25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #11 Ask questions

It’s a very sad thing, I think, but one thing I have discovered is that if you ask questions, or at least the wrong type of questions, that’s a sure-fire way of attracting opprobrium. A strong word to use, perhaps, but there is little doubt in my mind that daring to question the current conventional wisdom is indeed often regarded as shameful, and usually indicative of not having fully understood the situation.

For example, a lot of people think that one device per child is a good thing to aim for. It certainly sounds admirable, especially in the context of wanting to reduce the digital divide. But when it comes to making purchasing decisions in a school, is it the most sensible or desirable target to aim for? The questions I would ask here are:

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25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #9 Always express an opinion

Here’s a quick quiz:

Leaders and Managers are supposed to be decisive, right?

a) Yes.

b) No.

c) Not sure.

OK, that’s a light-hearted opening but there’s a serious point to be made. It’s generally thought that the more decisive a leader is, the better. But is it possible for a leader to be too decisive?

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25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #8 Do not do things properly

You’re probably familiar with the saying “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly”, and its cousin, “If you want a job doing, do it yourself”. Each has a certain intuitive appeal and each, in a leadership/management situation especially, is utterly untenable.
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25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #7 Do things properly

After a hiatus born of the Christmas holidays, followed by a week of intensive conference activity and then a desperate (and not entirely successful) attempt to catch up, this series is back! Thanks for your patience during its temporary absence.

Doing things properly is what I like to think of as “making haste slowly”. We live in an age where everything is expected to be decided upon, and then executed, extremely quickly. The problem is that without getting the detail sorted out in the beginning, the work can actually take longer as incorrect assumptions have to be confronted and corrected.

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25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #6 Manage, but don’t lead

calendarThere’s a reason that the strapline of this website is “The site for leaders and managers of educational ICT”: leading and managing are different things. That isn’t to say that someone cannot be both a good leader and a good manager, but they may have to work a little harder on one aspect than on the other.
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25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #4 Provide too much information

information.jpgToo much information is such a ubiquitous problem that it even has its own three letter abbreviation: TMI – although that is usually applied in the context of someone online telling you something that you really didn’t want to know. However, it’s also a problem experienced by anyone who runs a team, or who requires information in order to take a decision.

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25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #3 Provide too little information

If you really want to make yourself unpopular, then not providing enough information is a sure-fire way of going about it. Whether you’re a teacher, say, advising your Principal, or a consultant advising your client, you need to provide sufficient information – whether you’ve been asked for it or not.
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25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #2 Provide timely information

informationYou would think that providing timely information would be just the thing to get you applauded. However, as the song from Porgy and Bess tells us, it ain’t necessarily so. It really all depends on what the information is, and to whom you’re making it available.

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25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #1 Don’t do as you’re told

Would anyone want to make themselves unpopular? I doubt it. But there are times when one has to choose between what is going to give them a quiet life, and what they feel is right. Obviously, though, you have to choose your battles. In this series I thought I’d explore the sorts of thing which some educational technology leaders or school leaders might not like.
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