The truth hurts

One of the hardest parts of my job is doing evaluations. Not that I can't find the good (and the bad) in each staff person at my school. They just have rarely had evaluations done in the past. The former principal was there for a year or more before doing evaluations. At that point, they were done every 3 or 4 years, I think and so the staff isn't used to being critiqued and told what they're doing well and what they need to change.

I always hated being evaluated, I'll admit it. Many times my evaluations were fine but sometimes they were so nit-picky that I thought, "Am I doing ANYTHING right?" I didn't want to just tell the staff that everything is sunshine-and-roses but I didn't want to nit-pick every single thing, either.

I tried to find a good balance of things that they're doing well and also some of the things that they need to change. I always think it's best to set some goals of new things that you want to do next year and things that you'd like to change. The problem is, the truth hurts. Sometimes people are so used to making their own decisions and doing their own thing that when we tell them they need to make changes, they get angry and resentful. I already was on the receiving end of that earlier this week. It hurt my feelings to have someone lash out at me for being (brutally) honest and doing my job. In the end, that person will not be returning so none of the suggestions and changes for next year mean anything at this point.

At what point do you decide to stop being honest, especially if it's brutal, to just crush someone's ego a little less?

I feel like I had to compromise my professional ethics in some way to give a rosier-than-realistic picture so that they can leave on happy terms.

I know that ministry is not like life in the 'real world' of business management. Even so, it doesn't make it any easier when someone who should be a brother or sister in Christ acts decidedly un-Christlike.

I am hoping and praying that our enrollment numbers are enough for me to come back to work here next year. We need the chance to chart a new course, with a smaller staff, and really repair years of decline and neglect (in terms of administrative duties) at the school. I know that God can and DOES do amazing miracles every.single.day so I keep that in my heart.

I was in a mild panic to think that our numbers for re-enrollment were so much below last year's enrollment numbers... but then I received a comparison and we're only about 7 students short at this point. It seems like a lot now but it gives me renewed hope that we can get to that level and, I pray, about 10 more so that there is no question that we can afford to open the doors to the school next year.

I invite anyone who is reading this to pray for Hope Lutheran school. We need a miracle and I know only one place to get it -- from God above!