"The well director doesn't work to make people love her, but makes people love to work for her."

I proposed this maxim in an article, "The Well Director," in the March 1987 issue of Exchange. Since then a number of people (two) have said, "Well, that sounds just peachy, but how do you make people love to work for you in real life?"

So I've been keeping my eye on the directors of centers where teacher turnover is low, trying to figure out what they are doing right. Based on these observations, here are 12 practices you can implement to motivate people to stay - 12 reasons people will love to work for you.

You believe in people from day one.

With the shrinking supply of qualified teachers, there is a tendency to be pessimistic about the potential of the people we hire. This pessimism can result in a self-fulfilling prophecy: we don't expect high performance; so we don't make an effort to encourage high performance; and, in the end, we don't see high performance.

You can't manipulate people like puppets. They alone have the power to decide whether they will work hard.

However, your attitude about a person can have a significant dampening or buoying impact on their self-confidence. When you believe a person has the potential to succeed, and when you believe that a person has a desire to succeed, your support can make a difference.

You build on people's strengths.

You will never find the perfect teacher, or cook, or bookkeeper, or bus driver (or spouse, for that matter). All of us have our shortcomings. However, we don't hire people because of their weaknesses. We hire them because we see some talent, some experience, or some trait which is a strength that we need.

To help new employees succeed on the job, you need to focus on the reasons you hired them. Time devoted to building on people's strengths is time well invested. Time spent in dwelling on people's weaknesses is, more often than not, time wasted.

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