I talked with a client today who is retiring after a long service to the students, staff, and families in a school community. She’s leaving along with another district level director to go do decompress without a schedule until they find something else to lean into. She’s not going to replace her job with another one. However, the school district has a great opportunity to do more than replace these two directors.
This is a chance to retool their department by first capturing all the best qualities of these two leaders who helped bring the district this far. Then define the potential of each department to help their team raise the bar to a higher level of excellence.
With our help, they will keep moving while barely missing a beat because we help them listen for the best choice, not just the one with a charming resume, references, and responses.
Continuing to reach is the ultimate compliment to those who retired. It shows they prepared their teams to stay on the grow long after they’re gone. Attracting and selecting talent like this is an art and a science that is best done with a little help from a friend. Add up the investment in these salaries over the next five to ten years and you have an incentive to get this right.
Take the time to fill these positions with at least as much time and effort as you put into a buying a new copy machine or software system. It’s the people who will make the biggest impact on serving your mission, not the stuff.
Life is a team sport. How can you retool when you hire instead of just replace?