by Timothy R. McIntire

“Moral” means to make something better and not debase it.  Whether you have a role in hiring or are ultimately responsible for it, the consequences of your managing the processes that deliver the person new to your school are great: the stakes are high; the rewards, immense; the dangers, many. 

School leaders worry appropriately about attracting professional staff who can perform at a level of excellence in very stable communities over a long period of time with little formative evaluation.  While tools for hiring gathered from workshops, education, experience, or tradition are many, the only effective ones are based in building relationships with candidates.  To do so, you need to know who you are as a school community and come to know persons who seem appropriate for the position and build your mutual relationships.

Of course, herein lie many rubs.  One is that we know our school and its people too well and we are prone to practice balancing deficiencies elsewhere with new people. Another is that we are blind to the realities of our school - often confusing our ideals with the real — and we march our new colleague into an ambush that often kills and nearly always wounds. 

One key is a keen understanding of Mission.  In hiring, it has two flavors: School Mission and Personal Mission.  When both of these are high, you have a new colleague who is a Leader.  When one is low, you have either a Cheerleader or an Agenda Setter.  With the former, you won’t have transformational excellence; with the latter you will slap your forehead everyday and cry, “How could I have been so stupid?”  
In the process of building your relationships for the purposes of hiring, questions that encourage a candidate to reveal what Deepak Chopra calls a “soul map” are extremely helpful.  For example, how would you answer these questions and what would it tell an interviewer about you?

• What is your purpose?
•  What kind of contribution do you make to the world?
•  What is your passion?
•  What are your peak experiences?
•  What are the top qualities that you look for in a good friend?
•  Who are you heroes or heroines from mythology or legend or history or religion?
•  What are your unique talents and how do you like to express them?
•  What are the best qualities that you express in your relationships?

Another guru, Peter Drucker, teaches us to listen and to recognize that managing knowledge workers successfully comes up to us as the chief school leader.  Invite your new colleague to write you a management letter that articulates goals, states what is essential to do the work, and keeps unneeded, well-intentioned intrusions to a minimum.  Make time to listen.  Respond.  And make your school better in each person you hire. 

Hiring is a moral act.