The challenge of leadership is to be strong but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly. ~ Jim Rohn

Being an effective leader is far from easy. In fact, good leaders recognize that every day is an opportunity for either excellence or average performance. With so many factors at play each day, superior leaders realize that their behaviors have to be superior and fully aligned to high leverage leadership strategies. Otherwise, we fall prey to poor leadership and management behaviors.  

This month, we featured the opposite of what great leaders do, so people would know what to avoid doing. Typically, you won’t find an explicit list like this in school leadership training seminars or classes, but our goal is to provide content for leaders who are striving to improve. Below are our five bad boss behaviors, and for this 302 Thoughts we take a deep dive into two of them. 

#1 Micromanaging Your Team: Empowering leaders assign work and then follow up

#2 Withholding Information from Others: Communicate it right away

#3 Stealing Great Ideas: Give credit to innovative thinking, out-of-the-box idea sharing, and risk-taking

#4 Taking Credit for Supports or Success: Reduce “I” from your vocabulary and begin saying “we” more often

#5 Using Relationships to Leverage Power: Leaders must have people around them who can be honest and truthful 

In our live recording, Joe tackled bad boss behavior number two, which is withholding information from others. The antidote to this action is to communicate timely and put in structures and systems that create communication opportunities. We need systems in place because this bad behavior can be done consciously and subconsciously.  At its worst, withholding information is used to coerce and manipulate situations. Even when it is done inadvertently, it can create a toxic culture or information hoarding. 

When conducting school leadership training, we often tie our school research to businesses and industry. This works because companies have a financial bottom line and can estimate losses and gains more concretely than schools and districts. What we find in companies where communication is poor is that an “ineffective knowledge sharing culture…can cost large U.S. firms up to $47 million in lost productivity annually. If that’s true for businesses, think of the devastating impact this has on schools and the students who are supposed to be learning in them. 

The second bad boss behavior we explored in this episode was stealing great ideas. We cannot express this enough, but give credit where credit is due. It’s an old adage and holds true for leaders. This is often a symptom of withholding information that erodes trust and self-worth. Great leaders know to give credit for actions and outcome as well as words and ideas. 

We love the funny but all-too-true FedEx commercial where the boss repeats the exact same suggestion from one of his employees and the rest of the team, originally silent, loves it when the boss suggests it. Despite the commercial being comical, in reality this behavior stings. It not only subjugates the employee, it creates a pure power vacuum that will limit collaboration and performance thinking. 

During our 302 Thoughts we love to suggest a few tools that leaders can use immediately. To improve the timeliness of communication, leaders can use Voxer. This walkie talkie app creates a clear line of communication for teams. This tool is great when information is needed in real time. We urge any team that uses the app to build norms so it is used properly, but the pros of using this tool certainly outweigh the cons. 

Another basic item discussed was TheSchoolHouse302 Specific Praise Recognition Card. These cards will be available soon, but here is a sample. Praise is too often underwhelming and these cards are equipped with praise prompts to ensure you deliver an effective praise message. 

Our 302 Thoughts are monthly free live podcast recordings that help leaders to lead better and grow faster. It’s like school leadership training without having to leave the comfort of your office or home. We hope you’ll join us next month. Look for the dates in our newsletter. 

Let us know if there’s a topic you want us to cover by leaving a comment below or by contacting us at [email protected]. And don’t miss our leadership newsletter every week by subscribing on the site. 

We can’t wait to hear from you. 

Joe & T.J.

This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout. 

Ninety percent of my time is spent on ten percent of the world. ~ Colin Powell

This month, America lost a tremendous leader, General Colin Powell. We started this 302 Thoughts by recognizing his work and legacy as a leader. If anyone could talk about how to grow during the grind and thrive amid chaos, our bet would be on General Powell. 

We often desire for circumstances to improve so our conditions become better. Unfortunately, that does not always happen the way we would like it to or in the timeline we have in mind. Because ideal circumstances don’t always come our way, we have to always be prepared to weather the storm. This month we landed on 5 strategies that help educational leaders stay focused in a chaotic environment. 

In the live recorded podcast, we teased out two essential areas that we discussed further:

• #3. Determining Urgent Versus Important 
• #4. Assessing Full Versus Fulfilling. 

All five are critical, but we narrowed in on these two because they speak to the day-to-day work that must get done but also that still needs to result in personal fulfillment. During challenging times, it’s hard to maintain perspective and keep our own well-being intact; by strategically looking at our calendars to block time for the fulfilling work, we set ourselves apart from those who just end up with full days that lack what matters to them most. Learn more by listening to our discussion. 

By mastering the Eisenhower matrix (check out the blog for more details, including a visual), school leaders at all levels, uniquely structure their day to maximize efforts. Too often during a storm, it’s tough to gain your footing. This is what’s going on now for teachers and leaders in schools. Each day can feel like two or three. The matrix, when used well, is an effective way to analyze and organize each day to keep First Things First. 

Each month during our 302 Thoughts we also work to support our listeners with a few resources that help in your efforts to lead better and grow faster. This month, T.J. highlighted the power of mastermind groups, particularly Danny Bauer’s Better Leaders, Better Schools. Masterminds are not new and we first read about them in Think and Grow Rich. As Napoleon Hill writes, it is the “coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.” It’s the direct focus and effort that is vital. Even if you don’t join a formal mastermind, do seek out another school leader, identify a clear aim or goal, and then work towards reaching it. The results will be incredible. 

Joe took a slightly different route and discussed Headspace, the app. On the show, Joe admits to his own limitations with meditation; yet, he describes how apps like headspace and Calm can support early efforts to find quiet time, be introspective, reduce stress, or simply “unplug” for a while.

Our 302 Thoughts are monthly free live podcast recordings that help leaders to lead better and grow faster. It’s like school leadership training without having to leave the comfort of your office or home. We hope you’ll join us next month. Look for the dates in our newsletter. 

Let us know if there’s a topic you want us to cover by leaving a comment below or by contacting us at [email protected]. And don’t miss our leadership newsletter every week by subscribing on the site. 

We can’t wait to hear from you. 

Joe & T.J.

This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.