Teacher Series: The closed door leader

The closed door leader 

Many years ago, in an international school, I worked as a middle level leader. There were two other middle level leaders. One leader and I shared teachers. When I would have meetings with these teachers, and would ask them to inform the other leader about something, they would hesitate. Then slowly they started sharing with me about that leader. They said that if they went to meet her, she would make them wait outside her room for a long time and not call them in. She would not tell them that she was busy and ask if they could they come later, so they just waited. This was long ago and now I am not sure if this was with an appointment or not. Then when they went in, the leader would be extremely angry and would shout at them if something was not right or as per her expectations. They said that the leader was demeaning and rude. They said that they were ready to accept any criticism, but would prefer that the criticism not be shared in a dehumanising manner. A typical traditional style of leadership through authority and arrogance…power corrupts and when you are in a position of power, it is very easy to treat others like dirt.


I had an open door policy (literally) and anyone could meet me if I was not in a meeting. I sat at the lunch tables with teachers while the other leaders sat on a separate table. So teachers flocked to me and it became apparent that I was not part of the ‘leader group’ but was part of the ‘teacher group’. Some teachers would come to me individually and ask me for strategies to deal with the leader and we would plan together how the teacher should approach the leader and address the matter so as to not get yelled at and have a positive outcome. Sometimes they would just come to be to be heard…they would come to my office individually to share with me something that happened and would tell me that they are looking not for a solution but just wanted to get it off their chest. After sharing, they would feel better. But I would help them solutionise anyway. Teachers who were miserable and thought of leaving the school now felt supported as they knew that they could approach me if they had a problem and I would point them in the right direction. I had the same positive relationship with the school electrician, the person who did the photocopying, the office boy, the chef in the canteen, the school bus coordinator…I would request if I needed anything and if they had a problem in completing my request, I would sit with them to understand the problem and help them arrive at a solution. They would always say “Madam, you understand".


All my life,  I have always supported the underdog - the underdog could be a teacher, admin staff or a leader and the underdog could be different in different situations. So I did not really care to build a relationship with this leader who was causing teachers so much pain. Interestingly, at one stage before, joining the school, when I was helping the school externally and this leader  was my point of contact, we had a good relationship. However, once I joined the school as a leader and teachers started confiding in me and were unhappy, I moved further and further away mentally and metaphorically from this leader.


I have reflected a great deal about this. I realise that  I could have made an attempt to win this leader’s confidence. Perhaps if I had done that, based on my relationship with her, we could have discussed the teacher’s perceptions and problems. If I had the leader’s trust, I could have slowly got her to look at the teacher’s side of the story to understand how they felt. I could have been part of the ‘leader’s group’ so that I could  slowly bring about necessary changes from the inside. I have learned from this experience and try and implement what I have learned.




#relationships,#new teachers,#behaviour,#school,#learning,#teacher-student relationships, #myp, #teaching,#students,#learning support,#ib,#LGBTQ, #motivation, #intercultural awareness

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