The purpose of this topic is to provide principals and superintendents with management tips...from those who are managed, LOL! I'm a school nurse, not a teacher, but do have management experience and did well at it. The setting doesn't make that much of a difference, it's the manager or leader (I'll use those terms interchangeably).
I've "managed" over 200 people in 5 offices providing healthcare over 50 counties in a southern state. Healthcare is a tough business because your clients are not in the best of moods and your people are not always where you can keep an eye on them.
In 1994 I, along with my Director of Operations, was asked to present (and we did) the results of our successful reengineering at the Society for Health Systems of the Institute for Industrial Engineers in Chicago. This was an honor as I'm not even an Industrial Engineer.
Three previous directors (my position) had lasted one year each (I stayed over three). Here's basically what I did. I had an initial 8 hr meeting to figure out what was going on. Then I spent a one hour a week training my managers. I gave them parameters and as long as their financial and other numbers were in line, I left them alone. If something was out of line, I asked them why and what they were going to do about it. Everytime someone asked me what to do, I asked them to give me 3 things they would do, then asked them to pick one. After a couple of times, they didn't have a need to "bother" me.
We also developed a new interviewing system where potential new hires were team interviewed (one interviewee had to be in the position being applied for) and a score was assigned to the interviewee. If one person on the team said they had a gut feeling that the person was not right for the job, they were not hired. Period. When people have a say in who is hired it really makes a diference!
If someone came in complaining about another person, I immediately got the other person and we hashed it out.
That's basically it, train them and get out of the way. They know more than you about their jobs anyway. And as one of my first supervisors said, "get out of your office and watch how good your people are!"
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