Schools are facing so many existential challenges right now, it's sometimes disheartening to make a list. Declining birth rates, a fractured political climate, teacher shortages, skyrocketing costs, outside scrutiny, and more. All that said, those are all for the most part external threats. In other words, there's not much school leaders can do about things that are out of their control.
If I had to identify the biggest internal threat to schools right now, it would be the lack of managerial readiness. I don't mean the need to hire more staff and administrators. Rather, I mean the ability to put new school people in charge of other school people. This is a fundamental problem that compounds when you consider that good managers can help others respond and adjust to those aforementioned external threats.
I see this problem firsthand during the hiring process. This year alone, multiple search teams have passed on highly talented candidates simply and solely because they flat out don't have enough years of supervisory experience, or because their managerial style is incompatible with being a senior administrator. Nevertheless, I describe this problem as internal because it is one that other school leaders can address and mitigate.
Our team is acutely focused on this issue, and not simply by trying to help our clients hire better. For the last several years, we have been developing white papers, leading workshops, moderating panel discussions, and much more.
This fall, we're going to take another step, by partnering with Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco to organize a summit on November 4 to discuss essential topics related to management in schools. We want to bring together senior administrators overseeing teams, HR professionals, new managers, and most importantly future and aspiring managers — to reflect, share frameworks, ask questions, and exchange ideas. The goal of this summit is not to think so broadly about the "talent pipeline," but rather more pointedly about the "management pipeline," the culture of management, and essential principles of good management of people in schools.
More to come, and in the next few weeks we’ll be sharing more details about this summit. For now, I'd love to hear from anyone who has been thinking about this topic or who is inspired by it. In the meantime, I hope you're having a great summer, and we look forward to reconnecting on the other side of the break.