By Jim Pingel
New England Coach Bill Belichick is renowned for his ability to make “halftime” adjustments for his football team. How about you? Are you good at helping your school and team members make changes, corrections, or enhancements at the break?
I don’t know if you require or expect your faculty members to set personal and professional goals at the beginning of the school year. If you don’t, you should. Ask them set their own goals and tell them you are committed to helping them reach their goals. If they didn’t set any goals, it’s never too late to start. Require them to take the Christmas break and set their own personal and professional goals for the second half of the year. If you need to give them some prompts (i.e. professional development, classroom management, curriculum, faith integration or application, personal wellness, etc.) to generate some thoughtful goals, do it. Whatever you do, however, let them set their own. Then offer your support in their efforts to achieve these goals. Keep them accountable to them.
If your team members did set personal and/or professional goals for the year, December or January (aka Halftime in the school year) is a great opportunity to “check in” with them on their progress. Here’s what I’ve done in the past:
Have them “grade” themselves on their goals and give a one to two sentence explanation on their grade for each of their goals. (Side note: Be prepared for some of your faculty and staff members to sheepishly admit that they forgot or “lost” their goals. Hopefully you kept them on file and can retrieve them for your team member.)
Set up a thirty minute meeting with them before or after the break. Make the meeting about their goals—the progress, or lack thereof, on each. Ask them, once again, how you can help them reach or successfully meet their goals.
Encourage them to set new goals if they have accomplished or achieved what they set out to do, or make adjustments to their goals if needed.
Pray at the end of the meeting with and for your team members. Pray that God may grant them the wisdom, resilience, and strength to meet their objectives. Also offer up a prayer of thanksgiving for their ministry and all that they bring to your team.
I found this process to be an invaluable one when I served as Executive Director of two Lutheran high schools. Indeed, I continue to do the same at Concordia University Wisconsin as Dean. Candidly, I consider it one of my personal best practices, and you could too.
The blessings of these “halftime” meetings are too many to count, but here are a few:
First, your team members will know that their professional success and personal wellbeing are important to you. Asking them to set goals wasn’t just “busywork” or something you asked them to do so you could “check it off” some administrative task sheet. You truly care about their personal and professional growth.
Second, they fully comprehend that you are trying to help them stretch and grow in their own skill development, knowledge, or record of achievement. Most quality teachers admire a “boss” who pushes them to be better and models continuous improvement. Like a rising tide lifts all boats, as each faculty and staff member improves and grows in their ministry and profession, so does the ministry and effectiveness of your entire school.
Third, these face-to-face meetings build trust, confidence, missional unity, and a sense of purpose in your colleagues. These are their goals and, presumably, important to them. If it is important to your colleagues, show them that these objectives are important to you too!
Fourth, I often found during these “halftime” meetings that my teachers and staff members had other things on their hearts and minds which they shared with me in regard to their school ministry, family, and personal lives. These rich conversations helped me become a more understanding and empathetic leader.
Finally, by giving your most precious commodity to your team members—time—you show them how highly you value and want to spend time investing in them.
So go ahead and check on the progress your team members are making toward their goals. Listen to them. Coach ‘em up. Encourage them. Give them guidance and suggestions. Pray with them. Help them make adjustments. And then watch your faculty and staff, and your entire school community, have a terrific second half of the year!
Dr. Jim Pingel is the Dean of the School of Education at Concordia University Wisconsin and Ann Arbor and the Assistant to the Executive Director of ALSS. He can be reached at james.pingel@cuw.edu.