From Listening to Leading: The Power of Open Communication in School Districts

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You're a school district leader in a geography where 70 percent of the community Aren't parents, so they don't have skin in the game. And to top that all off, you're facing a pretty big budget deficit. This doesn't sound like something that can be solved using the easy button.

In fact, the challenges faced in a district environment like this can often lead to a revolving door of leadership. That revolving door can lead to a worsening relationship amongst all the stakeholders that you have to manage. So what can you do to fix it? And set up your district and your leadership on solid footing so that it's sustainable . Those are some of the questions and challenges that we're going to tackle in today's conversation So who's going to be leading us in that discussion?

We have becky styles joining [: 00:01:00

Stiles. Dr. Stiles is a passionate leader with a wealth of experience in education. She's currently complete completing her first year as a superintendent. She's also making her 24th year in the Osceola School District and her 31st year in education. She's got advanced degrees in leadership and extensive administrative experience.

And she focuses on ensuring high academic achievement and social emotional development for all students. Becky emphasizes the importance of connection and fostering a collaborative community that supports learning and growth as a parent of two daughters and a dog named Oakley. She loves to read and is always eager to learn new things.

As a testament to her love for learning new things is her newfound passion for pickleball. That is the fastest growing racket sport in North America. For those that didn't know, Becky subscribes to the Ted Lasso philosophy of leadership.

Be curious, not [: 00:02:00

[00:02:07] Dr. Becky Styles: I'm super happy to be here.

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So I'll be curious to get into that story. But before we dig into that, I know we covered a little bit of your professional journey. In your bio, but I'd like you to flush that out a little bit more and specifically what I'd like to learn and what I think would be helpful for the listeners is for you to share with us a little bit more about some of those defining moments in your leadership journey that shaped how you lead today.

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So I was like, I wonder what their students are like. So I literally came in after school one day and walked around to see, cause I'd never even heard of FFA, which is not anymore, but it was Future Farmers of America. So I walked through the school district and the kids there were just like the kids I was with at North high school in Minnesota.

I made the journey over, and since then, it has been a community filled with pride, and I've been able to be on the journey as we've had our super successful moments and some really challenging ones.

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[00:04:08] Dr. Becky Styles: I think there's always challenges in every district. I would say one that we have faced for sure in our district here recently is a decline in enrollment. So with the idea of if you look at Wisconsin, and you look at the birth rate, death rate, they're actually starting to match up. Versus in the past, we had a lot higher birth rate than we did death rate.

So enrollment overall, I would also say staffing is a challenge. Like right now, we're about ready to go into the new school year. And we have three positions open that we don't have any applicants for. And we always want to put the very best people in front of kids. And when you don't have applicants, that can be a big challenge.

percent of our [: 00:05:00

So communicating that. Really important value of public education versus how much it's going to cost you out of your pocket can be a definite difficult challenge.

[: 00:05:25

What's happening in the schools? How did that shape some of the strategy that you put into place when you took over this leadership role and what you decided to tackle? Because you have to solve talent attraction and if your community isn't one that is Quote unquote family friendly or whatever.

hose factors have in how you [: 00:06:00

[00:06:08] Dr. Becky Styles: I can say, first of all, as you said that back to me, I went, Ooh, gosh, be careful because I would say there's an incredible sense of pride for our school district. So when we say people don't have, aren't invested, we have lots of grandparents and aunts and uncles who have kids in the system that come to the concerts and come to the events.

g elementary, it was built in: 1962

What is, because we have to do something with that building. It doesn't have air conditioning. It has all the original electrical, all of those pieces. So how do you engage people that aren't getting the emails, right? Okay. Cause I have access, direct access to 30 percent of our community, but the other 70%, I don't.

And we send out two [: 00:07:00

So some of those and I was at the high school for a period of time. So some of those people are now parents of kids in our district and or Are not having families yet, but still live in the community. So I have connections that way. So I've asked them like when I say like I literally believe every conversation Is an opportunity To have a connection and learn something.

[: 00:07:35

And, when I opened the show, I talked about, all the different moving pieces you had to deal with as a first time superintendent. And I think it's going to be important for you to lay out. When [00:08:00] you started getting your feet underneath you, what was your process for gathering the information and understanding what needs to be your top priority?

[: 00:08:07

I started with the foundation. Literally at in service saying what you're going to find for me this year. My two number one goals are to be present and be curious. And I actually show the Ted Lasso quote or the little clip about him throw darts and, Walt Whitman be curious, not judgmental.

dering about? And very short [: 00:09:00

So really, I think most importantly was laying a foundation to expect me to ask questions, not because I'm being nosy, but because I need to learn, because this is a new role. Being a superintendent is. Very different than being the director of instruction or being the principal of a building.

There's a whole different community piece, the school board dynamic, all of that is very different than what I had been doing. So I needed to understand what our staff thought they needed from me to serve them and then develop a plan for how that would work. I think

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You're going on this questioning tour How did you keep yourself from being biased based on your lens from the previous role?

[: 00:09:56

What was that like? So again, very strategic. I don't have a list in my pocket. It's people that I know. Also, I think, the district has had a lot of turnover in the last four years. So the good news is I was the person who coordinated mentoring. So I had a relationship with these first, second, third year people.

So I was able to stay connected in that way. But as far as a bias, I just walked in saying I'm brand new to this. Please give me the rookie card for the year so I can figure it out with you. And I really believe in team. You can't do anything alone. So sitting down with all the people, not the people who I think people think matter, but it was everybody.

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So what was your process for working through that exercise?

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So when you think about your community and what is your community need? These five people, we have a five person board, are the ones who are representing that for you, so it's not your job to lead them, it's their job to tell you what they're hearing, and then for us to use our educational background to figure out how to best serve that community.

ribed. As specifically as it [: 00:12:00

So people are friends with all of our board members and there's conversations happening all around. And I never knew that should be of concern of mine.

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[00:12:27] Dr. Becky Styles: It leans back to collaboration and communication, ensuring I think that the beautiful part for my adventure in education, right? I've been a teacher, a school counselor, a high school administrator, a middle school administrator, and a director of instruction. So that's a lot of roles that I've had. So able to lean back into some of that when we're talking about high school credits and the why.

about what governance means [: 00:13:00

[00:13:06] Dr. Jim: So your first order of business was understanding what's going on at the employee level at the district level. The second order of business was understanding navigating the board and what's important to them.

What was your third area of focus in terms of the stakeholders that you wanted to focus on?

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That's our superintendent, you idiot. And I was like, okay, I'm winning. He's somebody new. And that's a powerful thing, but being in buildings and, we wear name tags, but you're just another adult and making sure that kids can. Do that. Whether it's the kneel down, have the [00:14:00] conversation or a high school kiddo, I had students that will email me and ask me direct questions.

And I think that for me is, that's why I do this job. I do it for the students and staff.

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[00:14:28] Dr. Becky Styles: Yeah. And I made a really conscious effort to say, where can I engage? Where can I engage with people? Like I had already been a member of the, Our local hospital board. So I knew that had created really good connections with me, people outside of education. So I was like, okay, what's another way that I can do that?

right? So then I volunteered [: 00:15:00

So when you're handing someone their Miller Lite, you can have a conversation about something else. And then. Serving on other boards at the Polk County level. So I said yes to a lot of places and I would say to any super it's difficult. I'm super fortunate. My kids are adults now so I can put the time in the evenings when you can be with communities.

And I went to every event that I could. At the high school level, but also I'm on the distribution list for every school building, which nobody loves more emails, but that's a way for me to know. So when they have guest readers coming into the school district, then I can go and make a connection with somebody attending the child development days, attending wellness nights.

eople who aren't necessarily [: 00:16:00

What are you wondering about? And it was some of the best dialogue I had about. The wonders and the questions and what's transparency because in small districts, that's what we are told a lot is we're not transparent enough. But to your point, how do you reach that other crew of people? So if we can continue to send the message through,

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And if you're looking at, access into all of those different communities so you can build relationships that's a tough needle to thread. Because you're not going to have warm [00:17:00] relationships in all of those groups. So when you look at that challenge, you only have so many hours in a day and you have to build relationships at all of these different groups.

Was there a strategy on your part to mobilize some of your existing leadership team to take some of the load off and and engage in those activities as well?

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Or what else do I need to try? Cause we talked about the idea also of if people want to be engaged in the district. What if we did some kind of newsletter that we could just request if they want, they can request and put their email in and then we send them stuff, but then the question becomes, what do you send them?

And that doesn't really tell [: 00:18:00

But that was one of those, when you talk about putting time in, I feel like you can get sucked into a hole so deep that you can never get out. And I need to be able to not make a comment back. And I think people have gotten really good about reaching out to me. I would say another Thing that I did that was super important to me is I actually in my email signature have a place where anybody that wants to can set up a meeting with me so they can set up a 1530 or 60 and they can come in and meet with me.

And anytime I get an email, which I think. There's lots of people who roll their eyes, but if someone is angry or upset, I'm going to learn something if they come in and meet with me. So I encourage people to do that. And also every staff member that ever gets an email from me at the bottom of everyone, it says, if you want to connect, please book a time. Trying to keep that door open,

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[00:19:09] Dr. Becky Styles: Because relationships matter, no matter what. And when you read any leadership, anything, it talks about the culture you invite and the culture you demonstrate. It's the culture you're going to get back. And I believe deeply in meeting people where they are and learning and growing together is the best way to build a fence.

And we are all in this amazing, we have this amazing opportunity and we don't always use it to look each other in the eye and say, okay, where do we think we should go? And, we're in the people business education's all about people. So if the person who has the chair, isn't willing. To be the person who looks people in the eye.

I think there's a pretty big disconnect.

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[00:20:05] Dr. Becky Styles: What I learned is people want to know what's going on and people appreciate candor and people appreciate follow up. So that was my initial piece was how do we make sure we follow up with people and how do we make sure that we continue to grow together? And it was complicated this year because we did.

Have a referendum on the table. So I think that jaded some of the meetings that I had with people because they think I was there to try to get them to shift whatever thinking they had or to vote. Yes. As a matter of fact, we invited for the first time ever we had at a retirement event and we invited every single person who retired from our district back just to have an opportunity for me to have a connection with them and for them to have a connection with each other.

nk also people want a brand, [: 00:21:00

And so that's what the leadership team is focusing on right now is I took our mission statement. And, it's providing a premier education by inspiring students, empowering staff and impacting the community. And we've took out inspire, empower and impact. And that's actually on the windows above the district office.

And I use that in all the things that I deliver. And this next step is to take our core values of adaptability and innovation. All these core strategies, there's seven of them and build that into the foundation. So it's building that wall of understanding so that when people look at us, they know who we are and how we want to serve our community.

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And some of these foundational thing, take things, take years to to come to fruition. And you're contracted for a finite amount of years before you have to re up. So you're working on these longer term things. While maybe the board and the community are looking at shorter term, lower hanging fruit as wins to measure you by, how did you square that circle when you have these competing interests and focus on these longer term things while still satisfying what the board and the community is expecting from you?

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Where was it? All of the things. dug through all the history. Like I'd actually at one point was told that we couldn't sell, we shouldn't have sold it. Again, I wasn't here doing this [00:23:00] decision, but because it was given to us for a dollar. So we dug through, we found cursive written notes about this, the purchase of the farm for 3, 000.

Actually, nobody knows if it's a forest or a farm, just so you know the name. But anyways, took all the information and put it in a document and now it's linked on our webpage. So the idea of creating that documentation so when I leave in that finite time, it still exists in the history is there and can be added to.

We just did that also with the tennis courts. We have some tennis courts that are sinking into a marsh. How come? Why? And it, my understanding is it was a social media flurry. It's a legit question. So then someone emails me and says, do you have the answer to this? Oh, then I can find it and then I can deliver it and then we can put it out there as a permanent place.

So the next time it comes up, we have a real easy access. So that's also, I've been cultivating what is it people need to know and understand and want to know and understand. Because there's always another thing, right? What's the next thing? How are we going to do that? And just being very honest about it.

And, okay, I'll look [: 00:24:00

[00:24:08] Dr. Jim: So when you look at those I would call that part of a communication plan and building transparency and operations. And it seems like there's a lot of stuff that was probably in people's heads and never on paper, and you're relying on inbound inquiries about a thing to define out, okay, here's the story behind it.

That's going to create a lot of like. Chance opportunities for these operational transparency items to get built out. So how are you shifting it? So that you're more intentional about building that transparency

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And being able to present it at a board meeting, being able to say it over here. So again, cause I don't. [00:25:00] Necessarily know what all the lore is but when I start asking people, and that's the other beauty of getting people to come into the office is they share ideas. I had met with a person who works for Anderson's windows, and they have a continuous improvement card.

It's actually sitting next to me and I'm like. We need to do that here. It's so cool. Why do you think, what do you think we could do to be better? And then you write it down and then they get a t shirt for everybody who submits one. So I'm like, okay, that's good. But again, I think, it can't be a squirrel.

Like where does this fit into our mission and vision? And I like to get things done, but I need to get them done with intention. So they live beyond me. Back to your point about how do you keep a vision and mission rolling. Our strategic plan was created during COVID. So that was tough, so I'm taking a strategic plan that was created before me.

The beauty is I was a member on the team, so I know it, and now it's about how do we bring it back to life now that we are past some of that, some of the barriers to make it successful.

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Your business case or your argument for getting the community to change their mind or at least switch their focus to pushing resources into the district that are necessary.

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It can be a challenge. I think one of the things that is super people need to have a voice So an example would be when we went to referendum this time We didn't survey the community and say do we have your support in this? We just put it on the ballot and asked the [00:27:00] question And it was voted down by about 125 votes.

So it was a very close vote. So what is it and why didn't they so then we talked about do we survey? Why didn't they want to support it or do we need to look at? You What we've heard from the community, which is it was too expensive. We don't want to pay any more taxes and look at a different option.

So that's what we've done, except this time we are going to survey the community through using a, an outside company so that those, Data results. They have lots of comparables. So then we can say yes, it will be successful or no, it won't and listen to what the survey says and what in the survey. We're just drafting it right now.

Like it says, if you're undecided or no, how come? And then we give them a bunch of options so their voice can be heard. And then we can look at how we can address things differently.

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[00:28:00] How are you taking what you've learned and building sustainability into it from a communication perspective so that you can be much more efficient in your next year, your third year and so on.

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So as I think about sustaining one of the. The pieces that's most important to me is again, gaining feedback and allowing people to know that they can continue to come in through the doors and the team that is in place right now that wants to do everything they can to ensure high levels of academic achievement and social [00:29:00] emotional development.

Development for all are in it and they want to engage with the community. And I think the community is starting to believe that. So it's, honestly, it's to be continuing to show up. I don't have anything formal written. I have the ideas. I created a list of what I said would be required meetings because meeting with people matters.

And then I changed the frame about their connection sessions. Because that's what it's about, like when I need to meet with the food service director and the transportation director, it's not a meeting. It's about us connecting. What are we doing? How do we elevate? Because one of the pieces that we put into play last year, mid year, that will continue, and I think this is the evolution part, is Every person in the district sets a goal, something that's going to make them better at serving our students, our community, our staff.

y meet with their department [: 00:30:00

So that idea of being very goal focused so that we can see if we met it. Cause we weren't that this year until about midway. So now it's that evolution of getting there together so that we can speak in that. Cause now all of a sudden I have another question I can ask, Hey, how's it going with your goal?

Or what did you set as a goal this year? Because if we're all doing it and then we make it commonplace, that's who we are and that's how things get done.

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You learned stepping into a challenging situation If there is another leader who's faced with a similar set of circumstances What's the playbook or at least the key things that you would say they need to focus on? So that they are ramping up quickly and focusing in on the [00:31:00] right things for their district.

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And I, I. I really feel honored to serve a community like this, and it's really important that they understand I mean it. I will tell you I don't have super great work life balance yet, but that's still coming, and I think that's the mindset every superintendent has to have, is when you walk in, the angriest parent or community member are the people that you want to meet with, because they're going to help you understand at a different level of what's going really on with people.

hear them, then do something [: 00:32:00

[00:32:00] Dr. Jim: No, that's really good stuff If folks want to continue the conversation with you, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

[: 00:32:06

[00:32:16] Dr. Jim: There's a lot of great stuff in this conversation.

I appreciate you sharing, your experience with us I think it's going to be super helpful for anybody that listens to the discussion there's a handful of things that I thought are particularly important in the story that you told and I think one of the most important things is that you put an emphasis on seeking to understand before trying to be understood and that was even in the face of having line of sight in the district for a period of time.

hought was important is that [: 00:33:00

It's literally meeting people where they're at, and I think that's an important lesson that a lot of leaders. Should take to, should understand and apply. We talk about it, but we don't really take the time to actually execute it at the level that's necessary for us to get the information that we need in order to act on the most important things.

And then the third thing that I thought was really interesting about what you described is that you over indexed on accessibility in everything that you did. The focus was the door is open. I'm here to listen. Anytime that you want access to me, here's how you do that. And I think those three things make for a compelling compelling portrait of how you navigate a challenging scenario and do it successfully.

So I appreciate you [: 00:34:00