No Excuses Leadership

The Ultimate Sin

If you've ever been a member of an interview panel, you know just how important the work of a human resources director can be.  With so much at stake, there's little room for compromise.  At the same time, with so many openings to fill, we're bound to make a selection every now and then that ends up being the wrong fit.  If you are responsible for making hiring decisions at your site, be sure to remember the following:

The sin isn't in hiring a bad employee. The sin is in allowing them to stay that way.

Every day, we use our best judgement in hiring the brightest among us.  Our hope for every selection we make, every teacher we hire, every person we place in a position of leadership, is that they will be outstanding.  The fact of the matter is . . . they won't all be.  Some will be outstanding and make us look like geniuses. Many will start off great and then take a slow decline toward mediocrity.  Others will prove themselves to be complete frauds who knew exactly how to get the job, but later reveal they have little to no interest in doing it right.  No matter what, remember that our real work begins when the hiring is done.  

Be BOLD enough to provide the kind of candor that holds every new hire accountable to be the person we thought they were when we selected them. At the same time, offer next step guidance that reveals the kind of untapped potential they never knew they had.  

TAKE ACTION

Who among you is meeting their potential and deserves your praise and "next step guidance"?  Who is in need of a candid conversation in order to get them moving in the right direction?  

BE BOLD

There's some great tips in this blog post by Deb Calvert.
I particularly like the section on "Preparing for Candid Conversations".