The Boss by Judy Lyden

I was reminded a couple of days ago just how emotionally hard it is to be the boss. In a rather lengthy discussion with someone I love, I realized just how difficult it is to always have to take that step away from popular opinion and do what needs to be done no matter what for the sake of the children in my care. Because of it, I am never the good guy. So once in a while I take a big step back and ask myself what am I doing? Catholics call it examining the conscience.

When you take the big life step to build a school, you really make a commitment. It can't be a spare time commitment when all your other cares are satisfied. You don't put time into the school only after your house is clean, your laundry washed, your own bills paid, your garden in perfect order, your book read, your visitors appeased, your appointments kept, your friends called, your play over, etc. If you did it that way, there wouldn't be a school.

Building a school is a lifetime of work that takes you away from your own projects and your appointments and your books and visitors and bills and doubles your work and shortens your time to spend on anything, because it's a commitment. Building a school or anything else takes the kind of selfless devotion few people can muster because self has to be given away every day, all day, in every way.

But creating a school or anything worth while is not about the self; it's not about personal interests or personal woes. It's about the students, so the focus leaves the adult and flies to the child, every day, all day.

The hope is that what you have to offer will appeal to the public. If it does, then the school grows. If it grows, then you need to take the next step, and that next step is hiring. Employing people is always a risk. The big questions are: "Will they contribute? Will they bring a positive point of view to the school? Will they really understand the goals and purpose of the school?"

The hope is that new teachers will contribute in positive ways that share the work load, bring new talents to the school, and that they will grow as people right along with the growth of the students in their care. When that happens, it's golden, and it does happen, but it doesn't happen all the time simply because people are different in their ability to be fully engaged.

In a small school, the hope is that the faculty will be united, friendly and work well together. Scripture says, "Anticipate one another." I always thought that meant, "Know someone well enough that you can intervene so that he or she does not stumble and fall if possible." This is the boss's job, but it's a job that often earns contempt rather than affection.

It's also the boss's job to balance employee's abilities. My big questions are: Will someone be able to do the job to completion or will they drop the ball? Many people will be a fire lit on energy for a couple of weeks or months, and then the fire goes out. Trying to identify that kind of person is a hard call. Some people emotionally quit after a time because they find that the limelight has gone from them to the children, and they can't stand it. Some people can't muster the energy or the stamina to keep the ball rolling. Some people come to the job with the idea it is one thing, and find quickly, it is something very other. And some people have the strange notion that "anyone can do this," and they find out quickly, it's not so.

Is the job too big? Sometimes there is simply too much to prepare for, too much to do, and too much time demanded, and someone can't spend the hours the job demands. This is a big stress point. If the team member is worth it, the boss must build a schedule that accommodates that team member and every other member of the team. A successful schedule is one that everyone says in a moment of reflection, "I love my schedule." But that doesn't last, and a boss needs to be flexible and be able to make changes as necessary.

Are there opportunities for failure? Not everyone is capable of doing every job. If someone is skilled at one thing, that does not mean they are skilled in everything, and a good boss understands that using skills is better than forcing failure. The balance is sometimes skewed when one of the members is either unwilling to acknowledge a skill because they are unwilling to participate in the extras that make a school shine, or they are simply unskilled in most things. A boss needs to keep a balance of volunteerism because most of the work cannot be done by a few; it must be shared for the sake of harmony.

Does the job at hand reach too far out into seclusion for someone to achieve success alone? Team members feel utterly alone and abandoned when they take on a project and nobody helps with the effort. Even questions about its success help. But teachers who push through a project alone find a lot of resentment when the extra work is on their shoulders and everyone else is having coffee in the kitchen. It doesn't work, and the boss must step in and delegate and once again be the bad guy.

When you know what the end product is of a year of teaching is supposed to be, will the employee be able to reach that end product? A boss doesn't keep score, exactly, but a boss is ever vigilant and always watching. And when the car seems to be going off the track, it's the boss's job to re-rail that car, and this is where more friction comes, and that makes the boss look like the bad guy again.

But someone has to be in charge and a good boss knows that that charge means charging down one of the roads - there are two- capitulation and admonishment - and the one less taken is the one that any boss worth salt must frequent. If someone is in trouble, it means the whole school is in trouble. If someone suddenly pulls away from the other members of the staff, it's a caution light, and for the sake of the school, the caution light must either return to green or go red, and that means the boss needs to play boss and cut the team member loose and bring on a new team member.

The balance in changing team members always comes with the question: For the sake of the children, should we change or hang on to someone to finish the job for the sake of continuity? Continuity in a world of change is a blessed thing, especially for children, but the truth is, when a team member is done with a job, the job should be done with the team member - for the sake of the children.

People will come and go from jobs in any situation, and that's the truth of the matter. The boss's job is to know when the team member is no longer a team member, but a team assailant and cut him or her loose, and that is what makes the boss the bad guy because nobody can know what's really in your heart.

The boss's job is never a fun job. It's like always being on a teeter totter. The demands come at you like baseballs in a throw and dunk game. But when the night slides in and you sit down with that adult refreshment, if you can look in the mirror or into your heart and know you've made the right choices for the children in your care, you can wink at the mirror and cock the bad guy hat and know that the road less taken might be lonely and misunderstood, but it's a beautiful path and one well worth taking.

Next week: The boss's appraisal of children who fit in and children who don't.