Working With Difficult & Resistant Staff, Feb/2011

To move forward in the school-improvement process, school leaders must address the behaviors of difficult and resistant staff members while sending the message that a few people cannot halt change. Understanding what causes people to become difficult or resistant is an important foundation to have as a leader, but knowing how to respond to such people is even more important. Working With Difficult & Resistant Staff provides busy practitioners with practical strategies to counteract negative behaviors immediately. Armed with new insights into the motivations and methods of oppositional staff, readers will be able to proactively build consensus and monitor staff conditions to maximize the success of new initiatives.

Working With Difficult & Resistant Staff includes helpful scenarios based on real-world experiences of principals and other school leaders. Readers will be able to identify the different kinds of resistant individuals—underminers, contrarians, on-the-job retirees, resident experts, and more—and to confront and manage each type of behavior so that all staff can thrive in a focused, positive, collaborative environment.

Benefits

1. Uses bullet points, checklists, and brief descriptions to assist busy school leaders in finding solutions fast
2. Offers authentic stories and specific insights to show exactly how to address each situation
3. Provides helpful planning exercises and templates for principals
4. Includes reflective leadership questions to extend the learning

About the Author:
John F. Eller has had a variety of experiences working with adults over the years he has been in education. He has served in a leadership role for a new doctoral program at St. Cloud State University and worked with educational leaders at Virginia Tech University. He has held positions as director of Minnesota ASCD; director of a principal s training center; assistant superintendent for curriculum, learning, and staff development; and principal in a variety of settings. In addition to training and supporting facilitators, John specializes in dealing with difficult people; building professional learning communities; employee evaluation; conferencing skills; coaching skills; strategic planning strategies; school improvement planning and implementation; differentiated instruction; leadership for differentiation; employee recruitment, selection, and induction; supervisory skills; and effective teaching strategies.

John has a PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from Loyola University Chicago and an MS in Educational Leadership from the University of Nebraska Omaha. He is the author of Effective Group Facilitation in Education: How to Energize Meetings and Manage Difficult Groups and co-author of So Now You're the Superintendent, Creative Strategies to Transform School Culture, Working With and Evaluating Difficult School Employees, and the best-selling Energizing Staff Meetings.

Sheila A. Eller has worked in a multitude of educational settings during her career. She is currently an elementary school principal in the Mounds View Public Schools in Minnesota and has served as a principal in the Fairfax County Public Schools and in other schools in Minnesota and Illinois, a university professor, a special education teacher, a Title I math teacher, and a self-contained classroom teacher in grades 1 4. In addition to her work in schools, Sheila has served education on a regional and national basis. She has been a member of the executive board of Minnesota ASCD and has been a regional president of the Minnesota Association of Elementary School Principals. She has completed advanced coursework in educational administration and supervision at St. Cloud State University and holds a master s degree from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and a bachelor s degree from Iowa State University. Sheila is a regular presenter at the ASCD national conventions, sharing her expertise on the topic of effective staff meetings and multi-age instruction. While she worked at National-Louis University in Evanston, Illinois, she helped to develop a classroom mathematics series that was adopted by several districts in the region. A video that accompanied this series featured her instructional techniques. In her work with educators, she specializes in energized staff meetings, school improvement initiatives, multi-age teaching strategies, employee supervision, and teaching and learning in the content areas.

Sheila is co-author of the best-selling Energizing Staff Meetings and of Creative Strategies to Transform School Culture and Working With and Evaluating Difficult School Employees.