- Enock Okong’o says physical preparation alone will not guarantee better results during the third term.
- He urges school principals to prioritise consultation, appreciation and staff motivation over shouting and commanding.
- A motivated teacher, he argues, is more likely to give additional effort and improve learner outcomes.
Third term is here again for schools as reported: compounds cleaned, classrooms and offices cleaner and all offices rearranged. Principals are revising circulars, checking duty rosters and preparing for national examinations.
But here is one important reminder. The world is on the high gear of change. How do you change your approach to get better results in your school?
We are no longer in the era where cleaning the compound guarantees results. That is physical preparation. What is needed now is psychological preparation. We are living in a feeling world at the workplace, where emotion has outdone reason under heavy economic pressure.
Scholarly research agrees that productivity is directly proportional to how safe and felt a worker is. Workers who are producers need to be felt rather than just heard.
In schools, the producers are teachers and support staff. The principal is the chief executive of quality. Let managers change the tactics of handling staff to meet these changing demands.
Shouting, commanding or consulting
For decades, management has used three approaches: shouting, commanding, or consulting. Each determines how much output a worker will give.
Shouting creates anxiety. When a principal shouts at teachers in staff meetings, the teacher enters class with fear, not knowledge. Fear cannot teach mathematics. Shouting may produce silence, but it will never produce quality.
Commanding produces compliance but not commitment. The teacher will do exactly what you said, no more. He will teach because it is 8am on the timetable, not because he wants the child to pass. Compliance gives average results.
Consulting is the approach needed for this era. When you consult a teacher and ask, “Mwalimu, how can we solve this problem together?” you touch his feelings. A felt teacher gives discretionary effort. He will do remedial at 6am without pay. He will counsel a troubled student. He will protect school property like his own.
This influences production directly. In a factory, the manager’s tone determines quantity. In a school, it influences the quality of students and examination results. A quality student is not just an A. It is discipline, confidence and values. All these are produced by a motivated teacher.
Principals should change their approach
Therefore, there is a need for principals to research and fine-tune the best methods of approach to staff for optimum production of education services.
This third term, replace morning threats with morning appreciation. Replace commanding circulars with consultative departmental meetings. Replace shouting in assembly with stories that touch feelings. Create a listening office, not just a principal’s office.
The compounds are already clean. Now clean the emotional compound of your school.
The school that will top this year will not be the school with the newest bus. It will be the school where teachers felt most valued and therefore gave their best.
READ ALSO: Final-term staff meeting should be a strategic reset for schools
In this high gear world, results do not follow buildings. Results follow feelings.
By Enock Okong’o
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