We caught up with the brilliant and insightful India Ford a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

India, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?

The education system has many flaws that must be addressed in an effort to help children. Strengthening mental health programs in schools, supporting educators in their understanding of how to work with students in high poverty areas, requiring that high schools have multiple career tech programs for students who want to enter trade fields instead of college and provide more real-world experiences to prepare students for a life of understanding cultural differences and accepting people for who they are. Education is a person’s first chance to begin learning social norms that could impact how they are perceived in society. School should be equipped with opportunities for students to be who they are by exploring their personal interests.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started my career teaching on a Navajo Reservation in New Mexico because it was a chance to learn about others. Wanting to become a multiculturalist leader guided my decisions to explore other people and their cultural backgrounds. My love for teaching allowed me to take students on adventures that many would not be able to experience in their lives which is why I decided to continue working in urban public schools because there I saw the most need. After leaving New Mexico, I moved to Dallas, Texas and taught within the Hispanic community then moved back to my hometown in Ohio to teach in an urban high poverty district. For 20 years, I watched many students graduate not understanding the importance of effective decision making and how their decisions could potentially lead to negative consequences. When there are no consequences, a person creates unrealistic expectations that are contrary to the law causing them to end in the criminal system. Realizing this, I created a school program over the course of 5 years, T-Squared Honors Academy. I then pulled out my retirement funds in 2014 and invested the $113,000 in its start-up because of my belief in a better educational program. Currently, my school still remains small and many of my graduates have become productive citizens in the community or beyond. Yes, many of them also keep in contact, call for advice, visit to introduce me to their families, some watch the school’s progress and email me about changes that have been made and others have vowed to invest in the school once they become successful. So, I am able to track their success and even their failures; but watching them develop as citizens from obtaining the education provided by T-Squared is so amazing.

Any advice for managing a team?

Managing a team can be one of the most challenging organizational structures that one may ever encounter. There are so many personalities and attitudes that must be managed to ensure you get the best out of the individuals you have hired. The advice that I would give when managing a team and maintaining high morale would be to:
a. COMMUNICATE OFTEN–meet often to strengthen your teams understanding of your vision and mission.
b. YOU TRAIN YOUR TEAM–Instead of bringing an outside person in to train your team, YOU train your team because you know what your expectations are better than anyone else.
c. BE A COACH RATHER THAN AN AUTOCRATIC LEADER–Coaching allows people to make mistakes, learn and grow to become better. It removes fear from working in the setting because they will feel safe about speaking because it will be more of a learning environment. This improves morale. Autocratic leadership breeds fear, creates a hostile work environment and decreases team morale.
d. LEAD WITH EMPATHY–Understand that people have lives and want to be happy. The job that you created is not their world, it is a means to support them so that they can live happily. So treat employees as you would want to be treated and with an understanding that they do have lives. When you lead with empathy, people believe they matter which increases morale.
e. DONT MAKE OTHERS DO SOMETHING YOU WOULD NOT DO–this is self-explanatory. If you won’t do it, don’t expect someone else to do it.
f. SHOW YOUR TEAM THAT YOU ARE A PLAYER TOO–Get in the trenches and step in when staffing is short or when it is not a good month for production, get out and do the work as your employees do. They will respect you more and will increase morale as well.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

(I am sorry, time will not allow) :)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tquaredacademy.com
• Facebook: T-Squared Honors Academy-High School
• Youtube: @t-squaredhonorsacademy5474