Pay It Forward: Our Obligation to the Next Wave of CEOs

You can train a person to do his or her job very well, but you cannot train a belief system into an employee.

A young superintendent I mentor had phoned in the middle of the night with an angry, sometimes profane tirade. He was driving home from a long, contentious school board meeting where one trustee had verbally slammed him and key members of his staff.

“I’m going to call her into my office and tell her if she EVER does that again, I’ll …” he threatened. I was silent. “Are you still there?” he asked.

“Yes,” I responded. “The real question is do you still want to be there?”

He did, and we were able to talk through his relationship with both this trustee and his board. He ended up with a strategy that proved calm and effective.

Bench Strength

As a superintendent for 32 years in eight school districts, and now consulting in retirement, I’ve viewed mentoring and coaching as not just a calling but a responsibility. Amazingly, 79 of those who worked for me have gone on to become superintendents, and I played a key role in coaching or mentoring all but one of them.

Most did not know what they did not know. Looking at the chair is a lot easier than sitting in it — and it was my duty to give them both a feel for the position and the tools needed to sit there themselves.

As a superintendent, I always made it a rule never to hire a direct report whom I did not see as potential superintendent material — educators who shared my beliefs and values around all children being able to learn, who possessed perseverance and courage and who were willing to listen and learn. Shared values and beliefs can be more important than “superstar” talent. You can train a person to do his or her job very well, but you cannot train a belief system into an employee.

Proving Ground

Coaching is shorter term and is about skills and knowledge acquisition. I made a habit of sending chief school officers to stand in for me at community and civic meetings, knowing you don’t learn how to handle difficult situations without doing it firsthand. We would meet and rehearse potential difficult questions and topics beforehand and would make sure they were equipped with informative talking points. I coached them to be humble, listen intently, try to defuse anger and avoid bluffing an answer or make promises they couldn’t keep.

These assignments occasionally were a proving ground. Once, during the search for a middle school principal, the former principal secretly organized a community meeting in an effort to have one of her friends succeed her. I asked two members of my cabinet acquainted with the school to represent me at the meeting, and we met beforehand to strategize. Later I learned they went to the site but sat in their car, afraid to go inside. Neither was on my cabinet the next year.

Mentoring involves a longer commitment and is about guiding rather than directing — never saying, “You should do this.” Giving people the opportunity to find their own way and create their own wisdom is critical to their development. At one point during my tenure in Houston, seven of my 11 direct reports were 40 years old or younger — one in his 20s. They were all incredibly bright. It was incumbent upon me to help them identify and remove barriers that could hinder their success.

Still Mentoring

Currently, I mentor five superintendents across the country. They pay me a small monthly stipend and travel expenses, and in return, they can — and do — call, text or e-mail me 24/7. I visit their districts three to four times each year, meeting with them, their staff and sometimes their board members. I help them review data and their strategic plans and try to help bridge what is usually a massive disconnect between the two, and I pass along articles and research pertinent to their unique situations.

When they want to observe best practices, I’ve arranged to accompany them and members of their team on visits to other districts.

The superintendency is a lonely job and having someone outside the organization to talk to and seek advice from served me well, even though they bruised my ego at times.