Administrative Dissonance

I know full well that many of my posts are specific to...

• my school,
• my specifc position,
• my experience,
• my personality,

Still.....

... the administration in our school meets regularly with an advisor provided by the Misrad Hachinuch who assists us in our administrative responsibilities. He is a former principal who has "been around the block" and serves as an objective advisor about issues like long-term planning, organization, budgeting, etc.

One of the most fascinating and frustrating things about the advice and guidance that I'm getting from this advisor is that my primary job is to a) delegate and b) stay in the office as much as possible. For example, we talk about how to conduct meetings in an effective way so that I can delegate to the people who work for me (his words) and close the door to my office and get some work done (again, his words).

It has become clear to me that the stuff I love - getting to know the students, observing and guiding teachers... basically all the MBWA (Management By Wandering Around; made famous by Bob Waterman and Tom Peters in their great book In Search of Excellence, look here or here) - is, to this advisor, far less important than the delegating from above! Not just less important but tolerable at best and a waste of my time at worst. Not that that is not important, but it's not important for me. My position in the school - pretty high up but not #1 - is "too high" for the MBWA. Huh?

That drives me crazy.