Good Morning,

Hope you are doing well. I would be happy to help you. Let me share some basic information. I do my coaching over the phone for one-hour sessions. My fee is $160 for those seeking school leadership jobs, $180 for district leaders and $140 for those seeking teaching jobs for each session payable after each session through Zelle or Venmo. We would agree to do each session one at a time. I usually do my work between 7 PM and 9 PM on weekdays and 9 AM and Noon on weekends. I will send you attachments before each session which will guide our work.

You might want to check my website LARRYARONSTEIN.COM to find out more about me. I also suggest that you look into buying my recent book THE INSIDER’S SECRETS TO GETTING YOUR SCHOOL LEADERSHIP JOB, sold by Barnes & Noble or Amazon.

Send me a recent copy of your resume and let me know if this works for you, and then we will make our appointment.

Larry

516-423-0240

Usually the second step in the interviewing process is the committee interview. Be prepared to encounter a 30-minute interview in which eight to ten interviewers are seated around the table. It’s important to grasp which stakeholder group each member is representing. Usually participants introduce themselves and will tell you: “Jane Smith, President of the PTA,” for example. If their roles are not evident and they seem friendly, it’s okay to ask, “And what is your role?”

Each step in the interviewing process has its own inherent challenges. You have to be prepared to make strategic adjustments. As any experienced football or basketball coach would tell you, don’t expect what works in the first quarter will necessarily work in the next quarter. Unlike the screening interview, the committee interview is longer and will consist of more and a wider variety of questions and topics. Consequently, your preparation must be much more comprehensive. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of having a good coach along the way to help you strategize and make those adjustments. 

I suggest that you quickly sketch the shape of the table on the pad that you carry in. As the panelists introduce themselves, jot down their stakeholder groups. As the panelists take their turn in asking their question, glance at your notes. Knowing their roles will give you a lot better context as to the implication of their question. However, be aware that your answer must satisfy all stakeholders. Your answer is not limited only to the questioner.

As an example: A parent who is serving on the panel asks, “Assume that a parent calls you and complains about how her child’s teacher is criticizing her child. Her child is very upset by this, and the parent wants his class changed. How would you deal with this situation?” As you look around the table, ask yourself how do the various stakeholders want you to respond. My guess is that the parents want you to be a good listener and take the request seriously. They expect that you will investigate the situation and get back to the parent promptly. The teachers, who are probably representatives of the teachers’ union, prefer that you’ll be reluctant to change the child’s class, that you will abide by contractual obligations, and that you will be supportive of teachers. The school administrators will be focused on your diplomacy as to how you will neither alienate the parent nor the teacher, and in the process you will use in investigating the situation. Finally, the central office leaders will be attentive to how you will avoid escalating the situation.

You must use caution and diplomacy in your answers so as not to sound hostile to one stakeholder group in deference to another group of stakeholders, which might have an opposing view on the same issue. The ability to do this balancing act requires the recognition that you are performing to all stakeholder groups, and that your response will be reasoned and acceptable to all. This requires coaching and practice. In a real sense, this balancing act is what successful leaders do every day.

“Should I even bother to apply for a job when I know that there are inside candidates? Can I ever beat out an insider? Are the cards already stacked against me?” The short answer is “yes”. You should apply. Like your mother would say, “There’s nothing to lose.” Be aware that the actual status of the insider or insiders is unknown. The “powers that be”, meaning the superintendent, board members, other administrators, may not favor the insider. The insider may be on the wrong side of some internal issue, some political alignment, or is just not highly respected. Oftentimes, the screening committee will reject the insider’s candidacy, which results in a wide-open process.

Even if there you wind up competing with an insider, it remains a possibility that you may prevail. You have no control over the status of other candidates, but you do have control over the quality of your own performance. All you can do is to do your very best and then hope for the best.

However, before you take a job be on the lookout for nepotism and xenophobia; these conditions flourish in too many of our schools. Just knowing someone on the inside to get a job may not even be enough. Sometimes you must be someone on the inside. Under some circumstances you must even grow up, live and work in the district.

Be aware that you might not even want to work in a place in which nepotism is the rule. Organizations that regularly practice nepotism are often resistant to any significant change and neither seek nor honor diverse perspectives which might come from outside sources.  Leaders in these schools might argue, “If it ain’t broken why fix it”. They assert the need for continuity and consistency. They preach that outsiders often don’t relate to their community. They take pride in being a “close knit community”. Conventional wisdom seems to be that the only way to land a job in some school districts is to be an inside candidate. If this is the case, then you might be better off not working in a place like this. Be careful what you wish for because you may get it.

Aside from being unfair, nepotism often results in mediocrity in that the best qualified candidates are passed up, and the same practices are perpetuated, as the torch is passed to yet another insider who was weaned in a closed system. The justification for rejecting outside candidates is often that “they’re not a good fit”—which ironically is often true! Unfortunately, sometimes “outsiders” are chosen and then not listened to, sometimes even shunned. Ideally, schools are organizations that should be open, and must continue to grow and learn.