Pro Bono Posting for a Top Nonprofit Search: Manager of Education – Nantucket Historical Association

  • Love bringing history to life for youth of all ages?
  • Able to connect Common Core and state standards to interactive museum learning and lesson plans?
  • Enjoy creating family-oriented programs, crafts and activities for all occasions?
  • Want to work for a great cause?

  

We may have the perfect job for you!

 

The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) is seeking an energetic and positive visionary who enjoys educational and family programming to join its award-winning team as the Manager of Education.

 

The NHA provides a dynamic array of engaging educational programs serving Nantucket’s schools and youth organizations across the NHA campus, in schools and the greater community. The Manager of Education facilitates the development and implementation of educational and learning opportunities for schools, students, teachers, families and life-long learners within the Nantucket community and beyond.

 

Reporting to the Director of Visitor Experience, he/she researches, develops, and implements inspiring and pioneering youth initiatives that expose audiences to the internationally significant history of Nantucket Island, using the NHA mission and strategic tenets as a guideline for all projects. The ideal candidate will seek to better the visitor experience at every turn, creating one-of-a-kind youth and family programs which will serve as benchmarks on Nantucket and across the museum field.

 

The successful candidate is an energetic, highly-organized individual, with a flexible, personable nature, excellent communication skills, positivity, creativity, and a natural affinity towards working with the Nantucket community and educational stakeholders. Successful applicants should have some formal teaching experience, knowledge of Common Core and Massachusetts educational frameworks, and possess relevant experience in education in a museum setting. A Master’s degree in education, public history, or museum studies is preferred. A demonstrated interest in art history or museum administration is a plus. An open, positive attitude is essential.

 

Candidate should demonstrate excellent computer and writing skills, and an aptitude for learning new technology, media and A/V skills. Candidates will successfully manage multiple projects with grace under pressure and have the ability to work well in a team or take direction from a supervisor as needed. Applicant must be prepared to work weekends, evenings, and holidays as needed.

 

Cover letter, resume and three references should be emailed immediately to Rebecca Miller at rmiller@nha.org, or by mail c/o Nantucket Historical Association, PO Box 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554.

 

The Nantucket Historical Association is an equal opportunity employer.

Onboard or Onward: Ensuring the Success of Your New Executive Hire

“About 40% of executives who change jobs or get promoted fail in the first 18 months.”

Fortune Magazine

Where does it all go wrong? Too often, the onboarding process is where things fall apart. I am not talking about “orientation”, which often is done day one and generally involves the basics of assigning a building pass, conducting a benefits overviews, meeting the team and reading a few policies. Onboarding is a longer process, and if done well (typically in partnership with Human Resources and managed by the new executive’s manager, or the Board Chair if they report to the Board of Directors) can almost guarantee fit. It is holistic and gradual. It is also very deliberate, and will require constant check-ins and open communication.  Here are five key activities that will help to ensure that your new executive will be successful in their new role:

Start to Onboard Before They are Actually ON BOARD!

The time between an offer being accepted and the executive starting is sensitive. They may be dealing with a counteroffer, having to say goodbye to much-loved colleagues, and are nervous about this new venture. Keep in touch. Reiterate your excitement to have them joining the team, and have a few people in the organization reach out. If there are organizational overviews, annual reports, strategic plans or other things that that they can read up on ahead of time, get those to them during this time so that they start to feel like part of the team.

Send an announcement out to the staff and the board a few days before their start date explaining their background and the job they are filling. This will help make them seem more familiar to the team when they come through the door, and as an added benefit they will not have to review their resume and background with absolutely everyone in their first week or so.

Relationship Before Task 

Ideally, new executives will meet with their team and people across the organization. One-on-one meetings are great, but remind those who will be meeting with the executive to get to know them before delving into the inner workings of their role or the issues they face. Building rapport with new colleagues and direct reports is critical in the early days.

Learn By Doing 

Too often, in an effort to get all the information to a new hire as soon as possible, they are introduced to processes way too soon. Guess what? They will not remember how to do an expense report or change their password or complete a sales report 30 to 60 days in when they actually need to do it if they are taught how to do it their first week. Have the right people meet with them at the start to review the process at a high level, and then have them set up a time to do it later when they can sit down with real data and learn from it real-time.

The Buddy System 

What we learned in grade school still applies: the buddy system works when the new kid starts. This should not be the executive’s manager, but a peer or high-performing direct report who has longevity and the personality to be an effective buddy. The buddy can manage the nicety of taking them to lunch on day one and being available to explain the intricacies of culture, relationship dynamics, and certain pitfalls to avoid, which are things that the executive may not be comfortable asking of higher-ups.

Check In Early & Often

I too often hear that executives join, get a ton of attention the first day or two, and then are largely left on their own. It does not feel welcoming, and it runs the risk of them going in a direction that is difficult to course-correct later on. Meet with them daily, even for 10-15 minutes, in the first few weeks. Move on to twice weekly, weekly….you get the point. Let them know where they are doing a great job. Let them know where they need to take a different approach. But LET THEM KNOW. Being clear on what is a success will lead to more success.

While by no means a complete onboarding process, following the steps above will help to ensure that your new executive hire is one of the 60% who will be a success in the first 18 months.

Cindy Joyce is an Executive Recruiter and the Founder of Pillar Search, an Executive Search and HR Consulting firm located in Boston that works with clients nationwide. She can be reached here.