March 2019

School Support Customer Service Survey Opens April 2 The School Support Customer Service Survey -- your opportunity as a leader to provide feedback to our operations and school-support departments -- will be open April 2-14 . This survey is used as a recognition tool to celebrate individuals and departments who have provided outstanding customer service in the past year; the feedback also helps drive changes and inform growth and performance discussions. Principals, assistant principals, school secretaries, executive secretaries and management-level team members will be asked to participate by invitation only. All selected participants will receive an email from David Suppes beginning April 2 . Thank you for taking time to provide your valuable feedback and help make a difference across DPS.

Growth, Performance and Training

LIFT & CCE Leaders: Schedule Norming Sessions and Note Key Year-End Deadlines

It’s time to start preparing for year-end appraisal processes. Read these reminders about what's ahead: Schedule norming sessions now with your HR partner to prepare for year-end appraisals. Norming sessions for LIFT and the Core Competencies Evaluation (CCE) should occur May 17-June 12. Norming is an important process that ensures more effective, data-driven evaluations and equitable results. The focus of norming is to ensure a consistent application of our rating scale within and across teams, rather than debating individual performance. All employees eligible for LIFT and the CCE should be normed. Complete the norming process quickly and efficiently by hosting norming sessions for your entire department over the course of one or two days. Take note of important year-end deadlines. Click here for a schedule of LIFT and Core Competencies Evaluation (CCE) year-end deadlines. Key dates include deadlines for self-appraisals, norming, performance conversations and pay-for-performance recommendations.  Remember: Teams can set earlier deadlines and complete norming earlier around work schedules and specific needs. Collaborate with your HR partner to adjust these deadlines to earlier dates to meet your team's needs. Visit the LIFT and CCE pages on The Commons for more year-end resources.

Tip of the Month: Overcoming 'Career Stallers' As a learning organization, we can all benefit from some self-reflection on how we can continue to improve as team members and as leaders. Asking questions like "do I hesitate to make unpopular or difficult decisions?" or "do I fear failure or discourage calculated risk-taking?" can help identify potential "career staller" -- behaviors that might hold you back from reaching your full potential.  Being successful in our roles requires us all to acquire new skills and let go of habits that don't serve them well. Career stallers are important to identify so we can focus on growth and development for ourselves and our team members. As part of DPS' investment in building great leaders, there are resources available for identifying career stallers and growing as a leader. Visit the LIFT Resource page to review career stallers for each level of LIFT under the Competencies section. Copies of the book "For Your Improvement" are available to managers of team members participating in LIFT. The FYI page has more info on how to use "For Your Improvement" as a resource for growing great teams and leaders. To reserve a copy, email lift@dpsk12.org .

Register Now for the Mindfulness and the Workplace for Leaders Course Designed for school leaders, managers and administration, Mindfulness and the Workplace Course for Leaders is a free course held April 5-May 20 that helps participants discover the benefits of shaping and maintaining a happy brain, along with easy ways to create mini-mindful habits that enable long-term balance. Learn how to manage distractions, schedule work days for optimal brain states and maximize efficiency and productivity. Space is limited and the deadline to register is March 30 . If you have questions, email staffwellness@dpsk12.org .

Updates & FYI

ICYMI: Resources for Your Team During Transition

Each Monday through the month of March, we are sharing resources as well as answers to some of our most frequently asked questions to support you and your team during this time of change. If you missed these newsletters, we encourage you to take a few minutes to review past editions from March 4 , March 11 and March 18 .

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