Stating the obvious: get a notebook!

Some of the articles I’ve posted so far have been a little theoretical or abstract. From time to time I’ll be posting a “stating the obvious” article. So if you do find this obvious I’m sorry for wasting your time, otherwise I hope this is useful.

This may sound trivial but it isn’t, keep records. Get yourself a notebook, use it and be seen to use it. One of the problems with leadership is that the further you rise and the greater the challenges then the more balls you have to keep in the air at the same time. You will have some great ideas, you will have numerous meetings, you will hear things, you will read articles and spot resources, you will deal with difficult colleagues, parents and children, in short you will be inundated with crucial information and you are only human. I’ve been a head of department, a head of year, a union rep, an assistant head and a head and throughout each of these posts I have kept records (well at least after my first year of leadership - read on!).

Let’s start with a negative reason why you should have a notebook. When I first became a head of department a wily old deputy head told me to write down all the conversations I had, or at least those directly impacting on my job. This all felt a little too paranoid for me and so I ignored the advice. That same year I had a raft of problems with a Newly Qualified Teacher. I naively thought that my memory and integrity would be sufficient evidence in dealing with the issues but sadly that was not the case. The problem was of course that I assumed that the first problem with this member of staff would be the last. It was trivial and on its own was probably not noteworthy but two or three of these incidents later on I wish I’d noted them all down so that I had a clear evidence trail. This would have then made tackling the problem considerably easier. My advice, make a dated note of even trivia just in case you need to use it. You never know when you will need a conversation that starts with “we spoke about this on the …”.

There’s also a key psychological element to using a notebook as a running record. Your colleagues will soon realise that you do keep records and that even if your memory is flawed your records are not and that you can refer back to the notes.

This has worked to my advantage on several occasions. A member of my staff reminded me of a conversation from the previous year regarding a “promise” I had made about a future opportunity as if promotion would be guaranteed. My notes, though brief, from that meeting reflected the assurance that I would look at things but that was the extent of the promise. In a another instance a I had made notes from a series of meetings regarding our staffing structure and being able to keep referring back to concerns raised on certain dates or promises made was helpful.

So what goes in my notebook?

• Ideas and reflections
• Notes from meetings
• Pieces of information such as data, websites, addresses and so on
• Events
• Phone calls
• Plans for the future

Basically everything that impacts on my job!

Another little tip to consider. If you have dealt with a particularly difficult situation which may come back to sting you then make sure that you have shared this information with a trusted colleague. When this has happened I have signed my notes and had my colleague sign them as well.

I have experimented with different notebooks for different purposes, one for daily reflections and ideas, another for dealings with colleagues, another for phonecalls, but in the end I have found that a single book suits my needs better. I now have a collection of these acting as a log of thoughts and deeds for the last umpteen years. When leaving my last post I was able to copy pages of my notes for my successor as a commentary on key activities I had undertaken over the past couple of years.

I realise that this is not very deep but it matters. Value your notebook, protect your notebook, because there are times when your notebook is your only friend!