“You can't save a person who doesn't want to be saved. It was like Mr. Eddie always told the new gardeners: Everybody's got to kill their own snakes.” —Pearl Cleage, Till You Hear From Me (2010)”

Infuriation is the precise term; except when you need a stronger emotion like enragement. These feelings will surge through you as a school leader when you realize someone else created a big sticky mess and you are the only one who can lead the clean-up.

The specifics vary (significantly) but these messes occasionally involve something egregious (where an employee should be fired) or tragic (where a child is harmed). More often, the mess, no matter how complex, will simply reveal the incompetence of one or more staff members in the school.

Whether your school has 30 total employees or 330 teachers, all of them will form an opinion of you, the school leader, based on how you respond to and deal with glaring incompetence. If you tolerate it, make excuses for it, or contribute to it yourself, your school will not be successful and your career will end poorly.

Just like snakes in a garden, incompetent employees, especially classroom teachers, and extra especially, leaders with formal authority (e.g. assistant principals), must not be allowed to ‘bite with poison’. If they do, your best faculty and staff members will immediately begin considering other options and they will leave your school with finality.

Incompetence can be caused by countless factors including complete lack of training or gross misalignment between the skills of the individual and the requirements of the position they occupy. It can also be caused by unethical behavior or deceit. No matter the cause, you, the school leader, must address it head-on and redefine or reset the expected level of performance across your organization.

Exactly how you deal with incompetence becomes a school leader’s steepest challenge. It is difficult to fully address the incompetence a person demonstrates while also treating them in a dignified and humane manner.

Someone hired this individual and assigned them to their position. If you lead schools long enough, that someone might be you and you will have another snake to kill — one that you let in the garden — or the leader that follows you will have to do it and the dysfunctional cycle will continue.

Next time you are on lunch duty and the dismissal bell rings, watch for the student who, on their own initiative, takes a moment and grabs someone else’s trash and drops it in the trash can they pass walking to their next class. That student is killing a baby snake in the community garden and we all benefit from that display of leadership. Imagine what your school could become if every individual leader acted like that!

If you have snakes to kill in your garden, we can partner with you to devise the best solution from which your staff and students will benefit.