School climate and culture were repeated topics of conversation during the Network for Educator Effectiveness’ training with principals this past summer. There is clearly a strong interest in developing and improving climate and culture among school leaders – for the benefit of both adults and students in the building. It got our team thinking about what it takes to develop and maintain a positive climate and culture and how leaders play such a crucial role.

First, let’s explore what climate and culture are.

Climate is generally thought to be an organization’s collective attitude (the mood or morale of the group). Culture is an organization’s personality (a set of common beliefs, expectations, and unwritten rules). Climate is more flexible to change, while culture can take many years to evolve. (For more on the difference between school climate and school culture, I found this NAESP brief helpful.)

Culture and climate are strongly influenced by leaders, and there’s special power in improving climate and culture when they align with the character strengths of the leader. This post seeks to clarify both the responsibilities and freedoms a leader has in developing and sustaining climate and culture based on their individual strengths.

Reflecting on Strengths and Leadership

Through my professional career, I have come to understand myself – both through self-reflection and through numerous personality tests. Those of you who know me probably are aware of my introversion, flexibility, and service-oriented nature. Those are all natural strengths that became evident to me through my own journey. Personality tests also reveal I am an INTP in the Myers-Briggs world; in the DiSC world, steadiness and conscientiousness are my leading traits; and in CliftonStrengths, intellection, adaptability, input, ideation, and relator lead the way. Knowing this, my responsibility as a leader is to turn that strong introversion and all of its associated strengths (ideation, intellection, relator, conscientiousness) into something positive for my team. The freedom came in realizing introversion was not a detriment but was a powerful tool. Spending time creating, thinking, and pulling resources together can be strengths of my leadership. My leadership didn’t have to be outward-facing all the time. 

And when I say my leadership, that really means me as a person! Once the realization set in that I didn’t have to change who I was to be a leader, I became stronger in my own efficacy and held myself higher in my own regard. My character strengths define who I am, and my leadership should match. That trickles down to my work and my team as well. It has to.

Responsibilities and Freedoms to Develop School Climate and Culture

The first responsibility in developing and maintaining climate and culture, then, is to know your own character. What drives you as a person?  What helps you thrive, makes you happy, gives you energy? There’s no wrong answer, and there’s a bunch of right ones. Take the time to either learn or reflect upon your own strengths. That helps build authenticity between yourself and your leadership. Freedom comes from being able to be authentic. Be vulnerable. Know what your strengths are, and admit which areas you may need support from others. Needing support is okay. It’s how a team operates. Give yourself the freedom to let others into leadership because of the strengths they bring and how they complement your own strengths.

As a school leader, the second responsibility comes in matching your character strengths with the building improvement plan. Know how to weave in your values with the building improvement plan. Are you resource-oriented like me? Help to build libraries, collect data, and collect materials to help action steps and goals get accomplished. Are you more relationship-oriented? Find your place within the plan by seeking out new relationships and bringing in people to help accomplish the improvement you’re seeking. Are you strong in execution and task completion? Be the one to check that all the work is being done as intended, and turn that plan from a document to a living path. Each strength can play a part in a plan, but you as the leader don’t have to play every part. Maximize your strengths as a leader within that plan. The freedom comes in devoting yourself to what gives you energy and passion within the plan and takes away the pressure of trying to fit in a way that you’re not a fit for. Accept what you can do, give power to what you can’t do well, and give responsibilities to others. 

The third responsibility in developing and sustaining a culture is trust. Trust may be the most important responsibility of all. It’s also continual. Trust is the willingness to be open and vulnerable. That’s important for you as a leader but also for the whole team. A true team works best when everyone is open and vulnerable. That’s a sacred space. That’s the foundation of a strong climate and strong culture. Stephen M.R. Covey wrote, “A strong way to build trust is the motivation of genuinely caring.” The word “genuinely” is important. To be genuine, there must be authenticity. And to be authentic, there must be alignment to one’s core character. As a leader, build trust by caring in your authentic way, but do not assume people know how you care or why you show it in the way you do. Trust with genuine care shows up in actions and behaviors. Freedom once again comes when you act in alignment with your character and show up with genuine care; your actions and your behaviors are going to be authentic.  They may not be perfect, and that’s okay. They are going to be authentic and true to who you are and how you’ve established yourself as the leader. Give yourself the freedom to be yourself and to act and behave in the way that matches authentically with you.

Another quote that has stuck out to me is: “Culture is the worst behavior that is tolerated.” To be honest, that one’s hard for me as I always want to lean positive. I even had a hard time including it in this post, but I think it’s important because it is the fourth responsibility. As a leader, you set the course for the culture. Sure, your character is going to influence the culture, but the behaviors that are accepted in that culture are also yours. That’s doubly impactful as a leader because trust is lost, and sometimes irreparably so, when it happens as a result of the violation of character. A culture takes on the character of its leader.  A violation of that character must be rectified and challenged. You can do this in a way that is genuinely caring and considers the learning that most likely needs to occur. You can rectify within your own character, and in doing so, it will be more authentic, more appropriate, and go further to restore the trust or the vulnerability that may have been lost. The freedom comes in knowing what you stand for and therefore what your team and your building stand for. It comes in knowing what behaviors and actions are expected and acceptable. It comes in reaffirming those behaviors and constantly turning them into actions. Freedom comes in leading from your own strengths even in the toughest of times.

Ultimately, the leader has the responsibility and the freedom to build school climate and culture in their own character. Most of it will happen naturally — from the way we interact with our team, to the way we set up and carry forward the building improvement plan, to the way we gain trust and deal with behaviors and actions we can’t tolerate. Character matters. Especially for a leader. Character builds the school climate and school culture. Discover and define your character, reflect on your character, and know how to use it to help you achieve your goals and the goals of your team.

Tom Hairston is the Managing Director of the Network for Educator Effectiveness and has worked with NEE since 2011. Prior to his work with NEE, he worked as a Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports Consultant for the Heart of Missouri Regional Professional Development Center at the University of Missouri. He began his career in education as a high school special education and language arts teacher and football coach at Moberly High School in Moberly, Mo. Tom received his PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Missouri in 2012.

The Network for Educator Effectiveness (NEE) is a simple yet powerful comprehensive system for educator evaluation that helps educators grow, students learn, and schools improve. Developed by preK-12 practitioners and experts at the University of Missouri, NEE brings together classroom observation, student feedback, teacher curriculum planning, and professional development as measures of effectiveness in a secure online portal designed to promote educator growth and development.