Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

Tip Sheet #23

To fire someone or not to fire someone?  That is the question!

 I saw a compelling article in a recent edition of Entrepreneur Magazine written by Ron Shaich, the former CEO of Panera Bread and it got me thinking.  The title of his article is “I Wish I’d Fired More People”. Inasmuch as I was a school administrator for almost 35 years, I was drawn to this article.  Should I have fired more people? And no matter how I look at this, I have to agree with Shaich. Yes, I should have fired more people.

In education, we are perhaps a bit politer.  We do not necessarily fire, we fail to renew.  Nevertheless, it is the same result.  The person is gone.

The article made me think about the purpose of leadership.  Leadership is defined in many ways.  One common definition I repeatedly see is that leadership is the ability to influence people.  And yes, I know that leaders are responsible for helping employees reach their fullest potential. Yet sometimes we forget that the individual has a responsibility and obligation to their own personal growth and development.  But here is the rub.  At what cost to the organization is it that you continue to help those that cannot seem to help themselves?  At what point must you cut ties with those that cannot be productive members of your school culture?  At what point do you cut ties with those that have a deleterious impact on your school culture?  These are all good questions with not so easy answers.

I have been guilty of giving that person one too many chances and in education you reach a point where it is almost impossible to move a person out.  Although it has gotten a bit easier, removing a tenured employee is still difficult.  And what price do you pay for this action in terms of human capital?  I know there were many times that for the sake of expediency I ignored negative behaviors.  I ignored those that were not making an attempt at making a positive contribution.  I should have followed the old baseball axiom that speaks to trading a player a year early rather than a year late.  Failing to make that trade hurts the team.

Once again, this question reflects back to the issue of honesty in your school’s culture.  As I have written about before, most people do not want to hear the truth.  People cannot accept honest feedback.  So, in education we tend to hide the poor performer.  We hide the teacher by giving them an assignment that does the least damage to children. We hide the administrator who will do the least damage to a school. We transfer people from school to school hoping that they will retire. This is no way to operate.

Overall, as administrators, we are not good at having that crucial conversation.  It is easier to just soft sell an issue.  Yes, we avoid some controversy.  Yes, we avoid some stress.  And yes, we are doing considerable damage to our students, schools, and learning communities.  Shame on us.  I ask the future generation of school leaders to break this cycle of dysfunction and as any good umpire would do, “call it like you see it”.