings need to be understood and appreciated for their unique qualities by someone in a position of authority...People who see themselves as invisible, generic, or anonymous cannot love their jobs, no matter what they are doing.”
School leaders may find the following reflection questions helpful:
- Have I truly embraced the authority my role entails?
- Who am I thus responsible for leading well?
- Do I truly know each of these team members, to include their strengths and the unique contributions they make to the team?
- How am I recognizing, celebrating, and honoring them as people and producers?
- Am I facilitating a culture of recognition and empowerment across the school?
Leadership Principle #2: People Experience Job Misery When They Feel Irrelevant (p. 221-222)
“Everyone needs to know that their job matters, to someone. Anyone. Without seeing a connection between the work and the satisfaction of another person or group of people, an employee simply will not find lasting fulfillment.” For optimal performance, team members need to have an acute sense of how their role directly contributes to the product or service being produced. Better still, the team member enjoys a sense of purpose directly related to her specific job and the way in which the finished product or service improves the lives of end users.
School leaders enjoy a tremendous advantage in this respect. Our work makes a life-long, exponential impact. We literally shape the future through the students we invest in.
As a school leader, is this sobering and yet energy-giving reality the focus of your team’s collective work? Is the metaphorical fire burning or do you need to throw some wood on the dwindling flames? What we are really describing here is purpose. Staff members who connect their roles to the organization’s purpose enjoy sustaining relevance.
Lesson #3: People Experience Job Misery When They Cannot Measure Success (pp. 222-223
The measurement of success speaks to the receipt of feedback. It also speaks to goal setting and ultimately, locus of control. People want to receive feedback, to achieve tangible goals, and to feel a sense of control over their own career. Indeed, “Employees need to be able to gauge their progress and level of contribution for themselves...Without a tangible means for assessing success or failure, motivation eventually deteriorates as people see themselves unable to control their own fate.”
A car salesperson enjoys clear and tangible weekly, monthly and annual goals - sell x number of cars. The salesperson selling the most cars, is considered the best salesperson at the dealership. Simple.
And yet assigning metrics or goals for teachers and non-instructional staff can be a bit more challenging. The key is to create short, intermediate, and annual goals extending beyond test scores or other student-performance outcomes. Effective school leaders do not ignore these. Instead, they reach beyond them to establish a dynamic, personalized, and empowering professional growth plan for each staff member. Within this structure, staff members play a major role in the assessment of their progress at regular intervals throughout the school year.