Stewardship
JH & HS Principal - Cherokee ISD By Rebecca Sharkey
For the majority of my time in education, I was both teacher and coach. And none of my teacher prep work prepared me more for the classroom and later for administration than those years spent as coach. I wholeheartedly believe this. I learned quite early on that as a leader I am responsible for both the activities and the outcomes. That I am responsible for completing the task at hand as well as building relationships with those with whom I am working (students and peers alike). To be truly effective, I am to be a steward. As an educator, we are all stewards. Merriam-Webster, according to the world-wide web, defines stewardship as “the conducting, supervising, or managing of something especially: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.” There is no better way in which to define being a teacher in my humble opinion. And, as such, the utilization of a stewardship agreement with those in our classrooms each and every day can be quite the useful tool when we understand what it truly is and its purpose.
According to Stephen Covey in his work entitled Trust & In-spire, a “stewardship agreement is a tool for mutually extending trust from one to another with clear expectations and mutually agreed-upon accountability.” As teachers, we are responsible for both establishing clear and high expectations for our students as well as holding them accountable and being accountable. The purpose of the stewardship agreement is to “get results in a way that grows people” Covey continued.
My takeaway long ago as a coach was I could not view my responsibilities as an either or. Meaning, I could not focus solely on performance and outcomes at the expense of building relationships and vice versa. As a teacher, we must also be sure to not view our responsibilities as some form of dichotomy. We have to establish clear expectations and maintain accountability or we will be rendered ineffective and our students will suffer. The former CEO of Harley-Davidson, Richard Teerlink, once pointed out that “as a leader…your principal job is to create an operating environment where others can do great things.” Let us continue to do just that.