Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

The Principal Coaching Clinic #18

Will you be a victim of the “empty chair Syndrome?

The revelation may hit you from beyond.  You don’t see it coming.  It could never happen to you.  Yet, it does.

The genesis for the topic of this week’s post also hit me from behind and it caused me to reflect on my professional career.  Let me set the stage for this story.  Currently, I am moving from one apartment complex to the next.  One of the luxuries of my former apartment was an assigned parking place.  I had spot #32. No one ever parked there except me.  All of the tenants, their friends, and relatives lived by this rule.  As I move in to my new apartment, I am slowly exiting my former residence.  This extra month, although costly, is great because it allows me to gradually move the small items over to the new place.  I pulled into the garage the other day to find my spot taken by another vehicle.  I recognized the car and went and knocked on the person’s door to ask them to move their vehicle.  My “neighbor” was apologetic but she succinctly told me that “she thought I was already gone” and therefore could use my spot until the apartment was re-rented. 

So, what does this have to do with leadership?  What does this anecdote have to do with being a principal of a superintendent?  Upon reflection, I think this anecdote has a great deal to do with leadership.  The lesson to be learned is to never forget that there are people within your organization that cannot wait to jump into your vacated chair.

Sometimes we fool ourselves about our own self-worth and self-importance.  We may think that the school will “not run without us.”  I encourage you to wake up because not only will the school open without you, in about three short weeks people will be asking about the former principal, “Ed who?”

Your school will successfully move forward without you.  Hopefully, you have prepared for this exit and it is not a case of you being forced out.   When you are forced to leave, it will open an entirely new “can of worms.”

Never forget that the colleague that may be lamenting about the difficulty of your job and professing that he or she would never want your position, is the first one in line when the chair is ultimately vacant. 

Be extra cautious of that colleague who is helping to create that chair vacancy.  Those people are deadly and you must deal with them well before it gets to that point for if you do not, the chair surely will be vacant before you want it to be.  You will know who these people are.  You work with them.

On these pages we have already talked about the notion that everyone has a shelf life.  Everyone has an expiration date.  I reiterate today, make this chair vacancy your doing on your own terms.  When you do this, your exit will be easier for everyone.

Never forget that your chair will not get cold, just like my parking space never had an opportunity to “miss” my car. Someone is always poised and ready to jump. They will pounce on your vacant chair.  Some may actually begin to salivate at the thought.

Never forget that you are not that important. You are not your school.  Life goes on.  Life goes on in your school or organization with you or without you.  Always keep this in perspective.