An Immersive Approach to Getting Feedback as a School Leader

It’s tough being the boss. Many people have expressed this sentiment over the years, from William Shakespeare (“Heavy is the head that wears the crown”) to Voltaire (“With great power comes great responsibility”). And yes, both of those lines have been invoked to describe the profound weight carried by Peter Parker in his lifelong solitary mission as Spider-Man.

School administrators are not superheroes, of course, but we are often expected to perform at superhuman levels. To be a great administrator, however, requires good, ongoing, and actionable feedback on your own performance and on the performance of the school in general. We all know that tracking student achievement data is important, and many of us follow demographic trends, suspension data, and budget cycles, and use other metrics to reflect on how things are going. But there are also many intangibles, like teacher morale, parent impressions of the school, and student experience, that won’t be captured in test scores and which are nonetheless central to a school’s success.

Additionally, as a principal you may hear rumors or gossip, or receive much more negative feedback than positive feedback just by the very nature of your role. If this is not properly managed and understood, this combination can lead principals to become demoralized, reactionary, or even avoidant of certain people or situations.

In light of the above, it is important to create opportunities for all stakeholders to provide you with useful feedback and to build a network of “critical friends” who can provide real insights into how everyone is feeling. I call this an immersive feedback process.

The Immersive Feedback Process

Student experience. Over the years I’ve heard many school leaders talk about centering student voice, but the truth is that for most students, school is something that is simply “done to them” by adults. If you really want to build a student-centered school, you can start with small moves, like being out on the yard at recess playing with the students. I may be a 50-year-old man, but I have spent hundreds of hours playing soccer, collecting pine cones, and contributing to some epic Barbie storylines over my 15 years as a school administrator.

Through these shared moments, I’ve been able to observe the dynamics between my students, while also signaling to staff that I care about the kids and want to interact with them on their level. I’ve learned which school rules the students resent the most, who the local bullies are, who climbs on the roof of the school at night, and which teachers yell the most, among other things. All of these insights helped me in legitimately centering student experience in my decision-making.

If recess is not your best time to connect with students, you can run student council meetings once a month and treat them as mini-focus groups. Buy everyone a pizza and ask for feedback on current issues or upcoming decisions. At my previous school, I ran a lunchtime weight lifting club for my seventh- and eighth-grade students. I did this because these were the students who were getting into the most trouble at lunch, and I wanted to provide a positive alternative, but I also did it because I enjoyed interacting with them in a space that was more informal and more neutral than my office.

Our weekly weight sessions allowed me to build rapport with some of the most influential student leaders in the school, and when there was a theft, or a fight, or an issue among my middle school students, I often knew about it right away, and in some cases I could even rely on my weight-lifting club to help me figure out what had really happened, or was about to happen.

Teacher experience. I meet regularly with head teachers from each department. Rather than leading my own agenda, I start with a simple question: “How is everyone feeling?” My staff know that what I mean is: What are the latest stresses, worries, or conflicts that I should be aware of? My teachers might be stressed out about report cards or upset about a recent decision, or maybe they’re buzzing about some professional development that we have just completed. I know that even if I am often out on the yard and in classrooms, most of my staff are never going to feel comfortable giving me direct, possibly negative, feedback.

For that reason, I build trust with my teacher leaders through our biweekly meetings, and I rely on them to relay any issues to me. When the news is bad, I don’t respond defensively. Instead, I pose questions for clarity and then ask my team what they suggest in terms of next moves. As an experienced administrator, I often already know what to do, but I want my teacher leaders to practice leadership-level problem solving—and in some cases their solutions are better than mine.

I avoid anonymous staff surveys, as these are rarely actionable and are often only completed by the most negative staff. Rather, I ensure that I build and support a culture that regularly seeks out feedback, employs data for important decision-making, and distributes leadership opportunities across the school.

Parent experience. To help me understand trends and what it is like to be a family in my school, I send home annual feedback surveys. I keep these short (three questions, max), and I allow these to be anonymous, in order to encourage more people to respond. However, I also invite parents to include their email address if they like so that I can follow up or get more details on particular issues.

Additionally, I have a parent council email list of my “core parents” that I use as a sounding board for ongoing issues and decisions that I am mulling over. Before I go live with a decision that might be controversial, I get a sense from this group about how this will land so that I can make small adjustments or even reverse course if needed.

I also do not show up at parent council with only my own agenda; just as I do with my staff team, I ask my core group of parents what issues matter to the community, and I address those first in my parent council meetings, and make myself available for live “hot seat” questions afterward. When I don’t know the answer to a question, I say so, but then I get back to parents afterward with the information that they are seeking. Modeling openness and transparency in this way generates a great deal of goodwill over time.

Finally, I would suggest that all administrators be out on the yard in the morning and at dismissal. This is your opportunity to get a quick read on the day ahead and to greet certain children who may be struggling or would benefit from a warm hello or morning check-in. Additionally, parents will appreciate being able to chat with you informally or ask you a quick question. This will further contribute to your understanding of what your community thinks, feels, and needs.