Using an Analogy to be a Better Communicator

If you are a school superintendent, principal, secretary or an employee, it is critical that you use as many tools as possible to help you communicate effectively. Most people will criticize things they don’t understand.  In order for you to be convincing, you must keep your communication tools as sharp as possible.

One of the best ways to verbally convey ideas that may need some explanation, is to use something called an analogy. An analogy is taking something that is familiar and comparing it to something that is not familiar. By taking this approach, it allows the listener to bridge the gap between something they are already accustomed to, to something they are not. Using an analogy can be the difference between having the person or group you are talking to agree or not agree with you.

For example, if you were trying to explain what the office paper shredder does, you could use an analogy of how a cheese shredder works. A cheese shredder takes a block of cheese and slices it into tiny fragments. The office paper shredder does the same, only it takes paper and cuts it up into very small pieces

Another example is, if you were trying to explain how easy it is to accomplish a major project. You could use the analogy of how a large bundle of twigs cannot be broken in half as a bundle, but when taken apart, each twig could be easily broken. It is similar to how you can break a major project down into small enough tasks that would allow the person to easily complete them one at a time. By taking this approach, the entire project would gradually be completed.

Using an analogy to communicate your ideas can help you gain the understanding and support you need to communicate your ideas effectively.

For more information on how Tom Borg Consulting, LLC can help your school system please call us at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at:  www.TomBorgConsulting.com

Do This to Avoid Email Problems

Email is everywhere in public schools across America. What’s worse is that it is getting more burdensome than ever. What is a person to do? Here are five tips from Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge for Business Leaders E-publication.

 1. Make Action Requests Clear - If you want things to get done, say so. Clearly. There's nothing more frustrating as a reader than getting copied on an e-mail and finding out three weeks later that someone expected you to pick up the project and run with it. Summarize action items at the end of a message so everyone can read them at one glance. This rule  is mandatory for professionals who want to land a job in communications.


2. Combine Separate Points into One Message - Sometimes the problem is the opposite—sending 500 tiny messages a day will overload someone, even if the intent is to reduce this by creating separate threads. If you are holding a dozen open conversations with one person, the slowness of typing is probably substantial overhead. Jot down all your main points on a piece of (gasp) paper, pick up the phone, and call the person to discuss those points. I guarantee you'll save a ton of time.


3. Edit Forwarded Messages - For goodness sake, if someone sends you a message, don't forward it along without editing it. Make it appropriate for the ultimate recipient and make sure it doesn't get the original sender in trouble.


4. Check E-mail at Defined Times Each Day - We hate telemarketers during dinner, so why do we tolerate e-mail when we're trying to get something useful done? Turn off your e-mail "auto-check" and only check e-mail two or three times a day, by hand. Let people know that if they need to reach you instantly, e-mail isn't the way. When it's e-mail processing time, however, shut the office door, turn off the phone, and blast through the messages..


5. Use a Paper “Response List” to Triage Messages Before You Do Any Follow-up - The solution to e-mail overload is pencil and paper? Who knew? Grab a legal pad and label it "Response list." Run through your incoming e-mails. For each, note on the paper what you have to do or whom you have to call. Resist the temptation to respond immediately. If there's important reference information in the e-mail, drag it to your “Reference folder.” Otherwise, delete it. Zip down your entire list of e-mails to generate your response list. Then, zip down your response list and actually do the follow-up.


Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. For more information on how he and his associates can help your public school please contact our office at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at www.tomborgconsulting.com

How to Tap the Mind Power of Your Local Business Leaders

One of the key result areas every school district should take advantage of is the wealth of mind power and potential financial support from local business leaders in your community. By connecting this group of people with your school board members, you can create a very powerful and influential team.

Far too often these two groups do not have the opportunity to communicate with each other on a regular basis. One way to make sure that this happens is to create a structure for it to happen.

Here is a three part formula to make this idea become part of your strategy to strengthen your school district. 

First, create a list of local business leaders from your community. Invite staff from all departments to submit names of various business leaders in the community with which they have a connection.

Next, set up a time to meet with each business person on an individual basis. Explain that the purpose of the meeting is to discuss the idea of tapping the mind power of the business community and discuss their possible interest of being included in such a group.

Finally, once you get enough people interested, conduct the meeting and generate a to-do list of possible projects that could be acted upon.

The main ingredient in building your school district is to get all interested stakeholders from your business community to communicate with your school board in an ongoing basis. The action oriented business people in your community can be key contributors to the success of your school district.

Contact our office for more ideas on how to maximize the wealth of mind power between your business community and your school board. We are available for in-services or for consulting. You can reach us at 734-404-5909.

How to Help Your Staff Be More Productive

If you are a school superintendent or principal who needs to have your employees become more productive, read on. One of the main factors that lie at the root of non-productive employees is a lack of true communication. I am not talking about just the day- to-day, “How are things going”, but, rather, an innate understanding of what it is that motivates that person. It can vary from employee to employee, depending on a number of different factors.

When it comes to motivation, it can change from one month to the next, depending on what is going on in that person’s life at that particular time. For some, it could be money. Others it could be recognition, still others it could be a flexible work schedule or a combination of all of the above. Sometimes job security or incentives to earn more money the harder they work motivates people.

Here are a few questions to consider using to understand your employees more thoroughly:
How would that person prefer you communicate with him?
How would that person prefer you not communicate with him?
What is the ideal work environment for that individual?
Which management style does he prefer his manager to use with them?
Does this individual know his true value to the organization for which he works?
Is he aware of other people’s perception of his work style?

One of the keys to helping your employees be able to work at their full potential, is to communicate with them and come to a mutual understanding of how they really are, and the potential they possess.

For more ideas on how to help your school district be more productive or to use us for an upcoming in-service program, please contact our office at 734-404-5909.

Public Schools Need to Generate Revenue

• When it comes to funding, The leaders of public schools need to experience  a paradigm shift in their thought process. With a continued eroding of funding from state and federal sources, public school districts must begin to explore and implement ways to generate and increase revenue on a long term basis. Up to this point the only approach for most public schools districts has been to merely continue making cuts. If continued, this approach will most likely  result in diminished services, erode staff morale, increased loss of confidence from parents, and continued student attrition.

 It is time to re-examine  the strategies for funding and start to explore and implement funding that could be generated by providing services to the public and business community. 

For some ideas on how we can help your school district create and implement this strategy please contact our office at 734-404-5909 or email us at tomborg@tomborgconsulting.com

Do You Know the Lifetime Value of Your Students?

How often has it happened to you or one of your staff where you took a student for granted?

When you stop to think how much a student is actually worth, in dollars and cents, it makes you sit up and take notice.

For example, let’s say Joe Smith, one of your students, represents $6,900 to your school district. Every year that Joe is enrolled, your school district receives $6,900 in state funding.  If Joe Smith’s parents believe your school is doing an excellent job of educating their son, they will see to it that he attends school for all thirteen years of grades K-12. When you multiply that amount of $6,900 per year times 13 years, it equals $89,700.

So, you see in fiscal terms, Joe Smith is an $89,700 client. If Joe’s parents have other children enrolled in your school district, the overall value of the family goes up proportionately.

Whenever you or your staff deal with people, you are going to have misunderstandings and misconceptions that need to be clarified and resolved. By taking the time and investing in the education, training, and patience that is necessary in handling these kinds of situations, with your students and their parents, you are insuring a greater degree of successful student retention.

Many times you will have staff that do not realize the total fiscal value that each student represents.  As a superintendent or principal, it would be advisable that you educate your team to understand this vital concept. Yes, there will be times when you have students that will have to be asked to leave your school district. However, if you and your team can strive to minimize this sort of action, you can retain as many of your students as possible.

With the loss of every student, you lose funding. Lose enough students and you will have to start making even more budget cuts than you have made in the past. So, even though from time to time, most of your students will have issues that must be dealt with, you must remember that they are the very reason you have a school district. It makes good business sense to keep as many of them as you can.

For more ideas on how to increase student retention in your school district, please contact our office at 734-404-5909 or email our office at: tomborg@tomborgconsulting.com.

Seven Ways to Insure Your In-Service Programs Get Results

Far too often in-service programs fall far short of their potential to create meaningful change in a school district.

Here are 7 ways to make sure your School in-service programs get the kind of results that make them worthwhile.

1. Get input from all of your staff on the type of programs they would like to attend.

2. Form an Action Group with representation from all of the different departments to formulate a list of topics distilled from the input you get from all of your staff.  Identify and select the most important ones. 

3. If possible, conduct concurrent sessions on various topics that have been identified.

4. Make sure that people from different schools and departments, are mixed in the seating arrangement. This allows for an opportunity for people from different schools and departments to get to know each other and for a fresh exchange of ideas during the program.

5. Begin and end the program with the sharing of successes that have been experienced in the last year.

6. Have all participants set a goal of using one to three ideas over the next six months. Pair each participant with a “buddy” and have them report to each other the results of their efforts to implement the ideas they have identified.

7. Encourage all school board, PTO and other school related volunteer groups to attend.

For more ideas or to book a speaker to make your next In-service program a success, please contact our office at 734-404-5909.