I came to the museum world from a university setting, where sabbaticals every 7 years are the norm. I am fortunate that the Sciencenter’s board has been totally supportive of my taking time away from the museum after 17 years as executive director. They’ve encouraged me to go and are providing full salary for the duration.
The first task was to appoint an acting director for when I’ll be gone, and fortunately we have an associate director, Lara Kimber, who was right for the challenge. She recommended finding an organizational coach to help us identify the key issues she might face, and we were again fortunate to find a highly experienced consultant here in Ithaca who had served previously as CEO of major several major companies. We began to meet several months before my leave was to start, and his outside perspective helped us improve communication with board, staff, and other stakeholders. I can strongly recommend this approach to any organization contemplating a transition in leadership, whether it’s for a sabbatical or some other reason.
We searched the Internet and other sources for information on how to prep for a sabbatical leave. There was little help out there. Most of it related to universities, and none of it dealt with keeping an institution running smoothly when its CEO is gone for an extended period.
So we have decided to document what’s involved and how we did it, in hopes some other museum director will find something of use.
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A week or so into our framing out what this leadership transition would look like, I found myself secretly hoping to come across that one definitive website that would give us a check-list for how to plan for this. (No such luck.)
As the one staying here to lead the Sciencenter, I had a real need to know what this position was supposed to look like. Was I to do all of Charlie’s job on top of mine; half of Charlie’s job, half of mine – or something in between? Which items from our annual work plans might need adjustment? In what areas did I need a “crash course” to get me up to speed?
We set aside extra time each week to meet and discuss everything from the logistics of working with the board and its various committees and overseeing organization-wide projects to HR issues and managing the sheer volume of what an executive director needs handle. We even talked about the fact that - despite my hinting I might - I’m really not allowed to paint his office while he’s gone (darn.)
We are fast approaching Charlie’s departure date of July 8, and I can't help but notice we’ve assembled a pretty good planning check-list of our own.
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