I read a great book some time ago entitled “First Break All the Rules.”  It was recommended by a friend and turned out to be one of the best books I’ve read in recent history.  This isn’t some type of book review but more of my thoughts on Talent.  I had always shared many of the thoughts from the book but it all made it seem more real to me.

The book shared a story about high performing flight attendants at Southwest Airlines and how many of them want to stop being flight attendants and become trainers/managers for flight attendants.  When they first started working with the flight attendants they noticed that many of them were not as skilled or talented at training and managing as they were at being an actual flight attendant.  Many of them failed when the program started and were in danger of losing their jobs.  One high level leader recognized that they weren’t great trainers/managers, but they were wonderful flight attendants.  In their program now if you are unable to thrive as a manager you can go back to being a full time flight attendant.  This reminds me of how in education many great teachers are vaulted to administrative positions.  This is certainly good for many but at times it doesn’t always work out.  The moral of this story: You may be a super talented teacher, but a bad manager of people.

What does this mean to those in leadership and management in education.  We have to rethink how we look at individuals who are talented at what they do.  All great teachers don’t make great administrators.  All great assistant principals don’t make great principals, and all great principals don’t make great principal supervisors.  We have to spend more time developing and compensating those individuals who are talented at what they do.  We do realize that many will move up because their talent is broad and they will continue to spread their influence.

Deep down I believe that talented teachers who want to commit to the classroom should be compensated for being a master teacher.  All talented teachers shouldn’t have to seek administrative roles to make more money.  I know this sounds controversial to many folks, but we have to recognize talent all around.  Sometimes that talent leads to management and more influence and at times it leads to further development at what you are currently doing.