The following is a gold plated commandment: Be Clear and Effective in your communication with staff.



After reflecting on my own experience for the 1000th time, I realised there were times when my communication wasn’t as effective as it might be.

These were often when I:

• Was in a rush,
• Hadn’t really thought through what I wanted to communicate,
• Hadn’t really thought through how to best communicate it, ignored any follow up.

My father drilled into me the saying “what’s worth doing is worth doing well’’. So if something is worth communicating make sure it is communicated well.

I think the best communication is kept short, to the point, maybe with a “mini illustration” or catch phrase to keep it in staff minds. These two things can be repeated several times to affirm the communication. Avoid long boring drawn out dissertations. They will perhaps clarify your own thoughts but you are probably kidding yourself if you think all staff are “locked into” what is being said.

It is helpful to have a good confidant or two who will give you an honest answer to the question “how did that come across?

Thinking on this I turned my mind to job descriptions. I confess to writing some job descriptions in such detail that I felt satisfied that I had covered everything and the 6 pages would ensure that the staff member would achieve all in the job description. I guess this was a reaction to my verbal job description when I was appointed senior master in a school.

This was it:

“Chris I want you to be in charge of the discipline of the boys”. I did the job for over 5 years and enjoyed crafting my own way with it. Fortunately my approach met with approval. I’m not suggesting that such brevity is the ideal but a person appointed to a position of management should have the capacity to show initiative. If this is available there is a better chance that they will really own the position.

With ownership comes a greater measure of success.

Chris Tudor,

AISNT Historian & Principal Liason