Relationship Building

Fiore (2016) asserts that broad stakeholder involvement in educational decision making is an expectation in the 21st century. Therefore, effective communication and strong, positive relationships are central to a leader’s success. The public wants to not only feel informed, but to also have a voice. At minimum, stakeholders want to feel that administrators are hearing and considering their input.

Because positive school-community relations are so important, they should not be left to chance. Fiore suggests that principals proactively establish relationships with community leaders, opening the door to two-way communication and helping ensure a positive message is communicated. He also stresses the need to make all stakeholders feel welcome and comfortable within the school environment. In addition, being visible is essential to positive school-community relationships (Fiore, 2016). Being visible, however, is not enough. Leaders also must be present in order to build healthy relationships. Starratt (2013) states, “Much of the time we have many things on our mind that keep us from being fully present…Being fully present means being wide awake to what’s in front of you.” (p. 56)

In addition, serving as a role model of appropriate behavior (for example: honesty, integrity, care, responsibility, loyalty, humility, etc.) fosters positive associations. Principals should recognize that with every one of their statements and actions they are either building or tearing down relationships. Thus, principals’ words should be chosen carefully and decisions should be made with deliberation in order to ensure that respect for others is being consistently demonstrated. If positive relationships are proactively established, the school community will be forgiving, not threatening, and will be supportive in times of challenge as well as in times of celebration.

However, for positive relationships to be fostered, trust ultimately needs to be established. Tschannen-Moran (2013) identifies five facets of trust: benevolence, honesty, openness, reliability, and competence and relates them to five school constituencies (administrators, teachers, students, parents, and the public) as well as to five leadership functions (visioning, modeling, coaching, managing, and mediating). Building the necessary trusting relationships requires a significant investment of time, but schools that successfully establish a culture of trust, which fosters honest communication and stakeholder collaboration, heighten their potential for success.

Sources

Fiore, D. J. (2016). School-community relations (3rd ed.). Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education. Chapters 1–5 (pp. 1–89)

Tschannen-Moran, M. (2013). Becoming a trustworthy leader. In Grogan, M. (Ed.), The Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership (3rd ed.). (pp. 40–54). San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Starratt, R. J. (2013). Presence. In Grogan, M. (Ed.), The Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership (3rd ed.). (pp. 55–76). San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.