Five Important Lessons I Learned as a First-Time Middle Leader

Two years ago, I stepped into the role of Head of Department (HoD). While I had run small teams before, I had never headed a department and, although I felt like I had a lot to give, I was scared. I’ve been very fortunate to have a fantastic department and people around me whose advice I have sought often and, as I reflect on my journey in middle leadership so far, I’ve identified five key lessons that, for me, have stood out and will remain in my toolbox. 

1. Meeting agendas are unsung heroes. 

I was very fortunate to be able to delve into the brain of the amazing Nancy Squicciarini before beginning my role as HoD and she gave me one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received:

“Your agenda is the first promise you make to your team and your first opportunity to build trust.”

What? The agenda?? The document that nobody looks at and often feels like an afterthought? Yes. That. 

When I looked at the agenda through that lens - the lens of a promise made, it changed everything about how I approached and planned our meetings. It helped me recognize that my team’s time is valuable and our agenda should reflect that. It meant I spent much more time planning our meetings and considering the goals of each activity and what protocols (if any) we needed to structure our discussions. It meant I prioritized, ordered and structured our activities with greater purpose making our meetings more purposeful and we always finished what we started. 

The second thing about the power of agendas I learned during a middle leaders training with the Principals' Training Center's Teacher Leader Institute (TLI): 

“If it’s not on your agenda, you don’t really care about it.”

What I chose to focus our meetings on directly correlated to what we worked on as a team and where we channeled our energies and discussions. When the team began talking about how (as often happens in schools) the frantic rush of logistics and assessment was getting in the way of focusing on actual teaching, our meeting agenda was the first place I went to for a solution. 

2. Develop your plans for the team by listening to the team.

This brings me to the second lesson I learned. It’s not my role to create department goals based on my interests or passion projects; it’s my role to understand where we are, where we want to get to, and figure out how to get us there. Before beginning my role, I interviewed each person on the team to get a better understanding of how to serve them. I asked one question: 

“What do you want to see happen in our department?”

At the time, most people talked about the meetings themselves wanting them to be tighter and more efficient. The second and third things that came up were more organic and found their way into our departmental discussions over the course of the year:

“We don’t talk about teaching and learning enough.”

“We aren’t doing enough (fill in the blank with subject related skills).”

These manifested into:

• Firmer facilitation of meetings, keeping discussions on topic, and strict time keeping.
• The inclusion of a recurring teaching and learning related warm up activity where a different member of the department introduces a question, strategy, or topic related to learning and the beginnings of a peer observation system. 
• Curriculum reviews guided by our school mission statement, the learner profile, and a list of goals we came up with as a department. 

Because all of our goals came from us and from our discussions, people felt invested and heard which makes our work better. Essentially I realized it isn’t my role to individually dictate what we do, it is my role to facilitate what we collectively choose to do. 

3. Building trust takes time and effort.  

For me, belonging comes from identifying and valuing the thing in people that they fear is unseen or undervalued. Part of the reason I applied for the role of HoD was because I wanted to come to school and feel comfortable with my team and I was aware that if I wanted that, then I should be part of making that happen for myself and for everyone involved. Like many schools, we had a large post COVID turnover and our team was young and had not yet had time to gel. My first year as HoD was all about this. Now, in no world can I say that I have the answers to team building but what I can say is that the following strategies really helped:

• Conversation protocols to help structure conversations that involve exploration and/or decision making. There’s a safety in the conversation guardrails that, over time, set both an expectation and a precedent for collaboration. 
• Ensuring that each voice is heard by actively including people in conversations and asking their opinions. 
• Making sure, to the best of my ability, that each concern is treated seriously and, if we can’t address it at the time that it is returned to at a later date.
• Making people feel valued and trying to do this with as much authenticity and truth as possible. For me this was taking the time to try to truly see each person and the thing they bring that nobody else can, then saying the quiet part out loud. Personalized end of semester letters and a little gift is my particular approach but I try to say these things out loud and consistently during the year as well. 
• Finding opportunities in department meetings to create different groupings so that people are able to work across teaching teams and have the opportunity to truly see and value each other as professionals and educators. 

Do this consistently, quietly, and patiently - for a long time.  

4. Model servant leadership.

When I stepped into the HoD role, we had one too few classrooms for the number of people on the team. Historically that meant that someone, usually a new teacher, had to take on a nomadic role for the year and sit alone in the department office while everyone else had their own classroom and home base. Since building trust and community was part of my goal for our department, I figured a good way to start was to show that, to me, being HoD meant that I would support and advocate for the department. So I gave myself the nomad role which meant that, the following year, I taught in five different classrooms so that each of my teachers could have their own. 

Now we have enough classrooms and everyone has a room but it was important for me to model and set a precedent of giving and supporting others - even when inconvenient. I wanted us to have a culture of being there for each other and working with each other to find solutions. I’ve tried to keep this up. I never ask anyone to do anything that I wouldn’t do. When we each have to pick slots for things, for example, I always wait until everyone else has chosen theirs and then take whatever is left over. I try to let my teachers know that I see myself as their advocate and a voice that speaks up for them in the hope that they will feel safe and invested enough to do this for each other as well.

5. As a leader, you’re only as good as your ability to empower the people around you to fill in the gaps you leave behind.

There are so many things I am not good at. One thing, in particular, is pep. I am not peppy. I don’t do birthdays; I don’t do snacks; and I don’t do celebrations. I believe they are important, I’m just not good at them. As an introvert, the very notion of putting together a social event makes me actually sick to my stomach.

But, there are people on my team who are phenomenal at this. One team member in particular was always asking why we didn’t do more to celebrate birthdays so I asked them if they were willing to take it on themselves. Not only did they take on the role with enthusiasm, but they did it beyond anything I could have. Now we have birthday cards, personalized birthday snacks, social events, and it’s done to create community and make space for informal chat and good vibes on our team. 

I will never be the best at everything nor should I be. I’m good at making agendas and making people feel heard; that doesn’t mean my team should be stuck with only that when there is a multitude of strengths in our team. 

So here they are… my five lessons. Leading my team has been a tremendous privilege and I look forward to many more lessons.