Principals, Here’s How to Have Hard Conversations with Younger Teachers
September 25, 2017
Read Jennifer's guest blog column for Learning Forward on how principals can have hard conversations with younger teachers.
Excerpt:
Principals often tell me their entire workday is filled with fires to extinguish, a few challenging parent interactions, and a load of hard conversations. Some feel those communications are routine and don’t find them too difficult: “I don’t have any hard conversations in my inbox; I handle them all.” Others take them home, repeat them on a loop, and make themselves sick over what they should have said or must say tomorrow.
Whether you more often find yourself in the former group or the latter, every school leader can benefit from a few new ideas to simplify hard conversations and handle them effectively.
About Jennifer Abrams
Jennifer has been recognized as one of "21 Women All K-12 Educators Need to Know" by Education Week's 'Finding Common Ground' blog. She considers herself a "voice coach," helping others learn how to best use their voices – be it collaborating on a team, facilitating a group, coaching a colleague, supervising an employee and being an all around better human being in all types of interactions.
Work with Jennifer
Praise for Jennifer
“Jennifer’s session was not just a workshop, but an invitation to look inward at how we, as adults, show up in our professional roles. She reminded us that hard conversations are not about winning or avoiding conflict, but about cultivating clarity, empathy, and courage.
One of the most powerful takeaways was this: for dialogue to be truly effective, we must learn to communicate with precision while holding space for humanity. Hard conversations should not shut people down; they should open the door to growth-producing feedback that strengthens trust, relationships, and professional practice. My learning experience with Jennifer was a reminder that our impact as educators is amplified when we are willing to pause, reflect, and engage with one another in ways that foster both accountability and compassion.”
