One of my team members quit recently, and it's killing me. I run a district-level department of 10 people, and the person in question was, for years, my right hand. I was completely blindsided by her resignation, which happened days before the start of the school year. Now I'm scrambling to cover the extra work, debating whether to try to rehire the position or spend a year understaffed, and attempting to make sense of my own conflicting emotions. What's worse, I was already entering the school year with two brand new people on my team.
Sound familiar? With turnover ravaging the profession, school and district leaders must learn, at a minimum, how to survive unrelenting staff changes. Survival might feel like the best we can hope for at first—after all, it's hard to think about chartering innovation when you don't have enough warm bodies to run your building. Then, too, turnover raises a long list of existential questions: How can I tell staff to embrace change if I flinch at the changes in my staff? Was I the cause of someone's resignation? Is it even worth trying to inspire "loyalty," whatever that means?
That last one is the biggest conundrum for me. I'm a huge fan of Liz Wiseman's Multipliers (Harper Business, 2017), which reminds us: "While most managers try to retain their top players, the best leaders know when it's time to let them go. They recognize when a superstar has outgrown his or her environment." By contrast, controlling leaders are obsessed with building an empire full of loyal subjects; they are "owners of talents, not developers of talent." I agree with Wiseman's implication that tyrants demand loyalty while leaders inspire growth. If a department or building is truly a "good place to grow," this will generate natural turnover as staff develop new skills and seek out new horizons. Leaders who succeed in building up their people should start to see staff outgrowing their roles, and, ethically, must nudge them forward.
Ideally, a district would have enough internal opportunities to keep talented people in the organization, continue to cultivate them as professionals, and create a harmonious cycle that fulfills both personal and organizational needs—but this may be a pipe dream. Even the best-funded district only has so many leadership roles to go around. On top of that, many teachers are not only transferring districts, but leaving the profession altogether, and all the leadership opportunities in the world may not change that.
Getting Out of Survival Mode
So here we are. Turnover is rampant, and though it may be natural at times, it hurts. Amidst all our strategies for retaining teachers, amidst all our techniques for building morale, this is important to acknowledge: as a leader, it hurts to lose a valued team member, whatever the reason. Even if you are committed to staff members' growth, the loss can feel like a condemnation of your team-building ability and a rejection of your organization's mission. Some will say not to take it personally, but leadership is a personal endeavor. How are you supposed to take it? Skilled leaders devote a huge percentage of their time to building relationships and developing team spirit. The loss of a staff member breaks something, and with every departure, the reflective leader wonders if she is the cause of the breakage.
The truth is, leading through significant turnover is a crucible, one that can deplete or galvanize a leader. Some administrators will leave the profession, some will hang on by the skin of their teeth, but others will emerge stronger. As I sat there this fall, facing a grueling year without a full team, it occurred to me that I had three choices: leave, survive, or thrive. I didn't want to leave—I'd invested over a decade of my life in leadership. I also didn't want to just survive—that sounds like a miserable existence involving nightly gripe sessions and stress eating, and frankly, neither my husband nor my jeans can take any more. So, I had to find a way to thrive.
I'm challenging myself to see turnover as an opportunity to prove that I can lead under any circumstances, with any resources.
In this light, I'm challenging myself to see turnover as an opportunity to prove that I can lead under any circumstances, with any resources. It's an opportunity to produce results for my department and my district—to generate cleaner systems, stronger equanimity, and better people skills—rather than see the work I've been building for years crumble. Because growth doesn't happen accidentally, I made a playbook of strategies that have, so far, helped me succeed this year. If, like me, you want more than survival out of this arduous period in education, try these ideas.
1. Choose Your Words Carefully
It's tempting to bemoan turnover—heck, I just did it! The word itself conjures up images of exasperated managers, toxic workplaces, and stop-gap measures. Resist that temptation. Instead, challenge yourself to think and talk about staff changes as an opportunity to bring new strengths onto your team. If that seems like a stretch, at least consider the effect you will have on your staff if you convey, verbally or otherwise, anger or despondency at your turnover rate.
Describing the flow of staff in and out of your school as an organizational blight diminishes the value of those working for you. Those who stay year after year will wonder if there's something wrong with them—after all, even the captain thinks the ship is sinking. They'll also adopt the all-too-common habit of viewing new teachers as short-term investments who will invariably leave after a year or two. New staff will know immediately what's going on from the treatment they receive, not only from veteran teachers but from an administrator whose every harried action seems to say, "Please stick around for a bit because I can't deal with all this change."They'll know they're in a starter school, and their expectations for themselves will plummet. The veterans, meanwhile, will think their principal is lucky just to have them show up in August.
No one wants that. Rather, we all want leaders who care so much about our growth that they cannot bear to watch us stagnate, and who always challenge us with stretch projects and new opportunities. You can be that leader, no matter how high or low your turnover rate is. If you have a huge number of first-year teachers, for instance, you should feel anxious to help them grow as fast as possible. You can only do that by rolling up your sleeves and working one-on-one with them to develop processes, build morale, and improve instruction, even if it means pushing other projects aside. If you have experienced staff recently hired from other schools mixing with your own veterans, you'll want to capitalize on their expertise—aloud. They should hear from you how their individual talents complement the team's goals, and their work should be honored alongside that of your longtime veterans. Those promoted internally—even to different buildings or departments—should be celebrated, and filling their vacancies presented as an opportunity to incubate another leader. Even when people leave the organization altogether, they should not have to make an ignominious exit, but rather, receive a fond farewell from a leader who sincerely wishes them personal fulfillment.
If the message to every person leaving a position is, "We're a great place to grow, and I really hope you did just that during your time here," the communication around turnover becomes hopeful and inspiring, rather than panicked and despairing. This is crucial. Leaders who deal with turnover well transfer positivity to their teams. Not only do these leaders refuse to bemoan turnover—they refuse to tolerate staff bemoaning it as well. They stop snide remarks about "revolving doors" and "unqualified temps" and instead encourage their people to reflect on their own practice. When I hear people grumbling about our ever-changing staff, I ask them what they can do to make new hires want to stay. As a leader, what language will you use? What will you start, stop, and reinforce?
I want to make one caveat, however: I do not advocate false positivity. Forcing yourself to project happiness or use cheerful language when you are obviously upset is not transformative leadership. That's why responding to turnover is truly a matter of mindset. What's going on in your head will impact what comes out of your mouth and, just as important, how it sounds. Challenge yourself to see opportunities, see talent, and see the benefits that can come from such tough times. This will infuse your language with the energy and efficacy you want to inspire in others.
2. Make Your Systems Turnover-Proof
Stable systems are always a good investment, but they're mandatory if you want to keep your operation running through turnover. If you have a high volume of new staff members, you must have clear systems (procedures, policies, practices) that staff can find in under a minute—ideally, all in the same spot. This may sound obvious, but it seldom happens in schools.
Consider the assumptions we make regarding, for example, new teacher onboarding. Most new staff orientations feature lofty lectures but not a single explanation of how to do a daily task like marking attendance or contacting parents. The message typically is: If you need to find something, ask your mentor. If you need help with the curriculum, ask the teacher next door. If you need clarification on a policy, ask the front office. No, it's not published anywhere, but everyone is totally willing to help. Of course, people are willing to help—educators are naturally helpful people—but kindly peers are not the same as guaranteed, consistent onboarding support.
The amount of time new teachers spend running around finding answers is wasteful, and they know it. Teachers who quit usually cite lack of support as their main reason, even in districts that have mentoring programs and PLC structures. Attrition among new teachers was high even before the pandemic: In 2019, the Economic Policy Institute found that more than half of teachers reported feeling unsupported, causing a quarter to consider quitting as a result. So, where's the disconnect? For my money, it's in the lack of organizational support—in other words, the lack of clear processes and easily accessible resources.
That's why the task of streamlining your systems is not something to be taken for granted. It will take serious coordination—writing or recording processes can take some time, more so if you don't have the processes established. Yet making these systems easily available can simultaneously prevent and respond to turnover. I suggest starting with the obvious pain points for new teachers and working out from there. Can you publish your basic procedures regarding teachers' daily or weekly tasks, such as entering grades, in an easy-to-find handbook? Can you be more transparent about districtwide systems so teachers feel like they see the big picture more clearly? Can you embed interpersonal support systems (mentoring, coaching, PLCs) more firmly?
Think about your mentoring program, for example. Maybe your district assigns mentors in August, then forgets about them until the next school year. Sure, you provide a one-day orientation and sporadically ask mentors how things are going, but do you conduct ongoing training for those mentors throughout the school year? Do you make sure they meet with, observe, and coach their mentees using research-based mentoring techniques? If not, consider how you can ensure a higher quality of support for your new teachers.
Having information available at teachers' fingertips makes teachers feel supported by a transparent, navigable system. It also reduces the need for repeating the information to future staff.
There is a clear benefit to you as a leader here as well. Strong systems keep your organization running smoothly, mitigating your own frustration every time you need to onboard a new staff member—and perhaps more important, they mitigate the frustration of your middle managers (e.g., department chairs or teacher leaders). If you've been a middle manager, you know what it's like to field questions on every aspect of district life. You also know what it's like to get the trickiest questions, the ones that expose the flaws in the systems you're meant to uphold. Bring your middle managers into the conversation about exactly how employees do what and when. This will mean getting into the weeds: how do teachers enter sub plans, where do they enter them, when should they be completed, and what constitutes a good sub plan anyway? Having information like this available at teachers' fingertips—perhaps on an employee page of your website—makes teachers feel supported by a transparent, navigable system. It also reduces the need for repeating the information to future staff—of which, if trends continue, there will be plenty.
Empowered, respected middle managers can make your systems more efficient and play a key role in creating and maintaining onboarding resources. They can also help you devise a fair, effective plan for covering staffing gaps. While every district has its own set of rules and practices for handling unfilled vacancies, involving teachers in the decision-making process acknowledges the many ways in which staffing shortages impact them and grants them agency in solving the crisis together with administrators.
3. Visualize Yourself as a Leader
You've heard of tough times bringing out the best in some people, of leaders who unified and inspired despite turmoil, whose skill in a crisis was their defining legacy. You and I want to be those people, but of course, this is easier said than done. Scholars have written entire books on the art of leadership—Wiseman's Multipliers and Brené Brown's Dare to Lead have been the most helpful to me throughout this staffing crisis—but I have also found two techniques that help me face otherwise crushing days.
The first is visualization. If you were ever involved in a sport or performance art, you may have had a coach who taught you visualization techniques—seeing the stage or the arena, hearing the roar of the crowd, feeling the adrenaline. The idea is to practice your emotional response to these stimuli in your head before you do the real thing. We don't talk this up much in leadership, but we should.
Think about the arenas every education leader enters at some point: running a meeting where staff is angry and resistant; navigating a political swamp; firing someone. If I had visualized myself in these situations before I first encountered them, I would have been a better leader. Now, a decade into district leadership, I frequently visualize myself succeeding through high-pressure situations—tense meetings, high-stakes presentations, and major events. I think through the questions that might be asked, the attitudes I might have to contend with, and the potential problems that might arise. Even though I can't solve for all variables, I picture myself as solution-oriented.
The second technique is reframing exhausting problems as exciting challenges. That's really the difference between being defeated and winning at work. Those aren't accidental word choices, either; as an avid board game player, I love the mental exercise of being given limited resources and leveraging them well enough to win the game. Framing work problems like this helps me see them as fun, rather than frustrating. I like to ask myself: how can I win? Alternatively, maybe you enjoy storytelling. On weekends, you regale your family with anecdotes of pulled fire alarms and untimely tech failures. In your case, your mental framework will entail turning exasperating work experiences into Friday night anecdotes. You might ask yourself: how can this make someone laugh, even if they're laughing at me? Maybe you like fitness, and you can see that, just as your muscles have to tear in order to grow, your skills have to strain in order to develop. You might ask yourself: how will this experience sharpen me in the long run? That's exactly what we're trying to do in response to the turnover crisis: sharpen ourselves for the long run. Whatever your mental framework, it needs to help you not only get to the end of each day, but to feel capable and powerful for the next day.
A Leader's Locus of Control
If turnover is making your job feel impossible, focus on the one thing you can absolutely control: yourself. By all means, do what you can to retain staff, attract high-quality talent, and so on, but know that your own words, work, and thoughts make a huge difference—not only for you, but also for those you lead.
Reflect & Discuss
➛ When you hear that a staff member is leaving, how do you typically respond? In what ways could you manage this news more effectively?
➛ As Dampf writes, "tyrants demand loyalty, but leaders inspire growth." What could you do when it's clear one of your staff members has outgrown their role?
➛ What's one step you could take to make your systems more "turnover-proof"?
