Courtesy and Cordiality at Work........
Courtesy can be said to be a polite gesture between two or more people conversing over a matter.
Cordiality can be said to be warmth, sincerity and friendliness that is shown when conversing with one another.
Over time, it has been discovered that official relationship between Administrators and Teachers sometimes are not so good and one can easily notice them within the school.
As an Administrator, the complex nature of needs and preferences using people, especially those at subordinate level of any organization; calls for courteous communication.
Courtesy balances between cordiality and tact.
Tact can be said to be the ability to deal with embarrassing situations carefully and without doing or saying anything that will annoy or upset other people; careful consideration in dealing with others to avoid giving offense; the ability to say right thing.
For Administrators to be effective the e communication style cannot be ignored, effective communication cannot take place without conscious use of tact, courtesy, cordiality.
Courtesy can be killed during a conversation through:
Sarcasm: A form of humor that is marked by mocking with irony, sometimes conveyed in speech with vocal over-emphasis. Insincerely saying something which is the opposite of one's intended meaning, often to emphasize how unbelievable or unlikely it sounds if taken literally, thereby illustrating the obvious nature of one's intended meaning. This is when the administrator dwells on the flimsy side of interpersonal relationship and he/she makes statements about their teachers carelessly. Administrators that are mutually close to a particular staff should not use that ground to talk anyhow to the staff.
Insults:To offend someone by being rude, insensitive or insolent; to demean or affront someone. Unintentional insults and indirect insults are usually used frequently in replies given by administrators and teachers
Talking down: The use of didactic and instructional tone in letters, memo or words. For example, "In a decent decent and Outstanding school like ours, Mrs Bimbo......" This is Mrs Bimbo is not decent and outstanding....
The listener is raging right inside if her, some teachers too will give back that insult too and we will start hearing their voices trying to overpower the other.
Presumptuousness: Assumptions, assumptions, assumptions they are every where about everyone. Making a decision based on assumption is what is wrong, very wrong as most assumptions are not true. As an Efficient administrator and Teacher put away all assumptions of your subordinate and superiordinate. We need to really check if the assumptions are true by giving the teacher a trail at a task and supervision must be done fairly. Also, assumptions of the confidence and capabilities of a teacher does not mean supervision should not be carried out.
Over-familiarity: Hmmmm.... This exist a lot in our schools as we helped our distant cousin, church members, sisters friends, etc get the job, so they don't concur to an official relationship between you and them they just want to do the things they casually do to you again at work which is wrong, we need to let them know again that at work our relationship is strictly official and any form of discrepancies with that there is a consequence to that.
Or else they will mess our jobs and we will end up achieving nothing at the end of the day.
Whining: One who whines about perceived problems; a complainer. So administrators seems to be only good at complaints and never will hear a suggestion from them, they complain in such a way that it seems there is nothing good about the job done or the teacher himself. When complaints are more than compliments it encourages stubbornness and resolute personality among the teachers and the simple task becomes more tedious to achieve. Some Administrators say "you ought yo know better", it makes the Administrator blind to Situational dictations and group dynamics.
Curtness: This is a state of been Brief or terse, especially to the point of being rude. It means one is Short or concise unnecessarily when discussing with someone, talking arrogantly, withholding some apart of the information which leads to inordinate brevity of the discussion. The teacher feel the administrator shows no concern for possible personal reasons.
Suspicion: Suspicion is a feeling or terse, especially to the point of being rude.
Short or concise doubt, distrust which is usually imaginary. As an administrator always suspecting your surbodinates' motives will surely show in your attitude when one is with the teacher. If What is being suspected of seem to be true, then it should be addressed in a face-to-face discussion or a meeting that allows for better understanding of both the teacher and the situation.
Accusations: Courtesy is sacrificed at the center of every accusations because the language is often fouled by bitter reaction to perceived misbehavior. This will surely happen in our school.... Using courtesy, tact, discretion, wisdom to handle issues bring out the truth easily; Anger will not, make enough findings before making any decision... So we don't make the wrong decisions.
As an administrator you are not to be predictable, dogmatic. Different situations require different strategies, so do each employee requires different communication and relational skill when dealing with them, and this makes us an excellent, effective, efficient Administrator. Our teachers too will be happy to work with us!
And our school will be great altogether!
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