Today, I am listening intently to a seminar session on Trust. We touched on decent and how we handle complaints. In my personal leadership view, encouraged decent is powerful and informative, and decent is not too far away from “complaints.” Which made me reflective on how we receive decent or complaints as a headteacher and maintain trust?
The leaderly way, the trusting way, to hear complaints: One key decisions and four questions for trusting leaders, when staff raise a complaint.
Is now the right time to address the complaint? Often complaints can leave your cross, disappointed, angry even.
Change your frame of reference when receiving a complaint. A complaint is information. If you’re fortunate, you hear complaints. You’re entrusted to do something about the complaint. The alternative is that you don’t hear complaints and you’re out of the loop.
Encourage team members to openly decent, to explain, illustrate, their complaints.
Listen – don’t solve. When you solve a complainers complaint, they complain about the solution. As Chris McShane often says
I’m not going to give you the answer as you will find a way to tell me it didn’t work.
What’s the “good” you want for others from raising this issue? Reframes the complaint towards an opportunity.
What makes this important to you? Gives you the opportunity to explore motivations and connect with purpose.
What would you like to do about this today? Create forward movement. Thereafter?
How can I help, help you?
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