Question

You have just been appointed assistant principal of Prominence High School in Exclusiveville. The school consistently scores in the top 5% in the county. The principal indicates to you she feels the performance of the staff is lax, and she needs your assistance in addressing staff shortcomings. Particularly, staff is showing up late to faculty meetings, leaving school early, not turning in lesson plans, and not maximizing instructional time. She wants to hear your ideas on how you would address some of these concerns. She also wants your opinion of the other assistant principals at the school, since you are an outsider and have no previous experience to draw from. She asks you to take a month and critique them, then report your findings to her. She requests that you take four months to “change the culture” of the school. She will make sure you have whatever you need to be successful. She also asks you to start running the faculty meetings. A month later, at a meeting with the assistant principals and principal, the principal starts the meeting with, “I asked Ms. So and So to critique you for the past month and report out her findings. Well, Ms. So and So, what did you find?” How will you handle this situation? What plan will you put in place for the staff? What plan will you put in place for the assistant principals? What information will you give the principal after you critique the assistant principals? Take me step by step how you will handle your responsibilities at Prominence High School.

Answer 1

The issue in this case is lack of motivation. The staff has become laxed due to no challenge in their work schedule. As they are already among the top-most schools, there is very little improvement they can do which would help the school gain higher motivation. Also, the staff seems to be bored with the repeatitive work schedule.

For this, I would suggest the school conducts some knowledge enhancement and skill development training programs. This would not only motivate the staff, but also motivate them to improve their productivity, i.e. the quality of education imparted to students.

In order to ensure success of this plan, Ms. So and So would require help of the assistant principals. They must be able to understand the training needs of their staff and provide the details to the HR and the consultant (Ms. So and So). Together , they can devise a training module to motivate the staff and provide them a necessary boost in their professional life.

Further, the consultant must provide training to the assistant managers on methods to motivate their staff, Provide SMART goals and encourage innovation and creativity,