VOLUME X – CHAPTER  3

FACING CHALLENGES

Get roasted

          Can you face challenges head on. The art lies in recognizing that challenges need to be addressed, not run away from. You have to recognize that mistakes may have been made in the past but that decisive action need to be taken. Realise that you have an opportunity in every challenge.

          It is very essential to keep your customers [parents] at the centre of your strategic planning by taking special steps to be closer to them, understand what they want and going that extra mile to make sure that they continue to be happy and be a big support to your school.

          Avoid being secretive with your staff. Two way communication with all sections of the staff will help avoid rumours. Sensitize your staff to performance which alone will help them stake their claim for positive reports and nice rewards.

          Except people to follow you. Then you have to lead them from the front. The staff will appreciate a tough leader who is willing to put himself in the firing line, motivate them and be willing to make personal sacrifices. When the GM of HVF Avadi asked the author [Principal] to vacate six class rooms, he issued a letter to those parents [classes 4 and 5] informing them that they have to admit their children in KV – CRPF and KV – AFS Avadi. He asked Primary teachers to distribute the letter along with the progress reports on the last working day and immediately go home saying “The parents will come at 11 AM very angrily. Don’t worry I will face them, you go home peacefully”.

          In the end the ethics and values you represent – that only will define your strength and the school’s growing future.

          Be careful to differentiate between what is core to your school and what is peripheral. Motivate your staff to make themselves more efficient and productive in everything they do.

Act – tell – move behind the scene

          Understand that all change is not growth and all movement is not forward. In a few schools it was found that the staff were coming late and the whole exercise of substitute work became in-fructuous when they came 10 minutes after the start of the school. The Principals were asked to set them right.

          One Principal asked the peon to close the school gate as soon as the assembly started. All those who came after that were asked to go home and apply for casual leave. This plan worked and late coming slowly disappeared in a month.

          In another school the Principal told the staff “Do you think it will help you come on time if your are alone” please think about it. That was the last day that staff came late. The implication went home straight a Transfer to a remote place!

          Now also think about the psychological reactions of the staff.

          In another case the Principal found a teacher coming late regularly- When he probed into the matter he found that the teacher had six children. And as the wife was not keeping good health, he had to get all of them ready in time for the school bus and then himself take the public transport bus and reach the school. The Principal had a meeting of the Vice-Principal and senior most PGT, TGT and Primary supervisor. They arrived at a decision that all staff members using the school bus shall pay one half fare. This was announced in the next staff meeting. It was welcomed lustily and this particular teacher went to the head clerk and enrolled himself for travel in the school bus as that reduce his transport expenses considerably.

          The Principal did not at all call the teacher and speak to him about his late coming. Silence works more fruitful than speech.

          Now all these were changes. All were movements. Which led to growth which took the relationship forward?

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ONCE Ramadas wailed, “Oh Lord! you are Mighty, all powerful, all knowing; I am alone helpless, orphaned and poor”. Then the Lord interrupted the self condemnation and said, “No, how can you call yourself poor, helpless and orphaned? I am with you and in you, showering My Grace. The only orphan in the Universe is Myself, for I have no guardian, no means of support, nobody to fall back upon. I am the A-natha; all else are Sa-natha (with Lord), for I am their Natha (Lord)”. – Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba