By Jimmy Casas
As my team sat around the conference room table, I could sense their frustration with me. “What are we going to do about John?” asked my assistant principal. “Parents are calling requesting a different teacher, counselors are concerned about the number of students wanting to drop his class, and the mid-term reports just came out and 16 of the 22 students are failing his class,” she continued. I turned to my other assistant principal, “Do you have any thoughts?”
“I don’t know what happened to him,” she responded. “Remember when we hired him two years ago? Do you remember how good his interview was? I’ve figured out that he really struggles to build relationships with kids. I’ve talked to him several times about it and he says the kids don’t want to try and he’s not going to just give them a passing grade. I know it is March, but my recommendation would be to non-renew him and find someone better for next year.”
Have you ever interviewed a teacher who you thought was going to be excellent and he/she turned out to be average at best?
Have you ever hired a teacher who later on you had to place on an intensive assistance plan?
Have you ever formed a committee to assist you in hiring a teacher only to find out later they were not happy with your selection?
For years, the scenarios like the ones I describe above played like a broken record. Hire “great” teacher. Wonder what happened to “good” teacher? Blame “bad” teacher. Try to remove “ineffective” teacher. To put it bluntly, I missed it. I just didn’t see it. It was easier for me to blame the teacher(s) than it was to look inward and accept that I had erred somewhere in the process. Maybe I was to blame?
Today in my work coaching administrators, I try to help them see the potential undercurrents they may be creating. Please note it comes without judgment. They just don’t see it, just like I didn’t see it. But once they do see it they want to do better. My co-author and colleague Todd Whitaker has been quoted as saying: “There are only two ways to improve schools; hire better teachers or improve the ones you already have.” I completely agree that we should hire better teachers and improve the ones we already have, but I think we need to go deeper. By deeper I mean I believe we have to improve our own processes. Consider the following:
How do we ensure the new teachers we select are better?
What frameworks have we developed for hiring and consistently put into practice?
Are the hiring strategies we are currently utilizing effective?
What systems have we put in place to ensure our new hires continue to improve once we bring them on board?
What role do our veteran staff have in the process so they feel valued?
How can we improve our overall school culture during the hiring process?
Each week on my blog at jimmycasas.com, I share 1 Reflection, 2 Ideas, and 1 Resource for you to consider that I hope will support and inspire you in your daily work. My aspirations are to support you and others in developing your skills and shifting your thinking so you will invest in your own development and maybe, just maybe, I can inspire you to want to live your excellence so you can bring your best self to school every day!
Hiring for Excellence: 121
1 Reflection
The most important responsibility we have as school leaders is to hire the best people, yet it remains the area in which we invest the least amount of time in terms of importance.
2 Ideas
In Culturize, I talk about the critical need for being a champion not only for all kids, but for the adults as well. Relationships, relationships, relationships plus time invested is the foundation of a healthy, vibrant, and high performing culture (R3 +TI = Culture of Excellence). If you believe like I do that investing time in relationships is crucial, then the question we must ask ourselves as school leaders is, “Are we modeling this during the hiring process?” So principals, as you prepare for your next round of interviews, consider investing more time by making the initial call to all candidates. Let them hear your passion and enthusiasm in your voice. Let them feel your energy and your excitement! Use this opportunity to do a quick screener by asking one or two questions and see if their responses align with your core:
- Describe a time when you championed for one of your students.
- What was the end result and what did you take away from that experience?
If they should move on to the next round, provide as much information as you can about what they can expect during the remaining interview process in order to set them up for success. In other words, make a lasting impression with each candidate. Think of yourself as the Director of 1st Impressions. What will they say about you when they hang-up the phone?
Answer this critical question. After you inform a candidate you are excited about offering them a position pending board approval, what does this candidate actually know about you? My experience? Not much. Think about it. Most processes for hiring focus on getting to know the candidate. We spend countless hours sifting through applications, reviewing credentials, transcripts, cover letters, and letters of recommendation. You do pre-screeners, reference checks, and prepare interview questions to get to know them on a deeper level and understand their skill sets. Once the interview process has been completed, we sit around the table and rank our candidates and then come to a decision on who to offer a position to. Months later we may find ourselves at odds with a new hire because for some “unknown” reason, they don’t understand our expectations. And that my friends, is what happened to me.
What I learned from this experience after years of frustration was no longer would I ever offer a position to anyone until I allowed the candidate to get to know more about me; my core values, my leadership style, my expectations, and anything else I thought was important for them to know about me in order to be fair. In other words, I wanted to let them know exactly what they were signing up for should they choose to come work under my leadership. That investment of time was not only extremely beneficial, but candidates always seemed to appreciate the extra time in getting to know me on a more personal level. Interviews should not be a one way street, but rather an opportunity for both parties to learn more about one another to make sure this relationship is truly about a partnership. What we model is what we get.
1 Resource
Clean out your files and dump that bank of interview questions you’ve been using for a while. It is time to refresh! Download “Hire for Excellence 25 Interview Questions”.
Jimmy Casas is the CEO and president of J Casas and Associates, an educational leadership company that provides high quality, practical and meaningful coaching support. A best-selling author, speaker, leadership coach, and award winning principal, he served 22 years as a school leader.
TEPSA Leader, Spring 2021, Vol 34, No. 2
Copyright © 2021 by the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association. No part of articles in TEPSA publications or on the website may be reproduced in any medium without the permission of the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association.
