As a school year starts, we see a lot of fantastic ideas, exciting projects and new initiatives being communicated during this month. Feedback from staff is key during the training days and creates a healthy balance.
Staff survey
An interesting approach to take is to build in a staff survey to check in on the team, 'are they ready for change?', 'do they have everything they need'?
Teams can use this information to gather individual and collective areas of strength and those that the school can work on together.
A staff survey feedback cycle could include:
Survey sent out (With purpose and plan included)
Key Findings shared with all staff
Follow up meetings in smaller teams and opportunities to explore ideas
Ideas and priorities shared with all staff
Action plan formulated and included in School Development Plan.
Mid year follow up 'check in' survey
Update to all staff
Checking in with individuals
Some examples can be included from below and also help understand the current wellbeing of the staff during this change in a snapshot, then further meetings, support and conversations can follow:
- How are you feeling?
- What has made you happy/what successes have you experienced this week?
- What are the current challenges you are facing?
- What one thing can we do to help?
- What would make your job more engaging?
- What are you looking forward to?
- Describe your current work-life balance?
- If you have any suggestions to help staff, please share?
Hope you find this useful and have a wonderful year ahead!
Feedback Further Reading
For further reading on the use of feedback, check out:
Research revealed that feedback could actually hurt performance: More than 20 years ago, one of us (Kluger) analyzed 607 experiments on feedback effectiveness and found that feedback caused performance to decline in 38% of cases. This happened with both positive and negative feedback, mostly when the feedback threatened how people saw themselves.
There are 3 key triggers that block feedback, each provoked by a different set of reasons and sparking different responses in us:
Truth Triggers: “The feedback is wrong, unfair or unhelpful”
Relationship Triggers: “Who are you to give this feedback?”
Identity Triggers: “I feel threatened by the feedback.”
"Feedback is a way of building trust out of a foundation of honesty. It's essential to recognize the peers on your team and help them understand their strengths and potential weaknesses. Time and time again, we've discovered that's the perfect recipe for growth. I'd encourage you to be honest, give examples, and stay empathetic when providing feedback to colleagues. Have a candid delivery, sure, but also consider how you'd feel if you were on the receiving end of your words and adjust accordingly."
Elena Ungureanu, Senior HR Specialist at Mirro
How to give better feedback to your colleagues in nine steps
3 main ideas for staff feedback:
Staff Survey (Sent out via email to all staff)
Checking in with individuals
Attending staff meetings and asking for group feedback.
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Published by Dr. Paul Walton. @paultwalton
Principal, Educator, Leadership Coach.
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