In September of 2015, I did a webinar entitled “Earning Respect from Students, Parents, and Colleagues.” During the webinar, a funny thing happened – many teachers on the webinar asked, “How do I earn respect from my administration?” I had not thought much about the subject, but the questions made sense. A teacher’s relationship with their administration is the most important relationship in an educator’s professional life. If the interactions are strained, it can put a lot of stress on the teacher – usually leading to the teacher moving to a different school or district. In extreme cases, it could lead to the teacher leaving the profession!

How does the rapport between teacher and administrator go bad? Many times, bad feelings can arise due to miscommunication or a lack of communication. Due to the huge amount of turnover in the administration of most schools, teachers may adopt a “This too shall pass” attitude towards the administrator they do not like, and choose to wait for the person to leave. If the teacher is tenured, this can work out in the teacher’s favor – but what if the teacher does not have tenure? It is a dangerous position to take. Another possible pitfall is a situation where the administrator does not leave.

Not only is it possible to make a good first impression on an administrator, it is possible to mend fences and build a closer relationship with your boss. Unfortunately, the initiative for fence mending rarely comes from the leader – it usually falls on the teacher.

So, how can a positive, respectful relationship with administration be built?

The answers to these and many other questions will be discussed on the next New Teacher Help webinar on February 2, 2016 at 5 pm Eastern Time! Join educators from across the world as we examine how to earn respect from any administrator – hope to see you then!

This post was written by Shannon Holden, middle school assistant principal. Shannon Holden has been a high school and middle school teacher and administrator, and a new teacher coach, in North Dakota, Texas, and Missouri for 20 years. He is the host of the New Teacher Help and TechTools for the Classroom communities on edWeb.net. Follow him on Twitter @newteacherhelp.