The following list of suggested strategies are rules that we followed that I believe can help you deliver the kind of useful and meaningful PD to your teachers that they need and deserve.

Develop a 3-5 year plan. Before you do anything else, you need to know what your PD and growth-related goals are, for the short and medium range. Too often, principals live in the moment and make decisions on what feels right. Worse, they may feel obligated to offer “something” simply because it’s on the calendar. The risks in doing so, however, is that you can fail to deliver what is really needed. By developing a 3-5 year plan of the PD areas that you would like to focus on for your staff, you can approach the topic strategically and start to figure out such important areas as topics, schedule, budget and more. You can also loop back from time to time to reinforce and deepen previous learning, especially now that there’s been meaningful opportunity for them to practice.
Revisit the plan annually (if not sooner). We all know how quickly the winds could blow in the field of education. Yesterday’s “hot” topic can easily be replaced by tomorrow’s latest and greatest. By revisiting your list often, you can start current and see how such changes may or may not impact your thinking.
State and repeat: “One size fits none.” As with classroom instruction, PD also needs to be differentiated. We cannot expect our middle-school language teachers and our primary-grade teachers to benefit equally from the same presentation. Yes, some topics are generic and can be presented to an entire staff. However, there needs to be various examples for different sub-segments of the population to relate to. More about this later.

business, coaching, education, leadershipNaphtali HoffNovember 5, 2015leadership, training, professional developmentComment

8 qualities of strong mentors

Mentorship is a relationship that is created between an experienced professional and a less experienced mentee or protege. Its primary purpose is to build a support system that allows for the natural exchange of ideas, a forum for constructive advice, and a recipe for success.

Superior mentors possess most if not all of the following qualities:

Skilled and knowledgeable. Good mentors possess current and relevant knowledge, expertise, and/or skills.
Trust builder. The mentor establishes a high level of trust. He/she indicates that their relationship is about building capacity and offering support, not “zapping” the mentee for poor decisions or performances.
Active listener. A strong mentor knows how to listen. This includes using eyes and body posture to convey interest and attention. More about strong listening skills can be found here.

Keeping your foot on the pedal

It’s not always so simple to increase production or to quickly find additional talent to bring aboard. There is also a mindset of goal targeting, which affects leaders and their teams. Once the target goal has been met, we naturally shift into low gear and perhaps even want to call it a day, so to speak. Lastly, increased demand may be “slowed” by increased “traffic,” such as rising costs. These could include investments in infrastructure, recruiting, training and the like. For some people all of the extra time and effort needed to service the “new riders” may diminish their enthusiasm and leave business prospects out in the rain.

In order for businesses to respond well to demand hikes, they may wish to consider these strategies:

Plan ahead. It can be very difficult to look down the road when you have to manage the here and now. Successful leaders know, however, that the status quo is usually not where they want to remain indefinitely. Begin by envisioning a better tomorrow and the changes that such a development will require. Develop an action plan for the eventuality (at least in general terms), including how you may adjust administrative roles and meet staffing demands (such as by maintaining a candidate pool). More about that below.

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