School leaders need to be able to give and receive feedback--to give it skillfully to teachers, and to receive it skillfully from, well, everyone. Most educators agree that feedback can be necessary and helpful--yet the unending cascade of new directives governing feedback often feel like a waste of time. In this article, the authors offer…

Most district and school leaders understand that recruiting group members who have differing backgrounds, perspectives, talents, and personalities makes for good decision-making. Unfortunately, simply assembling a variety of top-notch individuals does not necessarily mean their talents and perspectives will be fully considered. Beth Strathman…

Drawing on her experiences as a school leader addressing groups of (sometimes skeptical) teachers, colleagues, and parents, Grove describes how she used storytelling to engage, inspire, and convince listeners. She gives examples of five things telling well-chosen anecdotes will help you do when communicating with educators and families: (1)…

Kenneth Trump, a school safety expert who consults with districts on how to respond to school safety crises, explains how the new prevalence of threats of violence being delivered over digital and social media creates for administrators a "communication crisis" that unfolds alongside the real or perceived crisis of school safety being…

"I was planning on doing a lot of work today during your presentation, but I couldn't get anything done. I just had to pay attention!" The author received this unexpected feedback from a teacher at the end of a presentation he gave, and although he considered it a compliment, it made him reflect on the dire state of presentations in…

"One teacher resists making appointments!" "My problem is with a teacher who says 'Why should I have to change my teaching when most of my students are proficient?'" "Teachers act as if I'm too young to know anything." Instructional coaches, principals and others responsible for leading change in schools find teachers…

Sometimes, education leaders are so intent on getting their message out that they neglect the other side of the equation--listening. In this article, Jean Johnson of Public Agenda describes the conditions that make "messaging" a perilous undertaking today. "These are skeptical times," she explains, in which Americans are…