Why I Work for Them: The Mindset Shift That Changed Everything
It was, in retrospect, a typical workplace misunderstanding.
My boss had assumed I would do something I had done on a similar project, in a similar circumstance, and I had chosen what was best for the team and handled it differently.
Things had worked out, but she was not happy. A terse email confirmed as much, and I offered to be a better communicator in the future.
She was at my office when I came to work the next day, with her hand on her hip, checking her phone. I asked if she had seen my email, and she nodded. I asked if she felt the situation was resolved, and she did.
Then she started telling me about her lacrosse tryouts.
Something I learned early into my career change is how many bosses you have in education. For most teachers, you have an assistant principal, a principal, and a department head. Above them are assistant superintendents, the superintendent, and school board members. And before I forget, there are also the parents.
Different people, with different agendas, expectations, and perceptions of what you do.
But ten years of traveling, networking, and growth have taught me that most of us these days have to serve more than a few masters, wherever we go to work every morning.
I was…an unfinished project when I first started, and I thank all of these people for hiring me for my potential and allowing me to fulfill it.
But do you know how I got good at this?
I realized I don’t work for any of those people at all.
I work for Them.
The thirteen-year-olds above. Yes, them.
Once I realized that, good things started happening. And if you learn to make your people your boss, they will for you, too.
The Clarity of “What’s Best for Them”
Whatever you do, when you view your team (or director hires, or, uhm, seventh graders) as the people you are accountable to, it removes ambiguity in your goals and decisions.
Your job becomes much simpler: do what is best for your people. Work for them.
You stop listening to the competing voices — managers with different agendas, initiatives to support the agendas, your own self-narrative pushing you to do something that makes you look good in front of decision-makers, the latest trend in your field that you’re highlighting for the people watching you and judging your performance.
“Keep them happy, Joe, got it.”
No, not what I’m saying at all. Work for them.
It’s Not “Make Them Like You”
“Be more likable.”
No, work for them.
You will be tempted to do what makes them happy, to be the “fun” one. The person who says yes because you want that short-term glow of approval. New teachers are sometimes victims of the fast and funny mindset. The sooner you answer, and the more often they’re laughing, the better, right?
This frees you from that mindset. You stop caring about the emotion of the moment and start thinking big picture. If you’re a people pleaser, it’s a counterintuitive way to stop caring about what people think of you. Because if you work for your direct reports, you’re doing what’s best for them, not what they like.
This attitude makes all the micro-decisions of your day much clearer.
What I’m asking you to do is take a different approach to being accountable.
Buy in Without Tryin’
Creating a winning culture isn’t easy. It’s done in drops of goodwill, like adding a penny to a bucket every day.
A funny thing happens when you realize that.
They realize it, too, and commit to it.
In a classroom, this takes a population that could have been apathetic at the start and builds within them expectations, because they‘ve learned to depend on you to do what’s right, even in the face of a room full of people who are hostile to your decision.
“But they’re forced to be there.” Yeah, you’re right. Do you think that makes it easier to build buy-in? No one in the room is chasing a bonus or a promotion. How might your direct reports knowing you have their best interests in mind, even over yours, translate to retaining, growing, and optimizing your team in a corporate environment?
Allow me to focus on my wheelhouse for a moment.
When you work for your students, they learn they can trust you.
It sounds obvious, but in a fractured world, more kids than you think do not feel they can trust the adults in their lives. They crave the structure you bring.
It’s a reflexive relationship that leads you to not want to disappoint them. But you’ve learned the importance of accountability, and get a better sense of when you should have some fun or when it’s time to lock in. You view both mindsets as tools to bring out the best in your people.
How do you know this is working? When you don’t have to ask. They just do. Because they don’t want to disappoint you, either.
What About Your Boss?
Remember your actual bosses? Whether they know this has been your approach all along or it is something they figured out along the way, they are going to love it.
All those initiatives? You just consolidated them and you didn’t even realize it.
Your self-narrative? You stopped caring about whether or not you “look good”, you’re too busy doing good. And the stakeholders, be they supervisors, principals, parents, or customers, see it and hear about it. Over and over again, little by little, when they least expect it.
The new trend in your area of expertise that the people you report to want you to try? You’ve probably tried it already, because in seeking to do better for your people, you’ve started to investigate trends and be the first to move on them, just in case they work.
Along the way you stop worrying about the judgment of outsiders, because you know what the macro looks like.
Putting people first is putting your organization first. And in the process, it’s growing the sort of skills that set you up to do more good, for more people.
JOE LATORRE
Joe LaTorre is a two-time New York State teaching award winner, a multiple-time fantasy football champion, and someone who has never experienced the Sunday Scaries.
To learn more about transforming the culture of your school, visit JosephLaTorre.net
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