December 1, 2022

Rounding the Turn

Heads are telling me that Thanksgiving felt pretty good, like a genuine respite, an opportunity to draw a few long breaths. They're looking forward to the same during winter break and the first opportunity in several years to be reflective and to invest their winter break work time not in triaging but in seeding or boosting initiatives in the second half of the year. If you've followed any of my writing over the last two years, you know that I believe you should be building a yearlong approach to the recruitment and retention of faculty. Teachers are the value proposition; why wouldn't you be constantly scouring the earth for the best, or training up the most promising new teachers with intern programs?

What else should you be thinking about over winter break? Your own professional network, the slate of next year's new trustees, governance education for the board, the professional growth of your leadership team. This is not a time for existential pondering, rather, an opportunity for small investments you can make now that will have large payoffs in the next 8 months.