July - 2017

How to Deal with Blame and Scapegoating at Your School

We’ve all been there . . . Someone within your school or district makes a mistake and now that person needs to “pay for it” in the eyes of others. Sometimes, we want to know where blame should be placed because it is a natural human reaction to search for answers and arrive at a resolution or end result so that there is closure in our own minds about an issue, problem, or mistake that was made. In Chapter 2 of Escaping the School Leader’s Dunk Tank, Rebecca and I contend tha

Understanding Accountability through “Selling Socks”

When I attended college as an undergraduate, I had a part time job selling shoes at a popular shoe store in a shopping mall located 10 minutes from my house. It was a great job. I enjoyed the people I worked with and I made commission which classified me as one of the wealthiest undergraduate students in the history of Buffalo, NY (especially when winter hit and people came in to purchase boots priced in the hundred dollar range). I also enjoyed working for my manager, but

How Sincerity Can Help to Build Trust

We hear it time and time again (not to say that it isn’t important): “You have to build trust with your staff.” What is interesting to me and Rebecca is that trust has so many intricate characteristics for trust to truly flourish in an organization. We believe that one of the features that govern trust is sincerity. Many people don’t write about sincerity because they forget about it or don't explicitly articulate the importance of sincerity. We believe that for trust to