The rumor and gossip mill has no place in education

Education is one of the most regulated industries in the United States, but I have always said that educators are big gossips, no matter what the level.

People get judged on popularity, seniority, and by whispers. I recently attended what I thought was a professional conversation about teaching, and one of the opening statements was “well I heard …about you”. You heard?!

We are supposed to be objective with our students, use rubrics, have learning goals, etc. How can we truly claim this if we cannot be objective with each other? Do you realize so many performance evaluations in education are based upon how the supervisor is feeling about you at that time, not about your performance for the year?

Unfortunately, we often treat our students this way as well. We judge them based upon student records, but we do not look closely at the records, just the juicy gossip. The teachers lounge in K12 is often full of negative student gossip.

Educators, we must do better if we are going to ever transform education. We are allowing non-educators to run us, because we cannot seem to run ourselves.

So, next time you feel like repeating that rumor, talking that trash, or judging someone on hearsay, let us practice what we teach the students:

·         Is this kind?

·         Is it true?

·         Is it necessary?

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

The non-interview interview: why do employers do this?

Are you aware that most jobs posted (especially in the education sector where I work) have already been filled? Are you aware that it is a common practice for employers to interview people that they have no intention of hiring?

I am not going to try and analyze the various reasons as to why because that is not my problem; I am going to discuss why this practice is unprofessional and does a disservice not just to the candidate, but also to the company.

The candidate’s job at an interview is to bring their “A” game. They need to be prepared, have researched the company, have poignant questions to ask, etc. In today’s market, it is common to have most candidates prepared like this.

The employer’s main job is to have looked at the candidates resume, done some basic research such as LinkedIn, be prepared with good interview questions, and to be objectively considering every candidate they interview. From a candidate’s perspective, there is nothing worse than walking into an interview where it is obvious the employer knows nothing about you, where they are late to start the interview, people enter the interview late, and at the end, it is also obvious that they are not really serious about hiring.

A professional interview deserves professional interviewers who are truly looking at you as possible fit for their company. This current practice of the non-interview also explains why employers are not getting back to candidates at all after interview: lack of forethought about their company reputation and taking advantage of people in this saturated job market.

Word does get around, and if the company is not careful, it could become known as the company of “do not waste your time applying because they are not serious”.

At some point, we must understand it is not the candidates fault. Lessons in leadership.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

Simple stuff from a graduate class in leadership: do you practice this?

Problems with Electronic Communication

·         Too much information, low quality

·         No content to information, lacks meaning

·         Interpretation of information depends on relationships with sender

Empowerment

·         Providing freedom for people to do what they want to do (pull)…

·         rather than getting them to do what you
     them to do (push).

Results of Empowerment

·         Empowered employees are more productive and happier.

Empowerment also helps the organization stay flexible and adapt to changes

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III
The ETeam