Your doors have recently re-opened for another school year, and campus is buzzing with the energy of new and returning students, faculty, staff, and administrators. The days go by in a blur. As the Business Manager or Human Resource Manager (or, multiple other roles person), if you can successfully address a majority of the questions, concerns, and requests directed your way each day, you go home feeling satisfied … and exhausted! This might be the least auspicious moment to add something else to your plate, of course. Yet and still, we’re “nudgers” by nature (HR people, that is), so we have to ask: Have you attended to your coaching duties?
We’re not talking about coaching sports, in this case, but rather the “coaching” and support of your management team (for example, division heads) that is central to most human resource roles.
“But,” you may say, “they’ve already been promoted – or they’ve even been in the job for several years. Certainly they have all the management skills that they need—or they wouldn’t have been given the job. Right?” Good question. Consider, if you will, what the situation looks like from the division head’s perspective.
The Division Head’s Experience
If your division directors’ career paths have been like that of most, they started as teachers before making the leap into administration. They might have served as a department chair or coordinator as an interim step. Either way, it is very likely that they received little (if any) formal preparation before being promoted—and perhaps even less training or mentoring since that time.
Have you ever asked them what those first days and weeks as a division head were like? It’s likely they might report thinking something like, “Great, I’ve been promoted to division head!” and then—once the euphoria subsided and they had a chance to reflect on their new responsibilities—started wondering, “So, what do I do now?” “Throwing them into the deep end without a life preserver” is one strategy for managerial training, of course. However, benign neglect of this sort could cause new administrators to stumble and struggle much more than they need to (even to the point of failing, or asking to return to teaching rather than “bluffing” their way through managing).
How You Can Help
The good news is that you can help! In fact, in a certain way, you are in a better position to help than even the head of school might be. That is because the division heads don’t report to you – thus, they can expose their “vulnerabilities” to you without fear that they will be judged as being inadequate. In this way, you can be both peer and mentor. This includes a variety of roles and activities:
- Seeking suitable management training workshops for them to attend
- On-going conversations about their roles and responsibilities—and how they can help the School Head clarify his/her expectations of them
- Serving as a “sounding board” or providing behind-the-scenes guidance when they are preparing to coach and mentor a faculty member in a particular circumstance
Looking Forward
Over the next several months, we will use this space to share thoughts, tips, and reminders on how you can coach your administrators toward surviving—and thriving—in their management responsibilities. In the coming months, ISM will be publishing several pieces on “Managing Faculty Performance” in private-independent schools—a key aspect of a division head’s duties. We’ll be expanding on our belief that division heads effectively “manage” faculty performance through coaching and mentoring. As part of this effort, we’ll be publishing a new performance management model that we’re very excited about—one that is designed to help administrators inspire, develop, and reward faculty excellence.
We invite you to “stay tuned” for all of the above. We’re eager to support you, as you support your division heads and other administrators.
